Seasons & episodes

S4 · E5The Girlfriend 1989-10-23 · 30 min＋

Attempting to prove himself when Mary Jo hires him and some of his ex-convict friends to finish an incomplete remodeling job, Anthony gets a new girlfriend -- an ambitious young woman who sees him as an upwardly mobile vehicle.

S4 · E6The Rowdy Girls 1989-10-30 · 30 min＋

While she is helping the Sugarbakers women choreograph a Supremes lip-synch routine, Charlene's favorite cousin inadvertently reveals that she is a victim of domestic violence.

S4 · E7Bernice's Sanity Hearing 1989-11-13 · 30 min＋

The Sugarbaker women testify for Bernice when her niece Phyllis attempts to have her declared legally incompetent because she sings Bobbie Gentry songs to strangers on the street and introduces Anthony as her illegitimate son.

While posing for a gag photo at the governor's mansion, Julia gets her head stuck in the banister just before the annual ball.

Julia and Suzanne's plans go awry when they travel to Japan to visit their mother: after discovering that she has gone to Paris to see a sick friend, they are robbed of their luggage and money. Meanwhile, Anthony and Mary Jo are stuck with an enormous telephone bill after calling in votes to a television poll.

Desperately single Mary Jo, worried that her busy schedule will condemn her to a life alone, accepts coaching from Suzanne as she plans a weekend manhunt.

Fat as a feminist issue surfaces when Suzanne endures cruel jokes about her weight at her high-school reunion; Anthony enlists Julia and Mary Jo to join him in a two-day fast to focus attention on world hunger.

Mary Jo takes a second job at a fast food place when Ted's child support payment is late.

Suzanne and Mary Jo rush Charlene to the hospital when she goes into labor on New Year's Eve and conceives a desire to deliver the first New Year's baby. Dolly Parton plays Charlene's ""guardian movie star,"" who comes to her in a dream with news of her baby's birth, and Bernice goes for an unexpected ambulance ride.

Suzanne and Mary Jo rush Charlene to the hospital when she goes into labor on New Year's Eve and conceives a desire to deliver the first New Year's baby. Dolly Parton plays Charlene's ""guardian movie star,"" who comes to her in a dream with news of her baby's birth, and Bernice goes for an unexpected ambulance ride.

The ladies are hired by wealthy stockbroker Ancel Pollard to decorate a house for a client's wife -- and a condo for his mistress. Suzanne is sure that straight laced Julia and Mary Jo will never go through with the assignment.

The fur flies at a fashion show, where Suzanne's after-dinner mink causes a riot among animal-rights activists. Meanwhile, Charlene is forced to bring Olivia to Sugarbakers while she looks for a nanny.

Julia and Suzanne negotiate for a new delivery van and drive a hard bargain with an overbearing salesman (Ross).

Hired for a temporary job at Sugarbakers, Anthony's needy friend Vanessa learns the tricks of the trade from Suzanne, then goes to work reeling in Anthony.

Julia is not pleased to learn that Payne is graduating early in order to marry his pregnant girlfriend. Upset at becoming a grandmother so soon, Julia gets tipsy at the wedding, then wakes up mortified -- and scantily clad -- the next day with Payne's frat house roommate (Young).

A bizarre collection of characters is trapped inside Sugarbakers by a tornado warning, including hillbilly Daddy Jones who takes a liking to Bernice.

A redecorating job for a sports account is right down Sugarbakers' alley when it pits the women against a macho, over-confident designer from an all-male firm. They determine to steal one of his prized clients, Cherokee Lanes Bowling Alley, but discover they must pose as regular bowlers.

Julia intervenes when Bill's grief over the loss of his first wife threatens his relationship with Charlene -- and she becomes convinced he is having an affair with his new cockpit partner, Gail.

A lonely Suzanne digs through her old pageant connections for a best girlfriend, not realizing that her friend's "coming out" meant that she was a lesbian and not just the oldest living debutante.

When her maid Consuela is threatened with deportation, Suzanne puts Anthony in a dress and pays him to impersonate the terrified woman. But he performs too well, awakening romantic interest in the Immigration and Naturalization Service examiner.

When Mary Jo attends church with Julia and Suzanne, she ends up dating Gene Chapman, the minister, but feeling guilty about her sexual interest in him.

An hour-long clip show of highlights from the previous seasons, including: razor-tongued Julia standing up for Suzanne against an insolent beauty pageant contestant, Julia defending Bernice's eccentricities, Mary Jo commenting on men and bra sizes, Charlene wondering about everything from killer bees to the personal habits of other women, Suzanne displaying a series of wacky dresses, and Anthony being plagued by a variety of indignities.

An extremely anxious Anthony makes it to his college graduation despite a series of mishaps and his nervousness about his grandmother's visit and his performance as commencement speaker.

At a plush spa, the sparse diet, vigorous exercise program and thermal mud baths bring out the worst in Suzanne -- especially when Julia and Mary Jo are encouraged to gain weight.