Episode 23: Designing Women, Season 1: Finale, Finale

Whoa, whoa, whoa. Sure, we’ve wrapped our review of Designing Women’s first season (and incidentally the first season of the podcast), but we need ONE more episode to process it all. So we did what we do best: we ate the snacks, drank the drinks, and chatted the chats(?). We break down:

• Designing Women by the numbers (How many times did Anthony say dude? How many times did Charlene take us down a rabbit hole?)

• Our favorite show moments

• How the main cast changed and predict where they’re headed in season 2

Stick around for "Extra Sugar" where we talk about the less-than-stellar critical reception from, well, pretty much only male critics. Because, if they’ve taught us anything, do we really need multiple female-led casts? (It’s dangerous, you know, because I hear their periods attract bears.) [shrug emoji]

Most importantly, thank you to everyone who tuned into our first season! We’ve appreciated the interest, the comments, and even the corrections. :)

Come on, let’s get into it!

Or listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Podcasts.

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Transcript

You.

Hi everyone.

Before we get into what we're calling the season one finale.

Finale, we wanted to thank you from the bottoms of our hearts for listening to us this season.

This podcast has really been such a dream come true for us and we are just so grateful to each and every one of you for taking this journey with us.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Now let's wrap up season one so we can dive right in to season two.

We're testing now.

I'm going to say some words.

I'm going to scratch my legs.

It's kind of funny.

Do you want Psoriasis or poison ivy?

Take a pic because I've probably got both.

What if you just need lotion?

Hey Selena.

Hey, Nikki.

And everybody.

And everyone else.

Hi guys.

How are you?

I'm good.

It's been a minute.

About a month.

A month?

Yeah.

We took a nice lengthy break from episode 21.

Yeah, well, we took a nice lengthy break from being in front of microphones.

We did.

So I feel like we've still been working.

There's been a lot of work.

We are actually in the midst of preparing for season two, which is coming very soon.

I've had some homework to do in this break.

I've had to watch Pretty Woman, which we'll be reporting on in our next episode.

And then in this episode we had to dig back in the memory bank.

We had to dig way back to think about some of our favorite moments both in the podcast and in the episode.

So we've had a lot of work to do.

Yeah.

To get some rest.

Fun work.

Fun work.

Well, I'm very excited to say that not long after our last like, I looked at Casey and I was like, get me out of so, you know, we started looking around on airbnb, what's close by, and we wound up in Hiawassi.

Oh, nice.

Yeah.

So if you're not from these parts, hiawassi is in North Georgia mountain town area.

I hadn't been there in like twelve years or something, but it is very beautiful.

And we actually stayed in a dome.

A dome?

Yeah.

So I kept calling it a tiny dome.

And I asked Casey, I was like, is it a tiny dome?

And he was like, it's just a dome, Selena.

But what would be a large dome?

The Georgia Dome.

Oh, that's a large dome.

Is it like an observatory?

Kind of, I guess.

Because it's like a glamping.

Okay.

Okay.

So it literally is shaped like a dome and it's like plastic.

Okay.

So it kind of keeps the outside elements out.

Kind of.

And I've got a reason to say kind of.

But then they have sheets over it.

Not like actual bed sheets, but some kind of covering over it so you can sleep in the morning.

So it's not clear.

I see it.

Okay.

But the top is open.

So in theory you could stargaze.

It'S.

Under a lot of trees, though, so a lot of that SAP gets on the top.

So as soon as we got in there, I was like, Why?

Can't see out the top that's kind.

Of cleaned it for you before you got there?

I wonder almost if they did, but it had been storming around that time.

That also plays into this story that I should tell faster than I'm telling.

So there's, like, a little river out by it.

So it was really beautiful and picturesque, and it's part of some sort of really neat neighborhood that was made up of cabins.

But you can also do, like, an RV situation back there.

It has a victory garden at the front that's, like it was just lovely.

There were two things, though, that happened that were a little outside of my comfort zone, so I'm glad I started with Glamping before I went full camping.

Yet the first thing is that Casey and I encountered the scariest spider that we've ever seen, ever.

Both of us panicked about it, and the reason why is, like, was it a brown recluse?

No, I mean, this thing was the size of, like, Jackson.

If you don't jackson is Nikki's dog, which is small for a dog, big for a spider.

He's about 16 pounds.

Well, do you know so honestly, it was so creepy looking that, you know, like those Halloween spiders that you, like, gag gift people or not gag gift people with, but you play a joke on.

Right.

Okay.

So I walk in, and I'm just trying to take in all the situation in all these things that they have inside this dome to kind of just get some context.

Royal.

I got it.

And I look down on a set of blankets, which we did not need because it was hot.

On top of the blankets, there's a spider, but I thought it was fake.

Oh, no, I'm not kidding you.

I'm showing on my hands.

It was, like, this big.

She's showing, like, probably six inches.

And I mean, it was like one of those perfect angular they just have that real weird take a picture.

Neither one of us did, and I think it's because we were so scared.

Terrified.

Okay.

Yeah.

And he didn't want to go to kill it with a shoe or something because we were scared it might go, and then we would go home if that spider got loose in there and we didn't know where it was at.

So he sat there and he sprayed it with off until it passed.

Did it die?

Yeah.

I mean, this was an us or it situation.

I understand, which I feel bad.

Like, we don't want to kill creatures.

That's not our bag.

But this was don't want to die.

Yourselves, or I didn't want it to spawn babies.

Kill or be killed.

It was arachnophobia in your ears.

Oh, so many things, right?

Oh, my God.

Yeah.

So it had to go.

But the other thing is that we went to go see some waterfalls that were on the property.

We're about a mile away, it starts pouring down, raining.

Oh, no.

We finally got to the point where we were just walking in the rain, and we were just, like, laughing because there was no escaping it.

So other than those two things, it was perfectly lovely.

Really enjoyed it.

We went to Dillard's the next morning.

Oh, did you?

For their all you can eat breakfast.

This is, like, for folks that don't know again, Dillards is in North Georgia as well.

You can actually stay there overnight.

They have, like, horses on the property, and you can go horseback riding.

You can do all these things.

But they also have, like, a restaurant that's been there, I think, for over 100 years now.

And they're open 365 days a year.

Oh, it is that okay?

It used to be, I don't know, pre pandemic.

It may still be.

Who knows?

That's changed everything.

That was really wonderful because they have, like, this thing where basically they just keep bringing you food, which is and.

Like the good Southern breakfast food.

Yes.

BS skits.

We just kept it to one round because it was just the two of us.

We've had that conversation before.

You go and you can have as much as you want, and we make it one round, and we're like, that was good.

I mean, I could have done multiple rounds.

It was just like, you had a.

Long road trip ahead of you.

You need to be somewhat responsible.

That too.

Yeah.

And then the last thing that I'll say is we ended that trip with somewhere I don't think Casey was very happy to be and probably will not admit to going.

So I'll admit for him that we went to baby Lynn General.

You went?

Yeah, for the Cabbage Patch Kids.

Because I need and he was like, what's this?

He, like, didn't even understand where we were going.

So just a reminder for folks that for some reason, you were like, you know where I'm going to start with this sweet tea and TV podcast is, like, the end.

So a couple episodes back, I did an extra sugar, and Nikki and I talked about 80s toys.

And it specifically focused around Cabbage Patch Kids.

It's got a weird history.

So encourage you to go back and listen if you haven't.

And then because of that, I had to go to the new one.

And so we went, we saw we were both in disbelief.

I don't even know what to say.

We did arrive just in time for a doll to be born out of the giant cabbage in the middle of the showroom.

Sure.

The circle of life.

Yeah.

I almost pulled the girl over to the side to be like, are you.

Here of your own will?

Blink twice if you need to be rescued.

Do you need us to get you out?

