Man doesn't have to be

Television series
German title	You don't have to be / Sugarbaker's
Original title	Designing Women
Country of production	United States
original language	English
Year (s)	1986-1993
Production company	Bloodworth / Thomason, Mozark Productions, Columbia Pictures Television
length	30 minutes
Episodes	163 in 7 seasons ( List )
genre	Sitcom
Theme music	Doc Severinsen , Ray Charles - Georgia on My Mind
idea	Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, Harry Thomason
production	Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, Harry Thomason, Douglas Jackson, Tommy Thompson, Pamela Norris
music	Doug Timm, Bruce Miller
First broadcast	September 29, 1986 on CBS
German-language first broadcast	July 26, 1993 on Sat.1
occupation
synchronization

Mann does not have to be (original title: Designing Women ), in some German broadcasts also Sugarbaker’s , is an American sitcom that was produced by CBS from 1986 to 1993 . It consists of 163 episodes in seven seasons. It was first broadcast in Germany from 1993 to 1996 and repeated until 2006. The first two seasons ran on Sat.1 , the remaining five on Super RTL , the repeats on Sat.1 Comedy .

The original title refers to an old name for women who are calculating and deceitful, who regularly make fraudulent plans and have dishonest intentions.

action

The series is about four women and one man who are employed by Sugarbaker & Associates for interior design in Atlanta . These are founder and director Julia Sugerbaker, her sister and partner Suzanne, interior designer Mary Jo Shively, secretary Charlene Frazier-Stillfield and Anthony Bouvier, who was recently released from prison. In the sixth season, Charlene and Suzanne are replaced by Charlene's sister Carlene and Suzanne's cousin Allison, the latter was in turn replaced in the last season by the new donor Bonnie Jean Poteet.

In addition to the characters' everyday professional life, in which they interact with the annoying Bernice Clifton , who is constantly in her company, and extravagant customer requests such as those of the newly rich White Trash couple Tony and Cassandra Hall from Beverly Hills as well as the enemy Jones- Having to deal with family, the series also focuses on their private life. In this, they are often confronted with social issues such as homosexuality , AIDS , pornography , rape , racism , poverty or sexism .

main characters

Julia Sugerbaker

Julia runs the company and also founded it. She lives in a very large, old house that also functions as the company headquarters. This was supposed to be declared a monument, but it failed because Julia lost her nerve with the many tourists who were besieging her home. She grew up in a wealthy family and studied first at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and then at the Sorbonne Université .

Julia can be quite clumsy at times, which leads to very unpleasant consequences for her. For example, she is supposed to walk the catwalk at a fashion show, but a piece of her dress gets tangled in her tights . In another episode, at an exquisite celebration, she gets her head stuck between handrails.

Julia represents liberal , feminist views and supports the Democrats , she has also participated in the march in Selma and various other demonstrations in the past . In many episodes she gives passionate speeches on sociopolitical issues, for example, in one episode she complains about exploitative sweatshops , in another episode about discrimination and patriarchy . In another episode, she harshly criticizes a client who claims that all AIDS patients are sinners and deserve to die.

In contrast to her sister Suzanne, Julia is intelligent, responsible and wants to be independent from men, which is why the two of them often quarrel. However, many episodes show that the two actually really like each other. In one episode, Julia hears the current Miss Georgia making fun of Suzanne. Then she gives another fiery speech and tells the woman how her sister became a beauty queen herself.

Julia is widowed and has a son named Payne ( George Newbern ). The two get along pretty well, even if they get into each other occasionally. During the course of the series, Julia meets the lawyer Reese Watson ( Hal Holbrook ), with whom she starts a relationship and whom she accidentally marries while intoxicated, but the marriage is annulled after a day. Like Julia's first husband Hayden McIlroy, Reese also succumbs to a heart attack in season five . Julia finds solace in the form of the spoiled, obnoxious girl Randa Oliver ( Lexi Randall ), whose parents went on a trip through Europe without her. Since her colleagues give up in exasperation, Julia has to take care of the boisterous child. She realizes that Randa just needs some education and attention, she eventually manages to turn Randa into a nice, polite girl.

Mary Jo Shively

Mary Jo grew up in the town of Franklin, Kentucky with her siblings Skip and Patty, and when their parents divorced, this was difficult for her to cope with. She doesn't seem to take alcohol well as she gets loud, rude and aggressive after drinking a beer . This becomes a problem in one episode, as she mumbles so loudly that it attracts the attention of four young people who are looking for an argument.

Mary Jo is actually an interior designer, but is looked after with a wide variety of tasks and is therefore a kind of "girl for everything" in the company. She is a loyal and hardworking employee and very shy at first, but quickly develops a rather loose mouth, which often leads to problems. She told a wealthy, corpulent customer that the chairs she ordered were more suitable for people who are 50 pounds lighter, which is why she cancels the order again. Mary Jo also likes to make fun of Suzanne and later Allison. She also appears at a public discussion of the parents' council in her children's school and makes a passionate plea for education about AIDS, safer sex , birth control and the distribution of condoms in class.

Mary Jo married her childhood sweetheart Ted Shively ( Scott Bakula ) at a very young age and moved with him to Guadalajara , as he had to start his medical studies there due to poor grades. She financed his studies by working as a secretary and waitress, after graduation they went back to the United States, where he opened his own practice as a gynecologist . They moved into an apartment next to Charlene, Mary Jo and they soon became good friends. After a while, Mary Jo divorced Ted, who revealed that she had had hundreds of affairs in the past. Once, to Mary Jo's displeasure, he also has a date with Suzanne. Mary Jo has two children from him, Claudia Marie ( Priscilla Weems ) and Quinton ( Brian Lando , Robert Hy Gorman ), but does not receive any maintenance payments from Ted .

After their divorce, she finds it difficult to date again, but after their divorce she has a long and happy relationship with JD Shackleford ( Richard Gilliland ), a talent scout for the Atlanta Braves . Mary Jo is otherwise not really lucky with the men and often meets with younger people who are actually below their intellectual level. For example, it has been in the seventh season a short relationship with Craig Coleman ( Patrick Warburton ), a catalog - model , which is very attractive, for it but quite cumbersome and not very intelligent. At the end of the series, the desire to become a mother again grows in her, which is why she tries to get pregnant again through artificial insemination .

Mary Jo also has an uncle named Dude, who dies in season three, leaving her with a greater legacy. She wants to invest this in a breast augmentation , but finally decides against the operation.

