The Golden Girls (TV Series) Empty Nests (1987) User Reviews

I seriously thought this was not the Golden Girls.

[notforyou-27114 · 5/10 · 15 September 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.

Empty plot

[Aroura64 · 3/10 · 7 June 2020]

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.

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

[Sleepin_Dragon · 3/10 · 23 April 2023]

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.

just awful

[corner-2 · 1/10 · 18 August 2009]

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.

Ooops....

[Tyson-9 · 2/10 · 7 March 2014]

This has to be one true flub of an otherwise fine show. I remember one or two other poor episodes, usually involving inserted extra characters or relatively "out there" premises; instances where it's like the writers forgot what the show is about (Rose in the homeless shelter comes to mind).

But no other episode was quite as bad as this.

For one, the actual Golden Girls barely appear in the episode. Instead the audience is thrown into the lives of complete unknowns amid empty nest related marital problems. We have no relationship with these characters whatsoever, and would have zero context for what they're going thru were it not delivered in very stark and false-sounding dialogue early on. We have very little reason to care about them, a circumstance that isn't helped by the fact that they're written as generic caricatures, terribly acted, and with zero reality or real emotion injected into their dialogue scenes. Much of it bordered on painful to watch.

Throw in an awful final line, and humor that pokes fun at mental illness, and well......let's just say this episode was a disappointment and a bit of set-back to my recent joyful reunion with The Golden Girls.

Empty Nests (#2.26)

[ComedyFan2010 · 1/10 · 16 January 2014]

What the hell did I just watch? So this was an attempt for a spin off? I must say it was a huge mistake! Spin offs work out when the characters may be secondary but you have watched them through the show and got to love them, not just add some random characters out of nowhere. Who would even believe it could work out? If I turn on to watch Golden Girls, I want to see Dorothy, Rose, Blanche and Sophia. Not whoever those people were. The good thing it seems TV people learned from this mistake because I have never seen such nonsense again. As for the show, I think David Leisure's character had some potential, the rest were boring. Rota Moreno didn't even act well, I don't think she even got her character. Not that I can blame her, I would have trouble associating with someone who apparently had no own interests in life and wants her husband to stop working now that kids are gone so he can entertain her.

Agree with the first review: trite, artificial and laboured

[booksultra · 1/10 · 21 May 2012]

I'm a big fan and I loved this series when I was in my 20s. Watching series 2 for the first time, but this last one really jarred. Characters completely introduced out of the blue. Paul Dooley makes a bit of a go of his character, but Rita Moreno was bland. Before I googled this episode I was wondering if it could be some forced attempt to introduce a new show on the back of the popularity of The Golden Girls - and I was right. I found it frustrating to watch, and a little cynical of the production company to try this kind of approach. Apparently the show was drastically reworked, with different main characters and it lasted 5-6 years. They must have done something pretty radical, as this episode dies on its feet.

Awful

[ashley_torres-14297 · 1/10 · 22 November 2021]

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.

Who are these people and why should we care?

[jaclynhopeferron · 1/10 · 16 January 2021]

This episode features some subpar, even-hokier than usual acting with a slew of guest stars. The loose tie-in is that the Girls are friends with their doctor's wife and they are having marital problems. Most of the episode focuses on the wife with the Girls nowhere to be seen. The whole construct lands weird, it's poorly written, and sticks out like a sore thumb.

What the hell was that?

[gildaxer · 1/10 · 30 June 2020]

I was so confused watching this episode; I thought I might have accidentally skipped ahead. Who were those people?? It was actually kind of frustrating to watch, really disappointing.

Not a great way to end season 2.