Because I can't imagine that she thought that she was going to be in her life saying some sort of play on words for a peziotomy, for a cabbage.

And she was like putting a shot into the cabbage.

This is all part of the thing.

And she was like, do y'all know what's in this shot?

And everybody's like and she's like, TLC.

Does anybody know what TLC is?

And Casey and I are standing over in the corner like the kid from Home Alone.

Just what is happening?

Anyways, so all that to say, lots been going on.

What's been going on with you, Nikki?

I've been really busy too.

I went to the doctor twice.

My itchy legs, it just was killing me.

Killing me.

I lived with it for like a month, a month and a half.

I talked about it the last time we recorded.

We opened this episode with an outtake about it.

I don't know what it was, is out of control.

So I finally made an appointment at the doctor and nothing, no cause, no obvious, like, anything.

So it has resolved.

No.

She gave me a steroid cream, but I had already been using a cream before.

That I think helped it like two days before I went.

It really kind of stopped itching.

Go to the doctor.

I'd already made the appointments.

When I ended up getting like this was the dermatologist.

So I got like the full body freckle mole scan, which was good.

I got some things taken care of there.

Had a lady doctor appointment.

Now, was that an ode to designing.

Women going to the lady doctor?

It was an ode to I hadn't been in a really long time and it was time to start taking care of myself.

Okay.

Also, just so you know, I just did a lot of things to keep myself from saying like 2345 jokes.

You're welcome.

Well, I looked at Kyle about a week ago and said, get me out of here.

Similar to the way you looked at Casey and said it.

And I had almost planned a whole weekend in North Georgia.

And then I remembered I had get together with my friends planned and we had soccer practice.

And by the time all of that would have ended, we would have had like 12 hours in North Georgia to be back for school and work on Monday.

So we did not go somewhere.

But we will have to eventually because I'm in a very much get me out of here mode.

Yeah, do it.

Go away.

Okay.

Well, in a good way.

Okay.

In a happy way.

I'm like clarifying.

Get out of here for your own sanity, for everyone.

It's wonderful.

But we're back in action now.

We're back in action.

We also have been planning for season two.

We've been planning this, which is our finale.

Finale.

We finished episode 21.

Now we want to kind of do a recap of the whole season.

We want to look back at a few different things.

So we're calling today our finale finale.

It's the sweet tea and TV season one in review.

Okay, good.

I'm glad that you pronounced that for me because I've been calling it the final finale.

Oh, I've probably been typing it.

The final finale in place.

No, not necessarily.

So we're going to do a few things today.

We're going to start with a buy the numbers of season one.

Okay.

It'll be fun.

Then we're going to share our top three moments of Designing Women season one.

Then we're going to do our top three moments of the podcast.

This is sort of like our personal what we've been through on the backside of the back end of things.

Sure.

Also, I like how I'm acting.

Like, I don't know, guys.

I know I know what we're doing.

Like, we haven't shared any of this.

We don't know what each other is going to say.

But she knows the episode outline.

Yeah.

We're not this off the cuff.

Oh, tell me more.

But we want you to know right, what we're doing.

Yeah.

And then, as always, want folks to stick around for extra sugar.

Because we're going to talk a little bit about the critical reception of Designing Women season one, a little bit about where we are with our characters heading into season two, and maybe a little bit about what we think is going to happen in season two.

Okay, so you want to get into it?

Let's get into it.

All right.

Always just a little bit sweaty.

Just thinking again about Nikki.

Always a little bit sweaty.

Bass.

Just go ahead and throw it out there.

It could stick with me for life.

That could be on my tombstone.

One that's here lies a little sweaty woman.

She was kind, but sweaty.

Just always a little bit even when it was very cold, somehow there was still a little sweat.

But she wasn't a little bit sweaty on those days.

She was a lot bit sweaty.

In.

The dead heat of summer.

Don't worry about it.

You live in Georgia.

It's never warm.

It's just humid, that's all.

So let's talk about these numbers.

There are some repetitive things that happen over the course of Designing Women.

And I feel like we identified some of them really early on.

Like, the first time we saw it, we were like, this is a thing that's going to happen.

Right.

Like, we knew, like, Suzanne's going to flaunt A.

That's just her character.

She's got that air about her or whatever.

Mary Jo scrambles in.

Yeah.

They do all have a very specific entrance that's very focused to their personality.

They really do.

So for everyone else, we identified some things that we thought were regularly happening.

And then we painstakingly went back through and counted them, which it was painstaking that's hard.

It really was.

Counting is not really in my repertoire.

It's not my strong suit.

Yeah.

Okay.

I'm going to tell you the ones that I counted.

We split it up because it was too much for any one human being.

It was painstaking.

It was so the first one's a little sad.

We probably should have started on a happier note, but whatever.

There was a lot of fat shaming that took place across the season.

There was a whole episode about it.

That is what made counting challenging.

So I will say that I actually, for this one, just wound up counting the number of episodes.

Okay.

Ten episodes.

Holy moly.

Really?

So almost half of the season contains some sort of something that you and I considered fat shaming.

Again, we don't want to throw our opinions around on anyone else, but that's what I felt like.

So I will say that there were two episodes where there were some cut lines, but we talked about them in our show.

So ten.

Another thing that we tracked through the numbers is mentions of Suzanne's alimony checks.

I was actually surprised by how low this was because I thought it was happening all the time.

Yeah.

But it was five times.

Really?

That's all.

And one was more of an honorable mention.

I would love to go back to Selena from two weeks ago and go, Selena, what was that honorable mention?

Because she probably remembers.

But oh, so five.

Okay.

I think it's because a lot of times I feel like it started the episode.

It was sort of like the cold open.

Sure.

Yeah.

Well but there was something where I think they were talking about someone else's alimony checks.

I think that's what it was about.

Okay.

I think for me, too, it was just a sign of the times because we don't talk that much about alimony checks anymore.

Or checks.

Good point.

Which we've talked about several times over the course of the season.

Another one on my list was Julia takedowns.

I counted seven.

Really?

Okay.

Don't worry.

I wrote these down.

Okay.

Because I'm curious that some of them you may have not considered takedowns.

Okay.

So that was all of mine.

Okay.

What you got?

I had the number of times Charlene took us down a rabbit hole.

This one required a lot of subjectivity, so I counted 17 times.

Wow.

Starting with the pilot when Julia comes in and she and Julia are exchanging some conversation.

And Julia says, I hate when you break my flow because Charlene starts going down a path.

But we had the pilot.

We had Julia's son.

There were two.

In Mary Jo's first date, she talks about the quiche and the quickie.

That was a rabbit hole.

We had one in design House.

I do.

I don't.

There were eight in Old Spouses never Die, which was a two parter.

That's the wondering episode, isn't it?

I'm just wondering.

Yes.

And I counted each one of those separately.

One in Reese's friend, one in Mary Jo's dad dates Charlene and then some more.

And then there were three in Grand Slam.

Thank you, ma'am.

Wow.

So there were a lot in that one, too.

I also counted the number of times Mary Jo mentioned her breasts or someone else's.

The testicles 4.5.

Didn't it feel like a lot more than that?

What's the half?

She only mentioned one.

The 0.5 was in Design House when she's part of the group.

Repetition of the eight finest breasts in Georgia.

When they repeat that back to the guy okay, I gave that one a .5 because it wasn't of her own accord.

Okay.

I thought you were going to say something about how small her chest is.

If she only got 0.5 reference at.

Some point, I'm not going to.

Well, I was going to take offense.

They all count.

They all count.

Yeah.

So this one was my personal favorite.

Okay.

The number of quote unquote dudes that Anthony used throughout the season, that was something I feel like I caught onto really early with his character.

It's a word I use often.

It's a fond spot in my heart, but it's so funny when he says it.

