Series Description

The Empty Nest TV show was a 30 minute comedy series on NBC about a widowed doctor with two grown daughters who move back in with him after their marriages failed.

Empty Nest Cast

Richard Mulligan .... Doctor Harry Weston
Kristy McNichol .... Barbara Weston (1988-1993 and final episode)
Dinah Manoff .... Carol Weston
Park Overall .... Laverne Higby Todd Kane
David Leisure .... Charley Dietz
Estelle Getty .... Sophia Petrillo-Weinstock (1993-1995 and 2 earlier crossovers)
Marsha Warfield .... Dr. Maxine Douglas (1993-1995)
Paul Provenza .... Patrick Arcola (1992-1993)
Lisa Rieffel .... Emily Weston (1993)
Bear the Dog .... Dreyfuss (1989-1991)

Empty Nest Theme Song

Title: "Life Goes On"

By: "John Bettis and George Tipton"

Life goes on, and so do we,
Just how we do it is no mystery.
One by one ... one by one, we fill the days,
We find a thousand different ways.
Sometimes the answer can be hard to find ... hard to find,
That's something I will never be.
I'm always here, for anything you need ... anything you need.
Rain or shine, I'll be the one,
to share it all as life goes on.
We share it all, as life goes on.

Empty Nest Trivia:

Empty Nest was a "spin-off series" of the show, "The Golden Girls" but only in the very loosest sense. The final episode of the second season of that series was titled, "Empty Nests" and David Leisure played an annoying next door neighbor on both that episode and the Empty Nest series. The episode was about a woman who felt useless because her children were all off on their own and her husband barely payed her any notice at all. The house on that episode was the same as the one used on the series. Otherwise, the other actors were all replaced and the entire storyline was revamped.

Kristy McNichol left Empty Nest after the fifth season ended but she did come back for the final episode. She said that she was sick and tired of acting and wanted to go to school and learn to be a hair stylist! She said that she just wanted to be a "normal" person. A few years later she took a job as a drama teacher at a High School in Los Angeles, California.

The Golden Girls, Empty Nest, and Nurses (1991) all aired on NBC on Saturday nights. They were all created by Susan Harris and they were all set in Miami, Florida. This created a natural opportunity for crossovers where the characters appeared on each other's series. When another Golden Girls spinoff, "The Golden Palace" was canceled it also created an opportunity for Estelle Getty's character to join the cast of Empty Nest as Sophia Petrillo for its final two seasons and somewhat fill the gap left by Kristy McNichols departure!