Charlene Frazier-Stillfield

Charlene grew up in a strictly religious Baptist family with her parents Norvelle ( James Ray , Sandy Kenyon , Barry Corbin ) and Ione ( Ronnie Claire Edwards ) and twelve siblings in Poplar Bluff , Missouri . That is why she is portrayed as a kind of “country innocence”, because she is extremely naive and kind-hearted and always sees things in her very own, idealistic way. She made a pact with her high school friends that none of them should have sex until marriage, but she was the only one to stick to it, as her then best friend and current brothel owner Monica "Monette" Marlin ( Bobbie Ferguson ) explained. In one episode, she resigns from her church because women are not allowed to join the clergy there .

As a girl, she first wanted to be a priestess, later to appear as a country singer with Grand Ole Opry . During high school she worked for a drive-in restaurant at the counter, then as a usher in a movie theater. After attending a secretary academy, she first moved to Little Rock before settling in Atlanta and becoming the secretary of Julia's husband, Hayden. Julia finally hired her after Hayden's death when she started her company. Charlene works as an antechamber and secretary in the company. There she gets along best with Mary Jo, to whom she confides all her secrets. Although Mary Jo finds Charlene's innocence lovable, she is often annoyed by her, especially since Charlene is often fascinated by banal events. Charlene is also very inquisitive and reads both the National Geographic Society and the National Enquirer . Charlene talks a lot, often missing the current topic of conversation. Their digressions about trivialities put Julia's and Suzanne's patience to the test.

Charlene always looks at World War II from a purely romantic perspective and is a big fan of love songs, especially the performers Elvis Presley , Jerry Lee Lewis and Mickey Gilley (her cousin in the series), her favorite song is I'll Be Seeing You . Like Suzanne, Charlene is a little overweight, which is why when they go to a spa with Julia and Mary Jo , to their annoyance, they are only allowed to order dishes from the diet menu.

Due to her naive nature and her habit of always seeing the good in people, Charlene has been the victim of scammers several times. For example, a man wanted to sell her stolen furniture for Sugarbaker Designs , which he almost succeeded in doing. In another episode, a fake music manager promises her a career in country . In addition, because of her nature, Charlene has a rather questionable taste for men. In the search for her dream man, she relies on a fortune teller and her feelings. At the beginning of the series, she is with Shadow, who, as it turns out, is a spy , later she meets the overweight entrepreneur Mason Dodd, with whom she initially does not want to be seen in public due to his looks and who ends up without drops them off to Japan . On her birthday she meets Colonel Bill Stillfield ( Douglas Barr ), with whom she starts a relationship, they finally get married and have their daughter Olivia at the side of their prominent godmother Dolly Parton . In the first episode of the sixth season, Bill is transferred to Great Britain , which is why Charlene leaves the country and the series with him.

Suzanne Sugarbaker

Her childhood in a rich family surrounded by governors and other rich men shaped her, which is why she often has sex dates with older, wealthy men in the present, during which she behaves arrogantly and never kisses the men. Her appointments are not infrequently canceled because of hip problems or stays in the intensive care unit, which Julia always comments ironically. Suzanne also avoids permanent connections and does not have to work, as she receives high alimony from her ex-husbands . Many women are jealous of Suzanne because she receives a lot of attention from her husbands or fiancés. Because of this, she constantly claims that all women are jealous of her, but is actually sad because she has no real friends, and is jealous of the close relationship between Charlene and Mary Jo on her part.

Suzanne loves to be the center of attention. In her youth she took part in beauty pageants and won eleven titles, so she was crowned Miss Georgia World and Miss Atlanta Arboretum (English arboretum : tree nursery ), of which she is still very proud. She is vain and superficial as she thinks that beauty is the most important thing in life and to be the most beautiful of all women. In fact, she is currently struggling with her overweight, yo-yo effect and various other insecurities, for example, once she hesitates to meet a blind man when Mary Jo and Charlene criticize her for it, Julia explains to them that Suzanne's beauty and feminine appearance naturally have no effect on him, which is why she thinks that her personality is practically nonexistent and therefore of no interest to him. To her horror, she has to surrender one of her previous winners' crowns and confesses to her sister that the beauty pageants were the best thing in her life and that she fears that she will never experience anything similarly positive again. Sometimes Suzanne finds the (apparently obvious) solution to a problem, which always amazes Julia, Mary Jo and Charlene because Suzanne is not exactly intelligent or educated.

During Suzanne's 15 year career in beauty pageants, she met Reggie MacDawson ( Danny Thomason ), who was an accountant to her friends. She also hired him as a consultant and trusted him blindly, although Julia found him suspicious due to his constant good mood. After six years, he disappeared to Bimini with all of Suzanne's savings . After a year, Suzanne met him in an Atlanta hotel. He works as a page and singer, when Suzanne demands her money back from him, he buys a circus for Suzanne with the rest of her money and disappears again because the check wasn't cashed.

Suzanne was initially married to Dash Goff ( Gerald McRaney ), a writer. According to Suzanne, he was the first intelligent man to fall in love with her, since otherwise only Julia was with the clever men. She was then married for three years to Atlanta Braves player Jack Dent ( Gregg Henry ). He was first a second baseman and then the club's best pitcher . Their marriage was very changeable, actually they were only together so long because they both liked sex. Otherwise they argued so hard that Jack often lay on Suzanne's car hood after an argument while she drove it to the police. When Jack wants to publish his autobiography, Suzanne does not read the manuscript for lack of interest, Julia does. When Suzanne angrily confronts him for claiming to have slept with every baseball groupie in the country, he confesses that he just made it up to increase sales. Her third husband was J. Benton Stonecipher , about whom nothing more is known.

Suzanne only expresses her true feelings and insecurities to Anthony, whom she treats like a kind of surrogate friend. Although Suzanne keeps repeating that she and Anthony come from different social classes and backgrounds, she is close friends with Anthony, which amazes the others anew. For example, she confesses to him how much it hurts her when other women treat her as if she has no feelings. She also believes that you shouldn't get involved because you can't be held responsible if you have problems. Since she has no real friendships and her colleagues cannot go to an event with her, she meets with Eugenia, whom she knows from her time as a beauty queen. Eugenia is a lesbian , which Suzanne doesn't really agree with because she thinks Eugenia wants to seduce her. When Eugenia tells her that she is not interested in her, Suzanne is still disappointed because Eugenia does not consider her unattractive. Suzanne finally succeeds in accepting Eugenia as a pure friend.

Suzanne, who is twelve years younger than her sister Julia, also lives in a big house like her and has a somewhat crazy housekeeper from El Salvador named Consuela Valverde, who is often mentioned, but is not seen in a single episode . Suzanne receives her house pig Noel from her as a Christmas present, which she takes extremely loving care of, but which eventually runs away and does not come back.

