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What is the name of the business?
Sugarbaker Design
Sugarbaker and Friends
Sugarbaker and Associates
"Designing Women" debuted in 1986, along with 24 other series launched by major TV networks. When the series ended in 1983, it was the only one of that 25 to still be on the air.
Sugarbaker Homes
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The show is set in which city in Georgia?
Scottsdale
Atlanta
The series is set in Atlanta, Georgia and the office/Julia's home is supposedly found at 1521 Sycamore. However, the house is really located at 1321 Scott Street in Little Rock, Arkansas. It is The Ville Marre, a Victorian mansion listed on the National Registry of Historic Places.
London
Macon
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What is the show's theme song?
The Devil Went Down to Georgia
Georgia on my Mind
There are many versions of this classic song, and "Designing Women" used two of them as the show's theme song. Seasons 1-5 used a version recorded by Doc Severinsen, and seasons 6 and 7 used the more recognizable version recorded by Ray Charles.
Sweet Georgia Brown
Midnight Train to Georgia
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Which two original characters are related?
Mary Jo and Charlene
Charlene and Suzanne
Mary Jo and Julia
Julia and Suzanne
Julia is Suzanne's older sister. They disagree on the age difference between them since Suzanne doesn't want to admit her real age.
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What is Suzanne’s maid's name?
Suzanita
Rosario
Maria
Consuela
Suzanne is never short on stories to tell about her wacky maid, Consuela Valverde. Consuela was from San Salvador and her family worked in the meat-packing industry. She was not played by anyone, because while mentioned frequently, Consuela never appeared on screen.
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What is the name of the main male character who works at Sugarbaker's?
Tommy
Ted
Anthony
Anthony Bouvier, played by Meschach Taylor, was only meant to appear in one episode. However, the script was still being completed at the time of rehearsal, so Taylor was told to improvise with the cast. The producers were so impressed with his skills and the natural chemistry of the ensemble that they made him a recurring, and eventually regular, character.
Taylor
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Which is NOT one of the original four ladies?
Mary Jo
Charlene
Julia
Marjorie
The original characters were Mary Jo Shively (Annie Potts), Charlene Frazier (Jean Smart), Julia Sugarbaker (Dixie Carter), and Suzanne Sugarbaker (Delta Burke). Show creator Linda Bloodworth-Thomason had these four actresses in mind from the beginning, having previously worked with them. She knew Burke and Carter from a series called "Filthy Rich," and Potts and Smart from an episode of a show called "Lime Street."
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Which character was most likely to launch into a monologue?
Mary Jo
Suzanne
Julia
Julia Sugarbaker is known for her impassioned and well-spoken liberal monologs. However, Dixie Carter, a lifelong registered Republican, often had reservations about the things her liberal counterpart was being asked to say. She eventually struck a deal with the producers: for every rant Julia delivered, Dixie (a trained singer) would get to sing on camera in a later episode.
Charlene
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How did Anthony refer to his time in jail?
his untimely confinement
his unfortunate incarceration
Anthony often referred to events that took place "at the time of my unfortunate incarceration." Meshach Taylor (Anthony) continued to act in sitcoms. He played Shel Baylor in "Dave’s World" and Mr. Wright in "Ned's Declassified School Survival Guide." He died of cancer on June 28, 2014, at the age of 67.
the best time of his life
nothing, he refused to speak of it
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What is the name of the old family friend who hangs around the Sugarbaker gang?
Perky
Scarlett
Billy Jean
Bernice
The kooky and loveable Bernice Clifton was played by Tony-award winning actress Alice Ghostley. Ghostly played a variety of roles in her long and impressive career, including Mrs. Murdock in "Grease," Esmerelda on "Bewitched," and Aunt Stephanie Crawford in "To Kill A Mockingbird." She died September 21, 2007, from colon cancer and a series of strokes.
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What is the retirement home where Bernice lives (and often escapes from)?
