After leaving her no-good husband, hefty blonde Southerner Delta Bishop (Delta Burke from Designing Women) quits her job at Mona’s House of Hair, packs her bags and heads to Nashville to pursue her dream of becoming a country singer like her idol, Patsy Cline.
Arriving in Nashville, she moves in with her cousin Lavonne (Gigi Rice) and her husband Buck (Bill Engvall) and takes a job as a waitress at The Green Lantern bar (where Cline once sang) while waiting for her big break.
Her incompetence drives her boss, Darden Towe (Earl Holliman) mad and her co-worker Connie (Nancy Giles) – a loudmouth black woman from Detroit – despises Southerners. Thelma (Beth Grant) – “hairstylist to the stars” – is a font of eccentric advice.
Arriving later in the series were Delta’s sleazy agent, the egotistical “tune mogul” Sandy (Joe Urla), and Delta’s shrill mother Rosiland (Elizabeth Wilson).
Unfortunately, Delta Burke could not sing well, completely undermining the credibility of her character.
The show slipped from 2nd in the ratings to 60th in just eight weeks and while Delta Bishop ultimately decided she was going to be a songwriter rather than a singer, the changes came too late and only die-hard fans were still watching the ABC series by the time it came back from a four-month hiatus in April 1993. It was gone by August.
Delta Bishop
Delta Burke Darden Towe
Earl Holliman Connie Morris
Nancy Giles Lavonne Overton
Gigi Rice Buck Overton
Bill Engvall Thelma Wainwright
Beth Grant Sandy Scott
Joe Urla Rosiland Dupree
Elizabeth Wilson
Episodes
Climb That Mountain | Delta Doesn’t Get Discovered | Sweet Dreams | Shall We Dance? | How Much Is That Darden in the Window? | White Women Can’t Jump Either | The Bad Word | First Time Again | The Cabin and the Credit Card Our D-I-V-O-R-C-E | A Christmas Tale | The Agent | Mom Comes to Town | Amateur Night | Red Hot Mama | Roadtrip | Delta’s Little Dilemma
