Designing Women is an American television sitcom that centered around the working and personal lives of four Southern women and one man in an interior design firm in Atlanta, Georgia. It aired on the CBS Television network from September 29, 1986 until May 24, 1993. The show was created by writer Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, who wrote many of the episodes in the show's initial seasons.

Premise

Sisters Julia Sugarbaker (Dixie Carter) and Suzanne Sugarbaker (Delta Burke) are polar opposites. Julia is an elegant, outspoken liberal intellectual; Suzanne is a rich, flashy, often self-centered former beauty queen and Miss Georgia World. They are constantly at personal odds but have launched Sugarbaker Designs, an interior design firm. Julia manages the company while Suzanne is mostly a financial backer who simply hangs around and annoys everyone under the guise of being the firm's salesperson.

The pragmatic designer Mary Jo Shively (Annie Potts), and the sweet-natured but somewhat ditzy office manager Charlene Frazier Stillfield (Jean Smart) were initial investors. Later in the series, another staff member, Anthony Bouvier (Meshach Taylor), became a partner. Anthony was a former prison inmate and the only man on staff. (The story behind Anthony's prison sentence was not told until the third season, at which point it was revealed that Anthony was falsely accused and convicted of a robbery, but was released after being cleared of the crime.) Bernice Clifton, an absent-minded friend of the Sugarbaker sisters' mother played by Alice Ghostley, also appeared frequently.