Dixie Carter Sees Redesign in Works For Seven-Year-Old Sitcom `Women'

Every day, Dixie Carter, star of CBS's "Designing Women," says alittle prayer. "Thank you Lord for my good job.

"It's a real wonderful gift to appreciate what you have, notthrow it aside. To understand how fortunate you are: that this isgood," she says.

As the actress talks, one wonders if she could be thinking ofDelta Burke and the way she ditched her role as the sassy SuzanneSugarbaker.

Carter, older and more experienced, is far more cautious abouther career moves.

"I have a theory," she says. "I think there's a special braingas they put in the back of Hollywood limousines. People go outthere. The money starts coming in. And as the gas starts seepinginto the limo they think their luck is going to go on and on.

"Maybe it's because I have a couple of years on my classmatesthat I feel differently. I did pilot after pilot, several series,and except maybe for `Filthy Rich,' which was also created by`Designing Women's' Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, this is the first realhit I've been in."

No one would accuse this willowy brunette of not appreciatingher role in the CBS Friday night series, now in its seventh year.After all, if Annie Potts quits after this season, as she'sthreatening to, Carter will be the last member of the original cast.

Since Burke's defection, the show has undergone numerous castchanges, including adding Judith Ivey, formerly of the short-lived"Down Home," as B.J. Poteet, an eccentric Texan who bought into theSugarbakers' firm.

Then, of course, there's Della Reese, who was brought aboard toplay Sheryl Lee Ralph's mother, and Sherman Hemsley as her father.

"It looks like a spinoff setup," confided Carter, referring toSheryl Lee and Meshach Taylor, who plays her husband on the series.

Since it moved from the CBS blockbuster Monday night lineup toFridays, the series "dropped precipitously," Carter is the first toadmit.

She frankly adds: "We haven't put out the quality shows we usedto."

You mean after Burke left?

"What hurt my feelings is the quality of the writing changed atthe same time."

With the current cast, however, Carter thinks the series is onthe upswing again.

"I've been assured steps are being taken to improve the qualityof the show and we'll get back to doing interesting issues.

"Judith Ivey is a wonderful actress and so is Jan Hooks from`Saturday Night Live.' Both are easy to work with."

One recognizes the stunning actress is from the South when shecalls you "Miss" and refers to her third husband as "Mr. Holbrook" -Hal Holbrook, that is, from "Evening Shade."

"My ambition," she says, "is to do `Man of La Mancha' with Hal(which, incidentally, he has starred in before) or `A Little NightMusic.' I think we'd be good."

The Tennesseean, who appears frequently in cabarets such as atthe Cafe Carlyle in New York City, has been singing since childhoodin her small town of McLemoresville.

Between marriages, as well as becoming a mother of twodaughters, both Harvard graduates, she found time for an activetelevision career, starring in comedy series such as "On Our Own,""Diff'rent Strokes," "Out of the Blue" and "Filthy Rich."

But "Designing Women," she concedes, is the biggest hit.

Still, with all this behind her, Carter confesses, "I'd neveraudition for a movie. And I'd never get hired. My heart has beenbroken by Hollywood. The agent I had managed to wipe out what littleconfidence I had.

"I can work in television, but I'd never go for an interview ina film. I don't see any point in going into a situation where peoplemake you feel wormy. Young people can do it, not me. I'll staypigeonholed in television."