- 1 year ago
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00:00Thank you for being here, ladies. We are just so thrilled. I've wanted to do this reunion
00:20for so long, and it's so nice to finally see it happen.
00:24I want to start, Linda, and have you go back and tell us just a little bit about how the
00:28concept came to you.
00:29Well, that was so much fun to watch because Annie and I were just saying that I don't
00:33think I've seen the pilot since it aired.
00:35Wow.
00:36But, you know, I was doing, just to make it really, tell a really short story, I had some
00:44sort of deal with CBS, the network where we did Designing Women, to do a pilot, and I had
00:50been doing shows that the network wanted me to do, trying to get a show on, and I had done
00:54a show called Filthy Rich with Dixie and Delta. And just nothing was really happening right,
01:01and I just was sitting in my office one day, and I was thinking, I really want to quit taking
01:06an order like a waitress, you know, a family, and a dog, and suburbia, and just kind of do
01:10what I want. And I thought, I really want to write these women. I wanted to show women,
01:14and I didn't know how many, but women who were friends, and women who were kind of bold
01:18in their ideas, and not apologetic about their lives, and had a lot of devotion to each other
01:24and camaraderie, the kind of women who would not break a date with a girl to go with a boy.
01:28Anyway, I mean, vice versa. No, that's right, not break a date with a girl to go with a boy.
01:34And so I called the network, and Harvey Shepard was the president, said yes then,
01:38and I went over there, and I pitched it, and we sold it that day. And I had done a show called
01:43Lime Street with Gene and Annie, and I thought, well, you know, we had this wonderful casting
01:50person, Fran Bascom, who's here tonight, and I want to talk about her in just a minute.
01:53But anyway, we thought, well, it would be great if we could put them together. So I went to the network,
01:57and I said, I've got these four women, and I'm just going to write a show for them. I don't care
02:01what they do. It doesn't matter to me what they do. They can be in a garage, you know, and be
02:04mechanics. I don't care. And somebody said, well, how about if they're designers? And I said, that's
02:09fine with me, you know. And so they became Designing Women right there, and we sold the show that day.
02:14I don't think it'll ever happen that way again, and I came back, and then I called them up and said,
02:17I just, I really didn't have their permission to do this. And I said, I just sold you all into slavery,
02:22and they were all very gracious about it, very excited, actually, and it was really,
02:27pretty swell from the night.
02:29Boy, that's an unusual story for getting a show on network television. I mean,
02:32going with basically a concept that isn't quite there yet, just a little concept.
02:36Yeah, there was no concept, really.
02:37We didn't even know where it was going to be.
02:38Just loudmouth women.
02:39We had your wonderful cast.
02:41We didn't even know what our roles were. She just called them and said, I've sold it.
02:44I was like, well, what's my role? And she went, oh, it's good.
02:49And that's kind of the way we did the series, too. They were such great sports.
02:52They never knew from week to week what they were going to be doing, but they were good sports about everything.
02:56Well, I wanted to ask each of them if they could describe from your end when Linda called you
02:59and tried to talk you into this project. I mean, what did you think?
03:02And did you tell her you're crazy, or did you say, obviously, anything you want to do, we'll do it?
03:07Start with you, Delta.
03:09Oh, well, I was thrilled, because Dixie and I had been wanting to work with Linda again ever since Filthy Rich.
03:14And I'd seen that Lime Street, and I was pissed off that you didn't hire me for one of those parts.
03:22There was a Robert Wagner show.
03:24And then, so everybody's cast, but then they say, I can't be in it, because they're nervous about Dixie and I being in something that Linda's doing.
03:34And then they were worried about the Southern accent, although there was a little bit of one.
03:37There was just a trace.
03:39And she was Miss Florida, and, you know, Miss Florida carries some baggage.
03:43They didn't know if she was really an actress.
03:45Of course, they know that now.
03:46So, well, to me, it seemed like I didn't.
03:49I was told I had to talk straight.
03:52And that was as straight as I could get.
03:54So, and then finally, but luckily, the last moment, it came through, and I was so relieved.
04:03And so it was great.
04:05We definitely wanted to do it.
04:06We didn't care.
04:07We didn't care what it was.
04:08So we went and we sold a concert with Sorta General.
04:11You came up with the idea that it was going to be a design house, and all these fabulous, strong-willed women were going to interact together.
04:16How did it kind of grow from that to what you had in the pilot to what you then saw in the series?
04:21You know, I just, you know, they all agreed.
04:23And I have to stop here and just acknowledge somebody in the audience.
04:25Absolutely.
04:26Because there is a casting person in this town who is the most, if you can believe this in Hollywood, modest person.
04:33A person who never gets credit, who has discovered so many people.
04:36And if I went down the list, just trust me that you would be impressed.
04:40And she really put this cast together.
04:43I mean, she's the reason that I know these women, and she's gotten so little credit for it.
04:47And she's here tonight, so I want to acknowledge her name is Fran Bascom.
04:51And it was Fran's idea to put them together.
04:54It was Fran who brought on Meshach Taylor, and it was Fran who brought on everybody who you loved on Deciding Women Every Seven.
05:00Fran helped me find my husband.
05:01It was Fran who found all the husbands.
05:03My husband?
05:04Yeah.
05:05Yeah.
05:05Fran brought on Richard.
05:06Fran brought on Matt.