Suzanne is often self-centered and inconsiderate, so she stretches out on airplanes and harasses others or puts her handbag on a passenger. However, Suzanne can occasionally be nice and caring, for example when she was looking after the orphaned girl Li Sing for a while, who became her likeness and who she found it difficult to transfer back into other care. Suzanne also hired a mall Santa Claus to surprise Quinton, who doesn't believe in Santa Claus, but instead the man robbed Mary Jo's house. She also stood by Julia after Reese's death, although the two rarely agree and often quarrel, they actually like each other very much, are close and help each other with problems.

Suzanne has a penchant for fur coats , but in one episode she is attacked by militant animal rights activists , breaking her arm and renouncing wearing fur forever. In one episode she complains that she has too much food available, which is responsible for her obesity, until she meets an Ethiopian refugee who had to flee his country from a famine and brings her to her senses. In addition, in contrast to Julia, Suzanne is more conservative and does not understand, for example, why blackface is viewed as racist. She also has a penchant for firearms and initially owns a rifle and later a pistol . She is also a member of the NRA and regularly distributes the organization's stickers.

At the beginning of the sixth season, Suzanne moves to her mother Perky ( Louise Latham ) in Japan, according to Julia's words, since there are many older men in the country and Suzanne has already met almost every man in the United States, and comes along on the series no longer before.

Anthony Bouvier

Anthony's mother couldn't look after him because she was a drug addict , so he grew up with his strict but loving grandmother Dondi ( Frances E. Williams , Beah Richards ), who was active in the civil rights movement and now lives in Nashville . On his 30th birthday, his colleagues find his father, Charles, in New Orleans , whom he never met. Anthony is initially not happy about the meeting, but finally decides to spend time with him and get to know him. Anthony has several siblings spread across the country that he almost never speaks about.

Anthony worked as a waiter in the elite Beaumont Driving Club in his youth . Anthony was innocent in jail for a while. He waited in the car while his friends tried to buy beer in a shop, but they robbed the shop, which is why Anthony was convicted as an accomplice, although he had no knowledge of the plan. His cellmate was T. Tommy Reed ( MC Gainey ), who had been in jail for a long time and looked threatening, so inmates did everything he said. He established strict etiquette in prison and regularly hosted dance balls , with Anthony being his preferred partner. After his release, Anthony took a GED test, which he also passed, completed his law degree and started at Sugarbaker Designs as an office messenger, later becoming a partner in the company. He is also active in various aid programs, such as Big Brothers Big Sisters , a fundraising campaign for a library on African American history and an organization against world hunger. When the released T. Tommy asks him to open a boutique with him, Anthony refuses after initial fear, which makes T. Tommy so angry that he decapitates a bystander and has to go back to prison. In one episode, Anthony speaks in front of inmates of his former institution, because of a riot he is locked up with the women and T. Tommy, who forces him to dance with him again.

Suzanne is initially not happy to work with an African-American ex-inmate and at every opportunity reminds him of his time in prison, even though he wants to leave his past behind, once she even accidentally shoots him for being a burglar holds. In the course of the series, their relationship improves and a real friendship even develops between the two, whereby he often does work for them, for example as the “chauffeur” of their domestic pig. Bernice Clifton is also taken with him, seeing him as both a surrogate son and a sex object, something Anthony is not exactly happy about. One running gag is that Anthony surprises women in supposedly sexual situations.

Anthony's first girlfriend is Lita Ford , who doesn't like his colleagues and who is a yuppie who wants to make a fine man out of Anthony. Later he starts a relationship with the simple but nice Vanessa Hargraves ( Olivia Brown ), who does not appear again from the fifth season onwards without explanation. At the end of the sixth season, to the displeasure of women, he becomes engaged to the rich, arrogant Vanessa Chamberlain , who breaks up with him. In the seventh season, Anthony marries showgirl Etienne Toussant ( Sheryl Lee Ralph ) in Las Vegas , with whom he stays together even though he married her while he was drunk.

Allison Sugarbaker

Allison is the New York-based , wealthy cousin of Julia and Suzanne. She is the daughter of Julia's uncle Frank . Her parents were not exactly loving to her in her childhood, so she left the south in her youth. She studied at Wellesley College and was almost recruited by the CIA , but failed because she did not speak Farsi . After completing her studies, she worked as an assistant for a rich, blind woman who, however, was fired after she had bad hair coloring. Her second employer, Barry Binsford , was jailed for insider trading because of her complicity. After his release, he comes back into her life, claims to have changed and to want to marry her, but in revenge he gives her the pass in front of the altar. She had just one meaningful relationship, the man she left because he was obsessed with astronaut training for which he was not approved. According to her own statement, she is also not interested in sex, which is probably one of the reasons for her very few relationships.

When Suzanne leaves the company, Allison moves to Atlanta, buys her shares and thus becomes a partner, even though she would actually like to be the boss. As soon as she arrives she introduces new principles to the displeasure of others. She is extremely serious, dominant, self-confident, uptight, cynical, and stubbornly and tenaciously insists on following rules. Therefore, she is not liked by any of the other characters, especially Julia, Anthony and Mary Jo, although her arguments are occasionally correct and the company is close to her heart, Anthony calls her " Leona Helmsley in the Tinkerbell body". She claims that it has no influence on their behavior, as they under the Obnoxious Personality Disorder (approximately obnoxious personality disorder , alluding to Obsessive Personality Disorder , English name for an OCD suffer). After they move out, she lives with Anthony in Suzanne's former house for a while, as she claims to have leased it from Suzanne, even though Anthony actually rented it. The two try to disgust each other.

In the seventh season, Allison does not appear again because she acquires a Victoria's Secret chain with all her shares in the company and leaves town.

Carlene Frazier-Dobber

Carlene starts in the sixth season as a replacement for her sister Charlene. She looks at the metropolis Atlanta with astonishment, since she has hardly left her hometown Poplar Bluff. She is even more naive and good-natured than Charlene, but has less grace and style than her sister. As with Charlene, her colleagues are annoyed by her naivete, but they are quite fond of her due to her innocence and friendly nature.

Her ex-husband Dwayne Dobber ( Ray McKinnon ), whom she married shortly after graduating from high school and from whom she recently divorced, is anything but charming and has no class, which Carlene, to the horror of her colleagues, is very different sees. He was extremely rude during their marriage and allowed her to serve him. Carlene eventually prepared 30 ready-to-eat meals for Dwayne and left him. The couple lived near Carlene's parents, especially her mother who was not fond of her son-in-law. Carlene still feels connected to Dwayne, but no longer seeks a new relationship with him.