Funny Farm
Happy Hills Retirement Village
Greener Pastures
Hillcrest Leisure Land
Bernice was supposed to live at the Hillcrest Leisure Land retirement community but often escaped, much to the dismay of her younger friends. According to U.S. News & World Report, there are 109 nursing homes in the Atlanta area. None of them are named Hillcrest.
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Charlene eventually moved to England where her Air Force husband was stationed. She arranged for her job to be filled by whom?
Her sister Carlene
Carlene Frazier Dobber, played by the late Jan Hooks, was brought in to replace Charlene. In reality, Jean Smart left the show because she wanted to spend more time with her infant son, which she felt she couldn’t do while keeping up with the demanding schedule of shooting a sitcom.
Her daughter Olivia
Her friend Monette
Bill's sister Emily
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What other three sisters did Charlene and Carlene often speak of as a trio?
Huey, Luey, and Dewey
Marlene, Harlene, and Darlene
In an early episode, the ladies meet a man named Ray Don, who mentions having a sister named Carlene. Charlene replies that she has sisters named Marlene, Harlene, and Darlene. She conveniently doesn’t mention her other sister Carlene, who eventually takes over her job at Sugarbaker and Associates.
Mixie, Trixie, and Pixie
Buffy, Muffy, and Huffy
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When Suzanne moved to Japan, her stock in the business was bought by whom?
her sister Maryann
her maid Consuela
her cousin Allison
Delta Burke left the show due to allegations of emotional abuse by the cast and crew. The writers created the previously unknown cousin Allison, who left the South at a young age to move up North. Allison, played by "Newhart" alum Julia Duffy, was created to be the opposite of Suzanne, but audiences found her unlikable and she was written off after one season.
her pet pig Noel
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What are Mary Jo’s kids' names?
Payne and Olivia
Reese and JD
Claudia and Quinton
Mary Jo often discussed her children with her coworkers, and their lives had a tendency to factor into the plot of the episode, such as Claudia (Priscilla Weems) beginning to date, or Quinton (Brian Lando, Robert Hy Gorman) getting into trouble.
Vanessa and Etienne
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Who is the gun owner in the group?
Julia
Anthony
Bernice
Suzanne
Suzanne was a proud gun owner. She originally purchased a large semi-assault rifle but returned it after accidentally firing it at the Sugarbaker ladies. She trades it for a small handgun, which ends up being dangerous for the group as well.
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What is the name and breed of Suzanne’s pet?
Chi-chi the Chia Pet
Noel the Pig
Consuela's family, who work in the meat packing industry, gives a miniature pig to Suzanne as a gift. Miniature pigs are known to make wonderful pets, as they are remarkably intelligent. The Animal Rescue League of Boston adopted a Yucatan miniature pig as its unofficial mascot.
Minnie the Mink
Lucien the Alpaca
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What happens to Anthony the night before his college graduation?
Charlene accidentally calls the police on him and he spends the night in jail.
Mary Jo accidentally hits him with her car.
Suzanne accidentally shoots him in the leg.
Suzanne breaks into Julia's house to steal answers to a Jeopardy game Bernice had bought. Unbeknownst to her, Anthony also stops by, and Suzanne shoots him in the leg, thinking him to be a burglar. On the bright side, it's a smaller weapon than the semi-assault rifle she accidentally fired at Julia, Mary Jo, and Charlene. On the other hand, the smaller gun probably meant she could aim better. But all was well that ended well as Anthony still crossed the stage in style!
Julia goes into a rant that accidentally got Anthony banned from the campus.
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Where is Charlene from?
Atlanta, Georgia
Clemson, South Carolina
Poplar Bluff, Missouri
Charlene often talks about her hometown of Poplar Bluff, Missouri. In reality, Jean Smart was the only female lead not from the South, instead hailing from Seattle, Washington. Dixie Carter was from McLemoresville, Tennessee. Annie Potts was born in Franklin, Kentucky, and Delta Burke grew up in Orlando, Florida.
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
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Charlene’s best friend from high school moves to Atlanta and they reconnect. Charlene is shocked to discover that her friend has become what?