05:07I mean, she's brought so much happiness to us.
05:10And, you know, and she always stays in the background.
05:13It's like, you know, did we ever tell you you're here or here?
05:16Well, that was indeed a question I was going to ask a little bit later on, because, my gosh, what romance on this show.
05:21You met your husband on the show, Jean.
05:23You didn't, Annie, did you?
05:24Or did you?
05:25Well, my husband was playing for boyfriend.
05:27Ah.
05:30So, yeah, my boyfriend became her husband.
05:32I did meet and marry my husband during that time frame, but I didn't meet him on the show.
05:38But, Chloe, at least there was some romance that you got married during the time frame.
05:41And Gerald also appeared on the show.
05:43Yes, he came on, and I started acting all girly, which I got a little bit of grief over.
05:48But it was just immediate and wonderful.
05:51And I also dated her husband.
05:56Just like a pilot.
05:57Just like nothing happened.
05:58I didn't find that out right.
06:01No.
06:01Well, I didn't really want to tell her, you know.
06:03When I keep reading this, it was a very relaxed set.
06:05I didn't quite realize it was this relaxed.
06:07I didn't know that for a long time.
06:09And then Hal came on.
06:10I knew it by the time she did.
06:11Yes, and Hal and Dixie.
06:13They were really at the start of their relationship.
06:15And Harry and I had just gotten married, so it was really a pretty hot set.
06:19Wow.
06:19I met you before you married.
06:21Yes, you did.
06:22Filthy Rich took place before you married.
06:24Yes, that's right.
06:25Delta Twirl the Baton.
06:26The story was that you were at Columbia or somewhere, and you said, you heard Harry's
06:31voice through a wall or something and said, there's another hick around here.
06:36I want to meet.
06:37I want to meet.
06:37Isn't that true?
06:39Yeah, he had this weird accent.
06:40I didn't hear that very often in Hollywood, so I was immediately drawn to him.
06:45But yeah, we were so fortunate that in spite of the little brouhaha we had at a certain
06:51point in the show, I can honestly say that with that large gulp that happened over a period
06:58of what, a year and a half or something, that I think our affection for each other, we're
07:02not just saying this because we're here tonight, I think it grows.
07:04I think it grew throughout the show, and it continues to grow.
07:07And we were talking in the room before we came out, is that the odd thing is that none of
07:13us have ever exchanged an unkind word toward each other.
07:15Maybe that's why we got into a little trouble, because we didn't just talk, you know, because
07:19I think we liked each other so much we couldn't really confront each other.
07:22But, you know, I just, you know, I love them, and I'm so proud of them.
07:27And when I was watching that pilot, Annie and I had tears in our eyes, because now that
07:31we're even older, I think we can appreciate more of the rare experience that we were given.
07:36And also, when we compare the experience that most young girls are given today in the industry,
07:41I think we know how blessed we were and are.
07:45And, you know, we're just grateful to be here and grateful that you guys showed up tonight
07:48to acknowledge that.
07:55It is absolutely a rare show, and the writing is so good on this, Linda.
08:00You not only have wit from all these wonderful, out of the mouths of these wonderful actresses,
08:03but you also confront serious issues.
08:06And I was curious, kind of, you don't see that very often anymore.
08:09You just don't. People don't really want to take on the issues.
08:12You were at a time when almost no sitcom did this.
08:15You were out there dealing with shows that dealt with AIDS, that dealt with,
08:17absolutely dealt with employment discrimination, racism, women's health issues.
08:23And I'm curious about, kind of, how, whether you knew that when you went into this,
08:28you wanted to combine these two things and make a statement,
08:31at the same time making people laugh.
08:32It's a real skill, and very few writers on television are able to do it.
08:36And you do it really well.
08:37I think very few are allowed to do it.
08:40And we had a network president named Jeff Sagansky.
08:43I want to acknowledge him, because he just, you know, he just opened the door for us
08:46and let us run wild with our hair on fire for years.
08:50And it was such a gift.
08:53And we were never one script ahead.
08:56Ironically, the day I found out Designing Women was going to be a series,
08:59I also found out my mother had AIDS.
09:00And so I was, you know, for the first part of Designing Women, dealing with that and trying to write scripts.
09:06So we never got a script ahead.
09:08But I think in a way it informed the topicality of the show and the fact that we were able to run loose and free.
09:16We were able to, you know, really say what we wanted to say during that week.
09:22Right.
09:22And it would be something that was going on in the country.
09:24So it was close to live television, really.
09:27Aside from the fact that I, as the writer, was allowed to do it,
09:29I don't think very many writers could have had a cast that could have carried that forward.
09:34I mean, these are Broadway caliber women.
09:37And they were right at the start.
09:40You know, they just came in and they reminded me of those old movies.
09:42I've said that so much where the doors open, dinner at eight, the heels are moving, the mouths are clicking.
09:47And I think that's backwards also, but dyslexia tonight.
09:51But anyway, you know, they could carry those issues.
09:54I mean, each one of them.
09:56And Jean, who had the, you know, the soft girl from Missouri role, you know, she could do it too in her own way.
10:02And so, you know, that was the real gift is that they could carry the message.
10:06All these characters had such humanity, no matter how they were very distinct.
10:09You write extremely distinct characters.
10:11But each one of them had a real source of humanity to their character.
10:15And I want each of our cast members up here to talk a little bit about their character, what you like best about it.