Carlene would like to become a singer-songwriter , which is why she often composes songs and plays the guitar , even though she has limited musical talent. However, her song reached the finals in a competition for Atlanta's official city anthem.

Mary Jo takes care of Carlene and brings her closer to the big city reality. She also protects her from Julia and Allison, who often react annoyed to Carlene's naivete, which is why she is very respected by Carlene. Although Allison regards Carlene as an extremely simple-minded hillbilly, she says she is preparing to fund her college visit. Carlene gradually manages to get used to life in Atlanta, although her views remain a bit confused and she often concludes country life in problematic situations.

Bonnie Jean "BJ" Poteet

BJ only appears in the seventh and final season of the series. Despite being very prosperous, she is down to earth and rather enjoys the little things in everyday life. She is enthusiastic about the bizarre personalities of her colleagues and has great fun watching them in their very unusual everyday life. BJ often reacts with amusement to the quite theatrical behavior of the employees and their reactions to even the smallest problem. The night she met the team for the first time, the others freed themselves from their inhibitions while drunk, while she leaned back and watched with relish as she was recovering from her alcoholic illness . Over the course of the season she tries to moderate the dramaturgical appearances of the other characters with realism, commenting on the ridiculousness of it all with her sarcastic humor. Her net worth was millions of dollars, but she was more interested in having someone to talk to, so she used her money to keep the company going so she could spend time with the staff.

While her own opinions are very important to her, she has no problem making friends and treating them kindly with people who share their views to a limited extent or not at all. However, she has a penchant for confusing others with her wit and sarcasm and for provoking them with conscious statements. Julia in particular is BJ's favorite victim, as she knows that she represents very left-wing liberal views, BJ often steers the conversation towards topics to which Julia reacts very quickly and violently. In addition, BJ likes to be the center of attention and attaches great importance to being heard. For this reason, she once rents several billboards with slogans written by her, which is why she attracts the anger of militant vegetarians and gun lobbyists , which she is completely indifferent to.

BJ used to work as a court reporter in Houston , and as a night go-go dancer to make a living. During a trial in the courtroom, she met and fell in love with the wealthy entrepreneur James Poteet, and the two married a short time later. Their marriage was short-lived as James died of a heart attack during his wedding. Feeling lonely, BJ takes her inherited money from Poteet Industries , her husband's company, and invests it in the Sugarbaker company, even though she doesn't know anything about interior design. She enjoys hanging out with her new colleagues and regularly gets them new assignments. The others are happy about the new acquaintance, as the company is financially bad after the loss of Allison's stake and they are dependent on BJ's investments. In the last episode of the series, a competitor wants to take over Poteet Industries and close Sugarbaker , which can be averted.

Bernice Clifton

Bernice is friends with Julia's and Suzanne's mother Perky, who asks the two of them to keep an eye on Bernice, as she is mostly out of the country herself and therefore cannot look after her friend. Bernice is neither employed nor a (financial) partner in the company, but still spends a lot of time there, which is particularly displeasing to Anthony, as she behaves strangely and is not particularly intelligent due to a weak blood vessel in her throat. She regularly gives the Sugarbaker employees unsolicited health advice and registers them in various competitions without her knowledge. She lives in the Hillcrest Leisure Land retirement home , where she is bored most of the time, which is why she visits the company very often. Over time, the women get used to Bernice's eccentric behavior, but do not want to take care of them themselves, which is why they often delegate this task to Anthony. Occasionally she surprises the others with seldom wise and insightful statements and actions.

Bernice was married to the late Louis Clifton, who was a dancer and came from a circus family; his uncle brought Bernice how to swallow fire . Bernice has an unfriendly niece named Phyllis McGuire and two great-nephews, twins Nick and Dick. Like the Frazier sisters, she comes from a Baptist family, her father was a priest.

Since she has no children of her own, she regards the women and Anthony as sort of surrogate children. Suzanne in particular, whom Bernice describes as a "little weirdo", is completely annoyed by her behavior. Bernice expresses both the greatest maternal feelings and uninhibited sexual desire towards Anthony, which is why she is very jealous of his girlfriends. She claims to have had many lovers and firmly believes that her feelings for Anthony are mutual, which is not at all true. Anthony also drives Bernice around town for a variety of activities, including senior beauty and dance competitions.

Minor characters

Love affairs

Reese Watson

Reese lives single in a mansion, the only person he shares his life with is his longtime housekeeper, Hattie Mae. He graduated from Yale University and is a successful lawyer. His two adult children Ancel and Margaret are already away, Ancel is studying at Duke University , while Margaret lives in Phoenix with her husband and children .

After Reese's wife, Mary Alice, died of cancer , it was a long time before he was ready to start a new relationship again. When he gets to know Julia, it quickly becomes apparent that he is temperamental like her, he has no problem staying calm and facing her when she once again shows dramatic behavior. Occasionally he also teases her by making fun of her and showing her that she is being silly. Sometimes he provokes her for no reason for fun, which then triggers a flood of emotions from Julia. Thanks to his sense of humor and charm , Julia is taken with him, the two have a happy relationship until Reese dies unexpectedly of a heart attack at home in season five.

James Dean "JD" Shackleford

JD is a talent scout for the Atlanta Braves and the first man Mary Jo meets after their divorce. Their date was fabricated by Suzanne without Mary Jo's knowledge. Although JD and Mary Jo have very different personalities, they get on quite well and begin a relationship. This is often sabotaged by Janet, who was previously married to JD, is extremely possessive, and would love to get back with him. JD has three children named Rex, Hanna and Bert, Mary Jo always tries to keep the three of them on good terms with her own children.

After three years, JD and Mary Jo wonder if they should get married, but JD loses his job and has to move to Cincinnati for a new job . Since Mary Jo is not ready to marry him and go with him, the two separate, but decide to remain friends. JD still visits Mary Jo occasionally in Atlanta, she even gets him to donate his sperm for her planned artificial insemination.

Ted Shively

Ted is Mary Jo's ex-husband. He is a gynecologist, takes his job very seriously and accordingly has many affairs. He is so concerned about the alleged loss of his hair and youth that he underwent a hair transplant and regularly visits a tanning salon. Mary Jo finally separates from him because of his multiple marital fraud and is annoyed because his materialism also spreads to their children. He once proposes to Suzanne after she had one of her sex dates with him, but she refuses. He realizes how missing Mary Jo is and is upset about her relationship with JD, which he would never admit. He becomes engaged to the much younger Tammy once, but Mary Jo claims in later episodes that he has a girlfriend.

