Designing Women Sleepover and Vacation Episodes: Ranked!
(Well… categorized and reviewed)
2.22 Reservations for Eight
Everybody and their male plus ones go for a ski weekend. They get snowed in and engage in a battle of the sexes headed by Captain Misogyny Reese Watson, who is for some asinine, unfathomable reason Feminist Icon Julia Sugarbaker’s long-term beau. Mary Jo’s boyfriend is also a jackass. Dash Goff says some sexist stuff, too, but he’s just so charming and self-deprecating I can forgive him. Charlene’s boyfriend is just necking with Charlene the whole time and is very sweet.
They all go to a health spa where Julia and Mary Jo are treated like queens for being skinny and Suzanne and Charlene are tortured for being overweight, and Mary Jo and Julia are mean to Suzanne and Charlene for being “dumb,” and in one of the most unbelievable plot lines carried over from the previous episode, Charlene—who is consistently characterized as competent, organized, efficient, responsible, fascinated by absolutely anything, a voracious reader, and a lover of knowledge—loses trivia games. Awful. Probably the worst episode of the series for me.
6.08 The Strange Case of Clarence and Anita
Allison, tragically, has never had a birthday or slumber party, so they have one at Suzanne’s house where she lives (in constant contention) with Anthony. Allison and Mary Jo and Julia are on opposite sides of the Anita Hill/Clarence Thomas hearing, and it’s just painful to watch. I don’t mind preachy. I love a Terminator Tirade. But making a whole episode of it? With noticeably fewer jokes? And Allison fairly arbitrarily the villain? So many wrong moves there. Poor Allison never stood a chance at integrating into the team.
6.20 I Enjoy Being a Girl
Carlene leads a Girl Scout troop and they all go camping. This is too late in the season for everyone to continue being this mean to Allison. Yeah, she’s annoying, but they should know by now that when they treat her like a person, she is tolerable. Carlene almost saves it with her singer-songwriter schtick, but ultimately I just like Allison too much and too adamantly wish she had been handled better by the writers to give this one a pass.
4.09 Julia and Suzanne’s Big Adventure
Julia and Suzanne go to Japan to visit their mother. They’re robbed at the airport and bunk with the guy they met on the plane. Meanwhile, Anthony and Mary Jo rack up a huge phone bill calling in to a tv show, and Charlene is stuck at the DMV. It’s not hard to watch. It’s not bad. It’s just fine.
The van breaks down as the girls are on their way to go antiquing in the Georgia mountains, and the cabin they walk to for help is where Anthony is at a new age men’s retreat trying to obtain the group as a new client decorating a men’s center. It’s silly. It’s a bunch of sexist nonsense on both sides of the aisle. It’s fine. Allison’s really funny in it, though.
Mary Jo, wanting to break out of her shell and be spontaneous, agrees to drive Julia to see her symphony conductor boyfriend (Stephen from The Devil Wears Prada lol) who’s working in Tennessee. Bernice tags along. Bernice is A Lot in this one, in the best way. Could’ve had the potential for Good rather than just Fine if they hadn’t left Carlene, Anthony, and BJ at home for a nothingburger B-plot.
3.01 Reservations for Twelve, Plus Ursula
Everybody and their male plus ones (except Suzanne, whose luggage is lost and says in a monologue that lives rent free in my mind, “You all will be in your room changing clothes, and I don’t have any clothes. And the men will be in their room, and I don’t have a man. And the kids will be in their room, and I don’t have a kid. So I’ll just be in the maid’s room. I do have a maid.”) and a kind of baffling assortment of children that doesn’t matter to the plot except for being the impetus of the nanny situation go for a beach weekend. They hire an au pair with giant tits who is super flirtatious, and all the men are drooling over her and being huge jackasses, and all the women, except Suzanne, are being jealous prigs until Suzanne tells the woman off and saves the day. If Suzanne weren’t here, this would definitely be in Hard to Watch.
3.08 The Wilderness Experience
Bernice takes them all on an all girl roughing it in nature competition trip. The group Julia and Mary Jo get put into includes two women from New York whom Julia is very homophobic to. Bernice is surprisingly really good at leadership and turns hilariously dictatorial, and my girl Suzanne knows all the flora from her Miss Atlanta Arboretum days and how to make a fire using a mirror and some nail polish remover. Anthony has a drag performance. It’s fun.
