TORONTO - Actress Annie Potts drew on her own mother for inspiration as she crafted her character for the new comedy-drama series "GCB," premiering Sunday on CTV.

Potts plays Gigi Stopper, a fiery Texan socialite whose widowed daughter (Leslie Bibb) returns home to Dallas amid a scandal involving her late husband.

In one episode, the protective Gigi "has a gun that she snaps, and my mother did that," says Potts, who grew up in Kentucky.

"If we heard a noise outside, mother would go to the closet and get the shotgun and kick the back door open and fire off several rounds and then turn around and say, 'Y'all go back to bed now.' So that was just too good not to tap," said Potts, 59, who played sweet Mary Jo Shively on the long-running series "Designing Women."

"Us southern people -- people aren't just people down there, they're characters," she added during an interview in Toronto this week.

"GCB," which airs on ABC in the U.S., is full of larger-than-life characters as it follows fallen beauty queen Amanda (Bibb) and her struggles to fit back into her catty community.

"I think that's sort of the history of the lore of Texas, is larger than life," said co-executive producer Robert Harling ("Steel Magnolias"). "It's the only state in the union that was its own nation and I think it still kind of looks at itself that way a little bit.

"But they have a tremendous sense of self and pride and they get the joke. They understand who they are and they love being it and they love the presentation of it.

"A Texas woman says, 'Honey, you don't leave the house unless you look like you're going somewhere."'

Co-stars include Emmy and Tony Award-winner Kristin Chenoweth as Charlene, a blond, Bible-toting gossip monger who despises Amanda for being cruel to her in high school. Toronto native David James Elliott of "JAG" fame plays her husband, Ripp Cockburn.

Carlene's clique includes business executive Cricket (Miriam Shor), overeating stay-at-home mom Sharon (Jennifer Aspen) and real-estate mogul Heather (Marisol Nichols).

In the first episode, federal agents seize the assets of Amanda's late husband in Southern California and she and her two kids are forced to move in with Gigi, who loves wine, church and flashy clothing.

"It's very much in my wheelhouse and what I know in my life," Potts, a red-headed Broadway veteran who received an Emmy Award nomination for her role in the '90s series "Love and War."

"I think it tends to be, not always true, but generally true that -- especially on television -- the closer the character is to who you are, the more potential for its success. That's just the way it rolls on TV, and I felt that this was really close to my bones.

"This is my DNA, really. I know these southern women."

Harling also knows such southern women. Born in Alabama, he lived in several southern towns and wrote the "Steel Magnolias" play and film based on his upbringing in Natchitoches, Louisiana. His other screenwriting credits include the films "Soapdish," "First Wives Club" and "Laws of Attraction."

With "GCB" -- which is based on the 2008 Kim Gatlin novel "Good Christian Bitches" -- he was able to write about a city that he always revered growing up.

"Dallas, where the series takes place, was kind of like 'Oz.' It's where I always went as a kid for school clothes and the orthodontist and all that sort of thing, and every trip to Dallas was magic," said Harling, who is Potts' longtime friend.

"And I've known extraordinary women all my life and I've known some really amazing Texas gals, and so the opportunity to create a series that really allowed me to sort of marry my fascination with Dallas and Texas and the extraordinary Texas woman, I couldn't pass it up."

Potts's film credits include "Pretty in Pink," "Jumpin' Jack Flash," and "Ghostbusters I" and "Ghostbusters II."

She said she'd love to be in the third "Ghostbusters" movie that Dan Aykroyd has been working on: "Of course! I wouldn't miss that fun again."

But, as many franchise alumni have said before, they're still waiting to see if co-star Bill Murray will jump onboard, she added.

"They say it's going to happen, if they can find Bill," said Potts, who voiced Bo Peep in "Toy Story I" and "Toy Story II."

"But I don't think Bill has ever done a movie where they were sure that he was going to show up until there were actually crew on set and everything waiting. And then he breezes in like everything was fine."