Colonel William "Bill" Stillfield

Bill comes into Charlie's life when he visits the company in his Air Force uniform and assigns the women to design a common room in a veterans hospital in honor of his deceased father. Charlene thinks that her colleagues hired Bill because it's her birthday and always wanted to meet a soldier.

According to his own statement, Bill comes from an old aristocratic family and was married to Nancy for six years, who, like Reese's wife, also succumbed to cancer, which is why he initially did not want to fall in love again, as he was convinced that he would "betray" Nancy in this way. Gradually he begins a relationship with Charlene, he is later drafted into the Gulf War, after his return he and Charlene marry and on New Year's Day 1992 they have their daughter Olivia, who is named after his sister. Bill has another sister named Emily, and his mother, Ellen, lives in Virginia. In the first episode of the sixth season, Bill is transferred to Great Britain, his wife accompanies him, whereby Charlene leaves Atlanta.

Dash Goff

Dash was Suzanne's first husband. He is a writer and college - lecturer . Both in his books and in his way of speaking it can be seen that he analyzes and looks at everyday life with all its peculiarities in a profound way.

He met Suzanne while she was a member of the Pi Phi Sisterhood at Ole Miss University, offering kisses for a fee at a booth. Suzanne was immediately attracted to Dash because of his charm, which was mutual. Although the two loved each other, their marriage was marked by long bad times, so Suzanne once threw a copy of Dash's new book Being Belled in the trash can, and he drank too much alcohol. Ultimately, they broke up because their personalities were just too different. Dash still visits her sometimes when he needs inspiration for his books. His latest work, The Afternoon Wife, is based on his time with Suzanne and his acquaintance with her colleagues.

Vanessa Hargraves

Vanessa is Anthony's New Year's Eve date when the two of them are together in the hospital, since Charlene is having her baby, she embarrasses him by singing loudly, dancing and suggesting that they sleep together later on Julia's sofa. He feels sorry for her, so Anthony asks Julia to keep Vanessa busy during the inventory. Over time, Anthony feels more and more drawn to her and falls in love with her. Vanessa is not particularly smart, but she is very friendly. For Anthony's sake, she wants to change her appearance and personality with the help of Suzanne and takes a job in a library. Anthony is taken by it and starts a relationship with her. From the fifth season, Vanessa disappears from the plot without explanation.

Etienne Toussant-Bouvier

After Anthony was abandoned by his arrogant girlfriend Vanessa Chamberlain, his colleagues drive him to Las Vegas to cheer him up. After a night of partying, he wakes up the next morning next to Etienne, a showgirl. Although he married her intoxicated, he takes a liking to her and stays with her. Etienne can be a bit tiring because she is neurotic and convinced that she must fully perform her marital duties. That's why she wants to father a child with Tony, as she calls him, as soon as she arrives in Atlanta. She is a little simple-minded, but wants to learn new words every day. In addition, she always has simple inspirations on how she could improve her everyday life, which she calls visions. Etienne's extravagant behavior seems to run in the family, as her parents often theatrically separate from each other and then meekly reconcile.

Dwayne Dobber

Thinking himself special, Dwayne claims to be more educated and urbane than Carlene, allegedly alleged to be the top import car salesman in southern Missouri. In truth, however, he has no class. He asked Carlene during their marriage, his friends in hot pants to serve drinks, celebrated with these long and excessive parties, never wore at dinner a shirt and belched unabashedly, he finally why Carlene was abandoned.

To the horror of her colleagues, Dwayne thinks his ex-wife is a charmer, she thinks that he has wit and style, which of course is not at all true. In one episode, he visits Carlene at the company and gives her his permission to meet other men.

Relatives and acquaintances

Payne McIlroy

Payne is Julia's everything, especially after the death of his father. She named it after her maternal great-grandfather. The two actually have a pretty good relationship with each other, although he likes to provoke them. So he visits his mother once with his 41-year-old girlfriend, another time he wants to marry a woman because he is said to have pregnant her, which turns out to be wrong. In fact, unlike many of his family members, Payne is rational, down to earth, and not as dramatic. However, like almost everyone in his family, he has a good heart and stands up for his values. Payne eventually graduates from Vanderbilt University and marries his girlfriend Sylvie. Julia is frustrated because of her own age, gets drunk and wakes up the next morning in Payne's roommate's bed. Payne moves to New York with Sylvie and begins a career in publishing. Once he went back to Atlanta due to professional and personal difficulties, but came back to see his wife and wanted to get his problems under control.

Perky Sugarbaker

Julia and Suzanne's mother is often mentioned in the series, but only comes theatrically once to visit on Thanksgiving . She was married a total of five times, twice with Julias and Suzanne's late father. Perky lives in the Hillcrest Leisure Land retirement home , where she is so bored that she moves to Japan. Not much is known about her other than the fact that she lies about her age, as Suzanne's birth certificate says she was younger than Julia at birth.

Clayton Sugarbaker

Julia and Suzanne's father once had an affair with singer Dee Dee, whom he met at Radio City Music Hall . When Dee Dee became pregnant, he left the family and married them. Shortly after the child was born, he left Dee Dee, remarried Perky and had Suzanne with her. That is why Clayton is Julia's and Suzanne's half-brother, of whose existence they didn't know anything. When he visits them on one episode, he tells them that as a kid he spent a lot of time in the basement rehearsing his stand-up comedy . He married young and divorced quickly, which is why he has two daughters, Camilla and Jennifer, whom he is barely allowed to see. He has suffered three nervous breakdowns in the past, spent a lot of time in a psychiatric hospital, and is an alcoholic. Julia and Suzanne get on very well with him, which is mutual. He finally decides to realize his dream and become a stand-up comedian.

Claudia Marie Shively

Claudia Marie is Mary Jo's teenage daughter. She is quite temperamental and often inadvertently causes her mother to have trouble choosing friends. So once she goes to a school ball with an African-American classmate, although his father is against it and reproaches her mother, in another episode she goes out with a very attractive boy, whereupon Mary Jo immediately panics and believes that the two are likely Will have sex. At the age of 17 she is approached in a bar by a man who is about the same age as her mother and who does not know how young Claudia really is. When he finds out her real age, he meets with Mary Jo instead, which causes a brief argument between her and Claudia. In the sixth season she goes to college and is mentioned less often.

Quinton Shively

Quinton, usually just called Quint, is Mary Jo's younger child and seems to be quite ill-educated, as she often reports to the company about what he has been up to again. He once broke into the neighbors' home to play video games, or dressed up as an alligator and scared his sister and her friends at their slumber party. He also uses a metal detector to look for change under the benches at school. At one point he uses more vulgar expressions, which is why Anthony convinces him that real men use the word phooey instead of curses . Once his uncle takes him hunting, and Quinton is obsessed with killing a deer throughout the trip.

