Empty Nests

The production company eventually got a Empty Nest to work as an enjoyable sit-com on its own but much like the gay house keeper from the pilot of the Golden Girls the concepts embedded in this misfire were wisely dropped. It is unfortunate that this backdoor pilot didn't work because it is such a lousy way to end season 2.

Season 2 has a bit of growing pains for the show. It's not as fresh or inventive as season 1 but the season has more than enough classic episodes that hold up even in 2022.

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.

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.

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.

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.