designing women season 1?

Re: designing women season 1?

If you take a look at the studio listing on the Wal Mart website, it should give an indication as to who will be releasing it

Re: designing women season 1?

I hope it comes true as well

Re: designing women season 1?

I would love to see this, and for the alleged $44.99 list price I hope they don't cut the music (not only the theme, Georgia on My Mind, but other copyrighted songs that were fairly common).

Re: designing women season 1?

I believe this release was announced a long time ago and then dropped without explanation. Perhaps now it's officially on the runway. I can't imagine what's been holding it up unless they've been trying to get some extras put together.

I wouldn't think that music rights issues would be a problem aside from GOMM and Charlene's performance of "When I Dream". Unless they have been trying to work out music rights for future seasons as well before they launch the series on DVD.

Future seasons are quite a bit more music heavy including "Marry Me Bill", "How Long Has This Been Going On", "Ave Maria", "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", "I Only Have Eyes For You", "Sweet Georgia Brown", etc.

Re: designing women season 1?

Sony was originally going to release S1 after their best of set about 2 years ago. Apparently they dropped the ball and decided not to release it, but instead licensed it out.

Re: designing women season 1?

I don't know for sure, and nothing official has been said yet. However, if I were to venture a guess based on the info listed at Wal Mart's website, i would have to say the one, the only Shout! Factory!

Re: designing women season 1?

COMING May 26th !!!!

Go to this link for details and Cover Art!

Designing Women DVD news: Box Art for Designing Women - The Complete 1st Season | TVShowsOnDVD.com

Re: designing women season 1?

Well, get my smellin' salts ! One of the most underrated and best acted sitcoms ever. It's never truly been given the respect it deserves. There's never been another show quite like Designing Women, despite it's initial negative comparisons to The Golden Girls.

The idea for this show grew out of the cancelled sitcom Filthy Rich which was created and written by Linda Bloodworth and starred Delta & Dixie in wildly outrageous roles. After that show bit the dust Linda created Designing Women as a starring vehicle for Delta & Dixie as well as two of Linda's favorite actresses Annie Potts & Jean Smart who'd starred opposite each other before. The show struggled a lot during it's first season, eventually being cancelled and then renewed due to viewer demand.

FYI: The role of Suzanne was created for Delta but the network did not believe she could be funny and did not want Delta & Dixie paired together again after the failure of Filthy Rich. Rehearsals for the pilot began with a different actress in the role (blasphemy!) until the network agreed the new girl wasn't working and allowed Delta to return for filming of pilot.

As a devoted fan of this show, I should tell new viewers that the first season is rather inconsistent in quality depending on which episode you're dealing with. The writing and acting are not quite up to what the show would eventually become but this season lays the groundwork. By the debut of the second season the show had come into it's own in glorious form with a full season of nearly-perfect episodes. All written by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason who didn't get credit for her unique talents or for the fact that she was the only writer in television history to pen an entire season of a show by herself. She'd previously written some key episodes of M*A*S*H that helped to evolve the character of Hot Lips.

The cover art for this release is gorgeous! I'm not quite sure why they didn't go with one of the many beautiful group shots that were taken for the first season but this box set still looks great. I'm still hoping for extras but I wouldn't count on it. A new reunion (or even just new interviews) would be terrific. It's too bad they can't get the rights to the excellent cast reunion that aired on Lifetime. Everyone was there including the late, legendary Alice Ghostley.

Re: designing women season 1?

So . . . the long-awaited release of this classic show is imminent - and NO ONE here is talking about it ? Perhaps if it were completely obscure and involved talking robots that would get everyone excited.

It's taken forever to get this show on DVD but I'm guessing we won't see anything past Season One if even devoted fans on a forum like this are not interested in the release enough to buzz about it.

Re: designing women season 1?

Looks like SHOUT Factory already is gonna give out an August release date for the release of THE SECOND SEASON of DESIGNING WOMEN! I say keep em rollin!

You can check out the news over at TVShowsOnDVD.com

Re: designing women season 1?

Maybe SHOUT is thinking giving us DW releases fast will help ease over the anger of the Rhoda S1 fiasco. Either way I say heck yeah!

Re: designing women season 1?

IMDb :: Boards :: "Designing Women" (1986) :: EDITED VERSION?

A few people over at IMDB claim that the episodes are edited-for-syndication versions, coming in at 22 minutes, yet Jon Martin clearly stated in his review that the episodes come in at 23-24 minutes.

Where on earth did those people at IMDB get that information from?

Re: designing women season 1?

Accroding to another posting on IMDB people say most Best Buy stores have had them on their shelfs for days now... they have a sticker price of 34.99 but .com has them at 31.99 have them price match at service desk.

I hope the episodes are not cut... I could have sworn we wondered the same thing on the RHODA blog and mentioned D. W. but someone said they had watched them and they are the full uncut episodes. I think the episode with pics of Delta at beauty pagents is now missing the song Isn't she Lovely" but I kinda figured they wouldn't be able to pay for the rights of that song instead I've seen a comment stating the them song plays over it instead. Not a huge drawback...

anyone else have any comments?

Re: designing women season 1?

