Suzanne and Julia are about to meet their nieces for the first time. As they race out the door to pick the girls up at the airport, Julia gets a call from Tom Ketcherside, an old friend from school. Tom would like them to decorate a game room. She tells Tom that she will send her partners over to take a look and discuss the job. When Charlene, Mary Jo, and Anthony arrive at Tom's to check out the room, they are startled to discover that Tom lives in a nudist colony. After the initial shock, they look at the room to be furnished.
Considering who will be sitting in the room, Mary Jo immediately rules out wicker furniture. Mary Jo and Charlene get back just as Julia and Suzanne enter with their nieces, Jennifer and Camilla. Jennifer is the spitting image of Suzanne. She even wears hairpieces and tiaras. Camilla, on the other hand, is a lot like Julia. She is blunt and opinionated. Naturally, Suzanne takes Jennifer home with her and Julia invites Camilla to stay with her. What appears to be a match made in heaven quickly becomes a living hell. Although Suzanne and Julia immediately see the flaws in their nieces, they fail to recognize them in themselves.
Once Mary Jo and Charlene point out the similarities, Julia and Suzanne begin to appreciate each other and their differences. Tom meets up with the ladies and loves their ideas for the game room. When they come back to the shop, Anthony has loaded Jennifer and Camilla's bags into the van and is ready to drive them to the airport. Suzanne and Julia listen as Jennifer and Camilla argue all the way to the door and then tell them that someday they will realize how fond they really are of each other.
Additional Comments:
Jennifer and Camilla are played by Dixie Carter's real life daughters.
Camilla and Jennifer are the daughters of Julia and Suzanne's brother Clayton --- who has been in and out of sanitariums his whole adult life. As a result, the Sugarbaker family has never been allowed a relationship with the girls.
The ladies' visit with their nieces never becomes "a living hell", it is just rather jolting -- especially for Suzanne, who has to deal with Jennifer's spoiled behavior.
This may not have been done until syndication, but at one point during this episode, Charlene relays a story about her and a girlfriend sneaking a peak at one of her brothers naked. Jean Smart actually says Odell, but her voice is dubbed over with the name Robert. This may have been done because it is established later this season that Odell is much younger than Charlene.
Classic Scenes:
JULIA: Suzanne, you were supposed to pick me up a half hour ago. We will never make it to the airport on time now.
SUZANNE: Yes we will, Julia. I'll just drive on the freeway shoulder. And then if we get stopped I'll say you have some sort of little female hemorrhaging problem and I gotta get you to the hospital real fast. I mean, you'd be surprised how quickly that gets them back in their cars.
JENNIFER: Y'know I still can't believe those silly airport security people decided to search my luggage. I mean -- like I look like a terrorist.
CAMILLA: It was just a random spot check. Anyway, if you didn't travel with so much luggage we wouldn't be so conspicuous.
JENNIFER: Camilla, I assure you, I would be conspicuous no matter how I traveled. And further more, I do not appreciate having a pack of wild dogs slobber all over my underwear and hairpieces.
CAMILLA: One well behaved German Shepherd.
CHARLENE: Excuse me, did I hear you say you have hair pieces?
JENNIFER: Yeah, why?
CHARLENE: No reason. I just didn't know they were back in style.
CAMILLA: They are for Jennifer. She's worn them since she was little. Big hair and tiaras......we can't figure it out.
(Suzanne is forced to drag the luggage in for her spoiled niece Jennifer --- who is just like her)
SUZANNE: Well, I'll go out to the car and get the rest later.
JENNIFER: Thanks, Aunt Suzanne. You know I'm sorry I can't help, but this pinched nerve is just giving me fits.
SUZANNE: Oh, that's alright, I usually have a pinched nerve myself, I just forgot to mention it before you did.
JULIA: Well you little darlings relax. I'm gonna go get you a snack. I bet you're hungry.
CAMILLA: Oh, that's alright, Aunt Julia. We ate on the plane.
JENNIFER: I ate on the plane. Cam hated hers. She told the stewardess her soup tasted like cattle spit.
CAMILLA: That was only because she wouldn't give me two desserts. If there's one thing I hate, it's a perky, self-righteous, flying bimbo.
SUZANNE: Jennifer and I just aren't working out. I think we should switch. Jennifer can stay with you. Cam can stay with me.
JULIA: Why? What happened?
SUZANNE: Nothing happened. We just didn't hit it off well.
JULIA: Everything seemed ok last night at dinner.
SUZANNE: Ok? Yeah, well I guess it's ok if you enjoy going to a restaurant with a teenage nymphet who thinks every man in the place has got the big pants for her.
JULIA: Suzanne!! This is our niece we're talking about. Let's have a little more tolerance.....and better choice of words.
SUZANNE: Tolerance? Listen Julia. I love her because she's family, but I have to tell you. This girl is just completely self-absorbed. I mean, last night she let me carry all the luggage upstairs because Consuela was out. Then she took a bath --used up all the hot water -- not to mention asking me to bring her a cup of tea while she was in there. It took her three and a half hours to get ready for dinner, I mean please! I never take longer than two. Then we got home, she proceeds to make all these long distance phone calls -- charged to me, and even wrote her boyfriend's phone number in eye liner pencil on a guest towel! Can you believe it? I mean she acts as if the entire world is just there for her disposal.
CHARLENE: Now I wonder who that sounds like.
Anthony returns from measuring for carpet at a nudist colony....
ANTHONY: Let me tell y'all. If you thought it was tough going standing up, you should try it at knee level --- talk about trying to keep your eyes on one place. By the way, they want you to
replace those burlap bar stools --- it seems a couple of people got rope burn.
JULIA: What is he talking about?
MARY JO: We were gonna tell you Julia.
JULIA: Tell me what?
MARY JO: Well when we went out there it was a little bit of a surprise. Let me ask you something; how well did you know Tom in college?
JULIA: We just went out together once or twice. It was no big deal.
CHARLENE: Did you ever see him naked?
JULIA: Of course not!
CHARLENE: Well get set, you're going to now.
JENNIFER: Anthony, do you suppose we could stop at a drug store on the way? I need to get some blush-on with some little sparkly stuff in it.
CAMILLA: We are NOT stopping. If you want red cheeks, why don't I just slap them for you.
Designing Women Online, Designing Women Tribute, Women of the House Magazine
and Belled Online ©1998-Present. All Rights Reserved.
