A ‘Designing Women’ Reboot Is On Its Way With The Original Creator
With all of the reboots in the works, everyone seems to be looking out for their favorite old show to be remade. And if the ’80s show you like best is Designing Women, then you are in luck, because original creator Linda Bloodworth-Thomason is taking another stab at the story of interior designers in Atlanta, Georgia.
The Hollywood Reporter says that Sony Pictures Television Studios is the new home for the series which originally starred Dixie Carter and Delta Burke. It’s been 25 years since fans last saw the Sugarbaker sisters along with their partners getting into all sorts of amusing trouble on CBS, but there is still demand for the series.
The original cast included Dixie Carter, Delta Burke, Annie Potts, Jean Smart, and Meshach Taylor as a group of unlikely friends from different walks of life who come together to make a whole new work family. The show, which ran from 1986 to 1993, tackled a number of timely issues including domestic violence, racism, homophobia, and AIDS awareness.
Since the series wrapped, Carter and Taylor have both passed, and most of the other remaining cast members are committed to other series work so there will be a lot of recasting, but Annie Potts says she’s up for making an appearance now and then.
The 'Designing Women' revival arrives as reboots continue to remain in high demand as broadcast, cable and streaming platforms look for proven IP in a bid to cut through a cluttered landscape that is expected to top 500 scripted originals this year https://t.co/ZDvsbWPXY8
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) August 15, 2018
Potts is currently starring in the spinoff of Big Bang Theory, Young Sheldon, but she says she’d try to make time to participate in a Designing Women reboot.
“I would love that. I don’t know when I’d find the time for it, but I think that they could use a show like Designing Women — feisty smart women that didn’t take any B.S. from anybody. 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. So yeah, if [creator Linda Bloodworth-Thomason] wanted to write six episodes and do it in my hiatus, I would be there in a minute.”
The Wrap reports that Designing Women ran at the same time as the Candice Bergen comedy Murphy Brown, and now both are getting a new life in 2018. But unlike Murphy Brown, Designing Women has not yet found a home on a network or a streaming service, though it is being actively shopped. It’s unclear whether the show will be a remake or will be the future of “Sugarbakers.”