With no network broadcasts in hand to judge from, I would guess the episodes appear to be uncut. Nothing under 23 minutes (keep in mind CBS moved the show's time slot around a few times, which almost resulted in its cancellation). Some (about half) even have the original Columbia Pictures Television logo with the Coca-Cola credit.

Re: designing women season 1?

If "Isn't She Lovely" is indeed cut then that will be disappointing but I seem to recall it airs over the closing credits so it isn't quite as big a loss as a song that's included in the main part of the show.

I'm not about to cancel my order just for that. But I'm sure some people will throw a major fit over it and refuse to ever buy this or any future DW release.

Re: designing women season 1?

I got to watch the first 3 episodes last night and all of them looked better than I expected, they aren't pristine but were shot on video so you can only do so much. So far I believe these are uncut episodes. Like another poster noted - some eps even contain the classic end logo featuring COlumbia. Coca-Cola.

The Beauty Contest ep does NOT contain the original song that was used during the end credits is missing but it doesn;t bother me so much, I think releasing the series is important, I would rather have original music during the episdoe intact - so they nstd use the tv show theme over the end credits. Not the worst thing in the world.

So far I think this is an excellent First Season set. It is so cool we are gonna get the second season on August 11th! it would be cool if they get a release out for Seasonm 3 before Christmas... I hope sale are good for the show, I would guess they seem to be currently to be pushing season 2 so fast.

Re: designing women season 1?

There appears to be plenty of original music remaining. Georgia on My Mind is still there on every episode, and there is still one episode that ends with a version of the Crystal Gayle song "When I Dream". This is not a WKRP-style fiasco.

Re: designing women season 1?

I guess I'll wait for a full review of what's there and what's missing. But here's an interview with creator Linda Bloodworth-Thomason that appears to be very bad news with regard to the music:

TV On DVD: Interview With Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, Creator of DESIGNINGWOMEN - TV Guidance - Macleans.ca

She admits music rights problems were the reason for the delay. But she also makes some flimsy excuses about the missing music not being an issue. If she actually believes that then she doesn't know much about the fans of this show. I'm really nervous about the future seasons of this show which feature a LOT of great music that may now get cut since even the creator of the show doesn't seem to care.

If they were so willing to just cut what they couldn't get the rights to then why didn't they just release it like that 2 years ago ? We've waited all this time and there are STILL edits ? Not cool.

Re: designing women season 1?

What can we expect to lose? I recalled in the fourth season, the episode where Charlene had her baby had "I Feel Good" and "Somewhere Out There". And there's a Supremes song in an episode where Suzanne darkens her face to look more like Diana Ross. I'm guessing everything not integral to the plot is out.

Does a publishing company really need $50,000 for a single use of a fragment of a song?

Re: designing women season 1?

Designing Women Online - Musical Memories

Hey guys, here's a useful music guide to the music used on the show. As you can tell by this guide, the first season only had 7 licensed songs. However, there was even more licensed music in the seasons to come. There wasn't much in seasons 5 & 7, though.

Re: designing women season 1?

Julia sang quite a few times, although it's possible that the classics she warbled might be in the public domain. The girls sang "My Buddy" at Charlene's bachelorette party. A version of "I'll Be Seeing You" is used as part of Bill & Charlene's romance. At the end of the second season, the couples dance to "She's So Good When She's Bad." The list goes on and on.

Music is a big part of the heart of this show. Certain things getting cut would ruin scenes if not entire episodes. I think Linda is just making excuses as if it doesn't matter. She talks about being big into using music on the show and then says it doesn't matter as long as the show gets released. Maybe if the first couple of seasons do well they will spend more on music rights for future eps. But I'm worried.

Re: designing women season 1?

It's interesting how the creators of these shows seem to be among the least interested in the integrity of them. Paul Fusco also didn't seem to care that the syndicated cuts were used for the "ALF" releases, he almost seemed to prefer them.

Shows that even the so called "artists" creating these shows are only in it for the cash. The fans are more interested in the integrity of the material than the creators.

Re: designing women season 1?

OK, so I'm 2 discs into this set and I must say I'm very happy and impressed. The packaging, inner booklet and disc menus are outstanding. I don't think they could possibly look better or classier. The disc menus echo the package cover art with the four photos of each of the women placed above the gorgeous shot of Julia's home. The first season theme plays over the menu and the Designing Women logo "shimmers".

The inner booklet is wonderfully written by Linda and gives a great, colorful history of the series. It includes descriptions of each episode and includes beautiful pictures from the first year of the show.

The episodes themselves look terrific. Even the pilot episode, which always looked terrible, is in a better quality than I've ever seen it. All the ladies look great and Delta in particular is at her most stunning even if the character of Suzanne had still not quite its footing.

The closing credits for "Beauty Pageant" are indeed missing "Isn't She Lovely". It's been replaced with the show's normal theme. I'm sorry it's gone but I'm not surprised. A lot of people won't even know that it was there to begin with. I have not noticed any other obvious music changes and the shows do seem to be the original unedited versions. In each episode so far I've noticed a lot of dialogue that is not part of the syndie versions.

I'm sure fans are bothered by the idea of music changes but I don't think it will be a dealbreaker in this case. This is an excellent, if imperfect, presentation of a classic show. Thankfully, Season Two is already on the way but I'm hoping fans will buy the first two seasons to help ensure that we get more of them.