Norvelle & Ione Frazier

Norvelle, called Bud, and Ione, called Dot (maiden name Dogg), are Charlene and Carlene's parents. Ione grew up with many brothers and wanted to be a singer so that one day she could perform at Grand Ole Opry , instead she fell in love with Norvelle and married him at the age of 15. In addition to Charlene and Carlene, the two have eleven other children. Despite financial problems, they taught them to always act honestly and morally, and the children were brought up strictly Christian. Charlene is the eldest child in the family, her remaining siblings besides Carlene are named Robert, Marlene, Harlene, Darlene, Frank, Duane, Odell, Virgil and Billy-Hue. The youngest child is Harold Thomas, and another boy named Pat died as an infant. Norvelle was Earl Sloan's best friend until the Norvelles dog accused Chuck Berry of digging up his savings that were buried in a sock in his garden, which is why the two families are now enemies. This becomes a problem for Odell when he tries to marry Sissy Sloan, his childhood sweetheart. The family is closely connected, with the exception of Charlene and Carlene, they have never left Poplar Bluff. At Christmas the family always sings Silent Night, Holy Night in front of the fireplace , while the second oldest Robert plays the guitar.

Consuela Valverde

Consuela is Suzanne's housekeeper, who also lives with her. She is from San Salvador and while she is mentioned a lot, she is never seen in the series. She comes from a very large family, all of whom are active in the meat processing industry. With Suzanne, Consuela acts like at home, for example she wears her extensions and calls relatives in El Salvador at her own expense. Suzanne does nothing against this behavior, as it is suggested that Consuela has psychotic traits and also masters voodoo . Their relationship improves over time, when their deportation threatens, leads Suzanne Anthony to impersonate her housekeeper until Consuela applies for American citizenship. Consuela doesn't seem to be able to drive very well as she crashes through the Motor Vehicle Department building during her driving test. When Suzanne once got into trouble with the tax authorities and Consuela had to move out because of it, Anthony found her an apartment in his apartment building, and Consuela made a disturbing attempt at advances for Anthony. Actually Consuela is supposed to outgrow Suzanne's legs, but since she often throws swords around during her fits of anger, Suzanne leaves this task to Anthony.

Noel

Noel is Suzanne's domestic pig . The sow was a Christmas present from Consuela, which explains its name (from French Noël : Christmas). Suzanne didn't have the heart to take her to a slaughterhouse, so she kept her as a pet. Suzanne loves Noel dearly, puts on her diamond collars and regularly drives her to Dairy Queen , as she likes to eat the buster bars , a kind of chocolate-flavored ice cream on a stick . Suzanne's love for her pet goes so far that she once bought a semi-automatic rifle when she receives calls threatening to turn Noel into a steak . Suzanne's colleagues find their relationship with their pig very strange, and Noel has severe flatulence , which is why they are not exactly enthusiastic about the animal. That's why they don't share Suzanne's grief when Noel runs away and doesn't come back. Suzanne is heartbroken at the loss, so she takes advantage of a back injury to Anthony to take care of him as a replacement, but this care quickly becomes too much for him.

Ray Don Simpson

Ray Don ( Arlen Dean Snyder ) meets the women in the first episode in a sushi restaurant. He asks her if they want to go out with him, but Julia rejects him very harshly. This becomes a problem for her because a little later he subjects the company to an audit. She visits him the following year as he heads the IRS office in Atlanta. She wants to help Suzanne because her tax advisor has disappeared with her money and her house is threatened with seizure. Julia tries to flirt with Ray, but it is very difficult for her to resist mocking his ill-fitting toupee , and Ray still resents her words from last year, which is why her visit to him does not help her sister.

Rusty

Rusty ( Michael Goldfinger ) is the company's contract electrician. He is often the victim of malicious remarks from women, especially Mary Jo. Especially the fact that he wears his pants well below the waist amazes Mary Jo and Charlene, which is why they always tease him with them or occasionally play pranks. Rusty is very impressed by Julia's elegant demeanor, which is why he asks her out on his 40th birthday. Since she doesn't want to hurt him, she agrees, but insists on a platonic meeting. However, shortly afterwards he asks her for a second date, which is why Julia persuades Mary Jo to meet up with a friend of Rusty's, the four of them. This experience is not a very pleasant experience for Mary Jo, as the man is a rude plumber who wears a see-through shirt that clearly shows his thick body hair.

Cast and dubbing

role	actor	Voice actor
Julia Sugerbaker	Dixie Carter	Barbara Feindt
Mary Jo Shively	Annie Potts	Margrit Strasbourg
Charlene Frazier-Stillfield (seasons 1-6)	Jean Smart	Katja Brugger
Suzanne Sugarbaker (seasons 1–5)	Delta Burke	Micaëla Kreißler
Anthony Bouvier	Meshach Taylor	Uli Krohm
Allison Sugarbaker (Season 6)	Julia Duffy	Hildegard Krekel
Carlene Frazier-Dobber (seasons 6–7)	Jan Hooks	Marion von Stengel
Bonnie Jean "BJ" Poteet (Season 7)	Judith Ivey
Bernice Clifton	Alice Ghostley

background

Theme song

Georgia on My Mind was used as the theme song . The song, composed by Hoagy Carmichael and written by Stuart Gorrell , was interpreted purely instrumentally by Doc Severinsen in the first five seasons , in the first two seasons in his own version, in the third season as a jazz interpretation and in the fourth and fifth seasons in the original version. In the last two seasons Ray Charles interpreted his cover of the song in the opening credits, where he could also be seen in the intro and played the piano.

Political issues in the series

Linda Bloodworth-Thomason and her husband Harry Thomason , who created the series, were friends with then President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary , which was alluded to in several episodes. In one episode, Julia is stuck at the airport when she wants to attend the inauguration of Clinton, in another episode Charlene claims to have previously worked for Bill Clinton when he was governor of Arkansas . Allison Sugarbaker is also very proud to have been to Wellesley College , which Hillary Clinton attended.

In addition, many of Julia Sugerbaker's political speeches reflected the views of Bloodworth-Thomason, who was very liberal. From the episodes that dealt with socially critical issues ( called Very Special Episodes in the USA ), two main actresses were initially not particularly impressed: Jean Smart was of the opinion that a sitcom should be funny and that drama series should have such episodes. She eventually changed her mind as she read the scripts, as she said writer Bloodworth-Thomason found a good balance between comedy and drama and handled the serious subjects in a skilful manner. In contrast to her character, Dixie Carter was a rather conservative Republican , which is why she agreed with the producers that she would be allowed to sing in a later episode if Julia Sugerbaker said something she personally disagreed with.

