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Annie Potts in "Designing Women" in 1986. Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/coloranalysis/comments (May be subject to copyright) |
From there Annie Potts would have a prolific career, primarily in television comedy, that continues right up to the present.
I have been watching the 1992 to 1995 comedy “Love and War” on Apple TV, and Annie Potts just joined the cast at the start of the second season.
It has brought back memories of “Pretty in Pink” and all that other stuff she was in during the rest of the 1980s and beyond.
Who you gonna call?
I was about to say my first encounter with Annie Potts was in 1984, but Wikipedia reveals she was actually in a 1978 movie I saw a year or two after it came out. It was called “Corvette Summer” and starred Mark Hamill, soon after his breakout, career-defining role as Luke Skywalker in “Star Wars”. He plays a man who has his beloved Corvette Stingray stolen, and spends the summer going to Las Vegas and trying to find it. Potts plays the girl he meets along the way, in her first big screen role. For her efforts, she garnered a Golden Globe nomination for New Star of the Year Actress.
I was about to say my first encounter with Annie Potts was in 1984, but Wikipedia reveals she was actually in a 1978 movie I saw a year or two after it came out. It was called “Corvette Summer” and starred Mark Hamill, soon after his breakout, career-defining role as Luke Skywalker in “Star Wars”. He plays a man who has his beloved Corvette Stingray stolen, and spends the summer going to Las Vegas and trying to find it. Potts plays the girl he meets along the way, in her first big screen role. For her efforts, she garnered a Golden Globe nomination for New Star of the Year Actress.
The movie, that I thought was the first I saw Annie Potts in, was “Ghostbusters” in 1984. There she plays the Ghostbusters’ secretary who occasionally battles ghosts herself. She was quirky but tough.
Pretty in Pink
John Hughes is one of my heroes, primarily for a tetralogy of teen angst movies he made in the 1980s. The third movie in that series is “Pretty in Pink.” It tells the story of Andie, played by Molly Ringwald, who is bullied and on the outside of high school life, looking in. She lives with her single Dad who is a good influence on her, and hangs out with a quirky classmate nicknamed “The Duckman”, played by Jon Cryer, who has a crush on her.
John Hughes is one of my heroes, primarily for a tetralogy of teen angst movies he made in the 1980s. The third movie in that series is “Pretty in Pink.” It tells the story of Andie, played by Molly Ringwald, who is bullied and on the outside of high school life, looking in. She lives with her single Dad who is a good influence on her, and hangs out with a quirky classmate nicknamed “The Duckman”, played by Jon Cryer, who has a crush on her.
She escapes into her own life, and by working at a music store. There, her friend and co-worker Iona provides the friendship, support, and everything else a teenage girl needs, when getting ready for her prom.
Iona is played brilliantly by Annie Potts who, again, is quirky but energetic and funny.
Potts would turn to television the next year, and have her breakout role in network TV.
Designing Women
Potts had guest starring roles in shows such as “Family”; “Remington Steele”; “Magnum P.I.”; and “The Twilight Zone”; as well as a few TV movies.
Potts had guest starring roles in shows such as “Family”; “Remington Steele”; “Magnum P.I.”; and “The Twilight Zone”; as well as a few TV movies.
Then in 1986, “Designing Women” debuted. It was a comedy starring four independent women and one man working at an interior design company in the American South. Potts played head designer Mary Jo Shively, who is head strong but sensitive, confident but vulnerable, and sarcastic but kind. Potts would remain with “Designing Women” through its entire run of 163 episodes from 1986 to 1993. It aired on Channel CBC of the peasant vision dial.
The years after
Annie Potts reprised her role of Janine Melnitz in “Ghostbusters II” in 1989, and continues to act to this day. She also appeared in movies such as “Texasville”; “Toy Story”, “Toy Story 2” and “Toy Story 4”; had a cameo in a “Ghostbusters’ re-boot in 2016; and was back as the Ghostbusters secretary again for “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” in 2021 and “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” in 2024.
Annie Potts reprised her role of Janine Melnitz in “Ghostbusters II” in 1989, and continues to act to this day. She also appeared in movies such as “Texasville”; “Toy Story”, “Toy Story 2” and “Toy Story 4”; had a cameo in a “Ghostbusters’ re-boot in 2016; and was back as the Ghostbusters secretary again for “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” in 2021 and “Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire” in 2024.
She remains prolific to this day on television, with recurring roles over the years in “Love and War”, for which she was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series; “Dangerous Minds”; “Over the Top”; “Any Day Now”; “Huff”; “Joan of Arcadia”; “Law and Order: Special Victims Unit”; “Men in Trees”; “Chicago Med”; and currently “Young Sheldon”. She has also guest starred on dozens of shows.
Parting thoughts
Two words that keep coming to mind when describing Annie Potts are quirky and sarcastic. From “Pretty in Pink” and the “Ghostbusters” franchise, to “Designing Women” and “Love and War”, Annie Potts has portrayed strong, independent women who are sarcastic and quirky.
Two words that keep coming to mind when describing Annie Potts are quirky and sarcastic. From “Pretty in Pink” and the “Ghostbusters” franchise, to “Designing Women” and “Love and War”, Annie Potts has portrayed strong, independent women who are sarcastic and quirky.
The characters she has portrayed from Iona in “Pretty in Pink” to Mary Jo Shively in “Designing Women” have also been loyal, supportive friends at the worst of times.
Perhaps the best illustration of her talent as an actor is in “Love and War”. Susan Dey was the female lead in the first season, playing opposite Jay Thomas. Dey was dismissed after that season because the creators didn’t think she and Thomas had any chemistry.
Potts joined the cast in season two, taking over for Dey as Thomas’ romantic interest. The sparks began to fly immediately, and there seemed to be instant on-screen chemistry. That was fuelled by the fact Potts was as sarcastic as Thomas, and they played off each other beautifully.
For her efforts, Potts was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series.
That says it all.
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