Designing Women AIDS episode

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 10/15/07 at 10:04pm

Is on TVLand right now (10pm Eastern). FYI.

[AbbaRabbit]

Posted: 10/15/07 at 10:07pm

i just put it on... i trust you are doing the same as i am and flipping back and forth between that and the game??

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 10/15/07 at 10:13pm

The game was making me queasier than the big Designing Women hairdos.

[AbbaRabbit]

Posted: 10/15/07 at 10:14pm

nothing makes me queasier than 80's hair.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/15/07 at 10:57pm

Tony Goldwyn...sigh.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/15/07 at 10:59pm

This one is a heartbreaker, but I tear up whenever I even think about the episode with Li Sing.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 10/15/07 at 11:01pm

Me too. OH MY GOD ME TOO.

Don't EVEN start with the "Oh Susanah" lyrics.

[StageManager2]

Posted: 10/15/07 at 11:04pm

oh, Susanna, don't you cry for me...

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/15/07 at 11:08pm

I love any tv show that has a bitchy character that unexpectedly shows us she has a heart. That used to happen to Blair once in a while, too.

And oh god, there's this episode of Ally McBeal with that awful Haley Joel kid, but Lucy Liu has a really good breakdown in it.

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 10/15/07 at 11:22pm

I remember a Designing Women episode where Charlene talks about a Christmas comercial on tv and how everytime it comes on "I have to bury my face in the carpet and sob my guts out."

That's how the Li Sing episode made me feel. Except when SM2 tried to run with it. Then, nothin'.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/15/07 at 11:23pm

She mangles the lyrics, though. I was never sure if that's an alternate version, if it was a choice by the writers or if they were just dumb. I don't want to know.

[PalJoey]

Posted: 10/15/07 at 11:33pm

The original Bitch with a Heart of Gold.



Veronica Lake

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/15/07 at 11:34pm

[StageManager2]

Posted: 10/15/07 at 11:38pm

Here you can listen to Li Sing, well, sing. Scroll down. It's under Season One. You need RealPlayer.

http://www.designingwomenonline.com/Music/index.html

She sings:
Oh, Suzanna, don't you cry for me
I'm coming back from Alabama
With a banjo on my knee

The lyrics as I know them are:
Oh, Susanna, don't you cry for me
For I come from Alabama
With my banjo on my knee

I've also heard this version:
Oh, Susanna, you're the one for me
For I'm going to Louisiana
With a banjo on my knee

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/15/07 at 11:40pm

"Now I know why they call you Li Sing!"

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 10/15/07 at 11:40pm

Thanks anyway.

[Calvin]

Posted: 10/15/07 at 11:41pm

Every time I watch it, I hope that this time, maybe this time, Julia will beat the crap out of Imogene instead of just pushing her out the door. That bitch got off easy.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/15/07 at 11:42pm

I'm interested to hear your definitive thoughts on the episode, Calvin. You are BWW's foremost Designing Women scholar.
Updated On: 10/15/07 at 11:42 PM

[Calvin]

Posted: 10/15/07 at 11:56pm

As far as AIDS TV episodes, it's much better than the way "Mr. Belvedere" handled the subject, although it lacks the innovation of the way "The Golden Girls" handled it. Making Rose think she got it through a blood transfusion rather than slutty Blanche or intravenous drug user Dorothy? Genious!

But still, Mary Jo's PTA speech, while touching in its quiet fury, cannot compare to Patti LuPone's fiery rhetoric at her PTA meeting when defending Chad Lowe.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/15/07 at 11:57pm

Honestly, I meant the Li Sing episode, Calvin. I kind of forgot this wasn't about it in the first place.

[Calvin]

Posted: 10/16/07 at 12:02am

Oh, that one.

I must admire it's obvious allusion to Western imperialism in infecting Eastern nations with capitalism, as seen by Li Sing's instant corruption by Suzanne into a money whore seeking credit cards and ponies.

Suzanne only got a sappy ending tapped on because of an agreement Delta Burke had with producers to give Suzanne one precious moment a season. It was that same clause that let Dixie Carter sing every once in a while in exchange for her saying Julia's liberal tirades.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/16/07 at 12:07am

There was an episode of some variety show on Fox ages ago (the name escapes me, but I'm pretty sure it featured Jennifer Aniston before she was our Friend) and every time the Julia character said anything the studio audience would burst into applause. You probably had to be there, but I thought it was funny.

Seriously, that Li Sing episode totally works my sh*t. I can sob for a good twenty minutes after it's over.

[Calvin]

Posted: 10/16/07 at 12:10am

You know, the one where Hal Holbrook dies WOULD be touching, if there wasn't that scene where Julia's crawling around on the floor trying to stuff the hamburger down the little bratty girl's throat with silly music playing in the background.

But I still get that lump when I see Dolly Parton leading Beah Richards off into the great beyond.

[Phyllis Rogers Stone]

Posted: 10/16/07 at 12:12am

It could really tug at the heartstrings without being mawkish.

[broadwaytourist]

Posted: 10/16/07 at 9:24am

My ultimate DW episode - Charlene becomes disaffected with her Southern Baptist minister as she realizes he and the denomination did not allow women in the ministry. I battled that issue my whole life, and now as a woman of a certain age I have had to abandon the religion and church I was raised with and seek spirituality instead. No more fundamentalism for me. Lecture of the day ended - but DW started me on this path because it was good to see that someone else thought like me.