Designing Women Is Getting A TV Reboot Now

designing women cast cbs

In the past few years, we've gotten new versions of several favorite old television shows, whether through total reboots or revivals with much of the original cast returning to reprise their roles. Shows like MacGyver, Roseanne, Will & Grace, Dynasty, Lost in Space and Twin Peaks have already debuted (to varying degrees of success) with more on the way this fall like Magnum P.I., Charmed and Murphy Brown. But, if you thought the TV boom of reboots and revivals was over, well, clearly you were wrong, because now a Designing Women reboot is in the works as well. Cue the Ray Charles version of "Georgia On My Mind" and read on to see what's going on!

According to TV Line, Sony is working on a reboot of the late '80s comedy Designing Women with the original show's creator, Linda Bloodworth-Thomason. This reboot doesn't have a network attached yet, but the plan is to shop it around soon.

Designing Women ran for seven seasons on CBS, from September 1986 through May 1993. The show focused on the lives of the four women who worked for Sugarbaker & Associates, an interior design firm located in Atlanta, Georgia. The comedy starred the late Dixie Carter as the no-nonsense, outspoken feminist owner of the firm, Julia Sugarbaker; Delta Burke as Julia's flashy and self-centered younger sister Suzanne; Annie Potts as the shy, easily intimidated and recently divorced Mary Jo Shively; and Jean Smart as the sweet and naive Charlene Frazier. The women often find themselves getting involved in major issues of the day, along with a number of ridiculous situations, and are often joined in these adventures by their upwardly mobile ex-con assistant, Anthony Bouvier, who was played by the late Meshach Taylor.

While Designing Women wasn't an instant hit, and it actually almost got canceled early into its initial run, it did manage a dedicated fanbase which grew through the first few seasons with the original cast members. From 1989 through 1992, along with the aforementioned Murphy Brown, it formed a solid ratings block for CBS, and frequently landed in the Top 20. The series was also critically acclaimed, and was nominated for and won many awards during most of its seasons.

There's no word right now on whether or not any of the surviving original cast might be involved, or if the specifics of the first version of Designing Women would simply be transferred to the modern era, but stay tuned to CinemaBlend and we'll let you know more details on the proposed reboot as they become available. In the meantime, you can check out our summer premiere schedule and 2018 fall premiere schedule.

Adrienne Jones
Senior Content Creator

Covering The Witcher, Outlander, Virgin River, Sweet Magnolias and a slew of other streaming shows, Adrienne Jones is a Senior Content Producer at CinemaBlend, and started in the fall of 2015. In addition to writing and editing stories on a variety of different topics, she also spends her work days trying to find new ways to write about the many romantic entanglements that fictional characters find themselves in on TV shows. She graduated from Mizzou with a degree in Photojournalism.