Perky Sugarbaker, Julia and Suzanne's mother, and her friend Bernice hope to escape the dull routine of their lives in the retirement home by joining the girls and their ex-con handyman Anthony for the festive occasion, considering it an exhilarating change.

"Killing All the Right People" is the 26th episode of the sitcom Designing Women. Originally airing on October 5, 1987, as the fourth episode of the second season, it features Tony Goldwyn as Kendall Dobbs, a young man dying of AIDS who asks the women to design his funeral. Series creator Linda Bloodworth-Thomason's mother died of AIDS and her experience with her mother's disease and the prejudice associated with it inspired the episode.

When an eccentric client harasses the women with bizarre decorating requests, they decide to matchmake him with Bernice.

Scruples cause Charlene to resign from her church after she loses faith in her minister when he votes against allowing women in the ministry.

Bernice asks the ladies to be her wedding attendants when she receives a marriage proposal from a TV pitchman -- who habitually proposes to every woman he meets.

The women embark on a wilderness survival course designed to build leadership -- but it's first-time camper Bernice who ultimately takes command.

Sugarbakers becomes the site of a Southern family feud after Charlene's brother arrives and announces he is marrying the daughter of a longtime family rival, Anthony partners Bernice in a dance contest.

Charlene's wedding is in jeopardy when she finds Bill handcuffed to a scantily clad dancer after his stag party.

While preparing for Charlene's baby shower, the Sugarbakers women are surprised by a visit from the Director of Pageants for Miss Georgia. Due to a clerical error discovered in the 1975 balloting, Suzanne must relinquish the crown she won 15 years earlier.

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.

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.

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

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.

Charlene aims to make Anthony's 30th birthday a memorable one -- by hiring a private detective to find his long-lost father.

After Bernice gets a local public-access cable TV show, Mary Jo has her heart broken by a client and decides that Bernice's show is the ideal arena to air her views on men.

Bernice gets an extraordinarily bad eye tuck and rhinoplasty from a plastic surgeon whose work leaves something to be desired.

Mary Jo runs across the man who mugged her the year before, but faces horrendous judicial red tape to bring him to trial.

Charlene, readjusting to married life upon Bill's return from the Middle East, quits her and Mary Jo's children's-book project.

Suzanne is jealous when Anthony is invited to be the first black (i.e., token) in the previously all-white Beaumont Country Club.

Perhaps the most famous episode, and a rare instance of a situation comedy making direct political comment on a current issue. The Sugarbakers women take sides on the controversial confirmation hearings of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas and Anita Hill's accusation of sexual harassment: Mary Jo and Julia side with Hill and Allison with Thomas. Conflict spills over into Allison's birthday party, where Mary Jo and Julia turn up in costume just in time to hear a television interview about the hearings with Allison.

When Mary Jo's womanizing brother visits, falls for Allison, and takes her and Quinton on a deer-hunting trip, the women secretly tag along.

Julia's second date with electrician Rusty becomes a group outing with Carlene and Allison dating junior-college guys, and Anthony tagging along to the drive-in with Bernice to keep an eye on things.

Mary Jo and Julia are trapped under anchorman Chuck Tremain's bed when a Christmas design contest inspires them to examine a competitor's handiwork for evidence of plagiarism.

Anthony sees opportunity when his normally unfriendly law professor is attracted to Carlene and invites the two of them to his annual Christmas party.

Julia delights in the opportunity to dote on son Payne when he returns for a visit -- which Julia learns will be permanent.

Carlene moves into her own apartment on the wrong side of town, where space is at a minimum and burglars roam free, so the Sugarbakers staff visit to try to persuade her to find a better home.

Julia stages a sit-in at the mall to protest racial mistreatment of Anthony by brutish cops who accosted him for window shopping near a jewelry store -- and television coverage links Anthony romantically with Allison.

Songwriter Carlene gains notoriety -- and her first groupie -- by entering her ditty in the semi-finals Atlanta's theme-song contest, where she performs with Mary Jo and Julia, all decked out in ""big hair"" and costumes.

