Nick at Nite's Got Georgia on its Mind as it Welcomes Designing Women to the Network Beginning October 2

NEW YORK, Sept. 28 -- The Sugarbakers have their designs on Nick at Nite as the hit comedy Designing Women joins the Nick at Nite line-up beginning Monday, October 2. The critically-acclaimed series kicks off with a four-day marathon of the show's best-loved episodes from 10 p.m.-2 a.m. (all times ET/PT) and airs through Thursday, October 5. It will air in its regularly scheduled timeslot of 12 a.m. Monday-Saturday beginning Friday, October 6.

"Designing Women is a hilarious comedy with a great ensemble cast of outspoken and sassy women," states Jaclyn Cohen, Senior Vice President, Programming and Acquisitions, TV Land and Nick at Nite. "Its strong writing and honest storylines have such a strong appeal to women, and as Nick at Nite is the premier destination for Women 18-49 and 18-34, it truly is the perfect fit."

Created by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, Designing Women aired on CBS and starred Dixie Carter, Delta Burke, Jeanne Smart and Annie Potts as four outspoken Southern women running Sugarbaker and Associates, an interior decorating business in Atlanta. The show, which aired from 1986 to 1993, focuses on their personal and professional lives, as they deal with their business, romances and friendship. Julia Sugarbaker (Carter) is the founder of the business and the classy and smart one of the bunch. Her sister Suzanne (Burke), is a former beauty queen who uses her flirtatious ways to charm both clients and men, Mary Jo (Potts), is a recently divorced mom with two kids and Charlene (Smart) is the trusting business manager who has never been married. Anthony (Meshach Taylor) is their outspoken deliveryman/handyman, who also happens to be an ex-con, but constantly gives his opinion on everything going on in the ladies' lives. In the series' fifth season, as Burke and Smart left the show, two new characters were introduced. Allison Sugarbaker (Julia Duffy), Suzanne and Julia's cousin, and Carlene Frazier Dobber (Jan Hooks), Charlene's newly divorced sister. The final cast change was when Julia Duffy left the series and Bonnie Jean "B.J." Poteet (Judith Ivey), a wealthy widow, was brought in to save the firm that had become financially strapped.

The schedule line-up for the Designing Women marathon is as follows:

Monday

10:00pm #001 - Designing Women (Pilot) Guest star: Scott Bakula Suzanne visits a new gynecologist, Mary Jo's ex-husband Ted, and a maelstrom of emotions is unleashed when she announces she is dating him.

10:30pm #005 - Mary Jo's First Date Concerned that Mary Jo hasn't dated since she and Ted broke up, Suzanne arranges a blind date for her with an old acquaintance, J.D. Shackelford, head scout for the Atlanta Braves baseball team, while Julia struggles through an I.R.S. audit conducted by the same Ray Don Simpson who tried to pick up the women at a restaurant and suffered a tongue-lashing from Julia.

11:00pm #007 - Perky's Visit Perky Sugarbaker, Julia and Suzanne's mother, and her friend Bernice hope to escape the dull routine of their lives in the retirement home by joining the girls and their ex-con handyman Anthony for the festive occasion, considering it an exhilarating change. Guest star: Louise Latham

11:30pm #018 - Oh, Suzannah While in Reese's office to sign legal papers, Suzanne off-handedly volunteers to keep a Vietnamese boat child, Li Sing, who is being adopted but needs an interim home for the next four weeks while final papers are being completed. Suzanne becomes attached to Li Sing quickly and doesn't want to give her over to her new family.

12:00am #026 - Killing All the Right People Guest star: Tony Goldwyn News that a friend and fellow decorator is dying of AIDS (and wants Sugarbakers to design his funeral) gets Mary Jo fired up at a PTA debate on sex education and contraception.

12:30am #028 - Dash Goff, the Writer Suzanne's visiting ex, a novelist who loves flowery Southern words and women, is in a writer's slump and contemplating suicide. Guest star: Gerald McRaney

1:00am #029 - Heart Attacks Reese's fitness demonstration -- arm wrestling an old buddy and sometime-rival -- causes a heart attack, and subsequent different treatment from Julia. Guest star: Hal Holbrook

1:30am #032 - Stranded While Charlene, Julia and Mary Jo get the flu on a trip to St. Louis, a snowstorm forces Suzanne and Anthony to share a motel room in Tennessee.

Tuesday

10:00pm #044 - Reservations for Eight A romantic ski weekend becomes a battle of the sexes when an avalanche sidelines the Sugarbakers ladies and their boyfriends. Guest star: Hal Holbrook, Gerald McRaney

10:30pm #049 - Big Haas and Little Falsie Mary-Jo contemplates breast enlargement after receiving an inheritance from her Uncle Dude stipulating that she must spend it on something frivolous.

11:00pm #053 - Tyrone Acting as surrogate brother to a troubled youth, Anthony remembers his own painful childhood, and when Julia puts her trust in Anthony's juvenile charge, it only gets her photo on the evening news. Guest star: Shavar Ross

11:30pm #059 - Full Moon A full moon coincides with strange occurrences: Julia gets her dress stuck in her pantyhose during a fashion show runway walk, Suzanne buys a gun to protect her pig from threats, and Mary Jo suddenly wants to find her daughter at look-out point, convinced that Claudia and her boyfriend are up to no good.

12:00am #062 - Come On and Marry Me, Bill Charlene's wedding is in jeopardy when she finds Bill handcuffed to a scantily clad dancer after his stag party.