Brief end of the series and soaring quotas

During the first season in 1986, CBS postponed the series, despite satisfactory ratings, from Monday night to Thursday and finally to Sunday night, which is why the ratings fell sharply. CBS suspended production of the series for an indefinite period of time and eventually wanted to cancel it, which was prevented by approximately 50,000 letters of protest from the organization Viewers for Quality Television . CBS extended the series for a second season and put it back on Monday instead of Saturday so as not to have to compete with the NBC series Golden Girls (which also dealt with socially critical issues and four female main characters), which also reduced the ratings in in the following years again increased significantly and man does not have to be regularly from 1986 to 1988 was among the 20 most-watched series.

From 1989 to 1992 it also aired in succession with Murphy Brown (who was also about a strong, sometimes headstrong main character). This gave both series very good ratings because they had the same target group (middle-aged women). During this time, Man Must Not Be was mostly one of the 30 most-watched series on US television and thus the most successful CBS series to struggle with ailing ratings in the 1980s. Mann does not have to be was also the only one of 25 series by the major American stations that started in 1986 and was still running in the 1992/1993 television season.

Delta Burke, Jean Smart and Julia Duffy leave

Delta Burke has complained over the years about the long hours the actors had to spend on set and other details in their contract. She made her displeasure about it publicly, especially towards Linda Bloodworth-Thomason and Harry Thomason, the series inventors. As a result, Burke left the series in 1991 (according to Burke, she was forced to do so by Bloodworth-Thomason), her character Suzanne left the country. Burke also fell out with Carter, who did not support them and instead stuck to those responsible, but the two reconciled after ten years in 2002. Jean Smart also left the series that same year because she spent more time with her family and no longer wanted to play Charlene. Her latest episode was watched by 30 million viewers, which was the best ratings ever for the series.

For this reason, Julia Duffy played Julia's cousin Allison in the sixth season, but she was not very well received by the audience due to her arrogant and unsympathetic behavior, which is why Duffy quit at the request of the station and in the last season of the series again through Judith Ivey and her character BJ Poteet was replaced. In addition, Jan Hooks , who was previously known as a member of the ensemble on Saturday Night Live , was hired to play the sixth Charlene sister Carlene, who resembled Charlene in both name and behavior. Viewers and critics initially did not react positively to Carlene either, but that changed after a few episodes, which is why Hooks was allowed to play in the seventh season.

Final end of the series

Despite the good ratings of the sixth season, CBS moved the seventh season to Friday night , which is known in the USA as the Friday Night Death Slot , because TV series that run at this time almost without exception receive extremely poor ratings and are therefore often ended soon. Despite the lack of competition, the series fell from 6th to 67th Nielsen rank and was canceled along with the CBS series Major Dad and Golden Palace .

On January 4, 1995, Women of the House, a spin-off of the original series , started two years after Mann muss nicht sein . This is about Suzanne Sugerbaker, played again by Delta Burke, whose now fifth husband dies and she therefore takes his place in the United States House of Representatives in Washington . This series does n't really refer to the original series except for a few mentions of Julia Sugerbaker and a guest appearance by Meshach Taylor as Anthony Bouvier. W omen of the House was also invented by the Bloodworth-Thomasons, who had in the meantime reconciled with Burke.

Women of the House was by no means able to build on the success of Mann does not have to be and was canceled after 13 episodes in a season by CBS. The series was never broadcast in Germany.

DVD releases and reruns

The American company Shout! Factory released seasons 1 to 7 on DVD on May 26, 2009, August 11, 2009, March 2, 2010, September 14, 2010, December 6, 2011, April 3, 2012 and July 17, 2012. The series was not released on DVD in Germany; on the American DVDs, the episodes can only be viewed in the original English language without subtitles.

From April 1991 to June 1992, older episodes were rerun on CBS itself, after the series ended, reruns with old Golden Girls episodes were shown on Lifetime Television until August 4, 2006 . A one-hour special program called The Designing Women Reunion was also shown on the station on July 28, 2003 . It was here that Delta Burke, Annie Potts , Jean Smart, Dixie Carter and Meshach Taylor , the original cast of the first five seasons, met again for the first time in ten years and remembered the filming of the series together. Supporting actors Alice Ghostley , Hal Holbrook , Gerald McRaney and Richard Gilliland and series inventor Linda Bloodworth-Thomason were also interviewed.

From October 2, 2006 Mann does not have to be also ran on Nick at Nite and then on TV Land , which however lost the broadcasting rights in 2008.

Since May 2014 the series has been running just like Golden Girls at Logo . The channel, which is primarily aimed at LGBT viewers, acquired the broadcasting rights because both series are quite popular with many members of the LGBT community, as they had a very liberal attitude towards homosexuality for the 1980s. In addition, Mann has not been available on Hulu since August 28, 2019 . However, the episodes are syndicated versions that use a different opening credits.

In Germany, the series was repeated from June to December 2006 on Sat.1 Comedy after its broadcasting ended, and there have been no further broadcasts in German-speaking countries since then.

Planned continuation

In September 2018, Bloodworth-Thomason harshly criticized former CBS boss Lee Moonves in her column in The Hollywood Reporter for shutting down the series. Then ABC , which had long been interested in a sequel to the series, commissioned it. Because Dixie Carter, Meshach Taylor, Jan Hooks and Alice Ghostley have passed away in the meantime, the focus will no longer be on the old characters, but on new, young characters who, however, will also work in the same company. Bloodworth-Thomason will again act as screenwriter, and Annie Potts agreed to also work on the new series if she received an offer, if she had the time. Jean Smart also announced to Variety that he wanted to play in the new series.

Others

• The house where the company scenes were filmed is The Villa Marre, a Victorian-style house built in 1881 , which is a listed building and is located in Little Rock . Suzanne's house is also a memorial, this is the Arkansas Governor's Mansion, the official residence of the governor of Arkansas.

• Though Delta Burke had previous experience as an actress, CBS was reluctant to sign her as those responsible had doubts about her acting talent due to her past career as the beauty queen.

• Both Delta Burke and Jean Smart met their future husbands Gerald McRaney and Richard Gilliland during the filming. McRaney played a supporting role on the series, Suzanne's ex-husband Dash Goff. Dixie Carter's husband Hal Holbrook played Julia's friend Reese Watson until his serial death in the fifth season. Holbrook dropped out of the series after receiving a role offer for Daddy Creates Us All . Carter's daughters Mary Dixie and Ginna also starred as Julia's nieces in one episode.

• Jean Smart is the only one of the first four leading actresses who did not grow up in the southern United States because she is from Seattle .

