but she hired former Jimmy Carter speech writer E. Jack Kaplan to help pick up the slack. Filthy Rich returned to the air on Wednesday, October 5. Nestled between Alice and Tucker's Witch and opposite the new series NBC's Family Ties, ratings quickly plummeted; Filthy Rich ranked #60 in the weekly TV ratings by the end of October. In November, six weeks into the show's second season, all three series were yanked off the schedule and replaced with The CBS Wednesday Movie. Filthy Rich returned to the schedule by January 1983 — on Monday nights, sandwiched between Square Pegs and M*A*S*H. Ratings didn't improve. It aired for a month before being pulled from the schedule again. The remaining two episodes aired in June, after the series had officially been canceled. Designing Women and Evening Shade Filthy Rich paved the way for one of CBS's most successful TV series of the late 1980s: Designing Women. "I'd worked with Dixie and Delta on Filthy Rich", Bloodworth revealed in a 1986 interview. "We've had a secret plot since then to work together again." Bloodworth created the roles of Julia and Suzanne Sugarbaker for Carter and Burke (Burke referred to her Filthy Rich character as "Suzanne in the Beginning;" and Carter's Julia, with her self-righteous, long-winded monologues had more than a bit in common with Carlotta) and numerous one-liners were recycled along with a "hog hat" prop which was prominently featured in episodes of both series. Filthy Rich stars Nedra Volz and Charles Frank each guest-starred on Designing Women, as did guest-stars Tracey Walter, William Utay, Davis Roberts and John Petlock, and E. Jack Kaplan penned an early episode. Additionally, Charles Frank reunited with Burke for an episode of the short-lived Designing Women spin-off Women of the House. By the early 1990s, another Filthy Rich cast member found work in a new Bloodworth series. Evening Shade, which aired from 1990 through 1994, included Ann Wedgeworth among its cast as Merleen Eldridge, the wife of the town doctor. Episodes Season 1 (1982) Season 2 (1982–83) Ratings References External links 1982 American television series debuts 1983 American television series endings 1980s American satirical television series 1980s American sitcoms CBS original programming English-language television shows Television series created by Linda Bloodworth-Thomason Television series by Sony Pictures Television Television shows set in Tennessee