https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYfjq3ZYZbA
Jan Hooks passed away today at the age of 57 from an undisclosed illness according to Yahoo! TV. She is best known for playing Tammy Faye Baker, Sinead O’Connor and Candy Sweeney on Saturday Night Live, but I will always remember her as Carlene on Designing Women. There was something about her presence on the screen that would just bring a smile to your face.
So to keep her joyous personality alive and watch her when she was on SNL from 1986-1991 or Designing Women or anything she has done including Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. There is a lot to choose from and we should watch it all.
Meshach Taylor passed away yesterday at the age of 67 from a long battle with cancer according to The Hollywood Reporter. To some he is best known as Anthony Bouvier and to others he was Hollywood from the Mannequin movies and to others he was Shel on Dave’s World. But to me he was one of my favorite actors. Whenever he came on the screen, I would get a smile on my face. There was just something about him that made you happy.
So today let’s not remember with tears, let’s watch one of his many great roles and smile so big that he can see up in heaven.
If you are like me, then your favorite part of GCB is the loveable Miss Annie Potts. But what you didn’t know is that her character is loosely based on her mom and an actress she worked with on a little show called Designing Women. When the Dallas native was asked if Gigi is like her mom, she said, “No. No. She’s sort of an amalgam. Actually, she’s kind of based on my mother, who Bobby (Harling) knew, actually. And I mean, she’s an amalgam. She’s actually when on, when I was on my feet with her, I actually found that there was a lot of my beloved Dixie Carter in her.” GCB creator Robert Harling added that he has known Annie since she was high school and he has spent a lot of time with her family including Annie’s mom Dot. So when he writing Gigi for the show, he said, “Well, I think in creating a character, you sort of I don’t know how every writer works, but I take little bits and pieces of what needs to be what needs to be put together. The character was actually written before we’d cast anybody or in the pilot, writing the pilot, Gigi existed in my own head as a person. And then when we were lucky enough because Annie and I have always wanted to work together and we’ve never done it. And when it was lucky enough to come to be, of course, in the shaping of the character, a lot of the voices come back, the things you hear, the tiny moments. And we’ve discussed this quite a bit, and Annie’s been very generous about it and…” She chimed in with “Well, thank God my mother just died a year ago, so now we can take all the stories and use them.” Now even though the fiery red head joked about her mom, when I asked what her mother would think of the role, she said “I’m so sorry she passed away and had not lived to see this because it would be her proudest moment to see me dressed like a lady, talking like one most of the time.” I am sure her mother is watching from heaven above and beaming with pride. Someone else is watching from above is her Designing Women co-star Dixie Carter, and she shared a little tidbit about her friend. She said, “My dear friend Dixie was very Conservative, and of course she played a very Liberal character. Sometimes she would be like “OMG, I can’t believe I have to say this. Of course, I am very famously Liberal and now I am playing a Conservative so it’s a turnabout for me.” So now that you know more about how Annie Potts’ character came about, doesn’t it make you love even more. So watch her tonight play homage to her mother and Dixie Carter on the season finale of GCB at 10p on ABC. And let’s pray the network gives their delightful show a second season. What else do they have that is just as good?
Before Jean Smart was working for Designing Women, she was working for a factory in The Fact of Life. How much fun was it to hear the 32 year old actress try to do a NY accent in that 1984 episode?
Dixie Carter passed away yesterday at the age of 70. Her husband of nearly 26 years, Hal Holbrook posted this message on Dixie Carter’s website, “”This has been a terrible blow to our family. We would appreciate everyone understanding that this is a private family tragedy. Thank you.”
Dixie Carter will always be part of a TV history for her role as the very vocal Julia Sugarbaker on Designing Women. I first got to know her as Mr. Drummond’s wife on the Different Strokes and from that time on her acting always left an impression on me. She will definitely be missed by many for the incredible actress she was and she will live on because of the roles she made memorable.
On a side note when I moved to Atlanta I was hoping to find women like the ones that were portrayed on Designing Women and I sadly never found any one like them. It was a different story when I moved to Miami because there I found a lot of women like the ones on The Golden Girls.