A madam
Charlene and Monica reminisce about their days at Poplar Bluffs High School before Charlene discovers Monica has changed her name to Monette and opened a brothel in Atlanta. During their remembrances of days gone by, we learn that their high school team was the Poplar Bluff Mules and their mascot was a jackass.
A police officer
An undertaker
A circus clown
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In the poignant episode "Killing All The Right People," Sugarbaker's is asked to design the funeral of a close friend, just as Mary Jo is roped into a PTA debate about what hot topic?
Funding AIDS research
Providing condoms for teenagers
The title of this episode has a grim origin. Series creator Linda Bloodworth-Thomason was writing a script for "Designing Women" while keeping a bedside vigil for her dying mother, who had contracted AIDS through a contaminated blood transfusion. Bloodworth-Thomason was appalled by the way hospital staff and family members treated patients with AIDS, especially when she overheard a woman in the hallway comment, “If you ask me, this disease has one thing going for it. It’s killing all the right people.”
Gay marriage
Whether to teach AIDS in school
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What is the name of Julia and Suzanne’s half brother?
Jefferson
Clinton
Justin
Clayton
Julia and Suzanne are eventually revealed to have a half brother named Clayton, who was born between them. As the story goes, Clayton's mother was a Rockette named Dee Dee, with whom Mr. Sugarbaker "had a dalliance." To preserve Dee Dee and Clayton's honor, Mr. Sugarbaker divorced Julia's mother, Perky, and married Dee Dee until Clayton was born, therefore making his birth "legitimate." The patriarch then divorced Dee Dee, remarried Perky, and fathered Suzanne. This is also used to help explain the age gap between the sisters.
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Julia gets offended by a sexist magazine cover in season 3 and demands the newsstand stop promoting its sale. When the owner refuses, how does Julia respond?
She places a billboard outside his home insulting him.
She drives her car into the newsstand.
The episode is titled "Julia Runs Over The First Amendment," referring to The First Amendment expressly granting freedom of the press and freedom of speech. There has been a long-running battle of whether those freedoms extend to pornography and lewd material. There is no clause in the amendment regarding the right to run over a newsstand.
She burns every copy of the magazine.
She yells at the owner every day for a week until he gives in.
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Bernice's niece, Phyllis, tries to get her declared legally insane. It does not go as intended. How does Julia sum up the ruling of Bernice’s sanity hearing?
"She's as sane as we are."
"Bernice keeps appropriate company."
“He’s saying Bernice is not nuts. But we are.”
The judge hearing the testimony is exposed to a lot of typical "Designing Women" behavior at the sanity hearing, such as Mary Jo teaching Charlene how to put on underwear when pregnant, Suzanne talking about another woman's breasts while repeatedly trying to pop her ears. The Sugarbaker crew also has to answer for sheep placenta facials, Consuela-made voodoo dolls, a framed picture of Noel the Pig, writing letters about sex offender astronauts to Dan Quayle, calling Dr. Ruth to correct her about sex organs, a maternity chair that makes frog noises, a piano with a news team painted on it, and a warning that "the bees are coming."
"He thinks Bernice is a fruit loop."
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Fearing that her maid Consuela may be deported, who does Suzanne insist impersonate Consuela to attain citizenship?
Anthony
As one of many indignities suffered at the hands of Suzanne, Anthony gets roped into impersonating Consuela at her citizenship exam. He becomes increasingly nervous, but eventually, passes the exam and "Consuela" becomes a citizen.
Charlene
Julia
Bernice
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Julia calls up a newspaper editor and complains about his comment that Southerners eat what?
Dirt
Julia in enraged at the statement that Southerners eat dirt and proceeds to launch into a typical Julia rant about all the things they DO eat, including grits, biscuits and gravy, fried chicken, barbecue, and maybe the occasional Yankee. While it is clear that Julia does not suffer from this disorder, the compulsion to eat dirt (or mud or clay) is known as geophagy.
Crows
Instant grits
Unsweetened tea
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According to Sugarbaker family lore, what is "the night the lights went out in Georgia"?