10:20Did you have any part of you in that character?
10:23And also talk a little bit about how you reacted with the writers.
10:26I mean, did you have a chance, if you didn't like something the writers said, could you have any influence on them in terms of changing the character?
10:32Correction, one writer.
10:33One writer.
10:34Just Linda.
10:35This is different.
10:35No writer's room.
10:36We had trouble in signing women, finding writers who really understood our voice.
10:41But after about 40 episodes, we had this wonderful woman come in named Pam Norris, who's a Georgia girl who went to Harvard, who completely caught on.
10:49The first thing we said was, do you know what a pecan log is?
10:53And she said, yeah, it's a Stuckey.
10:55She stopped and get it, you know.
10:57We went, okay, you're hired.
10:58You went to Harvard and you know what a pecan log is.
11:01And so she wrote, I think, maybe 27 Designing Women's Hope with me.
11:07That was in Barbara's Hope.
11:07That's unusual, too.
11:08But when, what season did she come on?
11:10She came on, I think, the third season.
11:13Third, yeah.
11:14Linda wrote all the shows.
11:15It was very incestuous.
11:16Linda wrote all the shows for the first two seasons.
11:18I mean, most sitcoms, they try to get a page count of about, what, 45 to 50 pages?
11:23Not 50, that's too long.
11:25It should be about 20.
11:2722 minutes, 21 minutes without the commercials.
11:30And she would write these, like, 75-page scripts in longhand on a legal pad, you know, like the night before we're going to start.
11:38And they would try to cut it down, cut it down, cut it down to, like, 50-something by showtime.
11:42I think sometimes they actually sped up the film.
11:45They actually sped up the film a couple of times.
11:46Every once in a while, if you've seen an episode, we'd say, a little bit chipmunky?
11:49I swear to God.
12:02No, but it was fabulous because no one was writing, like, page-long monologues for characters.
12:06She's writing hours, an hour show, basically.
12:08Nobody was doing that.
12:09But I was so inspired by them.
12:10And, yes, you know, I mean, everybody thinks I made all this up.
12:13Each one of them so informed their characters.
12:16You know, I got to know each of them really pretty well.
12:18And, I mean, you know, you can just see in the characters.
12:21You see them up here.
12:22I mean, so much about them I got from them, not from me.
12:25So I let them talk about themselves.
12:28But she would ask.
12:29She would, we all got so close.
12:32And when we talked about everything in the world, and she, most writers would not do this.
12:39They would not care to bring in aspects of that person and share it with their vision.
12:47And Linda would do that.
12:49And so the characters became more and more of us in them.
12:53And we would take, I did anyway, took some of, you know, Suzanne home with me.
12:57But, you know, she did that.
13:00And I think that's wonderful.
13:02If she saw something you were doing, then she would write to that.
13:05And so it became, gave birth.
13:11Especially you.
13:12I mean, you know, because she really did want that crown on her head.
13:15Oh, yeah.
13:16They even had a tear on the stage.
13:18She started to drool if they just brought her on a stage on a pillow.
13:24I still wear them.
13:25I want that to be on my head.
13:27I bought some really big ones now.
13:30And, oh, Mary Ann Mobley, that's what it was.
13:33She came on with her Miss America crown.
13:35And I was so pissed about it.
13:39So I got to wear the crown.
13:41And I got to wear that all day long.
13:44And I made Mac, there's my husband, Gerald McCraney, right there, sitting next to my mom.
13:48We're going to acknowledge him.
13:50Absolutely.
13:50And I made him come over, he was shooting at Universal, to come over and see me in it.
13:56I didn't want to give it back, but I did.
13:58But they're each, if I make, you know, each person, I mean, now Jean is probably the greatest
14:03departure from her character, but probably had the best accent on the show and was so...
14:07When you're number two, you try harder.
14:10The only Yankee we allow.
14:12I loved playing a character that was that kind of gullible and innocent and took everything
14:18at face value, because I actually feel that way a lot inside.
14:23My husband still humiliates me, but he'll come home and he'll tell me some unbelievable
14:27thing that happened to him when he was at the store or something.
14:30I'll say, you're kidding.
14:31What did you say?
14:32And he'll go on this thing and I'll say, oh my God, are you kidding me?
14:35He goes, yes.
14:38But he still doesn't.
14:40But I mean, because I'm tall and have a deep voice and everything, I've always sort of
14:44played more, like, tough characters.
14:46I mean, like, my God, when you guys cast me, you'd just see me in a play.
14:48Where I played this real tough lesbian who was dying of cancer and they cast me as Charlene.
14:56But that's the brilliance of Fran Bascombe.
14:58So, you know, I loved playing that character, because I just, I mean, because the thing
15:03is, you know, people like to say, oh yeah, yeah, it was about these four women who were
15:06very outspoken and liberated and everything.
15:07But the thing is, really, I mean, all the women were very distinct.
15:10Actually, Suzanne's character and Charlene, we were sort of shockingly unliberated.
15:15I mean, it was a wonderful mix of, of, my character was very, you know, Christian, I
15:20mean, Baptist, you know, girl from a poor family.
15:23And, and, and Suzanne was, you know, the kind of the spoiled, you know, beauty queen, but
15:27and also very unliberated.
15:30And these two were a little bit more, you know, ahead of their time, you know.
15:33She was politically incorrect.
