Designing Women The
Complete First Season (1986
87/Shout! Factory DVD)
Picture: C
Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Episodes: C+
When Designing Women first arrived, I was not so impressed and as the show moved on to be
a big hit, I rarely tuned in again.
Sure, the lead actresses were formidable and had some good chemistry,
but I always felt the show was mixed, despite it having enough edge to deal
with social issues in many of its episodes.
That did not make it a Norman Lear show, but that was better than just
about all the regressive 1980s sitcom junk we were saddled with at the
time. The Complete First Season
(1986 87) is now on DVD from Shout! Factory.
Dixie Carter, Annie Potts, Jean Smart and
soon-to-be-controversial Delta Burke played four women, who did interior
decorating for a living and were good at it, but they also had lives to live
and that is where the comedy and drama came from. I was expecting this set to be a torture
test, but have to admit that the show not only holds up very well over 20 years
since its debut, but is better than I had remembered it. Meshach Taylor and the great Alice Ghostley
eventually became regulars as recurring characters.
All 21 half-hours are here and this was a nicely
shot show with a better look than I remembered and broadcast TV was just not
showing it to best advantage. It was
considered somewhat groundbreaking at the time and was part of a cycle of such
shows that included The Golden Girls, which I still like much more. However, Designing Women holds its own and its DVD arrival
is long overdue.
The 1.33
X 1 color image was shot on film and remains one of the last TV situation
comedies to have that luxury, but even at this point, shows were being finished
in analog NTSC videotape and that hurts the playback with both aliasing errors and a
strained look suggesting older digital dupes of the analog material. Fortunately, the film prints should be in
Sonys archive and remastered whenever Blu-ray versions are called for. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound is a
little better, still problematic at times, but not bad despite being second
generation. Extra include a booklet with
episode guide & essay by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, plus the DVD has 43
minutes of a 2006 reunion interview taped at The Paley Center for Media
including all four leads and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason.
- Nicholas Sheffo
