Escapay, your facts are right, but I think I explained that in my review in pretty much the same way you just did:Escapay wrote:Aaron, I think there's a mistake in your review.
About Empty Nest, the season 2 finale was an entirely different "Empty Nest" than the one that actually became a series. The "Empty Nest" that did spin-off from Golden Girls was about the recurring character Dr. Harry Weston, and his daughters. And of course, his dog Dreyfuss. The characters often crossed over from Empty Nest to Golden Girls.
IIRC, Empty Nest ran from 1988-1995, so it was during the GG's third season (1987-1988) that they introduced the characters.
Escapay
In my review, I wrote:Golden Girls gave birth to several spin-off shows, the first and most successful of which was <i>Empty Nest</i> in its second season, capitalizing on the show's initial popularity. As you might have guessed from the title, this episode serves not only as the <i>Golden Girls</i> second season finale but also as the pilot for <i>Empty Nest</i>. As such, the majority of the episode focuses on Renee (Rita Moreno), one of the girls' friends who feels alone with her children off at college and her husband, Dr. George Corliss (Paul Dooley), always at work. On the advice of her friends, Renee decides to take her "empty nest syndrome" to her husband, but her concerns fall on deaf ears. The remainder of the episode is spent following these two new characters and largely takes place in their home. Renee is presented as if she’s always been part of the show, leaving viewers feeling a bit lost. It's really much more boring than it is funny; the highlights are the scenes that (randomly) incorporate the <i>Golden</i> characters, who live just down the street. It's probably for this reason that the creators ditched this concept and when Empty Nest premiered as its own series a year and a half later, it featured a new cast, premise, and pilot. Only two things remained the same: David Leisure, who stuck around from this episode to the new series, although it was as a different character, and the presence of the four girls, especially Sophia (who would join the <i>Empty Nest</i> cast for its last two years). The spin-off went on to become popular, but as this episode neither concludes the second season of this show or truly launches the new one, it's a bit of a disappointment, but is part of the <i>Golden Girls</i> canon nonetheless.
By the way, this season two episode of <i>GG</i> ("Empty Nest") is considered the pilot of <i>Empty Nest</i>, even though it had very little in common with what later became that series. In that sense, this episode is a cross-over, a finale, and a pilot all in one, and that's why it is considered to have spun-off of season two, even though it didn't get its own timeslot until <i>GG</i> was in season <u>4</u>, actually, not 3 (October 1988- the beginning of Season 1 of <i>EN</i> and S4 of <i>GG</i>).
-Aaron