Mary Jo Shively

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Mary Jo Jackson Shively is a character on the series Designing Women. She was played by actress Annie Potts.

[edit] Divorced designer

Mary Jo Jackson grew up in Franklin, Kentucky (as did her real-life portrayer, Annie Potts), and has two siblings: a brother named Skip (who was very chauvinistic and a thorne in her side), and a sister named Patty. She was married at a young age to Ted Shively (Scott Bakula), a medical school student. She helped put him through medical school in Guadalajara, Mexico, no less, and he became an OB/GYN. This also allowed him to indulge in a number of affairs that signaled the end of his and Mary Jo's marriage. It lasted long enough, however, to produce two children: a daughter Claudia, and a son, Quinton.

An artist who had taken art classes in school and also had a teacher in a woman named Miss Eulalie Crown (Meg Wylie), Mary Jo invested some money in a design firm, Sugarbaker's owned by Julia Sugarbaker. In the first episode, called "Pilot", she was referred to as "Jo" but as the show progressed, she was by then called Mary Jo.

She was the principal designer, since she had the most experience, and did a fantastic job. She gave her ex-husband's name to Suzanne Sugarbaker to see for medical reasons, but Suzanne ends up going on a date with him, and getting engaged, although it was broken off later on. Ted was later engaged to a woman named Tammy.

Mary Jo's best friend is Charlene Frazier Stillfield and they are closer than sisters. Although Mary Jo can be annoyed by Charlene's utter fascination with absolutely nothing, she still cares a great deal about her. She also felt insecure since she felt that she wasn't more blessed in the bosoms; and this also annoyed her with Suzanne. Yet, she also bonded with Suzanne on a singles cruise, when a man (John Furey) who was pursuing Suzanne, put the moves on her at breakfast; and Mary Jo told him off, and in the process defended Suzanne, by saying that she (Suzanne) was "no-two bit singles cruise barnicle, but the Rolls-Royce of females, who has won more beauty titles than you have teeth!" This solidified a friendship between Mary Jo and Suzanne.

Like Julia, she is somewhat left-leaning, although not as outspoken and voiciferous about it, as Julia tends to be. When she drinks alcohol, it is clear that she is unable to hold her liquor, which allows her to be a bit more uninhibited. She also is discovered to have a slight gambling problem.

She also has her share of troubles at home, dealing with her children. Claudia was growing up, and eventually left for college; while Quint was becoming more and more like his materialistic father, to her chagrin.

Mary Jo's parents divorced not long after her own divorce; and that affected her more than she wanted to admit, especially when her father dated Charlene. However, romance eventually returned to Mary Jo's life in the person of J.D. Shackelford (Richard Gilliland). Himself, divorced, although his wife Janet (Julie Cobb) denies it and with three children of his own, it was awkward.

After a while, J.D lost his job in Atlanta, and was transferred to Cincinnati, Ohio. He came back for a few days and stayed with Mary Jo, but eventually moved on with his life.

In later years, Mary Jo and Julia would tend to be squabbling more often as not. However, the friendship was still there. When Charlene moved to England; Mary Jo took Charlene's sister, Carlene Dobber under her wing and protected her from Julia's wrath as well as her more obnoxious cousin, Allison Sugarbaker. Mary Jo barely tolerated Allison, as she could be truly obnoxious and her attraction to her brother Skip, when the former made a visit to see his nephew, Quint, just aggravated her. She also resented Allison for the insults that she hurled at Charlene when she first arrived in Atlanta.