15:34And it was all very, very different.
15:36Well, yeah.
15:36Yeah, I mean, her relationship with Anthony was just.
15:38But Annie was so much like her character, I mean, in a lot of ways, because, you know,
15:42just to be around her, I mean, she's achingly funny, and she's such a raconteur.
15:46I mean, she's one of the best storytellers, male or female, and I come from a place where
15:49storytellers are legendary.
15:51She's one of the best storytellers I've ever heard.
15:52So it was so easy to kind of, you know, fit her into Mary Jo, because Mary Jo is such
15:57a character and such a kind of a provocateur in her own way, even though she has a lot of
16:02insecurities.
16:03And then Dixie, of course, if you just know her, you see her move, and you see her walk,
16:07and you hear her talk.
16:08I mean, it just.
16:09She does walk like that.
16:10She really does walk like that.
16:12And she really does talk like that.
16:14And of course, she was a Republican, but I knew I could change that.
16:17Wow.
16:22Yeah, but you had to bribe her.
16:25Yes, I did.
16:26Every time she'd make Dixie some ultra-liberal tyrant, she had to promise her she could sit.
16:31Yes.
16:32If you saw an episode where Dixie was espousing my views, the next week you heard her singing,
16:39how great thou art.
16:43It's the truth.
16:44You absolutely did.
16:45I just wanted to add to, about our characters.
16:48We all, and I think it's kind of just adorable.
16:52We all protested that our central character trait, the most obvious, was not us.
17:00I said, and it was true.
17:02I thought it was true.
17:03I said, Linda, this is, I was thrilled to be on the show, but I remember protesting that,
17:10that confrontation just was anathema to me.
17:14I had never been confrontational.
17:17I didn't know how to speak up for myself.
17:19And Linda said, I think you have this in you somewhere, Dixie.
17:24And Annie's unutterable sweetness that she has, she's, Annie's a very sophisticated girl, you
17:34know, and very, very funny.
17:36And she didn't see herself as Mary Jo.
17:40I didn't see myself as Julia, essentially.
17:43You weren't like, you thought, now you just said, Jean, but you do have this kind of gullible nature.
17:52And Delta didn't want to, you know, be, be as aware of the fact that she was the center of her own universe.
18:00As, as, it came out.
18:04It came out.
18:06It came, it came out over time.
18:09And Linda saw all of this in us, probably from the get-go.
18:13When you all were on Lime Street, so she couldn't see.
18:16Linda called me in San Francisco.
18:19And you, you've heard that old expression, we were in love, but the show closed.
18:24That's true in show business.
18:26You have this great rapport with somebody.
18:28You have the great affection.
18:30Goodbye.
18:32We'll see each other tomorrow.
18:33We'll never be separated again.
18:35Zip, that's it.
18:36It's, it's over.
18:37The show's closed.
18:38So when Linda ended, when we ended Filthy Rich, and Linda said,
18:43to me and to Delta, I'm going to write something else for you.
18:47I'm going to write something else for you.
18:50You know, hope, you believe, you hope, but you've got to take it with a grain of salt.
18:55So when Linda Bloodworth, by then Linda Bloodworth Thomason,
19:00was on the phone in the York Hotel in San Francisco.
19:04I was there working in the plush room, doing my nightclub act.
19:07And I was going in to vocalize late in the afternoon.
19:13Two phone calls came, one day and one the next.
19:16And the first phone call came.
19:18Miss Carter, there's a call for you.
19:19It was Linda.
19:20I said, I want to use your name in a meeting with, was it Harvey Shepard?
19:25With Harvey Shepard.
19:26He was the president.
19:27I want to put you in a show.
19:30Is it all right to use your name?
19:31And I said, yes, of course.
19:34She said, I want, you know, here I am in the York Hotel,
19:40singing up at the York Hotel in San Francisco.
19:42Draped over a piano.
19:43Yes.
19:44Right.
19:44It's fine.
19:45So she said, I have an idea.
19:47I want to use you in Delta.
19:49And I met these two incredible actresses doing another show.
19:52And I just want to put the four of you together.
19:54In some situation, could I use you?
19:56I said, of course.
19:57The next day, at the same time, going in to vocalize,
20:01downstairs in the lobby of the York Hotel, she called again.
20:04She said, we had the meeting, and we're doing a show.
20:07We're doing a pilot.
20:09It was, oh, my gosh.
20:11It was great.
20:12It was so good.
20:12And I was in Missouri.
20:15My mom had died.
20:16And I went back to Missouri.
20:18And Harry and these girls kept it afloat and Meshach Taylor.
20:24And Harry really organized a group back then called Viewers for Quality Television,
20:28which I'm sorry to say no longer exists, but I wish you guys would start something like it.
20:32It doesn't really exist now, does it?
20:34And anyway, Harry generated about 50,000 letters that came into CBS.
20:40But the new president, Bud Grant, called Harry.
20:44And they had already canceled this.
20:46And I don't think this has ever happened in the history of television.
20:48This really should be in your museum if we could find the picture.
20:51Because he called them over there, and they all went over the mountain, right, to CBS.
20:56And he had a white flag, and he raised it up the flagpole, and he said,
20:59we surrender, Designing Women's Coming Back On.
21:01So that's Bud Grant.
21:05If it had not been for that, we were only into the first season.
21:09Weren't we moved nine times the first year?
21:11A lot.