I had 14.

I feel like this is pretty astounding given that he was not in very many scenes and episodes this season.

Yeah, it's a lot.

So the most he did three in Old Spouses never die.

Again, the two parter.

But several other episodes were tied for two.

Design house Perky's visit.

And Reese's friend.

That's a high amount of dudes.

There's a high amount of dudes.

Sorry, I'm over here thinking about dude.

Where's my car?

Okay, so the last thing that we decided that we would look at because again, we are a southern podcast, and I think you and I were a little disappointed sometimes.

It was hard to tell.

Are we in the south or are we in a, uh, in Southern California?

The answer is both of those things.

I think the southern accents oftentimes were supposed to be the tell that it was a southern show.

Yeah.

And that's just and it's hard because.

Part of me is like the whole point of some of the things that we are trying to do with this podcast is to say, if you've never met a southerner and for some reason you think that we're all hillbillies, rednecks or hicks, you are sorely mistaken.

Right.

Those things do exist.

Right.

You could also argue that those things exist all across the nation.

Nay.

Perhaps across the world.

Okay.

You really can't do that with big teeth, but here I am doing it anyways.

So on the southern references, do you want to take any guess how many southern references there are?

Did I share that with you?

That one I might have actually shared.

If you did, I didn't see it.

Oh, perfect.

Okay, just take a guess across the entire season.

Let me put you on the spot.

15.

Not that light.

90.

90?

Yeah.

Holy crap.

Now, sometimes I would do things like paisley.

That sounds southern.

I see.

Yeah.

It wasn't necessarily like 90 references to Atlanta proper or anything like that.

Okay.

And then what I did is I broke down that list and I looked across everything and I said, okay, but what are these are the deepest cuts either to Georgia and Atlanta because that's where we live.

Well, we do not live in Atlanta, but we do live near Atlanta.

I used to live there.

Anyways, it doesn't matter.

So the deepest cuts were macon Marietta atlanta national bank is not inside the perimeter, by the way.

The Chadwick home, by the way.

I tried to get the atlanta is it the Atlanta preservation society or something?

I tried to get them to get back in touch with me because I wanted to share the chadwick home picture.

And I think you're supposed to ask for and then ansley park, fort benning, you got that one.

So good job.

And then one that's outside of Georgia, and I think it was north Carolina.

And that's the azalea festival.

Oh.

So there you go.

My only addition to that list is the braves references.

And I'll tell you why I'm counting that as a deep cut.

Because the braves were doing so terribly at that point in time that they were not like a huge national.

Like, they weren't the yankees.

Okay, well, then we're going to have to throw the falcons in there, too, then.

Oh, that's right.

There were some falcons mentioned.

Oh, that's in my count.

Okay.

Yeah.

I just didn't count as a deep cut because they're like professional.

Um, but I'll take it.

So I'm just saying if we're going to go with that train of thought, which I can get on board with, throw the falcons in there because I don't think they were knocking them dead back in 86.

Yeah.

Love you, falcons.

Love you, braves.

And then let's just also sort of bring into the mix that I'm just going to be honest and say I completely lost my point.

It was what everybody needs to know.

It was a super good one.

Enter super poignant opinion from Selena.

Moving on.

I'm not even going to try and salvage that.

So next up, why don't we talk about our top three moments of the designing women season one.

Let's do it.

So I actually think a lot of my favorite moments overlap with the southern cuts or southern references.

So either the deep cuts or the references.

Okay.

So some of my favorite parts of the season were when it referenced its southern heritage.

So I just mentioned the braves.

I absolutely loved slam.

Thank you, ma'am.

Like, even when I think back on my favorite episodes, for some reason I just love that one so much.

I think the braves references and the fact that I got to do the braves.

Extra sugar with that one helped.

But I just loved how they talk about the Braves.

Very exciting.

Do you think it's like finally we get put on the national stage?

I think that probably has a lot to do with it.

And there's things that are so true to my life and it feels so like I mean, I've seen a million Braves games in person.

I loved the Nashville episode because they never went to Nashville whether I wanted them to or not.

But Nashville is one of my favorite places on the planet and it's just cool to see that, like you said, coming to the national stage.

Well, I think okay, so I've said it here.

You know this about me, not a big sports fan, but I will tell you there are those years where we know, like, we've got a good here goes.

Me trying to talk sports.

We know that we've got a good team built for the Braves or the Falcons.

And because of Casey, I have to hear all these commentaries.

And I will say over the really, over the years, it really ticks me off when commentators never give us a stinking chance.

I don't care.

But then I get riled up because get riled it's my home.

Yeah.

Because I'm like, okay, here we go again.

We're not going to give Georgia a chance even though we've proven ourselves.

We've had some setbacks.

We've had about 25 years.

We weren't so great.

But we've also proven ourselves a lot of times.

And we've gone the distance, but they don't ever give us a chance.

And then there's other teams and I'm not going to name names because we're not going down that road.

But these guys get chances over and over and over again and the belief in them is automatically there.

But for us it's not.

And so I think I feel that.

And so I wonder if a lot of people across the country feel this way as we tell story after story after story about New York City and La.

But we never get to hear about, you know, and so even like, um, a lot of times I don't feel like Atlanta gets taken seriously or gets taken seriously as a city sometimes I might have said sorry.

And I love Atlanta, will always have a place in my heart.

But it is a little bit harder for places in the south, especially, I think, to be taken seriously.

So maybe that's where some of the excitement comes from.

I think so.

I think so.

Also, I love the Braves.

No.

And I think yeah, we didn't talk a lot about things like the Atlanta Braves or Nashville on Cheers or whatever some of those 80s TV shows are.

So that was one of my favorite parts of the whole season.

Nice.

Did that one make your list?

No.

Okay.

What was one of yours?

I'm actually hoping we'll have different ones.

Yeah, me too.

But I'll be glad if there's overlap.

Will y'all be glad?

So exciting to hear us really drum this up.

Okay, so my first one that I wrote down, these are not in any certain order, is Julia's takedown of Charlene's Doctor, because it was awesome, but also because it was purposeful.

So she had a lot of takedowns seven, I believe I said.

But even something that I think gets a lot more notoriety or something like it's the first thing you see if you put in YouTube.

Something about deciding women is the night the lights went out in Georgia.

But that didn't really have a greater purpose.

I mean, I love that she was standing up for her sister, but at the end of the day, we are talking about a beauty pageant.

So not quite the same as Please stop killing women doctor.

So, for me, that was really something.

Also, and I wrote this up a couple of weeks ago, but this does feel highly relevant this week, given the current events in Texas.

And gosh, what I wouldn't do for some LBT perspective on television right now.

So someone who does her strength is speaking to a feminist perspective, and she swings her words and her pen like a sword.

We could use that sword right now.

So that was mine.

So one of mine again, mine are not in any particular order either, is similar to that one.

I cannot express to you deeply enough how much I love that two parter episode.

Yeah, I just thought the character development was so great.

Like watching Charlene go through this emotional roller coaster when she had been such a surface level character to this point.

And getting to learn more about her and what drives her was really exciting for me, watching the women come together in a way they really hadn't.

So, mine is similar to yours in that I capture that two parter episode, which includes Julia's takedown.

That was a big moment.

And I'll kind of pair that with oh, Susanna in terms of character development, because we also saw Suzanne grow, and we saw this different part of her.

So I'm going to put those two episodes together as one of my favorite moments.

Okay.

You're cheating.

I know I am.

But you know what?

I love that you like the show so much that you're cheating.

So it's a pass.

And also, this is a podcast about Designing Women, and it's ours, so we can do whatever we want.

These are things I don't get to say during the week.

I know.

This is my thing.

We do what we want, right?

It feels good to say it now.

Then I'll go home and do laundry.

