The BEST episodes of Designing Women season 5

Every episode of Designing Women season 5, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Designing Women season 5!

Julia Sugarbaker, Mary Jo Shively, Charlene Frazier-Stillfield and Suzanne Sugarbaker are associates at their design firm, Sugarbaker and Associates. Julia is the owner and is very outspoken and strong-willed. Mary Jo is a divorced single-parent whom is just as strong-willed as Julia, but isn't as self-confident. Charlene is the naive and trusting farm girl from Poplar Bluff, Missouri. Suzanne is the self-centered ex-beauty queen whom has a number of wealthy ex-husbands.

Last Updated: 12/16/2024Network: CBSStatus: Ended
star
8.83
6 votes

#1 - This is Art?

Season 5 - Episode 18 - Aired 2/25/1991

Amateur painter Julia inadvertently becomes the darling of Atlanta's art scene when someone tries to buy her handbag while she's attending a gallery opening; Suzanne inadvertently glues her lips shut.

Watch Now:Amazon
star
8.75
8 votes

#2 - The Emperor's New Nose

Season 5 - Episode 16 - Aired 2/4/1991

Bernice gets an extraordinarily bad eye tuck and rhinoplasty from a plastic surgeon whose work leaves something to be desired.

Directors: David Trainer
Watch Now:Amazon
star
8.67
6 votes

#3 - How Long Has This Been Going On?

Season 5 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/28/1991

Everyone at Sugarbakers is baffled to discover that sensible Julia has covertly been singing evenings at a nightclub, Anthony tries to muster the nerve to ask out a girl who works at the bookstore.

Directors: David Trainer
Watch Now:Amazon
star
8.44
9 votes

#4 - Fore!

Season 5 - Episode 23 - Aired 5/6/1991

Suzanne is jealous when Anthony is invited to be the first black (i.e., token) in the previously all-white Beaumont Country Club.

Directors: David Trainer
Writer: Pam Norris
Watch Now:Amazon
star
8.30
10 votes

#5 - Nowhere to Run To

Season 5 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/12/1990

Mary Jo takes up jogging, and inadvertently helps turn Julia into a fitness zealot.

Directors: David Trainer
Watch Now:Amazon
star
8.29
7 votes

#6 - I'll See You in Court

Season 5 - Episode 20 - Aired 3/18/1991

Mary Jo runs across the man who mugged her the year before, but faces horrendous judicial red tape to bring him to trial.

Directors: David Trainer
Watch Now:Amazon
star
8.25
8 votes

#7 - Pearls of Wisdom

Season 5 - Episode 13 - Aired 1/7/1991

Mary Jo borrows and loses a string of pearls flaunted by Suzanne, subbing as a lifestyles reporter for local TV news. Meanwhile, a recurring dream about Julia upsets Anthony.

Directors: David Trainer
Writer: Pam Norris
Watch Now:Amazon
star
8.25
8 votes

#8 - Blame it on New Orleans

Season 5 - Episode 19 - Aired 3/4/1991

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

Directors: David Trainer
Watch Now:Amazon
star
8.22
9 votes

#9 - Old Rebels and Young Models

Season 5 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/5/1990

Charlene's baby, Olivia, auditions for a modeling job, Mary Jo finds one of her former teachers in a nursing home.

Directors: Iris Dugow
Watch Now:Amazon
star
8.18
11 votes

#10 - The Bachelor Auction

Season 5 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/22/1990

When organizational confusion leads to Suzanne winning a date with Anthony in a bachelor charity auction, the two reluctantly try to make the best of a very awkward situation.

Directors: David Trainer
Writer: Pam Norris
Watch Now:Amazon
star
8.14
7 votes

#11 - Keep the Home Fires Burning

Season 5 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/26/1990

With her husband away on a mission, Charlene guiltily draws close to a man in her support group for military spouses who wife is also away. Meanwhile, lottery fever sweeps Sugarbakers.

Directors: David Trainer
Watch Now:Amazon
star
8.00
7 votes

#12 - Maybe, Baby

Season 5 - Episode 17 - Aired 2/11/1991

Mary Jo, wanting a baby, turns to her friend and former beau; Suzanne takes up smoking as a way to diet.

Writer: Pam Norris
Watch Now:Amazon
star
8.00
7 votes

#13 - Friends and Husbands

Season 5 - Episode 22 - Aired 4/29/1991

Charlene, readjusting to married life upon Bill's return from the Middle East, quits her and Mary Jo's children's-book project.

Watch Now:Amazon
star
8.00
9 votes

#14 - The Big Circle

Season 5 - Episode 21 - Aired 4/8/1991

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.

Directors: David Trainer
Writer: Pam Norris
Watch Now:Amazon
star
8.00
10 votes

#15 - And Now, Here's Bernice

Season 5 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/17/1990

After Bernice gets a local public-access cable TV show, Mary Jo has her heart broken by a client and decides that Bernice's show is the ideal arena to air her views on men.

Directors: David Trainer
Watch Now:Amazon
star
8.00
7 votes

#16 - High Noon in a Laundry Room

Season 5 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/14/1991

Anthony, concerned with his masculinity after working with the women so long, tries standing up to his bullying neighbor, and is further humiliated when the women come to his rescue.

Directors: David Trainer
Watch Now:Amazon
star
7.80
10 votes

#17 - Miss Trial

Season 5 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/15/1990

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

Directors: David Trainer
Watch Now:Amazon
star
7.78
9 votes

#18 - Working Mother

Season 5 - Episode 3 - Aired 10/1/1990

Resentment builds between Charlene and Mary Jo when Charlene wants to take a year off to look after her baby. The decorators cater to the whims of a rich, insufferable 10-year-old client as Mary Jo and Charlene ponder the joys and pitfalls of working mothers.

Directors: David Trainer
Writer: Pam Norris
star
7.77
13 votes

#19 - Charlene Buys a House

Season 5 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/29/1990

As the proud new owner of a grand but ghostly mansion, Charlene hires the decorators to give the place a facelift -- not mentioning that it's haunted.

Directors: David Trainer
Writer: Pam Norris
star
7.71
7 votes

#20 - The Pride of Sugarbakers

Season 5 - Episode 24 - Aired 5/13/1991

Mary Jo and Julia demonstrate different coaching styles when their firm sponsors a Little League team.

Directors: Iris Dugow
star
7.67
12 votes

#21 - A Class Act

Season 5 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/19/1990

Anthony buys in to become a full partner; new student Charlene fends off an amorous psychology professor.

Directors: Dwayne Hickman
star
7.64
11 votes

#22 - A Blast from the Past

Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/17/1990

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.

Directors: David Trainer
Writer: Pam Norris
star
7.50
8 votes

#23 - My Daughter, Myself

Season 5 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/10/1990

Mary Jo forbids her nearly 18-year-old daughter to date a 34-year-old, then dates him herself, Julia is forced to crash the men's room at a football stadium.

Directors: David Trainer
Writer: Pam Norris
star
7.27
11 votes

#24 - Papa Was a Rolling Stone

Season 5 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/24/1990

Charlene aims to make Anthony's 30th birthday a memorable one -- by hiring a private detective to find his long-lost father.

Directors: David Trainer