Break out the handkerchiefs for this episode of Designing Women. Forget about The Golden Girls, The Nanny, or the Mary Tyler Moore Show. When they put this episode together, they were going for the heart and they absolutely won it. I recall first seeing this episode at a gay bar in West Hollywood in 1989, and everybody was reaching for napkins because they were sobbing too much from the very start of the episode. You don't expect that in a sitcom, particularly about people you know are fictional but for Charlene (Jean Smart) having her baby, so many people wanted to witness what she experience because she was a most loving character ever presented on television. She is someone who deserves happiness and she gets happiness in the most beautiful way.
You will laugh hysterically at the side of Alice Ghostley in her Christmas tree skirt, probably in the top 10 of TV costumes of all time. You will also adore Vanessa, Anthony's Tina Turner look alike girlfriend. But you will be grabbing the handkerchiefs immediately when you see Beah Richards as the 102 year old black lady who wants to pass her life while watching new lives beginning. She is so happy to face death, already having lost all of her children and ready to go to heaven to see them all again. This great lady, who spoke so elegantly and got an Oscar nomination for the moral in "Guess who's Coming to Dinner", makes you want to hug her from the moment that Julia hears her singing and goes in out of curiosity. Yes, that is Charlene's former prostitute friend playing the nurse, encouraging Julia to go in and meet Miss Minnie Bell Ward. Someone on "General Hospital" must have been an incredible fan of this episode when they created the Rosalind Cash role of Mary Mae Ward, a younger version of the same character.
There are references to "To Kill a Mockingbird"and "The Grapes of Wrath" as the Big hearted Charlene faces giving birth to possibly the first baby of the 20th century in Atlanta. Of course Suzanne sees that as an opportunity to get a car, having lost hers in the previous episode. You here Delta Burke in a dream sequence screeching "That's my car! That's my car!' as the deliciously funny Alice Ghostley runs by in baby clothes claiming "Not anymore sucker!"
You also got Dolly Parton making a guest appearance as Charlene's guardian movie star, promoting "Steel Magnolias" appropriately (is Delta Burke would later play Truvy in a revival of that play on Broadway), and when they break out into "Somewhere Out There", you can't help but grabbing a basket of handkerchiefs. The episode starts off with Charlene hearing Bing Crosby singing the top song from New year's Eve 1944, "I'll be seeing You", and every time I hear that song, I think about this episode. I also reach back to New year's episode in 1989 at the Revolver in West Hollywood where everybody looked at each other at certain moments and started balling simultaneously. I consider this episode of Designing Women to be among the top TV episodes ever written and it is certainly worth watching again and again, but make sure you have those Kleenex handy. I cry everytime irregardless.
You will laugh hysterically at the side of Alice Ghostley in her Christmas tree skirt, probably in the top 10 of TV costumes of all time. You will also adore Vanessa, Anthony's Tina Turner look alike girlfriend. But you will be grabbing the handkerchiefs immediately when you see Beah Richards as the 102 year old black lady who wants to pass her life while watching new lives beginning. She is so happy to face death, already having lost all of her children and ready to go to heaven to see them all again. This great lady, who spoke so elegantly and got an Oscar nomination for the moral in "Guess who's Coming to Dinner", makes you want to hug her from the moment that Julia hears her singing and goes in out of curiosity. Yes, that is Charlene's former prostitute friend playing the nurse, encouraging Julia to go in and meet Miss Minnie Bell Ward. Someone on "General Hospital" must have been an incredible fan of this episode when they created the Rosalind Cash role of Mary Mae Ward, a younger version of the same character.
There are references to "To Kill a Mockingbird"and "The Grapes of Wrath" as the Big hearted Charlene faces giving birth to possibly the first baby of the 20th century in Atlanta. Of course Suzanne sees that as an opportunity to get a car, having lost hers in the previous episode. You here Delta Burke in a dream sequence screeching "That's my car! That's my car!' as the deliciously funny Alice Ghostley runs by in baby clothes claiming "Not anymore sucker!"
You also got Dolly Parton making a guest appearance as Charlene's guardian movie star, promoting "Steel Magnolias" appropriately (is Delta Burke would later play Truvy in a revival of that play on Broadway), and when they break out into "Somewhere Out There", you can't help but grabbing a basket of handkerchiefs. The episode starts off with Charlene hearing Bing Crosby singing the top song from New year's Eve 1944, "I'll be seeing You", and every time I hear that song, I think about this episode. I also reach back to New year's episode in 1989 at the Revolver in West Hollywood where everybody looked at each other at certain moments and started balling simultaneously. I consider this episode of Designing Women to be among the top TV episodes ever written and it is certainly worth watching again and again, but make sure you have those Kleenex handy. I cry everytime irregardless.
