Empty Nest (TV series)

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Empty Nest
Format	Sitcom
Created by	Susan Harris
Starring	Richard Mulligan Dinah Manoff Kristy McNichol David Leisure Park Overall Paul Provenza Lisa Rieffel Marsha Warfield Estelle Getty
Country of origin	United States
No. of episodes	170
Production
Running time	25 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Original run	October 8, 1988 – June 17, 1995

Empty Nest is a television sitcom that ran on NBC from 1988 to 1995. The series was created as a spin-off of The Golden Girls by creator and producer Susan Harris. For its first three seasons, Empty Nest was highly successful and was one of the top 10 most watched programs. As with The Golden Girls, it is produced by The Walt Disney Company.

[edit] Synopsis

The show revolved around successful pediatrician Dr. Harry Weston (Richard Mulligan), whose life is turned upside down when his wife dies and two of his adult daughters move back into the family home in Miami.

Although not a true spinoff in that none of the characters from Empty Nest had ever appeared on The Golden Girls before, it was soon revealed that the Westons lived across the street from the Golden Girls and later on, over the years, the characters from Golden Girls and Empty Nest made occasional appearances on each other's shows.

Eldest daughter Carol (Dinah Manoff) was a neurotic and high-strung recent divorcée, while middle daughter Barbara (Kristy McNichol) was a tough undercover police officer. The two sisters frequently bickered and vied for the attention of their father (who they still called "Daddy"). The Westons' large dog Dreyfuss was also frequently shown for comedic relief.

In 1993, Kristy McNichol left the show and the youngest Weston daughter Emily (Lisa Rieffel) joined the cast. Her character had never been seen before as she had apparently been travelling in Africa for several years. Rieffel left the show after one season and for the show's final two seasons only Carol remained of the Weston children. McNichol would later return for the series finale in 1995.

Another main character was the Weston neighbor Charley (David Leisure), a womanizing cruise ship employee who frequently barged in to the house unannounced to borrow food or make sexist comments.

Harry's job was another major focus for the show. For the first five seasons Harry worked at the hospital, where he was aided by his wise-cracking southern nurse Laverne (Park Overall). In season six, Harry and Laverne left the hospital to join a struggling inner-city medical clinic run by the tough-talking Dr. Maxine Douglas (Marsha Warfield).

Other characters who later joined the cast were Carol's boyfriend Patrick (Paul Provenza) and Sophia Petrillo (Estelle Getty), who reprised her Golden Girls character during Empty Nest's final two seasons (after the cancellation of The Golden Palace). Sophia's appearance was explained in that she had moved back into the nearby Shady Pines retirement home in the neighborhood.

[edit] Trivia

• Originally, the planned Golden Girls spinoff which would eventually evolve into Empty Nest was going to feature different characters. In a 1987 episode of The Golden Girls entitled "Empty Nests", George and Renee Corliss (played by Paul Dooley and Rita Moreno) were introduced as the Girls' neighbours, a middle-aged couple suffering from Empty nest syndrome. The set of the Corliss house was the exact same as the one that later became the Weston residence, and they also had an annoying neighbour played by David Leisure (although named Oliver). However, the couple apparently fared poorly with test audiences and the premise was extensively revamped.

• In 1991, Empty Nest spawned its own spinoff, Nurses, a sitcom about a group of nurses working in the same hospital as Dr. Weston.

• The three series represented one of the few times in American television history that three shows from the same producer, all taking place in the same city and explicitly set up with the characters knowing each other from the very beginning, aired on the same network in one night. On at least two occasions, Harris wrote storylines which carried through all three series.

• The show's theme song was Life Goes On, written by John Bettis and George Tipton and performed by Billy Vera.

[edit] Airdates and Ratings

• During Empty Nest's run, it was part of NBC's highly successful Saturday night block of programming, and during its first few seasons it would air on Saturday Nights at 9:30pm, directly following the Golden Girls

NIELSEN RATINGS

1988-1989 Season: #9

1989-1990 Season: #9

1990-1991 Season: #7

1991-1992 Season: #22

The final 3 seasons fell out of the top 30 altogether.

[edit] Awards

In 1989, Richard Mulligan won both the Emmy Award and the Golden Globe Award for Best Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. The series received a number of other Emmy and Golden Globe Award nominations over the years, especially for Mulligan and for Park Overall who was nominated three times for a Golden Globe Award.

[edit] External links

• Empty Nest at the Internet Movie Database
• Empty Nest Online