While being interviewed on the local news, Supervisor Wilson Brickett expresses his views on the homeless situation in Atlanta. The ladies are outraged when he suggests that the number of shelters be reduced and public charity be cut off completely. However, when he knocks the Equal Rights Amendment, Julia is fit to be tied! The television station announces that they provide a minute of time at the end of each news day for citizen rebuttal, and Julia goes down to the station to tape a response.
Immediately after the rebuttal that night, Julia receives a phone call. The head of a citizen's rights group wants her to run against Brickett in the upcoming election. Bubba Takanuchi, a member of the citizen's coalition, comes to talk to Julia. He admits that she might not be able to defeat Brickett, but they hope she can expose him to voters. As it turns out, he saw her rebuttal and is anxious to confront Julia in a public form.
Bubba coaches Julia on her answers to the crucial issues. Pretending to be Mr. Brickett, Bubba calls her a gal and Julia gets angry. When the ladies imply that Julia will not be able to control her temper, she explodes. At first, the televised forum runs smoothly. However, Brickett begins to twist Julia's words around and use them against her. When the topics of school prayer and the mandatory pledge of allegiance arise, Julia goes on a liberal tirade that appears to put a sudden end to her political career.
Additional Comments:
The character of Bubba Takanuchi was written out of the final script. Anthony coaches Julia, and it is Wilson Brickett himself who calls Julia "Gal".
Classic Scenes:
NEWSCASTER: An female ex-staffer of yours alledges that you only hire attractive
women to serve on your office staff. What do you say to that charge?
BRICKETT: I say she flatters herself.
MARY JO: (to Julia) When you kick somebody's teeth in, we like to feel like we're a part of it.
The ladies gather around Mary Jo's television to watch Julia's one-minute speech on the news against Commissioner Brickett.
SUZANNE: I know someone who's not going to think Julia's too wonderful.
CHARLENE: Who?
SUZANNE: Wilson Pickett.
CHARLENE: Wilson Pickett?
SUZANNE: You know, that black guy with the bow tie. Where have you been, Charlene? I mean that's what we're doing here.
CHARLENE: Suzanne, his name is not Wilson Pickett, it's Wilson Brickett. Wilson Pickett's a black singer.
SUZANNE: Okay, so I was close.
CHARLENE: How do you figure you were close, because they're both black? You might as well have said Don King.
SUZANNE: Who's Don King?
CHARLENE: Who's Don King?! You don't know who he is either?
SUZANNE: Oh yeah, I know who he is. He's that guy who sings "Tiny Bubbles."
CHARLENE: "Tiny Bubbles"?! Suzanne, Don King does not sing "Tiny Bubbles," that's Don Ho! (to Julia) She just does this to drive me insane. It's like we're the Smuthers brothers, and she's Tommy and I'm Dick.
MARY JO: (walks in with a tray) What is the matter?
SUZANNE: Oh, I don't know, Mary Jo, it's just Charlene. She's in here raving about "Tiny Bubbles" and calling herself Dick.
Julia and Commissioner Brickett square off on television, while Anthony and the ladies sit on the sidelines, worried that "Terminator" Julia won't be able to hold her temper....
CALLER: I'm a member of the National Rifle Association, and I support Commissioner Brickett's stand on every American's inalienable right to bear arms. And I'm not any red-necked deer hunter. I'm a professional man who's simply interested in protecting his family.
BRICKETT: Amen.
JULIA: Facts are: number 1: a seven day waiting period does not prohibit anyone from obtaining a gun, unless he or she happens to have a criminal record.
BRICKETT: Mrs. Sugarbaker, you're a smart gal and a pretty one too. When you go out at night alone, I bet you carry some kind of little handgun in your purse. How would you feel if you were robbed and raped during that seven day period while you waited for approval for that handgun?
JULIA: Well, Commissioner, I'd probably feel as badly as you would feel if you were molested and shot by someone who'd just gotten out of prison and bought a gun on that very same day.
CALLER: My children attend school here in Atlanta, and I do not appreciate Commissioner Brickett's lack of support for our extra curricular fine arts programs like dance and ballet.
BRICKETT: Listen. When the petticoat sports can attract a gate that pays for itself like basketball and football, then I'll get excited. Anyway, I think we should spend less time worrying about the screwball curriculums and get back to the basic three R's.
JULIA: Screwball curriculums?! Petticoat sports?! I bet you think Refrigerator Perry is a better athlete than Mikhail Baryshnikov! I mean, I don't know what kind of an ignoramus.......
ANTHONY: (clears his throat).......ahem!!
JULIA: (immediately turning to the camera and smiling) I strongly support a more expanded program of liberal arts in the public schools and would do my best to encourage funding.
BRICKETT: And all I can say is Amen to this wonderful caller, because I too would like to hear the Pledge of Allegiance recited in our classrooms again. By the way, you may be interested to know that flag sales in this country are at an all-time high.
JULIA: I think the Pledge of Allegiance is wonderful, and so is the flag. You know, it's not an official American document. It was taken from a children's magazine.
NEWSCASTER: Yes, but should reciting it be mandatory?
JULIA: No, it should be a privilege.
CALLER: .........and I just don't think I could vote for someone like Mrs. Sugarbaker who is so obviously against school prayer.
JULIA: Let me say once again, that I am not against prayer.
BRICKETT: These people are never against prayer, per say. They're what I call 14% Christian. They go to church one day and week and spend the next six trying to keep morals and decent values out of our schools and government ---- the very two institutions who should be instilling these things into our young people to begin with. Well, I say there's a reason we call it "One nation under God, indivisible" -- maybe Mrs. Sugarbaker has just forgotten what that phrase was all about.
JULIA: (irritated) No, Mr. Brickett. I have not forgotten. I was just thinking that you seem to have forgotten the phrase "Separation of church and state", but the one thing I did forget was just how divisive, dishonest, and distasteful someone like you can be. I've sat here today and listened to you pander to these people, but you don't actually care about them, or you wouldn't be sitting here reinforcing their ignorance and prejudices.
BRICKETT: You heard that, Caller. She just called you ignorant and prejudice!
JULIA: (angrily) I do not think everyone in America is ignorant! Far from it!! But we are today, probably, the most uneducated, under read, and illiterate nation in the western hemisphere. Which makes it all the more puzzling to me why the biggest question on your small mind is whether or not little Johnny is gonna recite the Pledge of Allegiance every morning! I'll tell you something else, Mr. Brickett. I have had it up to here with you and your phony issues and your Yanky Doodle yakking! If you like reciting the Pledge of Allegiance everyday then I think you should do it! In the car! In the shower! Wherever the mood strikes you! But don't try to tell me when or where I have to say or do or salute anything, because I am an American too, and that is what being an American is all about! And another thing, I am sick and tired of being made to feel that if I am not a member of a little family with 2.4 children who goes just to Jerry Fallwell's church and puts their hands over their hearts every morning that I am unreligious, unpatriotic, and un-American!! Because I've got news for you, Mr. Brickett. All liberals are not kooks, anymore than all conservatives are fascists!! and the last time I checked, God was neither a Democratic nor a Republican! And just for your information, yes I am a liberal, but I am also a Christian. And I get down on my knees and pray everyday -- on my own turf -- on my own time. One of the things that I pray for, Mr. Brickett, is that people with power will get good sense, and that people with good sense will get power.....and that the rest of us will be blessed with the patience and the strength to survive the people like you in the meantime!!
Designing Women Online, Designing Women Tribute, Women of the House Magazine
and Belled Online ©1998-Present. All Rights Reserved.
