PERKY'S VISIT

Designing Women
Season 1 (1986)

Designing Women is in my Top Ten Shows of All Time list.  For fellow fans of the show this Season 1 episode is interesting because it lays the groundwork for a lot of future happenings over the course of the show’s seven seasons.  While I wish it was a little more Thanksgiving-centric all in all it’s a great episode of the show and a pretty good holiday episode as well.

 It ain't Thanksgiving until something or someone catches fire

The women of Sugarbakers Design Firm are celebrating Thanksgiving together and Suzanne, despite a complete lack of culinary skills, has taken it upon herself to cook the meal.  Their guests include Anthony, their recently hired ex-con handyman.  Of course Anthony would go on to become a central cast member but here Meshach Taylor (who plays Anthony) is still billed as a guest star.  When Julia reads in the paper that one of their clients, whom Anthony visted the day before, has been murdered the women all suspect him of the crime, making for a tense holiday.  They really do treat Anthony badly in this episode, indicative of the fact that the show was still in its nascent stages and the characters were still evolving.  Poor Anthony would never be a legitimate murder suspect in later seasons.

And now... here's Bernice!

The remaining two guests are Suzanne and Julia’s mother Perky and her friend Bernice.  Bernice, played by the always delightful Alice Ghostley, would return and also later become a fixture of the cast, adding a welcome zany element, as she does in this episode.  Her “arterial flow” problem results in a lot of non-sequiturs and blunt truth telling, such as asking Anthony not to kill her at the dinner table.  For real continuity hounds there is also a nice tidbit in this episode, as Charlene is saddened over her boyfriend’s relocation to Tokyo.  Both Perky (who's only appearance is in this episode, though she's referenced throughout the show's run) and then later Suzanne would also disappear to Tokyo in later seasons.  It’s the kind of lazy sitcom fix that I almost have to respect. How do we get rid of a character? Off to Tokyo with them!  I know that in real life I’ve lost many a friend and relative to the siren song of Japan.

Charlene's dress in this episode should be the legally mandated uniform of Thanksgiving

While almost the whole episode takes place on Thanksgiving it’s not exactly dripping in holiday cheer.  The show would go a lot wackier in later seasons but everything here is a bit too restrained.  We do get a nice running joke about Suzanne’s terrible cooking (she burns the pie and Bernice chokes, off-camera, on the turkey).  And Mary Jo walks in at one point with a flower centerpiece.  Don’t ask me why but I get a thrill every time someone shows up with a centerpiece in a show or movie, I guess because it just makes it seem so holiday-esque.  Plus centerpieces are just awesome.

The Menu: Turkey, Homemade Rolls, Canned Beets, Red & White Wine, Sweet Tea & Burnt Pie

Thanksgiving Quotient: 3

See It, Skip It, Own It?
You should already own all seven seasons of Designing Women, including this episode.  If not, why are you wasting time reading this?  Go buy it!