Designing Women (TV Series)

Killing All the Right People (1987)

Annie Potts: Mary Jo Shively

Photos 

Quotes 

• Carolyn Johnson : [At a PTA debate]  So why bring that kind of garbage

  [referring to condoms] 

  Carolyn Johnson : into the public school system?

  Mary Jo Shively : Because that garbage helps prevent AIDS. I am certainly in favor of abstinence, but i don't believe that it's realistic. To think...

  Carolyn Johnson : [Interrupting Mary Jo]  Oh, let's quit kidding around, shall we? What you are actually saying Mrs, Shively, is that if your 15-year-old daughter is determined to have sex,

  [Anthony and Kendall come in the door] 

  Carolyn Johnson : then you won't mind her going to a dance with a boy who has a condom in his wallet, paid for by your tax dollars. Isn't that correct?

  Anthony Bouvier : We had finished a little early. We thought we'd come by and give her a little moral support.

  Mary Jo Shively : What i am saying is, that i have a dear, sweet, funny friend, 24 years old, not very much older than the kids that we're talking about here and he came to me this week and asked me to help plan his funeral because he is dying, from AIDS. Something that he got before he even knew what it was or how to prevent it. I've been think a lot about his mother this week, and what she might give for the opportunity that i have tonight. That we all still have here tonight, because now we know how to help prevent AIDS. And I think that it really shouldn't matter what your personal views are about birth control, because, you see, we're not just talking about preventing births anymore. We're talking about preventing deaths. 25,000 Americans have died and we're still debating. Well, for me, this debate is over. More important than what any civic leader or PTA or board of education thinks about teenagers having sex or any immoral act that my daughter or your son might engage in, is the bottom line that I don't think they should have to die for it. Thank you.

• Mrs. Salinger : Now I don't like to hurt anyone's feelings, but if these boys hadn't been doing what they do, they wouldn't be getting what's coming to them now.

  Mary Jo Shively : Imogene, gays aren't the only ones getting it.

  Mrs. Salinger : No, but they're the ones who started it.

  Kendall : Actually, nobody knows how it got started. Gays are just one of the first groups it showed up in.

  Mrs. Salinger : Yes, and for a good reason. You reap what you sow. And you boys brought this on yourselves. As far as I'm concerned, this disease has one thing going for it. It's killing all the right people!

  Julia Sugarbaker : Imogene, I'm terribly sorry. I'm gonna have to ask you to move your car.

  Mrs. Salinger : Why?

  Julia Sugarbaker : Because you're leaving.

  [pulling her towards the door] 

  Mrs. Salinger : What are you talking about?

  Julia Sugarbaker : I'm talking about the only thing worse than all these people who never had any morals before AIDS, are all you holier-than-thou types who think you're exempt from getting it.

  Mrs. Salinger : Well, for your information, I am exempt. I haven't lived like these people. And I don't care what you say, Julia Sugarbaker. I believe this is God's punishment for what they've done.

  Suzanne Sugarbaker : Oh, yeah?

  [standing up from chair] 

  Suzanne Sugarbaker : Then how come lesbians get it less?

  Mrs. Salinger : That is not for me to say. I just know that these people

  [pointing to Kendall] 

  Mrs. Salinger : are getting what they deserve!

  Julia Sugarbaker : [Raising her voice]  Imogene, get serious! Who do you think you're talking to? I've known you for 27 years and all I can say is, if God was giving out sexually-transmitted diseases to people as a punishment for sinning, then you would be at the free clinic all the time.

  [Imogene gasps] 

  Julia Sugarbaker : And so would the rest of us!

  Bernice Clifton : [standing up]  I think she makes a good point.

  Mrs. Salinger : Oh, who cares what you think? You're not even all there!

  [tapping her head] 

  Bernice Clifton : [sighs]  Well, as long as we're on the subject,

  [pointing at her chest] 

  Bernice Clifton : neither are you!

  Mrs. Salinger : Well, Julia. You needn't look forward to any more of my business in this lifetime!

  [turning towards door grabbing coat] 

  Julia Sugarbaker : Wonderful!

  [opening door] 

  Julia Sugarbaker : I'll close up your account! And another thing, my son has an "A" in chemistry. In fact, he's making all A's in everything - including P.E!

  [slams door shut] 

• Mary Jo Shively : Julia, If I could just be more like you. I mean, you can always think of just a million things right of the top of your head and it is always articulate and wonderful. I need you to show me how you do what you do.

  Julia Sugarbaker : Well, I'm not sure exactly what that is.

  Suzanne Sugarbaker : Oh get serious, Julia! They don't call you the Terminator for nothing.

• Mary Jo Shively : Could you get fired up and let me watch?

  Julia Sugarbaker : Mary Jo, I don't feel fired up right now.

  Mary Jo Shively : All right. We'll get you fired up. Uh, let's all think of something that really makes us mad.

  Suzanne Sugarbaker : [Gasps]  Oh, oh! I've got one. This just makes me furious.

  [Setting down her cup] 

  Suzanne Sugarbaker : You know when men use women's liberation as an excuse not to kill bugs for you. Oh, I just hate that! I don't care what anybody says, I think the man should have to kill the bug!

  Julia Sugarbaker : [Elegantly]  I don't think i can add anything to that.

• Julia Sugarbaker : I tell you something that makes me mad about the whole thing.

  Mary Jo Shively : You about to get fired up?

  Julia Sugarbaker : Just a little. I was reading yesterday's papers about how all these Hollywood producers who are NOW going to depict people not sleeping around because of AIDS. What I want to know is, what was wrong with not sleeping around before AIDS? I mean, God forbid that anybody would be sexually discriminating because it's virtuous, or loyal or classy. No. Now it's as if they found a whole new reason for people to have morals again.

• Charlene Frazier Stillfield : [after Julia kicks Imogene out]  Well, she finally got fired up.

  Julia Sugarbaker : Was that what you had in mind, Mary Jo?

  Mary Jo Shively : Not bad.

  Julia Sugarbaker : i guess you just have to find something that inspires you.

• Charlene Frazier Stillfield : What's the matter?

  Kendall : Nothing, you just surprised me, taking my hand.

  Charlene Frazier Stillfield : You mean because...

  Kendall : Yeah. In the hospital even some of the nurses refused to come in my room.

  Julia Sugarbaker : [sees Imogene overhearing]  Imogene, why don't you take that book over to the counter, hun? I'll be over in just a sec to write up the order.

  Mary Jo Shively : I can't believe that, I mean if *hospital* people are gonna act that way, how can they expect the public to behave any better?

  Kendall : What I want to know is how'd you guys get so smart?

  Mary Jo Shively : Well, we read.

  Suzanne Sugarbaker : And I went to see Julia's and my family doctor, and he told me that you can't get AIDS from touching anybody, you can only get it from sex, blood products and shared needles.

  Mary Jo Shively : I mean it just stands to reason if AIDS was airborne, that somebody would've gotten it that way by now.