So my next one was that I loved when we finally got some connective tissue between episodes because it's so highly episodic.

Instead of serialized.

The times it was just the 80s sitcom.

That's not where we were.

My favorite was when.

Mary Jo finally confronted Suzanne about dating and briefly being engaged to Ted because it happens pilot episode.

And then we don't hear about it again.

About it again.

No, this is not real life.

I don't know if you've heard this or not, but they moved some of the episodes around.

They did what?

So we don't really know what episode that was going to happen.

Right.

But I'm guessing it was more than a few in between.

And I'm thinking that would be a frequent topic of conversation.

Yeah, but I even like some of the little ones, like Suzanne's age.

We got sprinkled throughout the season 29 every time she got called 30.

So I thought that was really nice, too.

I do love a good callback.

That's mine.

My third favorite is something I literally just mentioned.

So it's like crossing categories.

I mentioned it in my favorite Southern cuts.

I'm going to mention it here in my favorite parts.

Grand slam.

Thank you, ma'am.

I really even as I was reflecting back on the season, this one just keeps popping up for me.

And I think it had to do with the fact that it was a Suzanne based storyline.

And I think just if it's not obvious from listening to the whole season, suzanne just is one of my favorites.

I'm just going to r two bunker.

I do love her.

I think she's great.

So I think having a whole episode around her, I loved.

Again, selfishly, I got to do my Braves, extra sugar.

There were a lot of Southern references.

I also loved the and I'm going to forget the actor's name now, but getting to see the Gilmore Girls dad, the guy who's been in Gilmore Girls, I thought he was charming.

I just thought he played such a charming character.

He was lovable, even though we knew they had a rough relationship.

I just love that episode so much.

Sure.

Okay, so mine's last one really actually connects to your earlier one because just about everything from, oh, Susanna was a top for me.

Yeah, you're the tops.

And that was mine because I just loved it.

I loved the whole thing.

I mean, it was over the top.

And she had some interesting parenting skills, her being Suzanne.

But I love and, um, I just kind of think that it was the first time we saw growth that didn't stop for Suzanne or like I like it when you can take a sitcom and you can bring in that drama element in this one.

LBT.

Just struck it just right.

It wasn't too sad.

It wasn't overly done.

It was just a solid flipping episode.

And, you know, I don't even think it made an essential episode on Hulu's.

No, it didn't.

And I think that's a darn shame.

It was a really good one.

And I loved that.

I'm a parent.

You are not a parent.

And we both had that really strong reaction to that episode.

That it struck some sort of chord, probably different chords for us, but some sort of emotional chord that meant something.

And that was a good episode.

Yeah, because for women, whether you decide to have children or not, it is just something that really just reverberates through society and there's a lot of good and bad pressures there and I think LBT was able to hit on a lot of those.

Good choice, Selena.

Thanks.

All right, well, we're going to guess we're going to oh, cut that.

So we talked favorite in show moments.

Now we're going to talk about favorite our show moments.

I feel like this part of the episode is really for you and me to remember the things that we loved the most.

Oh, well, great.

What an enjoyable listen for everyone else.

But hopefully it'll be fun along the way.

Okay.

All right, so I'm just going to go ahead and throw mine out there.

That it was busting up stereotypes all season long.

Loved it.

Yeah, and I've learned a lot because I don't know a lot.

There's a lot of knowledge out there.

And I feel like watching episodes and looking at things through this lens of 1986 and now 87, comparing it to 2021, just seeing the way that things were conceptualized even by someone who was progressive in the such a different experience than where we are now.

And things move so fast now, it's just like completely different.

And so seeing that and then being able to look at things today and we got to look at Hicks Hillbillies and Rednecks, I feel like that's a little bit closer to home for me.

But then I think where I really started for me to learn was like going and looking at voodoo, right?

Like that whole episode about voodoo dolls or whatever.

And suddenly I'm like, hey, this sounds wrong to me.

Then I was like, well, I don't know anything about voodoo.

Not really.

Like, oh, gee, what has TV taught me about so this is the lesson kids like, don't learn all your lessons from TV.

Do you think they needed us to tell them that?

Selena?

Yes, I do.

Like, not everyone, but someone out there needs to hear like, go do your own research.

And I say this too, because I think that's part of the problem today.

Even when you're listening to the news, go do some digging.

That was fun.

And then with the voodoo thing and then also even women issues, just digging into those.

And I think, again, that 35 year perspective was really important and scary sometimes because sometimes I'm like, wow, we've come a long way.

And then other times I'm like, crap.

There'S still a long way to go.

Yeah, we're in trouble.

I feel like I'm cheating because I agree with that one.

It's not on my list, but I agree with that.

And so I'm getting like a free fourth one because you brought that one up.

Oh, well, go ahead and just cheat away.

Yeah, that was good.

I feel like we are both well intentioned people who want to be inclusive and want to be open minded about things.

And I agree with you.

There were parts throughout the season where I learned things that I don't know that I was definitely unintentionally, but there were things that I was just like, oh, that's.

What that?

Oh, shoot.

Well, going to correct that one now.

I'm going to fix that one now.

That's a good one.

It's a good one.

I'm co opting that one.

Okay.

Except my first one was a lot more selfish than that.

Oh, good.

It was just doing the dang thing.

The whole thing was just taking this nugget of an idea that started with us just going on a couple of walks and just kind of joking about quitting it all and starting a podcast.

We didn't quit it all.

But we did start a podcast.

No, we just did more.

We just did more.

And it was just cool to take that nugget of an idea where we both talked about this Southern experience.

We both talked about how that can translate to TV and what does it mean in entertainment and how do we break all that down.

And then we learned how to use the technology.

We got the equipment.

Well, one of us did.

Help me.

My mic won't even stand up.

That's me.

It was just cool to take it.

Like remembering that first episode we published, remembering when we took the website live, and I was like, I did a thing.

We just took it live and it's up there.

Like, doing all these things and getting things, seeing our little podcast show up in Apple Podcasts or in Spotify, it's just cool.

Yeah, that was an exciting moment because I think I had even told you I had been listening to Office Ladies, which is it's two actors from The Office who decided to start a podcast about The Office.

And so when we launched ours, they were next to each other.

That's wild.

I'm not saying we're office ladies.

I'm just saying there we were right next to them, and that was kind of cool.

It's very cool.

Okay, well, maybe I'm taking yours.

There you go.

See?

So my next one is the food.

Oh, my.

So I don't know that everybody realizes this because I talk to some people and some people who have relationships with, like, friendships or their family or family and friends, whatever.

Anyways, I have some people in my life who are only listening to the podcast, and they don't follow us on social media or the opposite.

Well, they're missing the whole social media world.

Well, they're accidentally seeing us on social media occasionally, but they're not listening to the podcast.

Because I have people in my life.

They're just not podcast people.

Right.

We would love to change that for you.

This could be the one that changes it all.

I am just going to say again, like I have told several people, even if it's not ours, I don't care.

It is lovely to listen to a podcast while you're having to do something that's horrible because you kind of forget that you're doing that horrible thing like cleaning your toilet or whatever that thing is that you're doing.

Commode, if you will, in the south.

Anyways.

So on social media we do a lot of things connected to national Days and we'll do these theme weeks and all of this stuff.

And because of that I have had delicious brisket.

Thank you, Nikki.

Thank you, Kyle.

Multiple.

Yeah, I said it.

Multiple mac and chees.

Oh, yeah, yours, that was really good.

Mine?

That was not as good as yours, but it was there.

If it had been David Poe's actual mac and cheese that they make at that barbecue restaurant, then it would have been delicious.

But I made it.

So what are you going to do?

Two homemade ice creams, peanut butter and then also peach.

Again, Nikki, there's going to be a running theme through that too.

But there were a couple things that I've made, which has been me stepping outside of my comfort zone.

