Empty Nest
an Episode Guide
by Russell Wodell
Last updated:
Thu, 25 Oct 2018 21:00
Empty Nestan Episode Guide
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| aired from: Oct 1988 to: Jun 1995 | 170 eps | NBC | 30 min | stereo | closed captioned |
regulars:
recurring characters:
NOTE: As guest cast credits are not complete, the above may have other as yet unnoted appearances.
A long-lived situation comedy centered on Dr. Harry Weston, a recently widowed pediatrician at the Community Medical Center in Miami whose plans to seek a new life elsewhere are put on permanent hold when his two constantly fighting adult daughters Carol and Barbara move back in with him. (A third daughter, Emily, is away at college but eventually moves home after Barbara moves out - i.e., when Kristy McNichol left the series.) Completing the household are Dreyfuss, the lovable but untrainable St. Bernard, and Charley Dietz, the obnoxious freeloading neighbor next door who treats the Westons as a surrogate family. His bossy but infuriatingly infallible nurse Laverne Todd manages Harry's professional life for him. When Harry eventually leaves private practice and joins the charitable Canal Street Clinic in partnership with Dr. Maxine Douglas, Laverne simply follows him and doubles her overbearing load.
This series was conceived by Susan Harris as a companion piece to her enormously successful The Golden Girls, who are the Westons' other next-door neighbors and infrequent guests. After the failure of The Golden Girls sequel The Golden Palace, Estelle Getty's character of Sophia Petrillo became a regular cast member, perpetually seeking refuge with the Westons from her hated Shady Pines retirement home.
Production credits:
Witt Thomas Harris Productions in association with Touchstone Television
Created by Susan Harris
Executive Producers: Paul Junger Witt, Tony Thomas, Gary Jacobs, Susan Harris, Rod Parker, Hal Cooler, Nina Feinberg, Bob Tischler, Regina Stewart Larsen, Peter Galley
Producers: Roger Garrett, Rob LaZebnick, David Sacks, Harold Kimmel, Gilbert Junger, Arnie Kogen, Susan Beavers, Regina Stewart Larsen, Ursula Ziegler, Steve Sullivan, Dennis Snee
Co-Producers: Ursula Ziegler, Steve Sullivan, Dennis Snee
Supervising Producers: Arnie Kogen, Susan Beavers, David Tyron King, Peter Galley, Rick Newberger, Bob Tischler, Vince Chang, Ben Montanio
Associate Producers: Gwen McCracken, Joanne Diaz-Koegl, David Amico
Ex-Story Consultants: Pat Dougherty, Rob LaZebnick, David Sacks, Harold Kimmel, Marie-Therese Squerciati
Story Editors: Bill Braunstein, Sydney Blake, Pat Dougherty, Paul B. Price, Jack Amiel, Michael Begler
Production credits:
Created by Susan Harris
Executive producers: Paul Junger Witt and Tony Thomas, Gary Jacobs
Co-producers: Gilbert Junger, Susan Beavers
Supervising producers: Arnie Kogen, David Tyron King
Script supervision: Rod Parker
Executive script editor: Marie Therese Squerciati
Associate producer: David Amico
It's been six months since Harry's wife Libby died, and a colleague tells Harry it's to marry her or stop having dinner with her every evening.
b: 8 Oct 88 pc: 001 w: Susan Harris d: Jay SandrichCarol's dinner plans with her loathsome ex-husband puzzle Harry and Barbara.
b: 15 Oct 88 pc: 004 w: Gary Jacobs d: Hal CooperHarry tries to get Barbara to quit the force after she is shot in the rear.
b: 22 Oct 88 pc: 003 w: Don Reo d: Hal CooperNeighbor Blanche (crossing over from The Golden Girls) makes an obsessive play for Harry. Meanwhile, Harry's old friend Otto Bacon dies after a long illness, and Carol announces that she is moving in to look after her father.
b: 5 Nov 88 pc: 007 w: Susan Harris d: Hal CooperThe surgeon Harry set Barbara up with proposes to her. Carol gets dumped by Charlie's trainer.
b: 12 Nov 88 pc: 002 w: Susan Harris d: Hal CooperHarry suspects the girls' motives when they buy him a Caribbean vacation.
b: 12 Nov 88 pc: 005 w: Susan Beavers d: Hal CooperLaverne must quit when her baseball player husband is traded to a team in Arizona; Charley has the flu and moves in to be nursed by Barbara.
b: 18 Nov 88 pc: _________ w: David Tyron King d: Hal CooperCarol and Barbara both receive awards, and Harry can only be there for one.
b: 26 Nov 88 pc: 009 w: Rod Parker d: Hal CooperHarry's longtime friend dates Carol.