21:11Isn't that a fact?
21:12Nine times?
21:13A lot.
21:13My mother couldn't even find us.
21:14Yeah.
21:15Neither you won't.
21:17Well, at least they tried to move you around.
21:19Now you're on for two minutes and gone.
21:20They only give you the option to move you to another night.
21:22We were just such a kind of an exotic bird.
21:24And they didn't know what to do with us, and our voices didn't sound like anybody else on television.
21:28And, you know, we were so loud-mouthed and obnoxious.
21:32This is another woman that's been honored as part of She Made It is Barbara Corday.
21:35And we had kind of a similar conversation about Cagney and Lacey, which also was canceled.
21:39And again, finally the viewers complained enough that it got put back on network television.
21:44It's interesting, two very strong, smart women creators' shows got put back on
21:49because the quality of those shows so spoke to the audiences out there.
21:52It's a nice tribute to you.
21:54So I know you get asked this all the time, but I want to ask you as well.
21:58What's your favorite episode, Jean?
22:01Oh, gosh.
22:03Well, the two that spring to mind are the one that was Charlene had a dream when her husband was overseas.
22:15And it was a whole World War II thing we did.
22:17It was so much fun.
22:18Oh, yeah.
22:19Got to jitterbug with Meshack.
22:20You danced so great in that.
22:21And it was so much fun.
22:22And it was all this, Annie was the cigarette girl in the USO club.
22:28Yeah.
22:29Hal was in it.
22:30You remember what you did there during rehearsal?
22:31You flashed it.
22:31I had the accident with my dress.
22:33You flashed it.
22:33My husband still talks about that.
22:35She had pantyhose with no panties under her.
22:39Dixie.
22:39It made the Janet Jackson thing pale.
22:45It was the ultimate costume defect.
22:54He's very old-fashioned.
22:56But then also the one where I had my baby.
22:59And Dolly Parton played my, not my fairy godmother, it was my guardian angel.
23:04Was she a guardian angel?
23:04No, but it was a guardian celebrity.
23:06No, it was my guardian movie star.
23:09Was that her?
23:09Yeah.
23:09Yeah.
23:10And she was absolutely fabulous.
23:12She was fabulous.
23:13She was almost her only guest star.
23:15We never had guest stars.
23:16Really incredible.
23:16And the great Bea Richards.
23:18Bea Richards.
23:19Bea Richards.
23:20What a privilege that was.
23:21Bea Richards died when her baby was born.
23:24Yeah.
23:24We had a few guest stars over the years, but not many.
23:26We really were kind of incestuous.
23:28We stayed within ourselves, really, and did the show that way.
23:32You know what?
23:32I think that was one of the reasons the show was so good,
23:35was that, because I've been on other shows where they start bringing in guest actors
23:40to play huge roles.
23:41You're talking about you have 21 minutes now to tell a story with a beginning,
23:44a middle, and an end.
23:45And they'll bring in someone to play a guest part, you know,
23:49and they've got at least half of the show.
23:52And you've used the whole, yeah.
23:53And you never get to know the regulars.
23:54But you would never do that with these people,
23:56because why would you bring in a guest star, you know, when you have them?
23:58Unless you just need it for something.
23:59Now, the guest stars we did bring in, one of them sitting here tonight,
24:02and he's one of the greatest guest stars we ever brought in,
24:04and he's still guest starring with her, is Gerald McGraney.
24:09Thank you, Jim Dahl.
24:10Thank you, Jim Dahl.
24:18That's the show I get the most comments about as a writer,
24:21is Dash Goff, the writer.
24:22And that was the show that Mac came and did.
24:24It was so brilliant.
24:24Alice Gosley, how many, was she originally just going to do a few episodes?
24:27I would consider Alice part of our family, but, yeah.
24:30But she came off.
24:32Again, I am.
24:33She came off with one.
24:34And Meshach.
24:36He wasn't supposed to be on.
24:37Alice came on with Meshach, and he didn't have one show.
24:40The Thanksgiving, right?
24:41And he stayed seven years, yeah.
24:43He didn't have to get rid of that guy.
24:44Yeah.
24:45Yeah, and Alice, of course, was in To Kill a Mockingbird, to name a few.
24:50And so brilliant.
24:51And we wanted Alice to come tonight, and she's kind of under the weather right now.
24:54Not well, yeah.
24:55Yeah, she was so brilliant.
24:56And I always remember her in the Clarence Thomas show, where she talked about Long John
24:59Silver and became very confused.
25:02God, Lord, Lord, Lord.
25:03My favorite line you ever wrote for her was she came over to the house, and she had on,
25:09it was Christmas, and she had on, and she had on, she says, do you like my Christmas tree
25:16skirt?
25:17You know?
25:18And it was one of those felt things with big Christmas appliques all over it.
25:23Yeah, and I think you said very kind of politely, well, Alice, it's not a skirt, it's a Christmas
25:29tree skirt.
25:31I thought the waist was a little tight.
25:37It's a good impression.
25:39We still have a good chair.
25:42It's a good impression.
25:44Meshach said once that he was traveling in South Africa, and someone passed him on the
25:51street, and when they recognized him, they went immediately, black man.
26:00So, favorite episode from you, Annie?
26:03Oh, my.
26:03Maybe my favorite line.
26:05There are so many.
26:06The one, well, the one where we did the breast one, these things are powerful.
