Designing Women
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50 free Designing Women trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
Designing Women ran for seven seasons from 1986 and gave television some of its sharpest talkers: four women and one deliveryman running a decorating business from a grand old house in the South. It mixed farce with arguments about politics, class and how women are treated, and its best speeches are still passed around today. This quiz covers the Sugarbaker sisters and their colleagues, the actors who played them, the episodes fans remember, the cast changes of the later years, and the husband-and-wife team behind the show. Every answer comes with a short explanation, so you pick up the story behind the fact. It is pitched for anyone who watched the original run or found the reruns later, and it works well for a trivia night: start with the character questions and save the production deep cuts for the tiebreak.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which Southern city do the Sugarbaker sisters run their interior design firm on Designing Women?
Atlanta
Atlanta is home to Sugarbaker & Associates, though the building shown in exterior shots really stands in another state.
Q 02Which actress, a former Miss Florida, played vain ex-beauty queen Suzanne Sugarbaker on Designing Women?
Delta Burke
Delta Burke won Miss Florida in 1974 as the youngest titleholder in the pageant's history, then earned two Emmy nominations as Suzanne.
Q 03Which standard about a Southern state plays over the opening credits of Designing Women?
Georgia on My Mind
Georgia on My Mind opened the show in an instrumental version. Hoagy Carmichael composed it in 1930, and Georgia made it the official state song in 1979.
Q 04Which Tennessee-born actress played the outspoken firm president Julia Sugarbaker on Designing Women?
Dixie Carter
Dixie Carter was first runner-up at Miss Tennessee in 1959, decades before she played the older sister of a fictional beauty queen.
Q 05Which country superstar appears in a dream as Charlene's guardian movie star when she gives birth on Designing Women?
Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton played herself in the New Year's Eve episode, and the cameo won her a TV Land Award more than a decade later.
Q 06Which unusual pet named Noel does Suzanne Sugarbaker dote on in Designing Women, to her neighbors' fury?
A pig
A pig named Noel is Suzanne's pampered pet, and her neighbors keep making threats against it. When Noel runs away, she takes to mothering an injured Anthony instead.
Q 07On Designing Women, which star does Charlene idolize, and whose face later appears on Mary Jo's snow shovel?
Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley is Charlene's hero, and she talks the whole gang into a weekend trip to Graceland in the episode E.P., Phone Home.
Q 08On Designing Women, Anthony Bouvier is hired as the Sugarbaker delivery man shortly after which chapter of his life?
Serving time in prison
Serving time in prison is Anthony's backstory, yet he rises from delivery man to a full stake in the firm while studying law.
Q 09Which actor, the real-life husband of the actress playing Julia, appeared on Designing Women as her beau Reese Watson?
Hal Holbrook
Hal Holbrook took the part only after much persuasion from the show's creators. He was already acclaimed for his one-man stage show as Mark Twain.
Q 10An Emmy-nominated Designing Women episode has a young decorator ask the firm to plan his funeral as he dies of what?
AIDS
AIDS was the subject of Killing All the Right People, which the show's creator wrote after her own mother died of the disease following a blood transfusion.
Q 11Which politician, a close friend of Designing Women's creators, does Charlene say she once worked for as a secretary?
Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton was a longtime friend of the show's creators, and one of them produced The Man from Hope, the biographical film shown at the 1992 Democratic convention.
Q 12Jan Hooks left which sketch comedy show to play Charlene's sister Carlene in the last two seasons of Designing Women?
Saturday Night Live
Saturday Night Live had worn Hooks down with the stress of performing live, so she accepted the creator's offer to replace a departing original star.
Q 13Alice Ghostley, eccentric Bernice on Designing Women, was earlier known as the bumbling maid Esmeralda on which sitcom?
Q 21Which actor played Mary Jo's ex-husband Ted on Designing Women shortly before leading a time-travel drama?
Scott Bakula
Scott Bakula appeared from the pilot onward and has said things took off for him after it. Quantum Leap made him a leading man in 1989.
