Episodes
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We simply cannot leave the upheaval that was season six of Designing Women without talking about the elephant in the room: the cast changes. America was glued to their TVs to see how Julia Duffy and Jan Hooks would fare in place of the beloved Delta Burke and Jean Smart. Thirty million strong for that matter. We’ll discuss if they got a fair shake.
Designing Women had some cast changes, but they didn’t invent them. So we’re going to talk about some iconic ones in other corners of TV. Who did it best? Who did it worst? And, most importantly, was there drah-mah?!?!
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We can’t possibly round out our coverage of season 6 without discussing the much-discussed, oft-aligned newbie, Allison. It’s a big change, but how did we take it? Let’s discuss. Salina’s also going to bring us a Sidebar on Julia Duffy. And then come back Thursday for an Extra Sugar we’re calling Cast Away. We’re going to chat not only about the major Designing Women cast changes this season, but some other major - and less-major - cast shifts throughout TV history.
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Missing episodes?
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Oh boy! This season brought us Designing Women’s second-favorite big ole donkey Girl Scout, Carlene. (For those who don’t remember, Julia called Charlene a big-ole donkey Girl Scout back in season 5’s “Miss Trial” - we’re not just being mean to Carlene.) More than one episode this season referenced the Scouts. We also have a big ole donkey Girl Scout among us in the form of one, Ms. Nikki, AND we have some Southern AND “Designing Women” ties to the Girl Scout universe. So, it was just time for an “Extra Sugar” about the Scouts.
Let’s talk about what the Girl Scouts are, what their Southern connection is + their “Designing Women” connection, and we just have to tackle Julia’s big beef, comparing the Boy Scout facilities and the Girl Scout facilities.
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Season 6 introduced us to Charlene’s sister, Carlene Dobber. And look, we know Designing Women fans find the latter seasons sacreligious. But. Do not sleep on Carlene. This “pie-eyed girl from Poplar Bluff, Missouri” deserves all the flowers. We’re gonna give ‘em to her because, well, she’s a ding dang riot.
Carlene wouldn’t be the delight she was without Jan Hooks’ performance, so sidebar about her with us.
Then come back Thursday for an all-new Extra Sugar inspired by Carlene’s stint as troop leader of troop #6523, Atlanta Council, Girl Scouts USA. It’s gonna be good. Scout’s honor.
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Watching season 6 of “Designing Women” made us realize: every season has some kind of wedding plotline (season 4 has three episodes!).
So as is our duty, we talked about which of these episodes pulled our heart strings and which ones left us hoping for an annulment.
Of course, this is also an excuse to talk about our favorite TV wedding episodes of all time: the good, the bad, and the t-total disastrous.
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It’s finally time for us to revel in the gloriousness that is our dear, sweet, unproblematic Anthony. He had some major plotlines this season (law school! professional development at the design firm! exploits with Bernice! an engagement!), but was his character developed enough, or did these storylines leave us with even more questions about our friend? We’ll talk about it.
We’ll also reimagine Anthony’s life if social media has been a thing in the “Designing Women” universe. Would he be a keyboard, prison reform advocacy warrior? How would the whole “A Scene From a Mall” plotline have played out? And what about his engagement to Vanessa? Are they a #vanthony couple? Let’s talk about it.
And then come back Thursday for this episode's "Extra Sugar" - inspired by Anthony's soon-to-be (maybe. possibly. surely. right?) trip down the aisle, let's talk about our favorite TV wedding memories - "Designing Women" and otherwise!
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This week’s “Extra Sugar” is going to take us beyond Bernice Clifton and head-first into the wacky world of kooky TV characters.
Of course, at “Sweet Tea & TV”, Bernice holds a special place in our hearts, but we’ve watched enough TV over the years to know there’s an infinite number of lovable oddballs who steal the spotlight with their bizarre behavior and unforgettable antics. And it’s not just Kramer from “Seinfeld” and Phoebe from “Friends”.
Catch this episode to hear some of our personal faves, why we think these eccentric characters have such a lasting impact, and why we can’t help but love their weirdness!
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We were so excited to record this one. Bernice has slowly edged her way into our TVs - and our hearts! - as the Designing Women seasons have progressed. But, in season 6, she really arrived. As you can tell from our summary of all her appearances this season, she's all over season 6. While we didn’t have whole, Bernice-focused episodes to talk about, we had a whole lotta oddball comments, near-rumble belligerent face-offs, and a little bit of singing along the way. Let’s talk about it all.
For this week's "Technology Takedown", let's imagine the world with a "Designing Women" spinoff, but this one all about Bernice. Let us know what you think about our alternate reality!
Come back Thursday for this week's accompanying "Extra Sugar" which is, unsurprisingly, all about our favorite kooks on TV!
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Agghhh! It’s time! We’ve got Salina over here reading books. Nikki over here mashin’ tomatoes. (It’ll all make sense soon, swear.) It’s time for the first-ever Sweet Tea & TV Book Club! And what better place to start than Delta Burke’s memoir, Delta Style.