• Dixie Carter is the only actress who appears in all 163 episodes.

• Many episodes mention the Carl's Jr. fast food chain , which is popular with the characters. In fact, at that time there were no branches of the restaurant in the entire southeastern United States, since Hardee’s branches are predominantly located in the region .

• Delta Burke and Dixie Carter starred in series such as The Denver Clan and Dallas- parody sitcom Filthy Rich , which was produced from 1982 to 1983 and also conceived by Bloodworth-Thomason.

• When Dixie Carter started the series Any Questions, Arnold? left to star in Man Doesn't Have to Be , she was replaced by Mary Ann Mobley . Mobley starred in the first episode of the fifth season as a guest actress in Man Doesn't Have to Be .

• The storyline with Julia's and Suzanne's half-brother Clayton was added to explain the large age difference (between twelve and 14 years old, depending on the episode) between the sisters. Dixie Carter was 17 years older than Delta Burke in real life.

• Anthony Bouvier was originally supposed to appear in only one episode, but was so well received by the audience that he was a recurring supporting character in the first two seasons and was a permanent part of the ensemble from the third season.

• Jean Smart noticed her own pregnancy the day her character Charlene's wedding episode was filmed. The writers decided not to hide the pregnancy in loose clothing, as is the custom in TV series, but instead included it in the plot, with Charlene getting pregnant on her honeymoon. Annie Potts also became pregnant a few years later, but her character Mary Jo, unlike Charlene, did not. Actually, the character should also become pregnant in the sixth season, but the title character in Murphy Brown was expecting a child at the same time, so the idea was discarded.

• Marla Maples stars in an episode as a guest actress who comforts Charlene after she was mistreated and abandoned by a man. She asks Charlene to forget the man and become independent. Then she writes Donald Trump's phone number on a piece of paper and tears it up. In 1993, Maples and Trump were married in real life.

• Lewis Grizzard , who played Julia's and Suzanne's alcoholic half-brother Clayton, was an alcoholic himself and died in 1994 at the age of 47 from complications from his fourth heart operation.

Awards

Artios Award

• 1987: Nomination : Best Casting in a Comedy TV Series, for Fran Bascom

• 1989: Nomination : Best Casting in a Comedy TV Series, for Fran Bascom

BMI Film & TV Award

• 1991 : Award for Bruce Miller as best composer

• 1992 : Award for Bruce Miller as best composer

Directors Guild of America Award

• 1990: Nomination : Best Director in a TV Series - Comedy, for Harry Thomason (episode They Shoot Fat Women, Don't They?)

Emmy

• 1987: Nomination : Best Director of a TV Series - Comedy, for Jack Shea (episode The Beauty Contest )

• 1988 Nomination : Best Screenplay in a Television Series - Comedy, for Linda Bloodworth-Thomason (episode Killing All the Right People )

• 1989: Nomination : Best TV Series - Comedy

• 1989: Nomination : Best Supporting Actor in a Television Series - Comedy, for Meshach Taylor

• 1990: Nomination : Best TV Series - Comedy

• 1990: Nomination : Best Actress in a Television Series - Comedy, for Delta Burke

• 1990: Nomination : Best Director in a TV Series - Comedy, for Harry Thomason (episode They Shoot Fat Women, Don't They?)

• 1991: Nomination : Best TV Series - Comedy

• 1991: Nomination : Best Actress in a Television Series - Comedy, for Delta Burke

• 1992: Nomination : Best Supporting Actress in a Television Series - Comedy, for Alice Ghostley

GLAAD Media Award

• 1991: Award : Best Episode of a Comedy TV Series (Episode Suzanne Goes Looking for a Friend)

Golden Globe Award

• 1990 : Nomination : Best TV Series - Musical or Comedy

• 1991 : Nomination : Best TV Series - Musical or Comedy

Writers Guild of America Award

• 1991: Nomination : Best Screenplay in a Comedy TV Series, for Linda Bloodworth-Thomason (episode The First Day of the Last Decade of the Entire Twentieth Century )

Young Artist Award

• 1994: Nomination : Best Young Actress in a TV Series, for Lexi Randall

literature

• Tim Brooks, Earle Marsh: The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946-Present (Seventh Edition). Ballantine Books , New York City 1999, ISBN 0-345-42923-0 .
• Tim Brooks, Earle Marsh: The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows 1946-Present (Ninth Edition) . Ballantine Books, New York City 2007, ISBN 978-0-345-49773-4 .

Web links

• Man does not have to be in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• You don't have to be at Fernsehserien.de
• Official website of the series (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ You don't have to be a man. In: synchronkartei.de. German dubbing file , accessed on September 20, 2019 . 
2. ↑ Martin Weil: Star of TV's 'Designing Women'. In: The Washington Post . April 12, 2010, accessed September 21, 2019 . 
3. ↑ Virginia Rohan: 'Once & Again' won't be back. In: North Jersey Media Group. April 14, 2002, accessed September 21, 2019 . 
4. ↑ Tim Brooks, Earle Marsh: The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable Shows 1946 – present (Ninth Edition) Ballantine (2007), pp. 1692–1693.
5. ^ ^{A b} Kate Meyers: Designing Women casting changes. In: Entertainment Weekly . April 3, 1992, accessed September 21, 2019 . 
6. ↑ Tim Brooks, Earle Marsh: The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable Shows 1946 – present (Seventh Edition) Ballantine (1999)
7. ↑ Designing Women: Complete TV Series Seasons 1-7 DVD Collection + Bonus Sticker. In: Amazon . Retrieved September 21, 2019 . 
8. ↑ Rachel Cohen: An Exclusive Interview With Annie Potts. In: Lifetimetv.com. Retrieved September 21, 2019 . 
9. ↑ 'Designing Women' to Premiere on Logo TV With 'The Saturday Night The Lights Went Out in Georgia' Marathon on May 17. In: TV By The Numbers. May 15, 2014, accessed on September 21, 2019 . 
10. ↑ Breanna Bell: TV News Roundup: Hulu Acquires 80's sitcom 'Designing Women'. In: Variety. July 26, 2019, accessed on September 21, 2019 . 
11. ^ Sugarbaker's on TV. In: Fernsehserien.de . Retrieved September 20, 2019 . 
12. ^ Lesley Goldberg: 'Designing Women' TV Sequel Lands at ABC (Exclusive). In: The Hollywood Reporter . September 13, 2018, accessed September 21, 2019 . 
13. ↑ Margeaux Sippell: Jean Smart Wants to Appear in the 'Designing Women' reboot. In: Variety . September 14, 2018, accessed on September 21, 2019 .