[mark.waltz · 1/10 · 16 September 2019]

Without a doubt, this episode was rushed together with one intention that flopped on its face like a fish on a beach boardwalk dropped out of the bucket. It is humourless, and what attempts there are to add humor are hopeless. It deals with neighbors Paul Dooley and Rita Moreno who have absolutely no chemistry and their wacky family that are more stupid than funny. David Leisure's character is completely idiotic, although veteran character actor Geoffrey Lewis comes off a bit better. Dooley is a hard working doctor who has neglected wife Moreno, and now that their last child has gone off to college, Moreno wants Dooley to cut back on working so they can enjoy their freedom together. She also contemplates returning to show business which is the only zestful element of Moreno's unfortunately boring character. Dooley had just played Isaac Q. Newton in an earlier episode from the same season so to see him again so soon is another flaw in the episode. When the girls visit Dooley and Moreno they storm in like the neighborhood busybody which makes their involvement in the episode all the more uncomfortable. I am glad that I wasn't at the live audience recording of this episode. I would have left at the earliest break. When they re-tooled this misguided pilot and brought on Richard Mulligan, Dinah Manoff and Kristy McNichol, I still couldn't get into it, but they were still several stars about the stench from this episode where DVD viewers basically turn off the disc when they realize which episode it is.

Awful

[bernienorris · 1/10 · 13 April 2022]

What a waste of 30 mins . The "girls" weren't really in it at all and so unfunny it was annoying. Terrible characters awful plot trying to promote a new show that looks truly Terrible!

Terrible

[momknowswhat · 1/10 · 10 October 2020]

Halfway through this episode, I googled "worst episodes of the Golden Girls" and was relieved to see this garbage episode on the top of the lists. It's bad.

A Terrible Backdoor Pilot

[eric-356-790727 · 2/10 · 14 April 2022]

Sometimes backdoor pilots work, like Facts of Life coming from Diff'rent Strokes. Other times, Rita Moreno shows up out of nowhere and we're just supposed to suspend disbelief that Golden Girls' producers figured we wouldn't care after two full seasons that the ladies have neighbors they'd never had before.

I can't believe NBC allowed this to be the finale to an otherwise wonderful season of this classic series! Rita Moreno even said this episode/pilot was a "very, very bad show."

I'm still trying to figure out how this backdoor pilot morphed into Empty Nest, the beloved Golden Girls spin-off that lasted seven seasons! The only things that carried over from this episode were the house (why bother paying for a new set?) and David Leisure (who would end up playing a different smarmy, but slightly more likable character).

Thank God this show didn't make it because the actual Empty Nest was a great show.

I love the girls but....

[courtneythompson-18882 · 4/10 · 18 March 2022]

This is thee weirdest episode in the whole series. There are whole scenes without the main characters. If you were to tune in at the middle of the episode you'd think it was a different show. The snow is supposed to be about the four main characters lives and then a friend pops,up out of nowhere and is never seen again 🤷‍♀️ No introduction or anything. At least all of the other side characters had back stories - even the pregnant teen they helped in a different episode.

It is just as bad as I remember

[LaverneandShirleysucks · 1/10 · 10 February 2022]

It's been years since i've watched this series, so when I got up to this episode tonight I figured "maybe it's not as bad as I remember" and I let it play. But it is still so very bad and no amount of time or distance can ever change that. It's just a poorly written, poorly cast and a poor concept for a sitcom.

Actually, the concept really should work. Middle aged parents adjusting to life together after the final kid leaves the nest is ripe for many different stories and situations to play out.

The problem here is that the cast is bland and they're playing equally bland characters who just don't connect with the audience. Rita Moreno is a great actress, but even she can't elevate this to something interesting.

After I reached the half way mark, I couldn't bear anymore and turned it off because it was painful. In fact, i'd rather be tied up and forced to listen to Rose's St. Olaf stories for hours than watch this episode again. (Actually that's something only Dorothy, Blanche and Sophia would say, because we all love those St. Olaf stories, don't we?)

I dunno

[koth2 · 3/10 · 15 May 2019]

I've never understood why series have dedicated an episode as a potential series. If this had starred all the cast members of what would be Empty Nest and had its concept, it would have been much better.

A failed pilot but the only real clunker in season 2

[CubsandCulture · 4/10 · 1 August 2022]

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.

Ugh

[HelloBlockbuster · 2/10 · 24 April 2022]

S2E21 is just as bad as this one. I hate to say it, I really do. But, the best episodes are the ones with just the 4 ladies and the occasional Stanley Zbornak. I just let this one run in the background. The Mario Lopez episode (S2E21) I had to stop and continue over THREE DAYS to get through. The chemistry is just thrown off on both these episodes!