4.04 Nightmare from Hee Haw
Everybody and their male plus ones go for a canoeing weekend in rural Georgia. They end up at a backwater cafe, and a family of hicks intimidate their way into dancing with the ladies for hours and hours and then when the pathetic men try to save them from this, a brawl ensues, and Anthony and some of his prison buddies have to save them. Points to Anthony for always being the MVP. Reese Watson once again proves he is beyond useless.
5.19 Blame It on New Orleans
They all go to a conference in New Orleans. Shenanigans ensue. Julia issues one of my favorite Terminator Tirades, which gets stuck in my head all the time and I can recite nearly word for word. Anthony really should’ve been in on Suzanne and Charlene’s adventures. I think that would’ve elevated it to Best of the Best.
Allison has invested in a movie, and they’re all flown out to LA to check it out. It’s a racket of course. But Charles Nelson Reilly is there! And there’s a Match Game reference! AND! Julia schools everyone on the fact that CNR directed critically acclaimed plays and operas! Even my least favorite season of my favorite show honors my favorite celebrity man!
BJ has tickets for everyone to go to Bill Clinton’s inauguration, but a series of weather and airplane mishaps causes them to miss it. Except for Carlene, who drives there. The Ross Perot Chekhov’s gun kills me every time.
Suzanne’s maid Consuela has put a voodoo curse on her that will kill her at midnight, and Mary Jo invites everybody over to chaperone her daughter’s slumber party. There is slow dancing. There is a bull session. There is Julia homophobia in a fun way. There are real breakthroughs in communication and connection. There is Julia being a protective big sister. And it’s just really funny!
I remember very vividly the first time I saw this. I was about 12 years old in a hotel room in Arkansas with my mom for her custody weekend, and she was taking a nap, and I was chewing ice I’d gotten from the ice machine, and I had the volume down low because I was italics feeling things about what was going on on screen. Sugarbakers is redecorating a crummy singles cruise liner and Mary Jo and Suzanne make a bet about who can land the most attractive guy and it gets real gay real fast. 10/10 almost on the name of the episode alone 😂
Mary Jo, Julia, and Charlene are going to a conference in St. Louis but the weather is really bad and they all have the flu. They’re super annoyed being cooped up together, in a fun way. Meanwhile, Suzanne and Anthony drive there so Suzanne can judge a pageant and Anthony can see relatives and they’re forced to share a motel room because of the weather and bond unexpectedly. One of my favorite things about Suzanne is her ability to pivot. Anthony is like why couldn’t we both be black? And she’s like duh yeah then I could be first black Miss America. Once she has conceptualized you as a person and that maybe you have a different viewpoint, she really does consider that viewpoint. #myblorbo
They all go to Graceland. Shenanigans ensue. It’s funny. It’s sweet. It’s perfect interactions all the way down. One of the best episodes for my money.
SO MUCH going on here. Julia’s staying with Charlene because of painting fumes. Suzanne’s getting harassing phone calls about her pet pig. Mary Jo is worried her teenage daughter is having sex. It all culminates in shenanigans.
3.18 Come on and Marry Me, Bill
Charlene’s bachelorette sleepover and Bill’s disastrous bachelor party. Monette, Charlene’s hometown friend who is now a madam, saves the day.
5.06 Charlene Buys a House
Charlene buys a “haunted house” and hires Sugarbakers as her decorators. Shenanigans ensue.
Carlene rents a very shady apartment, invites everyone over for a housewarming, and shenanigans ensue. 10/10 This might actually be the best slumber party episode. It definitely is if it’s on a jokes per minute scale. Hands down best episode of Season 6 and in the running for top 10 all time episodes.
7.06-7 Viva Las Vegas/Fools Rush In
Anthony’s depressed about his recent break up, so BJ whisks them all away to Las Vegas, where Anthony gets drunk and marries a showgirl and Mary Jo develops a gambling addiction. IT’S JUST SO FUN.
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