The fifth season of Designing Women premiered on CBS on September 17, 1990, and concluded on May 13, 1991. The season consisted of 24 episodes. Created by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, the series was produced by Bloodworth/Thomason Mozark Productions in association with Columbia Pictures Television.
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.
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.
Julia may have to miss her chance to have dinner with former President Carter when she is sequestered while on jury duty. Suzanne, Anthony and Charlene win a shopping spree at a record store.
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.
Charlene buys a house that is haunted by the former owner; she hires Sugarbaker's to make some decorating improvements, and the ladies have to stay the night in the haunted house.
Mary Jo takes up jogging and invites Julia to come along. Soon Julia goes overboard, only focusing on running, so she will get in shape for her annual physical.
Anthony becomes a full partner in Sugarbaker's and this creates some adjustment issues for Suzanne. Charlene begins to take classes part-time, and has to fend off an amorous psychology professor.
Charlene misses her husband Bill who's been sent to the Persian Gulf. She dreams back in time when the United States enters World War II following the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.
Mary Jo forbids her nearly 18-year-old daughter to date a 34-year-old man; she then decides to date him herself. Julia crashes the men's restroom at a football stadium after waiting in line forever for the women's restroom.
Bernice gets a local Public-access televisioncable TV show and invites Julia, Mary Jo, Charlene and Anthony as her guests, but presents them as proprietors of a call girl service, rather than a decorating firm. After Mary Jo has her heart broken, she decides that she needs to warn women about men who break women's hearts, and uses Bernice's show to out them.
Mary Jo switches her knock-off pearls for Suzanne's real ones as a joke, but then loses them in an all-you-can-eat salad bar. Suzanne subs on the local news as a lifestyle reporter. A recurring dream about Julia upsets Anthony.
After Anthony's laundry room is taken over by a group of thugs, he's afraid that confronting by the thugs might spark a big brawl. The ladies arrive in the laundry room just in time to come to his rescue.
Everyone at Sugarbaker's is shocked when they discover Julia has been secretly performing at a local night club (under the name of Gizelle). Anthony wants to date a beautiful woman who works at the local bookstore, then realizes the woman is rude, loud, and crass.
Bernice gets a botched face lift, liposuction work, and a (bad) nose job that makes her look like a pig. The girls can't stop complimenting her on it, while secretly laughing at it. While shopping with Charlene, Bernice actually gets mistaken for Miss Piggy by a little boy and his mother. Bernice finally decides to get reconstructive surgery. Meanwhile, Suzanne buys a Cadillac after driving one as a loaner while her Mercedes is in the shop.
Mary Jo tells J.D. that she wants a baby and wants him to father it, rather than go to the sperm bank. Meanwhile, Suzanne decides she's going to smoke to lose weight.
After Julia's purse accidentally gets mistaken for a piece of conceptual art and sold at a local gallery, she gains a reputation as an artist. Suzanne accidentally glues her mouth shut while repairing a broken fingernail and is unable to speak, and Mary Jo attempts to fix a ding she accidentally put in Charlene's car when she backed into it.
Mary Jo runs across the man who mugged her the year before, but faces horrendous judicial red tape to bring him to trial. Suzanne takes Bernice and her friends to the mall under threat of Julia's wrath and then begins doing it on a regular basis.
After Reese dies, Suzanne helps a despondent Julia plan a getaway cruise — only to have a former client, young Randa Oliver, arrive on her doorstep needing a place to stay.
Charlene quits the children's-book project with Mary Jo upon Bill's return from the Middle East. Bernice takes videos hoping to get them on television. Julia fails her driver's test.
Anthony is invited to be the first black in the previously all-white Beaumont Country Club, which concerns Julia because she's worried that it's only because they want to get on the PGA tour.
Mary Jo and Julia demonstrate different coaching styles when Sugarbaker's sponsors a Little League team on which Quint and Randa both play. Suzanne's new car seems to be a magnet for foul balls.
Note: This episode marks Delta Burke's final appearance on the series.