Pralines, which were delicious.

Thanks.

They were very good.

Pecan pie.

We respectively made s'mores you took it another step, actually.

Different direction.

Was it like a s'mores pie?

I never even asked.

I think it was a S'mores Pazuki pizza cookie, if memory serves.

Well, it was good.

It looked delicious.

I could only eat one slice and I had to get rid of a bunch of it because it was too much.

Sometimes you got to pour soap on it, just keep it moving.

There you go.

And then even a pie eating challenge.

Thanks to Nikki.

Again, Nikki doing some and then, you know, I'm just saying, that is me living my dream.

Eating sweets, eating mac and cheese.

That's true.

I love food.

So that's my number two.

I think my number two is similar.

Our slumber party in person episode is just a tops for me because we had recorded remotely for so long and it was really fun to reunite.

It was fun.

It was way less stressful because all the technology worked for us, but it was like really fun.

And Selena is typically our host for the in person ones.

I usually go to her house.

She is at my house today, but usually I go to her house and she does a really great job with themes and treats to the point about food.

So I think that we've talked a lot together this season about sometimes just like the idea of doing the episode, getting all our notes together, doing all the research, getting ready to record and then actually recording for a few hours, it's a little bit overwhelming.

And then I am in my head about having to edit everything later and how stressful that's going to be.

It's a little hard to live in the moment.

And so that was a really fun kind of reset because we just hadn't had that in person experience.

That was a really fun reset that I think I really needed.

And every in person session since then has been almost the exact same thing where it's like this thing going into it where I'm like, oh my gosh, I can get my notes together.

Oh my gosh, I'm going to have to edit this whole thing.

And then we get together and it's just really fun.

And so that Slumber Party episode was the one that was particularly fun.

There was an in person recording session behind the scenes.

We had to rerecord because our mics were not working properly.

So an hour and 15 minutes later realized nothing had worked the right way.

Had to rerecord.

That was less fun.

But it still was like, I don't know, it still made it fun to see each other and be in person.

So slumber party recording.

Nice.

Number two.

Okay.

And then my number three is your jingles.

I still sing Nikki's Nibbles in my head all the time.

It gets stuck in my head.

I'll be like, somewhere.

And I'm like, Nicky's Nibbles.

And I'm like, gosh darn it, stop it.

And I can't help it.

It's really good.

I think you miss your calling.

I've got some new ones for season two.

Yeah.

And what a fun job that and, like, picking music for movies.

I would also enjoy that.

Have other we have other jobs.

We have too many jobs.

My number three was hearing my kids talk about hearing, quote, unquote, mommy's voice on the radio when it came on in the car.

Oh my gosh, that is the so.

Kyle at one point took them to school or something and let them listen to the podcast in the car.

And they said, oh, but they did not.

That part I'm suddenly thinking about all the things I've said that may not be child appropriate.

All the anatomical terms, which is great for kids to know.

It's good for them to know the actual words.

But yeah.

So they get really excited and they recognize our logo now.

So when it pops up on the screen in the car, they say, oh, Mommy show.

Or Mommy's on the radar or on the radio.

So that was really cool, too.

Oh, I love that.

Yeah.

And then they're like and who is that hyena with you?

Mommy.

No.

They know you miss Selena.

They know you.

They know it's miss Selena's voice that beautiful voice.

They know it's you.

And they say, it's Miss Selena.

I had to tell them something about you the other day.

And Carolina said you mean Miss Selena?

And I was like, yes, I do.

You're right.

So they know you.

Oh, you and I were on the phone and she came home.

She knew it was you.

Do you have any more?

Well, I have a million, but we kept it to three.

Just the three.

So what do you say?

You want to do season two?

Let's do season two.

This next season looks a little bit out of control.

We're going to cover AIDS and safe sex.

We're going to cover suicide, heart attacks, unexpected baby surprises.

It sounds just like a sitcom.

There's a lot.

Yeah.

So this next week we're actually going to report back on homework that Selena assigned me.

I had to watch Pretty Woman for the first time.

Yeah.

A little late to the party, but.

We'Ll still take will be I think that one will be fun.

We'll see.

I've been keeping Selena in suspense about my reaction to the movie.

So you guys will hear my genuine honest reaction and then her genuine honest reaction to my genuine honest reaction.

Not that much suspense because I can read your face.

Okay, then we're going to take a couple of weeks off.

We're going to give ourselves a little bit of a break, but not really because we're also going to be recording season two episodes and queuing up social media.

So you won't really notice that much of a lag except maybe a couple weeks between episodes.

But we're coming back.

And in the meantime, Selena is hard at work on social media.

So we're on instagram at Sweet TNTV.

Facebook at Sweet TNTV.

You can email us at sweettvpod@gmail.com and our website www.sweettv.com and you know what that means.

We'll see you in several weeks.

Bye.

Welcome to this week's Extra Sugar, the last one of season one final.

For this week's Extra sugar, we wanted to take a bit more of a like, I always get my numbers wrong.

10,000 foot view.

I like it.

Okay, why not?

10,000 foot view of Designing Women itself.

So we'll touch on some of like critical reception and then I wanted to talk a little bit about what we saw happen with the characters this season and where we're headed for season two.

So I will start us with critical and audience reception.

And I just feel like it's important to kind of know where it is in the landscape of TV and where know started in season one and where it ended in season one.

So I don't know about you, Selena, personally, I don't really care for critical reviews of TV shows and movies.

I think you have to take it with a grain of salt.

Sometimes I'm just interested for different perspectives, but I always feel like they're a little half looting for me.

So funny you say that.

That is my number one.

You are a much more in depth TV and movie watcher than I am.

I'm pretty surface level about most things.

So I'm reading it and they're really getting into it.

Like holding these characters accountable as if they're real people.

Like we've done this entire they use really big words that really feel out of place.

It's just hard to read, takes a long time.

I'm laughing internally.

But this idea that you don't understand big words, I sort of always felt like, what TV reviews and movie reviews need critical review, whatever.

What they need is like an artsy fartsy side, and then they also need, like, you know, they need both of those.

And so you can go in and watch either.

Look for what you're looking for that day.

Because I'm not always looking for Downton Abbey.

Yeah.

Sometimes I just need to zone out.

I won't use an example of a show, but you don't always need something that you can just break down into theories and themes, and you don't need that.

Every time I'll use an example of a show, King of Queens, that's my show.

That's my show.

That at the end of a really long day when I just want to sit down and stare at something and sort of laugh from time to time.

That's the show I watch every time.

Sometimes everybody loves Raymond.

I've started watching that one.

And Modern Family, I'm still not done with that one.

But Modern Family goes deep, which we've talked about.

It can definitely and even like the like, I've seen it enough times now that I can kind of zone out while I watch it a little bit.

But that show is great to watch because it is so intricate.

And on my rewatches of it, I will catch jokes that I didn't even and I've seen that show through five times now and I still catch jokes that is like, to me, another thing that I love in TV shows.

Yeah, careful.

I'll go off the rails.

I know.

I was going to say.

So all this to say, I don't really get into critical reviews very much.

I take them exactly as you said, with a grain of salt.

I do read a lot of movie reviews before I'll watch a movie, mostly because that's a huge time investment.

So I want to know if it's worth my time.

TV shows, more so than seven scenes or seven.

Sure, okay.

Right.

One time.

But I take my friends recommendations for TV shows.

That's usually how I find TV shows.

I think most of us do.

Right, yeah.

I don't read critical reviews, whatever.

Usually I'm just like when I watch a show, I'm like, that was fine.

That's my review of most things.

Yeah, that's fine.

But I do think in the interest of giving that full 360 degree view, we're doing this whole episode where we're rehashing season one.

I feel like we should talk about a little bit of critical reception.