26:14Yeah, it was a terrific show, but it was very typical of one of the things that we did so
26:24well to, I mean, to talk about breasts, to do a whole show about breasts.
26:29And I think that that was, that was, at the time, fairly provocative and arresting, you
26:40know?
26:40And, of course, great fun to do.
26:43I mean, people will come to me on the street and go, these things are power!
26:48Yes, they are.
26:51But, oh, gosh.
26:53I loved her when she would take Delta's bra down and look at it in wonderment.
26:56That used to be me as a seventh grader.
27:00I could guess the whole thing on my head.
27:05With room left over, I really should.
27:09Dixie, how about you?
27:11Oh, gosh.
27:12That show where I got to sing How Great Thou Art was great.
27:16I mean, it was, it was, Linda was pressing it, I guess, in this way.
27:22It was the last show my mother saw in her lifetime.
27:25And my mother was a very religious individual.
27:28And so she was in a hospital in San Francisco, and I was up there with her holding her hand.
27:33And she got to, can you imagine, she got to hear her little girl sing this great Methodist
27:41hymn for the whole country.
27:44And when Linda wrote the show, of course, she couldn't have known that it would time out where
27:51that was, that was a tremendous experience.
27:54I looked at a few of these shows, knowing we were coming here tonight, and they were so,
27:59my favorite, I guess, show was Dash Goff, the writer, just because it just was so gorgeous to be in.
28:11And I loved these lines.
28:14I loved when Jean said, obviously, you asked that question, my favorite lines, I have to say, just these little moments.
28:24When Jean said, we all were trying to figure out how to tell her that her friend Monique was a prostitute.
28:34A woman of this, a call girl.
28:38And I could, you know, when you can't get through it, and you know you can't get through it, you know,
28:42and it didn't happen very often, but I knew, just once in a while, I wouldn't be able to keep from laughing,
28:47even with the nervousness of the audience there.
28:50And when Jean would come on the set, and we were all there ready to try to tell her,
28:54and somebody, I guess Annie, ventured.
28:56Well, do you know about Monique?
29:01Monique isn't who you think she is, Charlene.
29:04Monique was, and she would say, what?
29:06What?
29:07What's wrong?
29:07What?
29:08You know.
29:08And then I think Annie said, she's practicing the world's oldest profession, thinking that would,
29:17and then Jean said, Monique was a, say it, Monique was a carpenter.
29:22Yeah, Monique's a carpenter?
29:23Monique's a carpenter.
29:28Well, that laid me out.
29:30When Annie said, Julia, these things have power, I had to turn around away from the camera.
29:37Oh, but don't you remember what she said after that?
29:38I took a drink.
29:39No, my favorite one was after she said these things have power.
29:42She says, she goes, I, she goes, I mean, they make me feel, I don't know, was it aggressive or something?
29:47She goes, I swear, if I went up a cup size, I could get in a fist fight.
29:50I knew it was coming.
29:58I knew I was supposed to be a professional.
30:00I couldn't laugh, but I finally just turned my back and pretended I was slugging down my drink.
30:06And you drank the ink.
30:06Yeah.
30:07We always called, we all tried to upstage each other.
30:10It was a great.
30:11Not in a bad way.
30:12Not in a bad way.
30:13It was sort of a little fun thing.
30:16And you always had your lines written all over you.
30:18Not me, I couldn't read them.
30:21Upstage.
30:22I never heard that.
30:22She was really good at it.
30:24I got to see another one.
30:26Another one that was great.
30:27Do you all remember the show about the photographer who was ostensibly coming in?
30:32Oh, my friend Patrick.
30:34My friend Patrick.
30:34Oh, he was so wonderful.
30:35You were thinking about the nightclub.
30:36I saw that one.
30:37And when everybody's turn came, you knew they were going to have a different reaction too.
30:42And Annie said, he said, we were all dressed horribly, you know.
30:48And Annie said, he said, just straddle this.
30:52You had already had a sleazy photographer.
30:54And you kept trying to zip up, and he kept trying to zip you down.
30:58And Annie was faced with a bent wood chair.
31:01What do you call those?
31:02Yeah.
31:03Rockers?
31:04No, no, no.
31:05It was just a straight back chair.
31:06Straddle the chair.
31:07You said, and you had on a, you said, well, my dress isn't appropriate really for the workplace.
31:12And then you said, straddle the chair.
31:16I don't think I would ever do that at work.
31:20But then you did.
31:21And then you said, it was so great.
31:25And then you said, you know my, it was, you could tell it had been bothering you.
31:30You said, you know, my mother, my mother always, she wouldn't have approved of my sitting like this,
31:35straddling a chair.
31:36And then you said, but my mother was never all that interested in my sensuality either, I guess.
31:44It's horrible.
31:46Oh.
31:47And then finally he said, you sucked pearls.
31:50Well, first, she got on the horse.
31:54She was astride that, that painted horse.
31:58And, and somebody said, you look like Bo Peep.
32:01And somebody else, one of you said, no, you look like the girlfriend of a shepherd.
32:06But this show is a little bit prescient, I think, because today, you know, there's Maxim and there are all these magazines.
32:12And I noticed that as soon as anybody gets the Oscar or the Emmy, they're, you know, the next month, they'll be on the cover of Maxim,
32:22like in a little see-through summer dress and a thong.
32:25And you're going, what does this have to do with anything?
