Ratings, Timeline and Cancellation
The show was a reunion of sorts for several members of the cast and crew. Burke and Carter had both been members of the short-lived CBS sitcom Filthy Rich, which was written by Bloodworth-Thomason. Meanwhile, Potts and Smart had guest-starred together in a 1985 episode of Lime Street, which was also created by Bloodworth-Thomason.
When the show debuted in CBS's Monday night lineup in 1986, it garnered respectable ratings; however, CBS moved the show several times to other time slots. After dismal ratings in a Sunday night and a Thursday night time slot, CBS placed it on hiatus and was ready to cancel the show, but a viewer campaign saved the show and returned it to its Monday night slot. The show's ratings solidified, and it regularly landed in the top 20 rankings. From 1989 through 1992, Designing Women and Murphy Brown (which also centered around a strong, opinionated female character) aired back-to-back, creating a very successful hour-long block for CBS, as both shows were thought to appeal to similar demographics. The show was a top 30 hit for three seasons, from 1989–1992. However, with CBS's move of the show to Friday night in the fall of 1992, ratings plummeted and the show fell from 6th place to 52nd place. The show was cancelled in May 1993.
The series' theme song was the Georgia state song "Georgia on My Mind". During the first five seasons, the theme was performed as an instrumental, including a version by trumpeter Doc Severinsen for Seasons 1 and 2. For the sixth season it was performed vocally by Ray Charles, whose 1960 rendition of the song was the most commercially successful and is perhaps the best known. The song was dropped in the seventh season and the credits rolled over the actual episode instead, following the industry trend at the time.
The exterior of the house seen in the series as the location of the Sugarbaker design firm is the Villa Marre, a Victorian mansion located in the historic Quapaw Quarter district in Little Rock, Arkansas. Additionally, the exterior of the home of Suzanne Sugarbaker seen in the series is the Arkansas Governor's Mansion, also in the Quapaw Quarter. Both homes are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
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