So my takeaway, generally speaking, from what I could find, again, we're talking about a show that was on the air many, many years ago.

So it's a little bit hard to find critical reviews.

From what I could find.

I think it's fair to say it wasn't a critical darling in season one.

Yes, I agree.

So I found a really early review in The New York Times that said, quote, the half hour skips by breezily enough, even though the one liners droop occasionally.

Miss Bloodworth Thomason is no Susan Harris, whose crackling humor keeps the Golden Girls popping steadily from week to week.

On the other hand, Designing Women has a first rate cast.

Now it's all a matter of figuring out where Designing Women goes from here.

Already, the show looks like four terrific actresses in search of a workable sitcom.

So that was from, like, before the season really even started, the very beginning of the season.

I think this is the article we talked about in link to when we did our pilot.

Yeah.

Okay.

About the pilot.

Yeah.

So that's kind of where they started.

By the end of season one, I found a People article that called it TV's Trashy New Splash.

I found that to be such a funny classification because after I watched season one, I didn't think trashy.

Yeah.

Like, I love the show Roseanne.

There are a few seasons of Roseanne that I would call trashy.

And I love that show where it just sort of gets like and trashy is such an interesting word because I think of it as sort of like it just gets a little weird.

Some of the drama is a little weird and it touches on things that are, like, low brow, maybe, is what I'm trying to say.

I didn't feel that from this show.

Yeah.

I think it even almost becomes this thing where you're looking at class aspects.

Yeah.

I think classics, if you will.

Oh, look at you.

I think about Married With Children for me, sort of fits into that mold, maybe.

But then I'm like, well, is it because it's a working class family?

I don't know.

I don't think so.

I think that show was meant to be low brow.

I think there's a whole thing about, like, it was one of the first Fox shows and that's how Fox started.

They intended to be sort of the lowbrow comedy channel, the everyman right.

Maybe to your point, though.

Classism.

Right.

And this is not something I'm thinking on the fly, which is probably the worst thing I can do.

But, yeah, I think that's just something that you kind of have to gut check yourself for a little bit.

Yeah.

Wait a minute.

So are these critics saying because these women were Southern, they were trashy?

Who knows?

Right.

Holy crap.

Oli full disclosure, too.

Like, Nikki shared this article with me ahead of time.

And so I read the article and I just did not have a good reaction to it.

I thought it was highly unfair, actually.

And I probably should have read it again because I read it a few weeks ago and I've ingested a lot of information since then.

But I just remember thinking, like, really?

This is almost borderline rude to me.

And then I read a lot of different reviews over the course of that time.

So it sort of was an underdog when the series started.

By the time the season ended, they were calling it trashy.

Were there any other major themes of any other reviews you were able to find?

It was really hard to find stuff.

Well, you sort of already hit on this, but I think it's important to say that it's crystal clear that they love Golden Girls, but they were unsure about this show.

Well, because Golden Girls is perfect.

It's perfection.

And I don't feel like I can say that because I've seen a lot of episodes, but it's been a long time.

Sensing some homework for Selena.

Well, it's about time I get some.

And we talked about this in the pilot, but what I picked up on, again, was this idea that there wasn't room in critics'minds for two female driven shows.

What's the point of that?

That's a really good point.

Yeah.

Because I don't know if we already.

Have the women over here.

What do we need?

These women?

Yeah.

If you're going to watch women, watch these women.

That's great.

And I think that's something that we talked about.

So I started looking even closer at these reviews and I noticed a theme among the reviews.

Are they written by men?

Every single last one of them from that era were written by men.

I'm going to go out on an album and assume they were white.

So I'm just saying not a lot of diversity in the reviewers.

Right.

And again, we're talking about a sign of the times.

I wouldn't even expect anything different but my reading.

So this is just my personal opinion.

Someone else might read this and see something completely different.

But what I read was low key sexism to almost confusion of why this was even a show.

Oh, yeah.

This is what gets me.

It's almost like what you just read.

Great cast, good writing.

But what is happening here?

And I'm like, it's a good show.

It's great writing and a good cast.

It's a sitcom.

Yeah.

You're watching a sitcom.

Those are women.

They have vaginas.

I just didn't understand what was happening and I felt like I was reading, like, a lot of slap laments.

Here's something that I pulled specifically as invitations go, it is classy.

Dixie Carter, Annie Potts, Delta Burke and Jean Smart.

Play four interior decorators in Atlanta who work, scheme and complain about men.

Were we watching two different shows?

Yeah.

That's weird.

That is so strange.

Yeah.

So my reading, too was that they just weren't sure what to do with the audacity of these women they picked on, especially in their watching of that first pilot.

There's just the one pilot, but in their watching of the pilot, they were picking out all of the salacious dialogue.

But I don't remember any of them commenting.

Maybe one on the whole Ray Dawn situation.

Again, Ray Dawn is the guy who comes up to them in the middle of their lunch and starts hitting on them.

And Julia.

It's like Julia's first takedown of the series, man Eater.

She's a man eater.

And now I owe money to someone because I sang that anyways.

So I think that's really telling because it's pretty obvious why that scene wouldn't strike a chord with I'm.

Again, assuming middle aged, probably men writing these reviews, it's highly unlikely that they've been harassed by someone when they were, oh, I don't know, trying to grab food at a restaurant, drink at a bar, or just be crazy and walk down the street.

They haven't had to put up with that.

And so that probably wouldn't stand out to them.

But what did stand out to them are, like, the fact that they're talking about a gynecological visit as part of the episode.

And I think even today, guys, just like, as soon as you say anything about below the waist, it's just like a total shutdown.

And so I wonder if that was, like, an extreme overdrive in 86 and they just didn't resonate with.

And see, this is my issue with critical reviews.

Because instead of just saying, like, not sure I'm the target demo on this one, or not sure this resonates with my personal experience, instead of saying that they dig in and they say all their opinions on things and I'm just so curious.

If they had asked their wives or their sisters or just like, the woman in their life, the woman that this resonates with, what would she have said?

And why wasn't that given the space to stand on its own?

Because what we do know and kind of the other thing I wanted to touch on here is a callback to something that we did in our episode Twelve and 13.

I think it was the two parter, because that was the first episode back after the show was canceled, and it was brought back because of the fans.

And so I wanted to just remind everyone, one, to go back and listen to that.

If you're curious what the fan reception was, because it was nothing like these reviews that we saw.

It was not a what do we do with this?

These fans were very committed to this show.

Committed enough to sit down and write a letter, which is a lot that's asking a lot of a person.

I struggle to write an email sometimes, and these people would pull out a whole thing.

So I think the fans really loved it.

So despite what critics thought, despite potential sexism, in their view, the fans really loved it.

And I think that that is an interesting reminder headed into season two.

Right?

Critics are calling it trash.

Fans are loving it and super into.

It and what did you just say?

You said.

We're going to cover all these really serious issues in season two.

Yeah.

So it's not just a bunch of like, under the bleacher talk or locker room talk or I think the under the bleacher talk might be new, but you know what I'm saying.

It's not those things.

So I just think it was just such an interesting takeaway.

And I'm so glad that you wanted to talk about this because.

I wonder.

If they recognize that.

I will say I don't know where by they, I mean, I wonder if the cast recognized what was going on.

Did they see it as sexism or was it just the 80s, just the way it was.

Now.

I found something from LBT.

And she does talk about this a little bit.

And she talks about how out of all that they did and all that they accomplished, they got that hair Emmy, like for best hair or whatever for one episode.

And I think at the time you had said, well, that's par for the course.

She basically like word for word said the same thing.

So I think she did see some of that then.

I don't even know if she was able to voice that then.

Yeah, I don't know if people realize this or not, but there just wasn't women driven shows, like, not the cast, certainly not the people.

There was Golden Girls behind the camera and that's it.

