The season two finale of The Golden Girls, entitled "Empty Nests," focused less on the main characters and more on the Corlisses, an older couple living next door to the girls. Their three adult daughters had moved out and the Corlisses well, you get the title. It was intended as a spinoff, but like so much of TV, it was retooled with the exception of David Leisure, nobody from the initial Golden Girls episode ever made it onto Empty Nest proper. When the producers of The Golden Girls and Empty Nest decided to retool the latter, Soap's affable Richard Mulligan was cast in the lead role of Dr. Harry Weston, a pediatrician mourning the recent death of his wife and surprised by the homecoming of his two adult daughters. It was one of the most successful spin-offs in TV history, lasting for seven years and garnering top ten ratings in its early seasons. Weston, of course, would appear on The Golden Girls semi-regularly. As one of the most eligible bachelors in Miami, he was frequently in the crosshairs of Blanche Deveraux. The guest star train went both ways, though the girls would appear on Empty Nest, too, with Sophia Petrillo actually becoming a regular character on the show after the cancellation of Golden Palace.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
