TELEVISION - Nov. 6, 1991

Pushing Buttons: Monday night’s “Designing Women” episode, which was built around the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearings, touched off a flood of telephone calls and faxes to the show’s production offices. By midday Tuesday, some 150 responses had arrived concerning the show, which was notable for its outspoken dialogue on sexual harassment and on Thomas, Hill and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. “The phones have not stopped,” said co-executive producer Harry Thomason. “Everybody wants to talk about it in detail.” About 80% of the calls have been supportive of the show’s anti-Thomas stance, said Thomason, whose wife Linda Bloodworth-Thomason, also executive producer, wrote the episode.