'Designing Women' Creator Talks Les Moonves As Series Reboots

ATLANTA, GA — Linda Bloodworth Thomason — creator of the original "Designing Women" TV series set in Atlanta and who is also now heading its reboot — has written a scathing column regarding Les Moonves, the former longtime chairman and CEO of CBS Corp. Moonves resigned amid several sexual misconduct allegations spanning decades, a resignation that ended a months-long power struggle for control of the company. Moonves was head of CBS during the original series' hugely successful run that told the story of four women who were interior designers and addressed women's issues two decades before the #MeToo movement.

Now, Bloodworth Thomason is weighing in on her conflicts with Moonves, which she said did not involve sexual misconduct or harassment but conflicts of other types. Bloodworth Thomason admits her column, which appeared on The Hollywood Reporter, is "petty and punishing. In spite of my proper Southern mother’s admonition to always be gracious, I am all out of grace when it comes to Mr. Moonves. In fact, like a lot of women in Hollywood, I am happy to dance on his professional grave. And not just any dance — this will be the Macarena, the rumba, the cha-cha and the Moonwalk."

Bloodworth-Thomason said Moonves kept her shows off the network for years while he "loaded up the network with highly profitable, male-dominated series, always careful to stir in and amply reward an occasional actress, like the fabulous Patti Heaton or the irresistible Kaley Cuoco. But mostly, he presided over a plethora of macho crime shows featuring a virtual genocide of dead naked hotties in morgue drawers, with sadistic female autopsy reports."

The new "Designing Women" has been in the works for months at Sony Pictures Television Studio, but currently does not have a network contract. The award-winning series, which followed a group of steel magnolias running an Atlanta interior design company, aired on CBS from September 1986 to May 1993. It starred Dixie Carter, Delta Burke, Annie Potts, Jean Smart and Meshach Taylor.

Carter's character, Julia Sugarbaker, offered searing commentary on gender equity, AIDS/HIV, politics and racism during its original run. Potts told EW she would love to see the show return. "I don't know when I'd find the time for it, but I think that they could use a show like 'Designing Women' — feisty smart women that didn't take any B.S. from anybody."

Read Linda Bloodworth Thomason's column in The Hollywood Reporter.

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SUN VALLEY, ID - JULY 13: Leslie 'Les' Moonves, president and chief executive officer of CBS Corporation, attends the third day of the annual Allen & Company Sun Valley Conference, July 13, 2017 in Sun Valley, Idaho. Every July, some of the world's most wealthy and powerful businesspeople from the media, finance, technology and political spheres converge at the Sun Valley Resort for the exclusive weeklong conference. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)