8: Julia Sugarbaker Plans a Gay Funeral

“Killing All the Right People” (October 5, 1987)

In one of the most devastating sitcom installments ever aired, Sugarbaker & Associates plans the funeral of a young gay man dying of AIDS. This is *VERY* *SAD* episode, and we want you to know that it might choke you up, should you be the type who listens at the gym. That said, there's a lot to learn from this episode of Designing Women, both in what a TV show had to do in 1987 to make straight audiences pay attention to AIDS and how TV has evolved in the past 30 years in the way it features more complex, more nuanced LGBT characters. But yeah, tears. So many tears.

Read a transcript for this episode here.