32:26I mean, if you want to, you know, show off your beautiful body, I think it's great.
32:30But I'm wondering, our, I guess, you know, we don't just want to be old fogies, but what's the point?
32:34And I don't see the men doing it.
32:36We just wanted to kind of confront that early because we thought, you know, the sexism was kind of rampant about the way women were presented.
32:42And T. Tommy Reed came back to Terrify Aisha.
32:46Do you remember when T. Tommy Reed?
32:47Oh, yes.
32:48Remember when you drank Charlene's breast milk bags?
32:50I know.
32:52I like that.
32:54That was great.
32:55You put it in your cover.
32:55What was the show when Delta would say, $500?
32:59$500.
33:00Oh, that was.
33:00Las Vegas.
33:01That was Consuela, Consuela, Bobela, Banana, Banana, Banana.
33:05They would always ask me to sing that song everywhere I went.
33:09That and Black Man.
33:10What was your favorite show?
33:13Well, I have several.
33:14Of course, Dashkoff, the writer, because this man came on and the writing was brilliant.
33:22That goes without saying.
33:23So, but then they shoot Fat Woman, don't they?
33:28Which Linda wrote, especially for me, I remember we got together and talked and I said we need to, like, deal with the weight.
33:35Yeah, we kind of patched it up with that show.
33:38Even though we'd never had a fight, we patched it up.
33:40And it's because it was like, you know, everybody asked, it was there and nobody would acknowledge it.
33:46So I thought we should accept the tabloids.
33:48So all I asked was.
33:51Well, and we fought in the paper, kind of, in a roundabout way that it was silly.
33:54And all I asked was, let me have the jokes or the punchline, because I didn't want to be the punchline.
34:02And then, like, overnight she writes that fabulous, fabulous show.
34:08And you got nominated for an Emmy, right?
34:09Yes.
34:09So wonderful.
34:11Yes.
34:11And Harry directed.
34:12And Harry directed it.
34:13He got nominated, too.
34:14He got nominated.
34:16Delta was the only one of us who ever got nominated.
34:17Yeah, that's kind of a strange thing.
34:22Yes.
34:24But in real life, who has won at least two, maybe more Emmys?
34:28Her.
34:29Yeah.
34:30Missy.
34:31So we were nominated for many Emmys over the years, but on our, it's odd, because the Academy
34:39is mostly male, and it was interesting how they, and mostly probably more Eastern male
34:46than Southern male.
34:47And I think it's an interesting fact that, in spite of all our Emmy nominations, in the
34:54end, after 167 episodes, we won a single Emmy, and that was for hairdressing.
35:01So how do you like our hair?
35:11You know, I grew up in a very vociferous legal family of lawyers, and they were country lawyers,
35:17and they all stood on my mother's furniture and talked about religion and politics and literature.
35:22And I just, they were all men, and I just gave them a little sex change.
35:28But mostly them.
35:30You know, Delta really formed a great relationship with Meshack, and I should, I can just tell
35:38you that when he came on, we didn't have plans for him to stay, and he was so charming and
35:42wonderful and talented.
35:43We knew we wanted him to stay.
35:44I got a lot of letters of criticism because he started out as a convict, but I thought that
35:48would be fun.
35:49I knew as soon as I saw him in the first episode, I wanted to see an evolution, you know, where
35:53he would end up.
35:53I didn't know that he would end up a lawyer, but I wanted to see him become somebody else,
35:57and he did.
35:57But you had the most fun with Meshack.
35:59Oh, yeah.
36:00Well.
36:01Where you slept together in the motels.
36:02Yeah, that's what I'm like, yeah.
36:05But Meshack and I, we'd go on the road, you know, to promote the show, and sometimes they
36:09just put us in a suite together.
36:12What?
36:13Oh, yeah.
36:13They just believed the show, but they stayed together.
36:16And he had to zip up and hook up my long line brassiere and stuff, so it got, you know,
36:23pretty tight.
36:29It was so great because Suzanne was so incredibly, you know, politically incorrect with him, but
36:36it was just screamingly funny because you would do it just out of sort of just self, your
36:40character's self-absorption.
36:41And it wasn't, but it was just so racist and sexist.
36:45It was just, but you were the only one that could have gotten away with that.
36:50It was her.
36:51You guys, the two of you made me laugh so, so hard.
36:53He felt, he felt sort of like my cop partner, and I knew he had my back.
36:59And I, and you just knew what he was going to do next, and I would just get really tickled.
37:04He really tickled me.
37:05I miss Meshack not being here.
37:08Yeah, but he's not a girl.
37:09He's not a girl, sweetie.
37:11He could have dressed up.
37:12He could have dressed up, yeah.
37:14And he did.
37:16You used to say you believe, you didn't understand that you're not better than anybody else because
37:20you were better than other people.
37:22And in what way?
37:23Better hair?
37:24Better makeup?
37:27You thought you had better everything.
37:28Everything that was politically incorrect on the show came out of her mouth, which is a lot of fun.
37:33She's thinking.
37:40She's thinking.
37:41I laughed when you were telling that jury what to do.
37:44I'm a Jew?
37:44Oh.
37:45Well, she had so many.
37:46Oh, but I just saw that.
37:47It was hysterical.
37:49I was going to call you.
37:50Crack me up.
37:50When you wanted to get out of jury duty?