b: 3 Dec 88 pc: 010 w: Arnie Kogen d: Hal Cooperrc: Sophia
Barbara and Carol are worried about Harry being alone on his second wedding anniversary since Libby's death. Then Harry accepts delayed delivery of a package for Libby: an organ, which Harry determines to learn to play, with assistance from Laverne. Meanwhile, a former patient, now 14, asks Harry for birth control pills because "everybody else is doing it."
b: 17 Dec 88 pc: 006 w: Rob LaZebnick & David Sacks d: Hal Cooper NOTE: Estelle Getty crosses over in her character from The Golden Girls.Harry is ill at ease about a weekend with a woman.
b: 24 Dec 88 pc: 011 w: ______________ d: Hal CooperWhen Barbara moves back home, Harry tries not to act like a parent.
b: 14 Jan 89 pc: 012 w: Susan Beavers d: Hal CooperHarry reluctantly hires inexperienced Carol for public relations at the hospital, but her first day on the job goes surprisingly well, including television coverage of a benefit - until Carol reveals on camera that guest celebrity Poko the Clown is a frequent patient in the psychiatric ward, and Polo's attorney slaps the hospital with a lawsuit. Meanwhile, Charley is in the running for chief purser, and hopes to impress his by-the-book new captain by having Barbara pretend to be his wife.
b: 21 Jan 89 pc: 013 w: Marie Therese Squerciati d: Hal CooperHarry is instantly smitten with Diane Hardy, an attractive pediatrician filling in for a colleague, but everyone else dislikes her, including Dreyfuss - except Carol. When Harry decides he's in love, he's brought up short by Diane's distrust of romantic spontaneity and her insistence on cold professional distance from her young patients, but has at least learned that he's capable of loving again.
b: 28 Jan 89 pc: 014 w: Kim Hill d: Hal CooperCarol falls in love with Eric, a South American freedom fighter, and decides to follow him home to San Rojos, despite Harry's protests then discovers he's really an undercover FBI agent infiltrating protest groups. Meanwhile, Harry's precocious patient Jeffrey announces that he needs an "older woman," and decides that Laverne will fit the bill.
b: 4 Feb 89 pc: 015 w: David Tyron King d: Hal CooperCharley barges in with a telescope, certain that the full moon will bring romance. The Westons scoff, then find that there's something in it after all. Barbara's date doesn't show up for the dinner she's cooking, but she settles for Alan, the nice man who brings home a straying Dreyfuss. Barbara's stakeout unexpectedly captures her old high-school flame Brad, who persuades her to consummate their relationship at long last before she arrests him. Harry is told off by an irate female doctor who returns to apologize and winds up in Harry's arms. Even Dreyfuss gets to invite Alan's female dog upstairs. Only Charley strikes out, when his (unseen) "sure thing" decides to give up her life as a stripper and work with disadvantaged children. Go figure.
b: 11 Feb 89 pc: 016 w: Gary Jacobs d: Hal CooperBarbara falls for neighbor Dorothy's visiting nephew.
b: 18 Feb 89 pc: 017 w: Susan Beavers d: Hal Cooper NOTE: Bea Arthur crosses over in her character from The Golden Girls.Greykirk Corporation buys the hospital and insists that Harry must relocate his office after 25 years. Protesting to the new head, Harry is brought up short by her demand that he sleep with her. Meanwhile, Carol finds Emily's old diary, and Charley tries to change his image with a false moustache. When Harry and Laverne reluctantly moves into their new headquarters, they discover it is identical to their old offices.
b: 25 Feb 89 pc: 018 w: David Sacks & Rob LaZebnick d: John BowabHarry wins a "Man of the Year" award, forcing a reunion with his estranged father.
b: 4 Mar 89 pc: 019 w: Mady Julian d: Hal Cooper NOTE: Guest Gould had a recurring guest role on The Golden Girls as Rose's mysterious boyfriend Miles.Harry bribes Carol and Barbara to stop fighting with a trip to Paris; Charley wins a greyhound at poker and decides to race her.
b: 11 Mar 89 pc: 021 w: Howard Kimmel d: Steve ZuckermanAn unusually clever and surprisingly moving episode: Harry sees a series of young male patients - a week-old baby, a 5-year-old whose father is in denial of the boy's onset diabetes; a 7-year-old curious about sex; an 11-year-old having the cast removed from his batting arm; a belligerent 14-year-old using pot; and an 18-year-old picking up his medical records before heading off to college - at which point we realize they have all been the same young man at different ages.
b: 18 Mar 89 pc: 022 w: David Tyron King & Rob LaZebnik & David Sacks d: Hal Cooper NOTE: Guest Kind later played a recurring role in the early seasons of Mad About You and is currently in the cast of Spin City; guest Perry is now a star of Friends.Harry helps Charley woo a woman - who turns out to be Harry's girlfriend.
b: 18 Mar 89 pc: 020 w: Arnie Kogen d: Hal Cooper| Back to TOP of Page |
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