Q 22Which Simon & Simon star played Suzanne's ex Dash Goff on Designing Women and married the actress who played her?
Gerald McRaney
Gerald McRaney met his future wife when she guest-starred on his detective series, and they married in 1989. He later reprised Dash in her spin-off.
Q 23Richard Gilliland, Mary Jo's boyfriend J.D. on Designing Women, married which of the show's stars in real life?
Jean Smart
Bewitched
Bewitched added Ghostley's shy Esmeralda in 1969 to fill the gap left by the death of the actress who played Aunt Clara.
Q 14Annie Potts, who played Mary Jo on Designing Women, has voiced which Toy Story character since the first film?
Bo Peep
Bo Peep has been Potts's voice role since the original Toy Story in 1995. On screen she is also the Ghostbusters receptionist Janine Melnitz.
Q 15Which sitcom about another strong, opinionated woman aired back-to-back with Designing Women from 1989 to 1992?
Murphy Brown
Murphy Brown and the Sugarbaker crew formed a very successful hour-long block, because both shows were thought to appeal to similar audiences.
Q 16Which network aired Designing Women for seven seasons, at its best in a Monday night slot?
CBS
CBS shuffled the sitcom through several time slots and was ready to cancel it early on, before a return to Mondays turned it into a regular top 20 show.
Q 17When Suzanne Sugarbaker was written out of Designing Women after five seasons, the character moved to which country?
Japan
Japan was already home to the sisters' mother, so Suzanne was sent to join her when the actress left after a much-publicized feud with the producers.
Q 18Charlene Frazier leaves Designing Women in season six by moving abroad with her military husband to which country?
England
England was the writers' exit for Charlene after the actress chose to spend more time with her young child, and a younger sister took over her desk.
Q 19Charlene's husband Bill Stillfield on Designing Women is a colonel in which branch of the American military?
The Air Force
The Air Force later sends Bill to the Persian Gulf, and a lonely Charlene dreams herself back to the days after Pearl Harbor.
Q 20Mary Jo's ex-husband Ted on Designing Women practices which medical specialty, as new patient Suzanne discovers?
Gynecology
Gynecology is Ted's field, and the pilot's trouble starts when Suzanne visits her new doctor and then announces that she is dating him.
Jean Smart met Gilliland on the set, where his character was romancing someone else, and they married in 1987 and stayed together until his death in 2021.
Q 24On Designing Women, which nickname does Julia earn for her habit of telling people off in fiery speeches?
The Terminator
The Terminator became shorthand for Julia's liberal monologues, and the final season even titled an episode Mary Jo vs. the Terminator.
Q 25Charlene Frazier on Designing Women hails from which Missouri town, the real birthplace of the show's creator?
Poplar Bluff
Poplar Bluff is where the creator was born and went to high school, and she gave her hometown to both Charlene and her sister Carlene.
Q 26What is the first name of Julia and Suzanne's mother on Designing Women, seen in just one Thanksgiving episode?
Perky
Perky Sugarbaker visits once, bringing along her outrageous best friend Bernice, who stays behind and becomes a fixture at the firm.
Q 27What name do Charlene and Bill give their daughter, born in a New Year's episode of Designing Women?
Olivia
Olivia arrives in The First Day of the Last Decade of the Entire Twentieth Century, an episode that earned an Emmy nomination for its editing.
Q 28In an Emmy-nominated Designing Women episode, Suzanne is hurt by cruel remarks about her weight at which event?
A class reunion
A class reunion, her fifteenth, is the setting, in a story written after the actress asked the creator for an episode that addressed her weight.
Q 29In the Designing Women episode The Candidate, Julia runs for which local office and loses after a televised debate?
Commissioner
Commissioner is the seat Julia chases, but her opinionated nature works against her and she loses to a conservative rival.
Q 30In one Designing Women episode, Julia gets her head stuck in a banister while decorating which building?
The Governor's mansion
The Governor's mansion had hired the firm to decorate for its annual ball, and the banister could not be cut free because of its historical significance.