Julia strolls down memory lane while awaiting the results of hysterectomy tests at a hospital whose workers are on strike, and a surgeon turns out to be her prescription for romance.

The Sugarbakers women use Anthony as ""date bait"" to reel in a big account involving a hotelier's flamboyant debutante daughter, who's angling for a whopper of a deal, then Anthony announces he is marrying Vanessa, who intends to become a partner in Sugarbakers.

In an attempt at spontaneity, a carefree Mary Jo takes off for Nashville on ""a hen party on wheels"" with Julia and Bernice, but become terrified when a trucker Bernice flirted with at a diner pursues them. Meanwhile, back at the office, Carlene and Anthony put their noses to the grindstone studying for midterms.

Julia fears the emotional roller coaster of menopause -- just as her affair with Phillip heats up, and is upset when she discovers a Sugerbakers ""Change of Life"" surprise party.

After Vanessa calls off their wedding, Anthony joins the gang on a getaway to Las Vegas, where he nurses his broken heart -- in the company of a show stopping showgirl he impulsively weds.

BJ offers to help a desperate Anthony, who invents various schemes to extricate himself from his hasty marriage to a Las Vegas showgirl.

B.J.'s contribution to the Democratic Party gets the Sugarbaker crew invited to the Inaugural Ball, but the trip proves to be a party for no one, even Julia, who struggles to maintain a cheery disposition in the face of disaster as bad weather forces a change in plans.

After eye surgery, Bernice overhears the gals talk of putting Mary Jo's dog out of its misery and figures they're planning her own mercy killing, so she barricades herself inside the storeroom. Meanwhile, Julia gets caught listing to a London phone line which plays tapes of Princess Diana's private conversations with her boyfriend.

Anthony and Etienne renew their vows for Etienne's visiting parents and Anthony's grandmother at a ceremony at B.J.'s, where anything that could go wrong does.

Julia's old mentor for her bohemian art school days in New York unveils his nude portrait of Julia.

B.J.'s dating adventures take a turn for the worse on her birthday, when a bad-hair day and two miserable blind dates have her vowing to give up men, so Julia tries to cheer her up by getting her a date with a really nice fellow.

Worshiping hordes gather outside Sugarbaker's after the face of Elvis mysteriously appears on a snow shovel belonging to Mary Jo, who attracts the attention of a ""paraspectacular"" expert (Gilpin) -- especially when she apparently restores her neighbor's damaged hearing.

Anthony is jealous of Etienne's successful writer friend, who shares a vivid past with her, but tries to be gracious by throwing a signing party for him.

A visit from Julia's meddlesome former schoolmistress is extended -- on ghostly instructions from her deceased husband, it turns out -- until the desperate Sugarbakers women hold a seance to try to force her to leave.

There's no skirting the fact that Carlene is confused by new beau Eric (Kean), whose unusual habit (cross-dressing) she begins to understand only by tapping into her own masculine side.

With Sugarbaker's in such bad financial shape, the ladies are grateful when B. J. gets them a job redecorating a house that resembles the great home from Gone With The Wind --- until they find out that the new lady of the house plans to rip out the grand staircase and replace it with an elevator. To make matters worse, B. J. finds out that their client is trying to take over Poteet Industries and plans to give Sugarbaker's to his young bride Kiki --- renaming it ""Kikibaker's"".

With Julia continuing to fight to save the antebellum Kearney mansion, B.J. struggles to save Sugarbaker's and Poteet Industries from a take over from the Kearneys. However, despite their efforts, Kiki Kearney announces her new plans for ""Kikibaker's,"" Lester Kearney announces that the purchase of Poteet Industries is complete, and the modernizing of the mansion gets under way. Though Anthony and the women are fired for insubordination, when Craig, a friend of Mary Jo's, stumbles on some embarrassing news about the Kearney's illegal financial activities, Poteet Industries and Sugarbaker's are saved from the take over.