Is a Designing Women revival next? Annie Potts is in!

DESIGNING WOMEN, Dixie Carter, Delta Burke, Meshach Taylor, Annie Potts, Alice Ghostley, Jean Smart,
Photo: Everett Collection

If Annie Potts has her way, her former series Designing Women — known for its sociopolitical story lines — would get a revival in the #MeToo and Time’s Up era.

“I would love that,” Annie Potts tells EW. “I don’t know when I’d find the time for it, but I think that they could use a show like Designing Women — feisty smart women that didn’t take any B.S. from anybody.”

The series, which ran on CBS from 1986-1993, centered on four women — Potts, Delta Burke, Jean Smart, and the late Dixie Carter — and one man (Meshach Taylor) working at an interior designing firm in Georgia. Designing Women tended to use episodes as a soapbox on which to tackle issues ranging from women’s rights and homophobia to racism and spousal abuse. A season 2 episode addressing AIDS prejudice even earned two Emmy nominations.

“Every Monday night was a MeToo moment for us, and we were talking about it; we were very political,” says Potts, who currently stars on CBS’ The Big Bang Theory spin-off Young Sheldon. “I’m sad that there’s not such a strong voice, I don’t think, in any singular show. Nobody is doing what we did then. So yeah, if [creator Linda Bloodworth-Thomason] wanted to write six episodes and do it in my hiatus, I would be there in a minute.”

CBS is already home to a number of reboots and revivals, namely Hawaii Five-0 and MacGyver, while the network also has several in development, including Cagney and Lacey, and Magnum P.I. The network is also bringing back Murphy Brown this fall, ordering 13 episodes of the Candice Bergen comedy. Meanwhile, Will & Grace is about to wrap up the first season of its revival on NBC (it has already been renewed for a second and third season), and the highly-anticipated Roseanne revival premieres Tuesday on ABC.

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