And Murphy Brown.

That's it.

Right.

And I think that was the point.

So these women were unicorns at the time and we're still struggling to get a footing there, I think.

So to be honest, I did not necessarily love season one.

I had some shining moments that I really liked.

If I look back on the whole season, I did not really love it.

And I think I said this really early on, maybe in our pilot episode.

I don't typically tend like even King of Queens, the show I watch all the time, I don't rewatch the pilot.

Pilots are usually not so great.

The first season is usually not so great because they're trying things out and if this character doesn't work, guess what?

They just get rid of them and they replace them with someone else.

And so you get this lack of continuity that just always drives me crazy.

So I will almost always jump into season two friends.

I don't rewatch that first season very often.

Gilmore Girls never rewatch the first season.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

I always jump in like second season or even if I'm just catching an episode.

So I want to be clear that I did not super love this season.

The disconnect for me was just that word trashy.

And I think exactly what you're getting at, like what made it trashy, that we were comfortable talking about gynecology, that we were comfortable calling men on their crap for being sexist and for harassing women.

Like that final episode we talked about is that the problem.

So it wasn't a great season.

That was an uncomfortable, critical review for me because it just felt so off kilter.

The reasons are very different.

Right.

Ultimately, you may have not loved it and they didn't love it, but your reasons didn't sound sexist.

Yeah, I think that's part of it for me.

I will say that I feel like some of Designing Women is nostalgia for me.

So it is so difficult unless you're talking about, I don't know, like maybe Casablanca or something, to look back at a piece of work that is older and it just feels the same as a modern day sitcom.

It's just not going to comedy has just changed.

It's always changing.

And I don't know, you can look back with some appreciation, maybe, but it is not like I'm rewatching The Mindy Project right now and I'm watching these at the same time, designing Women and The Mindy Project.

You could not have two more different things.

Right.

Because the sitcom has just changed that much.

So I think I'm looking back with it again through a lens of nostalgia and with appreciation for what it was at the time.

Yeah.

So we did see our main characters change throughout the season.

We saw some things happen.

So I'm going to go person by person.

Why don't I share my thoughts on how they changed and you tell me if you have a different thought or opinion.

Oh, you want me to tell you if you're right or wrong?

Sure.

Just kidding.

Okay.

Sounds good.

So with Julia, we'll start with her.

I didn't really see that much change through the season.

From the beginning, she struck me as what I would call like, the more uptight one, like, the one more concerned with the way people appear, with the way people do or do not follow her code of rules and whether they meet her expectations.

She's just complicated.

She's like, that frustrating moral compass.

Like, this is what's right.

Judgmental.

Judy.

Everyone should be free.

We should do this, that and that, and we should be open minded.

But also don't do any of these things I don't like.

If you do these things I don't like, we're not cool.

That didn't really change throughout the season for me.

So I didn't see very much character growth or character I don't know the word for it.

ungrowth.

My other general observation, though, is that and we counted this in the main episode terminator moments, I thought they were actually few and far between.

You actually counted, I think, more than I thought there were.

So it was a very carefully used device for her, which is funny because as someone who's never watched the whole series, episode by episode, it's the only thing I know about her that this is what she does.

So I don't know.

That was a general observation about her.

They didn't really use that device as much as I thought they would.

What did you think about her through the season?

Well, okay, so earlier on, I gave the count.

There were seven know there was ray dawn, the Doctor Reese's friend.

I would add to that Payne's girlfriend.

Payne ultimately takes her down and tells them to both we had a whole conversation about that.

Go back, check it out.

Anyways.

But she did tell her she was going to take her out to the woodshed.

So I'm going to count that.

She obliterated Reese a bit in the one where they briefly married, and then I thought she was pretty terminator esque on the woman at the police station, even when they go to jail for the whole thing with the police officer.

Okay.

Did I say?

Police?

Woman I think you just said woman.

Okay.

Woman at the police station.

I was about to say.

I'm like that.

Sounded a little genderfied for me.

Anyways, so I agree.

I don't think she really changed a lot.

I think she changed the least out of all the characters we see.

You used personal moral compass.

I did too.

It's a rigid one.

Yeah, it is.

She's very set in her ways.

I don't see that changing anytime soon.

She's also our character.

Who's the oldest out of the four?

And all that said, I would describe her as having a hard candy coating, but she does have a gushy center, and I think it's brought out most frequently by her sister in Reese.

Yeah.

So that's kind of my takeaway.

So, Charlene, another one for me.

That was pretty consistent throughout the like, early on.

Like I said, that very first episode, she took us down a rabbit hole, and you could tell that's going to become what she's known for being sort of this flighty is not even the right word for it because she's not flighty.

She's just all over the place.

But not in a not grounded way.

Just in a she's free.

She's a free thinker.

She likes to question things that stayed consistent throughout the season.

I actually thought that the breast cancer scare was going to be a turning point for her.

I thought we were going to see something different from her character.

I don't know what that thing was going to be, but I thought we were going to see something different.

It feels like she's in her becoming aware phase.

Okay.

And I think that she's seeing some issues with the way that it's almost this lack of judgment for people, which I think is great.

You shouldn't judge people.

But then maybe you should a little.

Or at least have a little wall.

Right.

Because she just keeps finding herself in trouble and in trouble and in trouble.

The thing is, I doubt we're going to really see her grow that much.

Because that means less shenanigans, right?

For a television show.

Yeah, I do love the shenanigans.

Well, I think also you're hitting on something that's really important, because I think someone could look at this and be like, oh, she's the ditzy blonde.

Right.

But she's not.

She's not at all.

No.

And they actually say a couple of times julia says a couple of times, you're the most organized person I know.

You're the most together person.

I just I find that so interesting because she is the one apt to take us down rabbit holes, and she is the one apt to take us off focus.

But she's got it with, like I thought the free spirit was a good way to put it.

Yeah.

So Suzanne my personal favorite throughout the season, and I think we talked about this in one episode.

I don't remember which one, but she vacillates between dim witted and also up on current events and pretty educated that just throughout the whole season, just continues to give me whiplash.

And I think even up until the bitter end, we have that glimmering moment of oh, Susanna, where you see her go through this fully self absorbed, to slightly less self absorbed, sharing herself with someone else, to feeling that loss of this little girl that had become such a part of her life.

And that was a really nice sort of character arc for her.

Then I think we flip right back to her being dim witted and sort of ditzy.

So I think she was the character of the ones we've talked about so far.

She was the one that moved the most, mostly to stay the same at the end.

Yeah.

It is tough, and again, not to harp on this, but when they air out of order, we don't know where things were truly going to fall then.

It is so hard for us to sit here and judge this character arc, but we're going to do it anyway.

That's what we're here for.

It's how it aired.

I think we're going to see more eccentricities as the show evolves.

So Suzanne was very predisposed to these boomerang episodes, where this progress is gained, and then hopeful, I'm very hopeful that we will see more things like oh, Susanna in season two.

But, yeah, we're kind of in the same place right now with Suzanne.

I'm going to swap these because I was going to go in a different order.

I'm going to go to Anthony next.

Okay.

Only because there's not very much to go off of for him this season.

We just didn't really have him that much.

I have the most amount of points.

Under his oh, good.

So what I'll say is that we got to know his aspirations.

We got to know that one, he has this backstory, this criminal backstory.

We don't know too much about the criminal backstory, but we know it exists.

But we know he's trying to change his life, and he wants to go to junior college.

And they've really set up this story for him.

Again, just this future arc that they really haven't done for the other characters.

We know Charlene wants to get married.

That's a big part of what she's doing.

We know Julia and Reese are together.

We have some of these niblets.

But with Anthony, they've set this arc up that he's got some focus and promise.

He does shift a little bit from a minor character to more of a critical piece of the show as the episodes go on.

