‘Designing Women’ Sequel Series In The Works — The Reboot Wave Continues

Everything old is definitely new again — with word that ABC is looking at a reboot sequel series to the 1986 until 1993 groundbreaking TV show, Designing Women. That show’s creator, Linda Bloodworth Thomason, is returning to serve as executive producer and write the script that the network has put into development. 

The original is set at Sugarbaker & Associates, an interior designing firm, run by four women. It stars Dixie Carter as the president of the company, Julia Sugarbaker; Delta Burke as Julia’s ex-beauty queen sister and a silent partner at the firm, Suzanne Sugarbaker; Annie Potts as head designer Mary Jo Shively, and Jean Smart as officer manager Charlene Frazier. According to The Hollywood Reporter, “The new Designing Women — which is a multicamera comedy like its predecessor — will follow the next generation of Sugarbakers with a crop of new, young, female designers at an Atlanta interior design firm. The new take will still have the same razor-sharp dialogue and ability to cut through the political, cultural, and social factions that rarely agree on anything.”

On that same site, Linda commented, “I’m very excited to be working with ABC. And Sony has always been a great partner for Designing Women. Normally, I’m not a fan of reboots, but Designing Women does seem to have the right fengshui for all that is going on right now. We could definitely have some fun.” 

While there’s no word on whether surviving cast members Jean Smart, Delta Burke, or Annie Potts would have a place in the new show, for her part, Annie, currently one of the cast members on Young Sheldon, commented to Entertainment Weekly regarding the original, “Every Monday night was a #MeToo moment for us, and we were talking about it; we were very political. I’m sad that there’s not such a strong voice, I don’t think, in any singular show. Nobody is doing what we did then.”