`Designing Women' Cast Draws A Bull's-Eye On The Delta

HOLLYWOOD - Granted, they didn't come to praise Delta Burke - but did they have to bury her all over again?

The first episode of "Designing Women" for next season - taped here last week - is an exercise in Burke-bashing that makes you wonder if the producers know the war is over and they won.

Not content with having purged Burke, Harry Thomason and Linda Bloodworth-Thomason brought her back last week, in absentia, and used her as a human pinata.

In football, they call it piling on after the tackle. In law, they call it unconstitutional - cruel and unusual punishment.

On the street, they call it bush-league.

Burke's character was invoked repeatedly in an episode that introduced two new characters played by Julia Duffy ("Newhart") and Jan Hooks ("Saturday Night Live"). What the studio audience saw was the first half of a one-hour episode that will open the show's fifth season this fall. It's not known what additional abuse awaits Suzanne in the second half of the episode.

But the systematic trashing packed into the first half-hour belied the magnanimous rhetoric that's been the Thomason company line since Burke's claims of mistreatment on the set led to her being dropped from the show.

Just a week ago, at a party thrown by CBS for TV critics gathered here to preview the fall season, Harry Thomason was asked how the show would handle Suzanne's absence.

He said there would be a "short and brief explanation" that she

had gone to live with her mother in Japan.

The explanation of Suzanne's whereabouts was "short and brief" all right, but the character assassination went on long after it had ceased being funny.

At first, Suzanne's departure was noted by Charlene (Jean Smart) in words which - compared to what followed - would have to be considered affectionate.

"Every time I look over at that sofa I kinda miss her," she said. "That big ol' hairdo covering the entire pillow, whinin' about her problems, makin' the rest of us feel not very good-lookin'."

But then the climate changed. Mary Jo (Annie Potts) sounded curt and less than fully sincere when she said, "Yeah, I'm going to miss her, too."

Some of the dialogue seemed to have a subtle double agenda.

"Business-wise, Suzanne's selling out is the best thing that could have happened. The cash flow is going to completely revitalize the business," Mary Jo said, a line that could refer not only to the Sugarbakers' design firm, but to "Designing Women" itself - unburdened of Burke's salary and noisy presence.

But most of the dumping was not subtle at all.

Dixie Carter, who sided with the Thomasons and made some especially damning remarks about Burke during the feud, delivered her digs with relish.

"I will always miss Reese," she said, referring to Julia's late TV husband played by Hal Holbrook (her real-life husband). "As for Suzanne, I'm thrilled she's living with Mother in Japan."

We were reminded, in smirking tones, that Suzanne owned a pig, that she would date anything with a pulse as long as he was rich enough, and that she was spoiled, rich and willful - the portrait of Burke painted by the Thomasons during the height of their dispute.

Duffy plays Allison, a northernized Sugarbaker cousin who comes to town to take high-handed control of the business. When the women express surprise at her arrival, Allison says she left a message with Suzanne.

"You should know that Suzanne is not a good person to give a message to," Julia says. "She is what is known in the communications world as a black hole."

Not laughing yet? Try this one:

An old man in a rest home put Suzanne in charge of his estate. Before leaving the country, we're told, Suzanne called the home and had his oxygen cut off.

It's unfair to draw conclusions about chemistry on the redesigned "Women" based on one show, especially when the new characters often were competing for time with Suzanne's ghost.

Hooks brings zest and a winning smile to the role of Carlene, Charlene's about-to-be divorced little sister, who's plumb wide-eyed at the prospect of working at Sugarbakers.

Duffy, though, seemed nervous and uptight, her breathy voice sometimes seeming to evaporate under the hot studio lights.

It's customary at comedy tapings for the show to have someone in the bleachers entertaining the audience between scene changes and pumping it for laughter. But there seemed to be more pumping at this one than most.

Near the end of the marathon session, Thomason, who was directing, made a personal appeal.

"I know it's hot in here," he said. "Stay with us, audience. Laugh with us here. It helps the actors out."

After the final scene, Potts said, "Let's have a hand for our great new cast members!"

For Delta Burke and her surrogate whipping girl, Suzanne, it had been an odd night - simultaneously crucified and ignored.