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The Golden Girls
S2.E26
All episodesAll
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
IMDbPro

Empty Nests

  • Episode aired May 16, 1987
  • TV-PG
  • 30m
IMDb RATING
3.7/10
1K
YOUR RATING
Paul Dooley in The Golden Girls (1985)
ComedyDrama

Paul Dooley and Rita Moreno guest star as neighbors of Blanche, Dorothy, Rose and Sophia contending with family and friends in this initial spin-off pilot of "Empty Nest."Paul Dooley and Rita Moreno guest star as neighbors of Blanche, Dorothy, Rose and Sophia contending with family and friends in this initial spin-off pilot of "Empty Nest."Paul Dooley and Rita Moreno guest star as neighbors of Blanche, Dorothy, Rose and Sophia contending with family and friends in this initial spin-off pilot of "Empty Nest."

  • Director
    • Jay Sandrich
  • Writer
    • Susan Harris
  • Stars
    • Bea Arthur
    • Betty White
    • Rue McClanahan
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    3.7/10
    1K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Jay Sandrich
    • Writer
      • Susan Harris
    • Stars
      • Bea Arthur
      • Betty White
      • Rue McClanahan
    • 20User reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos3

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    Top cast9

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    Bea Arthur
    Bea Arthur
    • Dorothy Zbornak
    • (as Beatrice Arthur)
    Betty White
    Betty White
    • Rose Nylund
    Rue McClanahan
    Rue McClanahan
    • Blanche Devereaux
    Estelle Getty
    Estelle Getty
    • Sophia Petrillo
    Paul Dooley
    Paul Dooley
    • George Corliss
    Rita Moreno
    Rita Moreno
    • Renee Corliss
    David Leisure
    David Leisure
    • Oliver
    Jane Harnick
    Jane Harnick
    • Jenny Corliss
    Geoffrey Lewis
    Geoffrey Lewis
    • Chuck
    • Director
      • Jay Sandrich
    • Writer
      • Susan Harris
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews20

    3.71K
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    Featured reviews

    3Aroura64

    Empty plot

    I have to agree with all the reviews about this episode. The main characters are barely featured, the plot revolves around entirely new characters who we have never seen before. I disagree with one point though, Rita Moreno was rather sweet. It was interesting to see her, in something other than musicals.
    5notforyou-27114

    I seriously thought this was not the Golden Girls.

    I admit that I was only half watching the series. The DVD was playing in the background while I worked from home. I heard the girls voices and thought it was just another episode. Then I stopped hearing them. At the end when they didn't come back, I was so confused. I ended up rewatching it just to figure out what was going on.

    While as a TV episode from the 1980s it wasn't terrible and I did recognize the creepy neighbor character and actor, the rest was completely foreign to me. I kept thinking, what was the point of this episode. Once I read that it was a spinoff for another series, it made sense. But, why would this be the final episode of the season?

    The Golden Girls is a great show, but this episode is just weird.
    1corner-2

    just awful

    This must be the only truly bad episode of "The Golden Girls". One star is one too many.

    It was a completely artificial attempt to create a spin off, and it fails spectacularly. After a few minutes of enjoyment with the regular stars of the show, out of nowhere, a whole family of new characters pops in, and the rest of the show is about them. Dorothy and the others act react to them as old friends and acquaintances who we are supposed to know already. This is so abrupt and out of the blue that I thought I must have missed a previous episode. In which these characters were introduced.

    Since these new characters are only mildly and occasionally amusing, they are completely out of place in what is usually a constantly entertaining and very funny show. Usually, a spin off uses characters developed and part of an already-existing show. In this case, none of the new characters had ever appeared in "The Golden Girls" before, so there was no way the audience was going to care about them or find them instantly interesting.

    No surprise that the spin off never spun off.
    1ashley_torres-14297

    Awful

    Worst way to end an entire season. The girls weren't even in half of the episode. Random characters with no background. Worst episode made. Skip this episode if you're binge watching.
    3Sleepin_Dragon

    It's almost impossible to find some love for this one.

    Renee and George, the neighbours of The Girls are having a few issues, he's too busy to spend time with her, and she's bored.

    On the plus side, it was nice to see the girls outside of their usual environment, it's not often we see them outside of their home, it was nice to see them with friends.

    Sadly, that's about the only positive I could find for this one, what a shame that series two, which has been excellent for the most part, ends with a turkey like this.

    It feels like one of those hideous, forgotten sitcoms from The States in the 80's, everything The Golden Girls is not. It's not funny, it's tacky, the characters make no sense, we're not introduced to them, they just appeared, it was impossible to relate to them.

    The whole thing really did need to be totally rewritten or scrapped, apart from one or two fun lines, it was a total flop.

    Rita Moreno was quite lovely, a shame she wasn't better served.

    3/10.

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    Drama

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Rita Moreno called this episode a disaster. She said that Susan Harris was ill and couldn't do rewrites, and that the episode needed to be fixed. She also felt that the "Golden Girls" were tense during taping, since they also hated working on the episode.
    • Goofs
      When Dorothy snaps at Oliver, she mentions him "throwing up in the pool" at a New Year's Party at Blanche's. There is no pool on the girls' property, which is Blanche's house and where they've always lived; it is never seen or mentioned outside of this episode.
    • Quotes

      [the girls' friend and neighbour Renee is worried that her doctor husband spends too long at work and doesn't have much time for her]

      Blanche Devereaux: Talk to your husband.

      Renee Corliss: Blanche, at the hospital they call him St. George! I'm married to a saint and I'm gonna tell him to work less, I'm lonely?

      Sophia Petrillo: Don't you think St. Francis of Assisi's wife had a similar problem? Don't you think she said, "Frank, enough donkeys"?

      Renee Corliss: So what do I do? Ask George to cut back on his practice because I don't want to eat alone?

      Rose Nylund: Oh no, don't do that. I couldn't possibly go to another doctor.

      Renee Corliss: See?

      Rose Nylund: George is the only man to ever see me naked.

      Blanche Devereaux: Get outta here.

      Rose Nylund: Well, except for Charlie, of course.

      Blanche Devereaux: Get outta here.

      Rose Nylund: And the vet.

      Dorothy Petrillo-Zbornak: The vet?

      Rose Nylund: Our prize hen Henrietta had some kind of a chicken disease. I don't exactly know what it was.

      Dorothy Petrillo-Zbornak: Chickenpox.

      Rose Nylund: No, I don't think so. Anyway, I had an earache, so he saw us both at the same time.

      Dorothy Petrillo-Zbornak: For that you got naked?

      Rose Nylund: I thought that was strange, too.

    • Connections
      Featured in I Am Nancy (2011)
    • Soundtracks
      Thank You For Being A Friend
      Written by Andrew Gold

      Sung by Cynthia Fee

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • May 16, 1987 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Filming locations
      • Stage 2, Columbia/Sunset Gower Studios - 1438 N. Gower Street, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA
    • Production companies
      • Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions
      • Touchstone Television
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      • 30m
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Stereo
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.33 : 1

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