12:30am #065 - The Last Humorously-Dressed Bellboy in America When she discovers him working as a bellboy/pianist, the accountant who absconded with her life savings offers Suzanne a deal.

1:00am #069 - There She Is While preparing for Charlene's baby shower, the Sugarbakers women are surprised by a visit from the Director of Pageants for Miss Georgia. Due to a clerical error discovered in the 1975 balloting, Suzanne must relinquish the crown she won 15 years earlier.

1:30am #072 - The Rowdy Girls While she is helping the Sugarbakers women choreograph a Supremes lip-synch routine, Charlene's favorite cousin inadvertently reveals that she is a victim of domestic violence.

Wednesday

10:00pm #074 - Julia Gets Her Head Stuck in a Fence While posing for a gag photo at the governor's mansion, Julia gets her head stuck in the banister just before the annual ball.

10:30pm #077 - They Shoot Fat Women, Don't They? Feeling that she is beautiful for her class reunion, Suzanne is forced to re-evaluate her life when she becomes the victim of cruel jokes and hurtful comments regarding her weight gain. Anthony enlists Julia and Mary Jo to join him in a two-day fast to focus attention on world hunger.

11:00pm #079 - The First Day of the Last Decade of the Entire Twentieth Century (1) Suzanne and Mary Jo rush Charlene to the hospital when she goes into labor on New Year's Eve and conceives a desire to deliver the first New Year's baby. Dolly Parton plays Charlene's "guardian movie star," who comes to her in a dream with news of her baby's birth, and Bernice goes for an unexpected ambulance ride. Guest star: Dolly Parton

11:30pm #080 - The First Day of the Last Decade of the Entire Twentieth Century (2) Suzanne and Mary Jo rush Charlene to the hospital when she goes into labor on New Year's Eve and conceives a desire to deliver the first New Year's baby. Dolly Parton plays Charlene's "guardian movie star," who comes to her in a dream with news of her baby's birth, and Bernice goes for an unexpected ambulance ride. Guest star: Dolly Parton

12:00am #099 - Miss Trial Julia's dinner plans with former President Jimmy Carter and his wife are put on hold when her slow-moving jury gets sequestered.

12:30am #104 - A Class Act Guest star: Richard Sanders Suzanne had trouble relating to Anthony after he buys in to become a full partner; new student Charlene fends off an amorous psychology professor.

1:00am #116 - The Big Circle Julia tries coping with her boyfriend Reese's death by looking after Randa Oliver, the supremely spoiled child of a client couple on an extended vacation.

1:30am #118 - Fore! Suzanne is jealous when Anthony is invited to be the first black (i.e., token) in the previously all-white Beaumont Country Club.

Thursday

10:00pm #120 - The Big Desk (1) Sugarbaker cousin Allison buys out Suzanne's share of the business and then moves in, complete with an enormous desk and a take-charge attitude. Also, Charlene's younger sister Carlene arrives and reveals she's divorcing her husband.

10:30pm #121 - The Big Desk (2) Sugarbaker cousin and the new not-so-silent partner Allison tries to take charge of Sugarbaker's and Julia is not too thrilled.

11:00pm #127 - The Strange Case of Clarence and Anita Guest star: Ted Kennedy, Senator Alan Simpson Perhaps the most famous episode and a rare instance of a situation comedy making direct political comment on a current issue. The Sugarbakers women take sides on the controversial confirmation hearings of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill's accusation of sexual harassment: Mary Jo and Julia side with Hill and Allison with Thomas. Conflict spills over into Allison's birthday party, where Mary Jo and Julia turn up in costume just in time to hear a television interview about the hearings with Allison.

11:30pm #130 - Julia and Mary Jo Get Stuck Under a Bed Mary Jo and Julia are trapped under anchorman Chuck Tremains' bed when a Christmas design contest inspires them to examine a competitor's handiwork for evidence of plagiarism.

12:00am #143 - Of Human Bondage After cousin Allison leaves Sugarbakers, Julia needs cash but is refused a bank loan. To cheer themselves up, the women get drunk and rowdy celebrating Julia's birthday at the house of wealthy client B.J. Poteet, who wins the business from them in a poker game.

12:30am #156 - Wedding Redux Guest star: Della Reese, Sherman Hemsley Anthony and Etienne renew their vows for Etienne's visiting parents and Anthony's grandmother at a ceremony at B.J.'s, where anything that could go wrong does.

1:00am #163 - Gone With a Whim (1) With Sugarbaker's in such bad financial shape, the ladies are grateful when B. J. gets them a job redecorating a house that resembles the great home from Gone with the Wind -- until they find out that the new lady of the house plans to rip out the grand staircase and replace it with an elevator. To make matters worse, B. J. finds out that their client is trying to take over Poteet Industries and plans to give Sugarbaker's to his young bride Kiki --- renaming it "Kikibaker's".

1:30am #164 - Gone With a Whim (2) With Julia continuing to fight to save the antebellum Kearney mansion, B.J. struggles to save Sugarbaker's and Poteet Industries from a take over from the Kearneys. However, despite their efforts, Kiki Kearney announces her new plans for "Kikibaker's," Lester Kearney announces that the purchase of Poteet Industries is complete, and the modernizing of the mansion gets under way.

Currently seen in more than 88 million U.S. homes, Nick at Nite features timeless hit comedies: The Cosby Show -- this Emmy Award-winning sitcom is one of the network's highest-rated shows: Full House -- this popular family comedy launched on the network in October and is one of the highest-rated and most popular syndicated programs in television; and Roseanne, one of the most talk-about and celebrated sitcoms in television history.

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