6.6 /10 1 Votes
6.1/10 TV Composer(s) Bruce Miller | 7/10 Country of origin United States | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Created by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason Written by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason Starring Delta BurkeTeri GarrPatricia HeatonValerie MahaffeyLisa RieffelWilliam Newman Cast |
Women of the House is an American sitcom and a spin-off of Designing Women that aired on CBS from January 4, 1995 to August 18, 1995 and the last four episodes airing on Lifetime on September 8, 1995. The series starred Delta Burke, reprising her role of Suzanne Sugarbaker, who had reconciled with producers of Designing Women after a bitter, highly publicized, off-screen battle.
Contents
Premise
Suzanne Sugarbaker's latest husband has died, and as his widow, she assumes his political office for the remainder of his term. Washington, D.C. was ill-prepared for the outspoken, "big, dumb, hick beauty queen's" arrival to the United States House of Representatives, though she did form an unusual bond with then-current President Bill Clinton, who was frequently heard off-screen. Along with her, Suzanne dragged her mentally handicapped brother Jim (Jonathan Banks), her young, adopted daughter Desiree (Brittany Parkyn), and her oft-spoken of (but only once seen) maid, Sapphire Jones (Barbara Montgomery).
Teri Garr starred as Suzanne's press secretary Sissy Emerson, a washed up reporter who had turned to the bottle a few years earlier, but was starting to clean up her act. Patricia Heaton portrayed Natty Hollingsworth, Suzanne's snooty, conservative, anal-retentive, bun-wearing administrative assistant whose Congressman boyfriend was serving a prison sentence. Jennifer Malone (Valerie Mahaffey, Julie Hagerty), known to her co-workers as "Malone," was a vivacious, naive, frail housewife who was recently left by her husband, and whose children were tyrants. The years of sexual repression had taken its toll on Malone and she had begun to become obsessed with sex. Later seen in the cast was Lisa Rieffel as Veda Walkman, a ditsy Generation Xer who took an internship at the office. In more minor roles were William Newman as Dave, an older gentleman with bad arthritis who worked in the office and Adam Carl as Adam, another intern (which was not the same-named character Carl played in several episodes of Designing Women).
Main cast
Recurring cast
Notable guest stars
Season 1 (1995)
13 episodes
DVD release
Mill Creek Entertainment had secured the rights to the complete series, which was slated to be released on DVD in early 2011. In April 2011, it was announced that the DVD release has been cancelled due to "issues surrounding the source material delivery." No further information regarding the status of the source material has been released, and according to Mill Creek, the DVD's removal from the release schedule is "permanent."