When Julia sabotaged the power plant to make a statement
When Suzanne threw a stiletto at a man, missed, and hit a transformer
When Julia smashed all the lightbulbs in their house so Suzanne couldn't see herself in the mirror
When Suzanne threw her flaming baton to win a beauty pageant
Julia sassily explains to a beauty queen that Suzanne was not Miss Georgia World, she was THE Miss Georgia World and proceeds to tell a story about how Suzanne threw a flaming baton into the air "higher, further, faster than any baton has ever flown before, hitting a transformer and showering the darkened arena with sparks...And that, Marjorie - just so you will know - and your children will someday know - is the night the lights went out in Georgia!" In reality, "The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia" was a song by Vicki Lawrence.
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What singer does Charlene idolize?
Johnny Cash
Hank Williams
Elvis
Charlene is a lifelong fan of Elvis Presley, and in season 3 makes the ladies visit Graceland. They were among many, many visitors to the estate of the late singer. Graceland is the second most-visited house in America, having lost the top spot to The White House.
Willie Nelson
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What does Julia say about having “crazy people” in your family?
Crazy people should be hidden away.
No one has crazy people.
The whole family is crazy.
We don't ask if you have crazy people; we ask which side of the family are they from.
When Bernice's niece, Phyllis, tries to get her committed, Julia explains that even if Bernice was crazy, she shouldn't get put away because, in the South, crazy family members are put out on display. Phyllis asks Julia which side of the family are her crazy relatives on and Julia calmly answers "both."
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Why do Julia and Mary Jo dress up in Civil War attire?
A reenactment was taking place next door.
The house was put on The Annual Tour of Homes.
The ladies discover that Sugarbaker's was built during the antebellum period and as such, it is placed on The Annual Tour of Homes as a historic monument. There are several home tours in the South, none of them officially called The Annual Tour of Homes. Most of them, such as the Kirkwood Tour and the Candler Park Tour, are neighborhood-centric, as Atlanta is too big to cover in one walking tour.
It was Halloween.
They ruined their clothes before an event and this was all they could find.
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Who embezzled Suzanne’s money and bought her a circus?
Reggie Mac Dawson
Suzanne trusts her accountant, Reggie Mac Dawson, to invest her money, which he promptly embezzles and runs away. He later returns, claiming he used her money to buy her a circus (albeit with a bad check that inevitably bounced.)
T. Tommy Reid
Ray Don
Dash Goff
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What is the company for which Charlene works part time selling cleaning supplies?
Germs-B-Gone
Scrubbing Bubbles
Sparkle Clean
Lady June
In an attempt to earn some extra cash, Charlene becomes a "Junie" and sells Lady June cleaning supplies in an at-home-sales model similar to the Tupperware Parties of the time. This method of direct sales is known as a "party plan."
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What did Mary Jo try to change about her body?
Her breasts
Mary Jo inherits some money from a deceased uncle, who specifies in his will that the money is to buy herself "something frivolous." She dabbles with the idea of getting a breast enlargement but ultimately decides against it. There are three main types of breast implants used for enlargement surgeries: silicone gel, saline solution, and composite filler.
Her nose
Her height
Nothing
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To prove a point to Suzanne about how costume jewelry looks similar to "real" jewelry, Mary Jo steals a necklace from Suzanne, replaces it with a cheap fake, and then procedes to lose the real one in a salad bar. What type of necklace was it?
Pearls
Mary Jo steals Suzanne's pearl necklace. Pearls are produced by the soft tissue of mollusks. Natural pearls are extremely rare and valuable since they do not occur often. The majority of commercially-sold pearls are "cultured" or "farmed" and come from pearl oysters and freshwater mussels.
Diamonds
Rubies
Gold
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Anthony often mentions his former cellmate, an inmate of whom he is afraid. Who is this inmate?
The Great Bandini
El Chapo
T. Tommy Reid
Anthony often recounts his fear of fellow inmate T. Tommy Reid. T. Tommy Reid appeared in three episodes and was played by M. C. Gainey, who played Tom Friendly in "Lost."
Bo Duke
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