There are things in our lives that shape us into being the person that we are today. I have been fortunate that I have gotten to travel the world. I have seen how others live and I have a strong understanding of just how lucky I am. However there is one thing that has shaped me more then just about anything else. It's with me everywhere I go and I can always turn to it whenever I need answers from on high.
I am talking about "Designing Women".
Set in the South this show about the Sugarbaker sisters and their business associates looks, from the outside, like a bit of mindless drivel. However, upon deeper inspection this bit of television genius can give us a peek into the people that, I think, we all should be. Okay, so it isn't as deep as Schindler's List, I'll give you that, but here are some examples on how a show, known to be situation comedy actually handled things that we all have been through in our lives. Now I know that life aint perfect and that, in times of peril we all shouldn't flock to the fictional Sugarbaker sisters for our answers (That what "That Facts of Life" is for) but who among us hasn't been in one of these situations.
I remember being young and loving Designing Women and, at the same time, being terribly overweight. One evening I saw the title "They Shoot Fat Women, Don't They?" and I thought to myself, certainly my favorite show isn't going to skewer the overweight. Well, I was shocked as it did just the opposite. Gorgeous and shallow Suzanne found herself on the receiving end of the ridicule that she had dosed out all of her life. When she was just going to pack it all in and "get thin and then get even" she met a child whose entire family had been killed by starvation. This led her to give a speech that I dare anyone to tell me is right up there with Gettysburg Address about her weight gain and how it had affected her shedding a different light on the fat joke.
Reminding us that we are all guilty of secrets that we don't want others to know and that we shouldn't pass judgement was one of Julia's specialties. In an episode where a long time client passes judgement on a friend dying of AIDS Julia straightens her back, pulls her shoulders tight, holds her head up high and exclaims, as she is forcibly escorting this narrow minded bitch out of her business that "If God were handing out sexually transmitted diseases as a punishment for sinning, YOU'D be at the free clinic all the time!" Hysterical? Yes! Applause worthy? Of course. Insightful? You better believe it. Who among us hasn't aired someone's dirty laundry knowing that we had loads of it right in our own washrooms that could make the world think differently about us if it ever got out.
And who couldn't watch this show and not laugh out loud at the sibling rivalry between the ever proper Julia and the many times married Suzanne. Having a younger brother that is the polar opposite of me made this television show hit even closer to home then most did. I remember thinking, about Chris, that there was no way we were related. He with his outgoing personality and devil may care attitude was a stark contrast to my pulled a little to tight, kiss my ass mentality and it drove me crazy....that is until I realized what really happened the night the lights went out in Georgia. After hearing a beauty pageant queen make fun of her sister for something that Julia herself has made fun of all of her life, she, well she pretty much goes crazy and reminds this woman of just how important her sister is to her. I mean lets face it, do we really think that twelve thousand people lept to their feet for sixteen and one half minutes of uniterupted thunderous ovation as flames illuminated Suzannes tear stained face. Hell no we don't. People, Suzanne isn't real, and there as no fire baton! However, this episode, one of the benchmarks of television history if you ask me shows what every single sibling is guilty of. I can trash talk my brother all I want because he is mine. You, on the other hand....
Now in all honesty do I want to sit Sutton down in front of eight years of Designing Women and have him learn his values from that. Hell no. The Sugarbaker house is actually in Arkansas, Charleene is really from New York, and the last two years of the show sucked. They own a design firm but never work and every vacation they take (from the mountains to the beach to Graceland) is an experiment in terror. They never agree on anything and find themselves in the most outrageous situations that they somehow manage to neatly wrap up in 23 minutes which is nothing like real life at all.
They are however a perfect example of how life's little lessons are everywhere. These four women tackled everything from racism to sexism. Heart
attacks to menopause. American History to sex education. Marriage,
divorce, death and domestic violence. And they did it all when
television was meant to be an escape from our world, not a peek into it.
I rarely watch television anymore. I would like to say it is because I don't believe in mindlessly wasting my time looking at a device mounted to my wall, but the truth of the matter is I don't have time to waste. When I do watch it I see that scripted reality shows and perfectly planned spontaneous fights have taken over.
So I will happily watch Designing Women re-runs over the Real Housewives of Atlanta any day. I learn so much more from them anyway.
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