"It's like we say in St. Olaf, Christmas without fruitcake is like St. Sigmund's Day without the headless boy."
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Empty Nests is the twenty-sixth and final episode of the second season of The Golden Girls, and the fifty-first episode overall. Directed by Jay Sandrich and written by Susan Harris, it premiered on NBC-TV on May 16th, 1987. It is the Season 2 finale.
The episode serves as the backdoor pilot for what would eventually become the series Empty Nest.
The girls' neighbor Renee feels lonely because her doctor husband, George, works constantly and their children have moved out.
Plot[]
A failed backdoor pilot for a spinoff series. In Empty Nest, the girls' friend Renee who had never been seen or mentioned prior to the episode, is feeling depressed and lonely with her children all grown up and have moved out and her husband's workaholic habits. Eventually another Golden Girls spin off called Empty Nest does launch featuring a different cast (other then Leisure) and different characters. The episode is considered one of the worst of the 80's trend of using an episode of a popular series as a pilot for a new series.[1]
Many fans consider this episode to be the worst episode of the series.
Production[]
The episode originally served as a backdoor pilot -- the concept was then extensively retooled with different characters, recast with different actors and became Empty Nest. The set used for the Corliss' house was used as the Westons' house in Empty Nest.