But I just really he wasn't in that many episodes and the ones he was in, it was just this brief, there's our Anthony moment and now he's gone.

So I didn't really see that much changing about him.

But I'm curious now that you have a lot about him, I want to hear what you have to say.

Well, I think I'm pontificating.

Okay.

It's what you're best at.

Well, I think a lot of his growth may have occurred before he was even on the show.

Yeah.

To your point, we don't know.

We're still, as the audience in the dark about his unjustly accused days.

We don't know what happened.

Right.

Now, you and I have talked a few times with a mild curiosity about are we going to find out he was unjustly accused or is he kind of like a mastermind?

Yeah, the whole thing, right.

This whole thing where he takes on Charlene's family, memorizes all their names in 2 seconds and then spits them right back out.

I get it's.

A sitcom moment.

But yeah.

Also, you're like, wait, is he funny?

Is he a sociopath?

We had this thing about him using the van after hours and we weren't sure was it for a dog grooming company?

Does blue roll at midnight for dog companies or is that grooming or is that more like some criminal underground activity?

We don't know.

Right.

So I want to believe the already I cannot profess my love one more time for Anthony on this show.

Such a delight.

He really, I think, is my favorite character.

I have a favorite character out of the women.

He's probably my overall favorite character.

I am curious what was in LBT's head in the first season and where they thought they might take this character.

Where he eventually goes.

Because I already know where he eventually goes.

I won't spoil please don't for anyone.

But yeah.

So Mary Jo is the last one and I think she actually had the most growth over the season.

So she starts the season I call her Timid, fairly timid, a little scattered because she's newly divorced.

She is a single mom.

There's just a lot going on.

But there were several plotlines about her inability to stand up for herself or to push back on things in an episode about the weird clients.

There was even that, like, on the nose reference to how easy going she is.

The rich ones.

Yeah.

Where the lady basically just says, what I love about you is how I can push you around.

But I think at the end of the season, right there in Bachelor Suite, we saw a lot of growth.

We saw her not just standing up for herself, but, like, physically standing up for herself and pushing back on this man.

That was making her very uncomfortable.

That was the episode where we really dug into how hard it was for her to stand up for herself and push back on people.

But when push came to shove, she really did.

And I think that was a lot of growth from what we saw at the very beginning of the season.

So I thought I saw a lot of growth in her character.

And I'm curious how she continues to handle this balance of being a single mom and feeling that tug between her ex husband and the kids wanting to be with him and preferring him over herself.

So I agree with your take.

She has strong opinions, though.

I think that's what's so funny.

Like, we see throughout the first season that she's not shy about having the opinion.

She's shy about delivering the opinion.

And it sort of depends on who's around.

So our three other designing women, she's around them all the time.

She's comfortable.

They're friends that are getting to know each other better as the season goes on.

And so I think she feels much more comfortable being stronger in front of them.

I also agree, though, that by the end, she is literally cornered in a manner where she has to stand up for herself and not rely on anyone else.

And I think what we learned is that when pushed to the brink, she is not to be underestimated.

Yeah.

So I had a couple of kind of looking forward and where we're headed in season two.

I kind of already referenced a couple of these, but for each one of the characters, I just outlined my key questions.

So I'll share mine, and then you tell me if you have other questions.

Julia my main question is, will she?

Won't she with Reese?

What's happening there?

Mary Jo again, how will she continue to approach co parenting with Ted?

And then, what the heck's gonna happen with JD.

Charlene?

Is she gonna find love this whole season?

We've talked about the various dates, the various men.

What's going to happen for her?

Suzanne I just want to know if she's going to get married again.

That's a running gag that she's been married so many times.

I'm just curious if we're going to have another marriage.

And then again, how's her character going to grow?

We have had this back and forth on is she smart?

Is she not?

Is she dim?

Is she not?

And I'm just curious, are they going to give her something more?

What are they going to do with this?

Like, oh, Susanna.

Suzanne and then with Anthony, what's up with junior college?

Where are we with that?

And then what's going to happen with his romantic life, which we have not gotten into really at all.

They mentioned a potential date on New Year's that ended up falling apart, so surely there's more there.

Do you have any other questions for the characters?

I don't think so.

I think for me, it's more like it's hard for me to outline questions because as we learned in this season, in the 80s, they were not afraid to drop a plotline and thus never return to it.

Right.

So it's almost hard for me to get invested, but I am hopeful that we'll start having, again, more of that connective tissue.

Yeah.

So what about do we expect any changes for season two?

Maybe not just for the characters, but anything more broadly?

Yeah, so I started doing a little looksy around and I did run across some things that might be not spoilers, but just kind of some insight.

We talked at length about Mary Jo's wardrobe in season one, just being I don't know what was going on there, but frumpy.

There was kitty cats and mouses on vests and, I don't know.

Cutesy.

Yeah, but very cutesy.

Which seems like, I don't know, not necessarily fair because she's already a petite person.

Yeah.

So we're going to put a bow on her head and put her in a frilly dress and a doily around her neck.

All to say, I hear her wardrobe may be getting an upgrade.

So also to say, these are things that we need to be keeping an eye on.

Being on the lookout for changes with Suzanne.

So I ran across on Tvtropes.org what they are calling the flanderization of Suzanne, as in Ned Flanders?

As in the Simpsons.

As in howdy doo neighbor toodley doo doo doodly flop.

I don't even really watch The Simpsons, but even I know about Flanders.

So basically what that means is you take a character's single action or like a trait, and then you just exaggerate the crap out of it.

And by the time they're done that, one thing just completely consumes that character.

Oh, interesting.

And then usually this trait or action is like, completely outlandish and becomes, like, their defining characteristic.

In this case, it sounds like they plan to dumb her down.

No.

And they want to make her come across as spoiled and pompous rather than intentionally acting malicious.

Six eggs.

Half a dozen if you ask me, but whatever.

Some of this is said to parallel the weight gain that Delta Burke experienced.

Okay.

So let's just keep eyes on that.

Okay.

Because that's like a whole thing.

And that's like a lot of layers that I'm hoping that we're going to explore as the podcast continues.

Even I know about that and I haven't seen the whole series, but I know that was a real struggle for her.

Yeah.

Other things.

Dixie julia dixie.

I'm oscillating between their real names and their character names, but Julia will come back looking a little different.

She reportedly received plastic surgery between the first two seasons.

We're not judging.

We're just saying this is something that's, like, out there in the ethers.

I'm glad you're reminding of this, because I actually thought it was after the first couple of episodes.

Me too.

So interesting that it's between the seasons that gives me something to keep an eye out for.

Yeah.

And what she winds up saying, and she's very on record about this, or she was.

Again, Dixie Carter passed, but she didn't want to be known as the older one.

She had a sneaking suspicion that this was going to be her break.

And I guess she was right.

And also, I'm just going to say, I think she was 47.

Kind of cool for the times, because we struggle with that today.

Definitely in the 80s, by the time you're 47, someone that's a year older than you, that's a man is dating someone on a TV show, that's 20.

Right.

So lots of problems there in Hollywood right off screen for Jean Smart or Charlene.

Her and Richard Gilliland were married, actually, between the first and second season.

And so this is just me.

I am on the lookout to see if we can see the chemistry between these two.

Oh, that's got to be awkward.

Right?

I know they're actors, but Mary Jo and him are supposed to have chemistry, but they're like newlyweds.

So I'm curious if in season two, we see any sparks anytime that the two of them are on.

Oh, funny, funny, funny.

Yeah, because they will literally be in the honeymoon phase of their relationship.

That's funny.

That's it for me.

All right.

Well, ready or not, here we come.

Season two upon you.

I don't know with that.

This has been your extra sugar.

You have to say, we'll see you around the bend.

Oh, what is wrong with me?