While some saw Delta’s husband as an enabler of this distraction, the weight gain wasn’t met with an ill response within the show, and thus was not the true reason for the mistrust surrounding McRaney. Around this time, Delta’s weight began to increase, in a way that was noticeable to everyone: the public, the network, the producers, the show’s costars, Delta, and Gerald.Īccording to People, “ her husband stocked a room at home with pounds of chocolate, as a dramatic way of saying he loved her for herself, not for the way she looked.” Unfortunately for Delta, and the show, this weight gain unfairly became the focus for the public, creating a tabloid whirlwind surrounding this idea of Burke “letting herself go.” According to Burke - speaking to Barbara Walters in 1991 - her husband was the first man who let her, a former Miss Florida beauty queen, feel comfortable in her own skin, the first man who saw beyond her beauty.
The 1991 People cover story on Delta and Designing Women was, in some ways, the final real-time chapter of the book, emerging the same week that the show began taping its sixth season, its first without Burke.īut the early stages of the drama stem from one of the happiest days of Delta’s life, her 1989 marriage to actor Gerald McRaney. “Along with her talent, Delta, 34, carries into life a reputation for fiery southern passion that is as tangible as bayou moss.” - People, 1991 Not that it would, but simply that it could. But it’s also easy to see, with these types of strong personalities occupying one space (especially Dixie and Delta), how it could be an easy breeding ground for drama. When all cylinders were clicking, as they were in this appearance (and typically on the show, through their characters), it’s hard to top. Each woman is independently funny as a group, the one-upsmanship that we see in the show carried into their real lives. Joan: At this point … so far … well, you know it’s going to start.Ī few things are clear after watching the cast as a real-life unit. Joan: Now, you’re all still very good friends. But could it last? That was expertly instigated, as the foursome were guests on The Joan Rivers Show. And the hunch was right, because they were. The infectious onscreen chemistry between the costars suggested that they were friends offscreen. Joining the two at their Atlanta interior design firm were Mary Jo Shively (Annie Potts), Charlene Frazier (Jean Smart), and Anthony Bouvier (Meshach Taylor). The show, as you may remember, revolved around two sisters - Julia and Suzanne Sugarbaker - played by Dixie Carter and Delta Burke. And by 1989, coupled back-to-back with Murphy Brown on Monday nights, it became a hit. It bounced around from time slot to time slot, and CBS even threatened to cancel it, but a viewer campaign proved too strong, convincing CBS that the show did have a true audience. Considered by some as little more than a Golden Girls knockoff - that show debuted a year earlier, in 1985, to rave reviews, because it’s the most zinger-filled show we’ve ever had - the show struggled at first to find its footing. But what was set in stone - following this re-declaration of love in the summer of 1991 - was that the upcoming sixth season of Designing Women would go forward without Delta Burke.įor five strong years, 1986 to 1991, Designing Women was the most important show in America starring four women who didn’t live in Miami. So what in Sugarbaker Design’s name did Delta do? But when it was time for Delta to renew her vows two years later, there was no Dixie. So present, in fact, she was Delta’s matron of honor. You see, on the first go-around in 1989, Dixie was very much present. But where was it? And who was involved? And how did people find out? Rembert Browne investigates. Before TMZ, and even before the Internet, there was celebrity drama.
0 kommentar(er)