We’re excited to share our overall reactions to the book, chat about the biggest surprises to us, explore key themes, like Delta’s illustrious - albeit brief - pageant career, and uncomfortable experiences in Hollywood.
And then come back next week where we’ll chat about Bernice’s season 6 journey. We may be firing on all cylinders or, maybe our arterial flow problems will kick in and the segment will be as random as Bernice herself. Either way, it’s sure to be a good time!
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We’re back for another Designing Women season 6 recap! This time, we’re talking all things The Terminator. *ahem* We mean, Julia. We’ll focus on her major plotlines, funniest moments, and how season 6 shaped her character. As usual, we’ll also rate how the character of Julia fares this season - is she up? Down? Still locked in an Italian restaurant with Rusty somewhere?
And come back Thursday for a super-special Extra Sugar - we’re introducing our first-ever Sweet Tea & TV Book Club! We’re going to chat about Delta Burke’s memoir, Delta Style.
Theeeeen, we’ll be back next week to chat about our favorite ATL kook, Bernice.
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This week’s “Extra Sugar” was inspired by Designing Women, S6 E7, “The Strange Case of Clarence and Anita”.
That would be Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas (then nominee) and Anita Hill, the woman who testified he had sexually harassed her years earlier when he was her supervisor.
We’ll talk about the aftermath of her testimony and then discuss where we are now. Our conversation circles issues of sexual misconduct, harassment, and assault, so please take care of yourself.
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In our second episode, we’re digging into all things Mary Jo. How did season 6 treat her? Is she up or down?
We’ll discuss our picks for her best and worst episodes, as well as her cringiest and funniest moments. We’re also trying out a new segment “Technology Takedown” where we upend a plot by simply adding one magic ingredient: a smart phone.
Come back on Thursday for an “Extra Sugar” inspired by Mary Jo’s rant over the outcome of Anita Hill’s testimony back in 1991.
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Sometimes you just need something light and fluffy, you know? So that’s how we’re starting off our sixth season of “Extra Sugars” – Light. And fluffy. Like whip cream if you will.
Join us as we catch up on what we’ve been doing over our months of hiatus – what we’re reading, watching, doing. Then we’re gonna talk about some things that have had our attention in the wider world these last months. The general chaos of the world, but like. Also some good stuff, too.
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We're ba-aaaaack! That's right, after much hemming and hawing over whether to watch the final seasons of Designing Women, ultimately, we realized it was much ado about nothing. Of course we have to wrap up the series!
We’re doing things a little different this time, however. We’ll cover the series over the course of seven weeks. For this first episode, we’re breaking down our general reactions to the season. Get into our feelings if you will.
Come on y’all, let’s get into it!
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As we gear up for season 6, it’s only right to revisit our “Extra Sugar” all about Suzanne and Charlene – one we did whilst still in our feelings about Delta Burke’s final episode.
Mourn the loss with us – we talked about some favorite moments, what they mean to us, and what happened to Burke and Jean Smart next IRL.
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Well, y’all, this Designing Women episode was both a favorite of ours and listeners, so let’s laissez les bons temps rouler! While we felt Julia’s rant in our bones, for the record, we’d still prefer to hang with Suzanne and Charlene in ‘The Big Easy’.
Inspired by their night on the town, Nikki’s told us about 10 not-so-obvious things to do when you visit New Orleans. And, if you’re feeling frisky, you can go back and find this one’s accompanying “Extra Sugar” that we dedicated to the important history and cultural impact of drag.
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In our fifth season, we finally got into the real life and offscreen drama between Delta Burke and the Thomasons. While only those involved can truly know what happened, this time period would ultimately lead to Burke’s departure from the series – and so we felt we owed it to ourselves and those following along to talk about it.
We also picked and discussed some other famous offscreen feuds between stars and their bosses.
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You may think we picked this one for the buffets, and you’re half right (we did get a pretty tasty “Nibbles” segment out of it). Mainly, we’re here for Mary Jo and Charlene’s level 10 physical comedy trying to find Suzanne’s pearls in the salad bar.
This is also where we introduced our temporary segment, “Suzanne Watch” - to try and decode some of the weird ways they were using Delta Burke as their relationship in real life quickly unraveled.
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Bernice’s toward self-acceptance was a fun, little thrill for us, since it taught us that we can still experience self-loathing well into our senior years. Why not relive that realization through a re-sugar of our foray into plastic surgery. Well, our academic foray - no actual surgery was had. (But, it’s not too late - still taking donations!)
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Any episode where Julia gets riled is worth a rewatch. Her run-ins (read: total and complete meltdowns) with “big ole donkey scout” first Charlene and later her fried-cheese-eating jury duty colleagues reminds us one and all: don’t mess with a Southern woman on a mission.
We also sidebarred on radio contests in honor of the hurtin’ Charlene, Suzanne, and Anthony put on the record store after winning a radio contest.
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