The Best Episodes of Designing Women

"Killing All the Right People" is the 26th episode of the sitcom Designing Women. Originally airing on October 5, 1987, as the fourth episode of the second season, it features Tony Goldwyn as Kendall Dobbs, a young man dying of AIDS who asks the women to design his funeral. Series creator Linda Bloodworth-Thomason's mother died of AIDS and her experience with her mother's disease and the prejudice associated with it inspired the episode.

Director: Harry Thomason

Writer: Linda Bloodworth-Thomason

Fat as a feminist issue surfaces when Suzanne endures cruel jokes about her weight at her high-school reunion; Anthony enlists Julia and Mary Jo to join him in a two-day fast to focus attention on world hunger.

Director: Harry Thomason

Writer: Linda Bloodworth-Thomason

While Charlene, Julia and Mary Jo get the flu on a trip to St. Louis, a snowstorm forces Suzanne and Anthony to share a motel room in Tennessee.

Director: David Trainer

Writer: Linda Bloodworth-Thomason

Suzanne and Mary Jo rush Charlene to the hospital when she goes into labor on New Year's Eve and conceives a desire to deliver the first New Year's baby. Dolly Parton plays Charlene's ""guardian movie star,"" who comes to her in a dream with news of her baby's birth, and Bernice goes for an unexpected ambulance ride.

Director: Harry Thomason

Writer: Linda Bloodworth-Thomason

While in Reese's office to sign legal papers, Suzanne off-handedly volunteers to keep a Vietnamese boat child, Li Sing, who is being adopted but needs an interim home for the next four weeks while final papers are being completed. Suzanne becomes attached to Li Sing quickly and doesn't want to give her over to her new family.

Director: Matthew Diamond

Writer: Linda Bloodworth-Thomason

The Sugarbaker women testify for Bernice when her niece Phyllis attempts to have her declared legally incompetent because she sings Bobbie Gentry songs to strangers on the street and introduces Anthony as her illegitimate son.

Director: David Trainer

Writer: Linda Bloodworth-Thomason

Suzanne and Mary Jo rush Charlene to the hospital when she goes into labor on New Year's Eve and conceives a desire to deliver the first New Year's baby. Dolly Parton plays Charlene's ""guardian movie star,"" who comes to her in a dream with news of her baby's birth, and Bernice goes for an unexpected ambulance ride.

Director: Harry Thomason

Writer: Linda Bloodworth-Thomason

Charlene sponsors Mary Jo's daughter in the Miss Pre-Teen Atlanta contest, and despite her depression over her own upcoming 30th birthday, Suzanne coaches Claudia on how to walk and smile.

Director: Jack Shea

Writer: Linda Bloodworth-Thomason

While preparing for Charlene's baby shower, the Sugarbakers women are surprised by a visit from the Director of Pageants for Miss Georgia. Due to a clerical error discovered in the 1975 balloting, Suzanne must relinquish the crown she won 15 years earlier.

Director: David Trainer

Writer: N/A

A bizarre collection of characters is trapped inside Sugarbakers by a tornado warning, including hillbilly Daddy Jones who takes a liking to Bernice.

Director: William Crain

Writer: Linda Bloodworth-Thomason

When her maid Consuela is threatened with deportation, Suzanne puts Anthony in a dress and pays him to impersonate the terrified woman. But he performs too well, awakening romantic interest in the Immigration and Naturalization Service examiner.

Director: David Trainer

Writer: N/A

At a plush spa, the sparse diet, vigorous exercise program and thermal mud baths bring out the worst in Suzanne -- especially when Julia and Mary Jo are encouraged to gain weight.

Director: N/A

Writer: Linda Bloodworth-Thomason

When the gang attends a convention in intoxicating New Orleans, Mary Jo unwittingly sleeps with a married man.

Director: David Trainer

Writer: N/A

The women embark on a wilderness survival course designed to build leadership -- but it's first-time camper Bernice who ultimately takes command.

Director: David Trainer

Writer: Linda Bloodworth-Thomason

Sugarbaker's is beset by tourists when the building's Civil War foundation puts it on the Tour of Historical Homes, Mary Jo opens her heart to an old friend eager to make good on a marriage pact they once entered into.

Director: David Trainer

Writer: N/A

Carlene moves into her own apartment on the wrong side of town, where space is at a minimum and burglars roam free, so the Sugarbakers staff visit to try to persuade her to find a better home.

Director: David Steinberg

Writer: N/A

Suzanne's visiting ex, a novelist who loves flowery Southern words and women, is in a writer's slump and contemplating suicide.

Director: David Trainer

Writer: Linda Bloodworth-Thomason

Mary-Jo contemplates breast enlargement after receiving an inheritance from her uncle Dude stipulating that she must spend it on something frivolous.

Director: Harry Thomason

Writer: Linda Bloodworth-Thomason

A full moon coincides with strange occurrences, including Mary Jo's sudden conviction that Claudia and her boyfriend are up to no good.

Director: David Trainer

Writer: Linda Bloodworth-Thomason

Charlene's wedding is in jeopardy when she finds Bill handcuffed to a scantily clad dancer after his stag party.

Director: David Trainer

Writer: Linda Bloodworth-Thomason

Julia's dinner plans with former President Jimmy Carter and his wife are put on hold when her slow-moving jury gets sequestered.

Director: David Trainer

Writer: N/A

Julia tries coping with her boyfriend Reese's death by looking after Randa Oliver, the supremely spoiled child of a client couple on an extended vacation.

Director: David Trainer

Writer: N/A

A romantic ski weekend becomes a battle of the sexes when an avalanche sidelines the Sugarbakers ladies and their boyfriends.

Director: Hal Holbrook

Writer: Linda Bloodworth-Thomason

Charlene becomes a part-time saleswoman for ""Lady Jun"" cleaning products, and when she repeatedly succumbs to psychological pressure from her friend Libby despite her stated intention to quit, Julia determines to rescue her from this ""cult"" -- and winds up taking on Lady Jun herself. Meanwhile, Anthony receives an unusual nomination from his junior college -- as homecoming queen -- and gets unexpected support from Suzanne.

Director: David Trainer

Writer: N/A

Mary Jo uses the mansion she's decorating to entertain, and Anthony suffers when his health insurance lapses and Suzanne must nurse his injured back.

Director: Harry Thomason

Writer: Linda Bloodworth-Thomason