37:52When I wanted to get out of jury duty.
37:53Because you were having dinner with Jimmy Carter?
37:54That was really funny.
37:54I shrank back from that because I had a joke at the end about fingernails and bladder pads.
38:00Uh-oh.
38:01That was cool.
38:01And that's a Pam Norris script and that was funny.
38:04It was so funny.
38:04That was Pam's wrong.
38:05Yeah, that was really funny.
38:06You know, the night the lights went out in Georgia, that was the tip-off that I really
38:12loved my little sister, to whom I hadn't said one friendly word since.
38:18That was the first show that Linda wrote of the first season.
38:22It was the very next show after the pilot show.
38:24And the speech she had in her head before she wrote the show around it.
38:30She told me she had that speech, that night the lights went out in Georgia's speech, kind
38:34of floating around.
38:36And then she wrote the show and then I got to do that speech knowing that Delta was going
38:41to creep in the room and hear me.
38:43And it was...
38:44It was a great speech.
38:45It was just the rhythm of it, the whole...
38:48And it was the first time the audience was going to get a load of what, you know, what
38:54we were going to do on this show.
38:57It was thrilling.
38:59I don't suppose anything else will ever have that place in my heart.
39:06They still have that speech and we said that on the reunion show but there are some bars
39:10in Georgia, gay bars where they...
39:13And by the way, we want to thank our gay brethren.
39:23We know we would not have stayed on the air.
39:25Every week CBS will look at that and go, look at that, San Francisco, wow.
39:29We'll come just floating.
39:35You know, I think if we were still on, we could get them to pass the gay marriage amendment.
39:43Well, I guarantee we would have done a show about it.
39:47And, yeah, I know we would have.
39:48Well, until Sex and the City came out and they were always dressing up like us in the
39:51West Hollywood Parade.
39:53I lost that to Sex and the City.
39:55But they do have a lot of gay bars in Georgia and they stop every night in this one bar.
40:02It's a huge gay bar.
40:02Not just Georgia.
40:03It's all over.
40:04Well, we saw it on the beach.
40:07We did.
40:08And Dixie gives that speech.
40:10And I think, you know, Dixie has such powerful control of her words.
40:16And I think Dixie is what...
40:19What she does with words is what we all wish that we could do.
40:23I'm not good at confronting people either.
40:25You know, I'm good in my car, in the shower.
40:27But this is why...
40:28And, you know, Dixie's not either probably in real life, but it's so great to have this
40:31vehicle, you know, that's so elegant and so right on target and unafraid to say the
40:37truth.
40:38And that's really what Julia Sugarbaker did.
40:40She said the truth and it usually worked for her.
40:44My favorite thing that happened on this show was when we'd all be together all of a sudden
40:49and we realized we'd be in performance and we realized we meant it, you know, that we
40:54meant those when the show would get to the end and there would be this sweet conclusion.
40:59And we'd look at each other and we really meant what we were saying.
41:03We always said what we love so much is, I mean, as actors, of course, you know, we work with
41:09lots of different ensembles and individuals, but not always, but often, you know, it comes
41:17up and you're working with an actor and you feel like, I don't know if they really like
41:20what I'm doing or if they really like me or whatever.
41:23Always with us, always, when we were all together or one-on-one, whatever, you always
41:29felt like the actor that you were playing with was going, come on, show me your best
41:35stuff.
41:36I'm here for you.
41:37Always, it was like, bring it on.
41:39Whatever you throw at me, I'm going to send it back to you.
41:44And that was really extraordinary.
41:46That was true.
41:46There was an amazing lack of ego.
41:48I mean, we would all, from the very beginning, we'd all say to each other, I'd say, I just
41:52don't feel like that speech is working.
41:53What am I not doing?
41:54What am I missing?
41:55What am I missing?
41:55Or, you know, we'd say, no, no, no, don't go out of your hair like that or something.
41:59You know what I mean?
41:59Right.
42:00You know, because people always assume because being women that we were one-upping each
42:04other and didn't like each other and that somehow women just can't possibly be friends.
42:08It was a very strange thing.
42:09And every single solitary interview we did for at least the first few years, that would be
42:14the first question.
42:15What do you guys really get along and, boy, what it must be like with four women on this set.
42:19It must be hell in the makeup trailer on this.
42:21I mean, we didn't know what they were talking about.
42:23And we said, well, do you ask all the guys on Barney Miller that?
42:29Because it was a joy.
42:32But I think in the end, for me, the greatest thing was that, you know, and I think they
42:36all kind of, you know, we're close to in the same generation, age group, growing up with
42:43CBS, the Tiffany Network for Women then.
42:47And I Love Lucy and, you know, all those great shows about women that evolved into Be Arthur
42:54as Maude, that evolved into Candice Bergen, that evolved into Designing Women.
42:58And all of those shows, you know, so informed my childhood and then my young womanhood.
43:04And to be able to sort of carry a little bit of Lucy's torch, you know, because we are in
43:09a museum here tonight.
43:10And the history of it and the history of women in television is, you know, it's been, it's
43:14like slavery.
43:15It's been horrible and it's been wonderful.
43:17But I think we were mostly part of the wonderful.
43:20And, you know, that's just, that doesn't happen to very many people.
43:24So that's a bond that we share.
43:27And, you know, the fact that you would come out and still remind us of that is so encouraging.
43:32And so we thank you for that.
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