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Hey y’all! We’re Nikki and Salina - two Southerners exploring and celebrating Southern culture on TV and in entertainment. In the first couple of seasons, we’re diving into Designing Women - join us!
233 Episodes
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Back in season 4, (E10, “Manhunt”), Suzanne helps Mary Jo “find a man” using an awful dating book. It led us down another Google hole: this time looking at dating advice over the years. We chatted about it and the scare tactics the media loves to lord over women every few years whether we need it or not.
Here are some unintentional companion episodes:
S1E5, “1986 Called and It Wants Its Jokes Back” where we discussed the now infamous Newsweek article during the “Extra Sugar”
S3E6, “A Virtual Smorgasbord of Women” where we talked about the history of dating
Oh, now this one here is a fan favorite. And thanks to a Southern snow storm and a motel short on rooms, it’s the first time we get to see the truly magnetic chemistry between Suzanne and Anthony.
This one also led to an “Extra Sugar” on the weird and twisty history of interracial marriage.
Howard the Duck was our second special episode ever. Salina watched for the first time. Nikki revisited and realized just how weird this movie was for a kid. Then we met and chatted about our reactions. The movie. Eh. The trivia. Stellar.
Leave Earth for just a bit, and come with us, want you? We’re going to Duckworld!
On reflection, it occurs to us that every major cast member has a wedding episode: that is one where they are married or make an attempt down the aisle. Suzanne got her turn after Reggie MacDawson ‘absconded’ with all her money. In other news: it’s the return of Ray Don, where Julia tries her hand at flirting and Mary Jo gets soused off one “purse drink”.
Crack open something good for this week’s “Extra Sugar” where we’re talking about the history of canned cocktails.
REPLAY: When “Julia gets her head stuck in a fence” – AKA the very rare, priceless, and historically significant Abbott Banister in the Georgia Governor’s Mansion – back in season 4, there was only one thing for us to do: talk about these mansions, of course. We threw in a “Grits Blitz” for good measure.
The one where Bernice officially stole our hearts and made us stand up and cheer. It turns out, she’s a biblical savant and low key feminist who took Charlene’s minister to task over his argument against women in ministry. Meanwhile, Julia sings “for all us girls, everywhere” – should you need a good cry.
We took this week’s “Extra Sugar” as an opportunity to take a closer look at women at the pulpit.
It’s time we revisit our “Extra Sugar” all about Dixie Carter!
By the time we’d done this, we’d done segments about the lives and careers of LBT, Annie Potts, Meschach Taylor, Delta Burke, and Jean Smart, but we owed you – and ourselves – a Dixie Carter deep-dive. This episode is where we pay up. We’re finally talking about Ms. Julia Sugarbaker herself, THE Dixie Carter.
P.S. If we sound punch drunk, we kind of were thanks to copious amounts of sherbert punch leading up to the segment.
Longtime listeners know we get pretty excited anytime we get to leave Sugarbakers, so when the ladies + Anthony road trips it to Graceland…We. Were. Stoked. Nikki waxed poetically about Buc-ee’s in a sidebar (a VERY necessary road trip stop here in the South), and then we just had to talk about Graceland and The King himself during our “Extra Sugar” segment.
Season 3 officially cemented a ‘movie review’ episode into Sweet Tea & TV tradition. This time Salina would watch – for the first time – a Nikki favorite: Captain Ron. Patreons picked this one (just a little reminder of the perks if you want to get involved).
We learned A LOT including the fact that we really want to be Martin Short and Steve Martin’s friends IRL. We played a new game for “Extra Sugar” called Nautical or Knot. Play along to see if you have your sea legs.
This one is a Salina favorite. When Mary Jo contemplated a breast augmentation back in season 3, episode 5, it basically became one big ole, double D-sized breference.
That led to the “Extra Sugar” dedicated to the one and only brassiere. AKA the over-the-shoulder-boulder-holder. AKA the bra. It’s fascinating, y’all!
Julia’s brush with the legal system (AKA jury duty), led to an “Extra Sugar” where Nikki brought us two unbelievable Southern criminal trials. Don’t worry! She lightened the mood with crimes that were, shall we say, a little scattered, smothered and covered?
This one was like a sneaky “Designing Women” lesson to BOLO for pyramid schemes. If it happened this side of the 21st century, they would have been extracting Charlene from the grasps of some LulaRoe-esque company.
When we weren’t trying to un-brainwash Charlene, we were watching Suzanne and Anthony grow closer over his run for homecoming representative.
We ended this one with an “Extra Sugar” about the darker side of pyramid schemes and their tactics eerie resemblance to cults.
Designing Women gave us about fifty-’leven Deliverance references, and then, in season 4, they basically did their own sitcom version. This left us no choice but to finally talk about it.
One of us watched it begrudgingly (70s pacing is tough for a modern movie viewer), and then we met to talk about movie trivia, themes, and the enduring impact on the South. It’s a thing, y’all.
We can’t revisit season 4 and skip past this classic Bernice episode. Her niece tried to declare her incompetent and, you know, shenanigans! Every performance was on FIRE, especially Annie Potts and Delta Burke. We also had to talk about the Mary Jo coined trip, “the IRBAT" – as in "the International Rich B!t*h Alimony Tour" – in a Salina’s Sidebar. Also interested in one of those if a spot becomes available. Just saying.
First Wives Club. Now this one was an audience pick and we happily obliged. We talked about our favorite parts, why it means so much to us, and movie trivia.
Outside of the recording: we constructed an entire revenge-themed menu and shared each of those dishes on social media.
This one gave us so much content that we had to split it into two, so come back next week for more.
Any revisit of season 4 would be completely incomplete if we didn’t revisit Suzanne’s (and Delta Burke’s!) moment in the sun. Suzanne gets bullied at her high school reunion for gaining weight, while Anthony, Julia, and Mary Jo go on a two-day fast to raise awareness about world hunger. We miss Charlene. (tear emoji)
So where are we on world hunger in the 21st century? We’ll sidebar on it. Then come back Thursday for an “Extra Sugar” dedicated to Suzanne’s plot line including how this episode came about in the first place.
As promised, we came together one more time to talk about First Wives Club. We talked about cast members who have gone on to become bonafide Hollywood icons since this movie, potential casting what-ifs, and even a few First Wives Controversies.
What can we say? We love an Anthony and Suzanne team-up. In this case it was more of a good bribery, but either way, we were all in for their zany plan to keep Consuela from being deported. (After all, she and Suzanne understand each other. We’re talking middle-of-the-night peach pies and overlooked knives thrown. That’s love, y’all.)
Season 4, episode 11, “They Shoot Fat Women, Don’t They” was a seminal moment in Designing Women’s history and simultaneously a denouement to the media and public’s relentless obsession with Delta Burke’s weight.
So, when we finally reached this essential episode last year, we knew it was time for an “Extra Sugar” that explored what happened behind the scenes. It was also an opportunity to talk about fat shaming and body shaming, why these concepts matter, and what we can do to take care of ourselves and each other.
Any episode where Julia gets riled is worth a rewatch. Her run-ins (read: total and complete meltdowns) with “big ole donkey scout” first Charlene and later her fried-cheese-eating jury duty colleagues reminds us one and all: don’t mess with a Southern woman on a mission.
We also sidebarred on radio contests in honor of the hurtin’ Charlene, Suzanne, and Anthony put on the record store after winning a radio contest.
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LOVE THIS!!!!!! shine on ladies !! ❤❤