The Golden Girls: Why the Spin-Off Failed
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- čas přidán 7. 12. 2020
- Backdoor pilots are notorious for failing -- they fail to become a series or they fail as an episode of a show. But here is the rare example -- a truly bizarre episode of THE GOLDEN GIRLS that was re-cast, re-tooled and re-imagined to include an entirely new cast and premise. (Plus an adorable dog.) And the show became a hit. The spin-off even had its own spin-off. Join us as we dive INTO THE GOLDEN-VERSE!
Narrated by Meghan O'Neill
Written by Nick Nadel, Kevin Maher and Mike Schuster
Edited by Mike Schuster
Produced by Nick Nadel and Kevin Maher
Executive Produced by Tim Finn
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She saunters in like she's the fifth Golden Girl. Lol They didn't set up this character well at all. They acted as if she was always a presence.
They always do that for these pilots. It’s almost as flimsy as the set-ups for clip shows. At least this show had enough clips that stood up individually to make the clip shows worth sitting through. Here, what do we have? Neighbors whom they are supposedly close to but never are seen anywhere but here. They also tried to handle a touchy subject that TV just wasn’t ready to deal with in the context of a sitcom. The only part that came close to working was David Leisure, but they changed his character and everything else around him. Michael Eisner knew him before he was Joe Isuzu because he was a hare krishna in *Airplane!*
There is no way that a show about a married couple converging about children who aren’t there would have run as long as the show we ultimately got. As it was, it was more believable to see the girls with Dr. Harry Weston and his daughters, neighbor, and dog than it was to pretend this one-shot character was a close friend.
Rita Moreno also ended up in a *Married with Children* spinoff that failed, and when they tried it again without her, it still failed.
As someone who lives on St.Olaf ave next to St.Olaf college in Minnesota, I have to say that Rose's stories are not nearly dark or weird enough to be true Olaf stories.
Don't leave me hanging. GIve me some real St. Olaf stories, please.
Please do
Here is one, sethsassy and his mother are brother and sister too...His dad is Mayor of St. Olaf as well.
We need more info!
And I thought St. Olaf is a fictional place!
RITA Moreno is a Prefection. An EGOT Winner is the rarest series of awards. Yes this was a mess of a pilot...Rita Moreno is still acting (2021 West side story) AT 90 YEARS OLD
She was also in a reboot of "One Day at a Time." Guess who got an immediate burst of applause when she was first on-camera?
Rita is my mom
must be protected at all costs.
She's still going on strong as one of Hollywood's most caring, celebrating and loving actresses, Rita Moreno is simply the best. An Emmy, Grammy, Oscar &
Tony winner is the rarest series of awards and she's still acting at age 90. She was the host of TV's long running "Championship Ballroom Dancing" for
NBC Universal Syndication Studios from Fall 1981-present on A&E. From Spring 1990-present, she, Terri Gibbs, Naomi, Wynonna & Ashley Judd,
Barbara Mandrell, Haviland Morris, Ilene Graff Lanzarone, Susan Blanchard Frank, Marilyn Bergman and Sela Ward were endorsed No Nonsense
line of pantyhose, appearing in print and TV ads. From September 27, 1985-present, the slogan was "No Nonsense. The pantyhose that last."🎼🎶
She can do everything!!
227, Amen, Golden Girls, and Empty Nest! That’s a helluva line up. You gotta drive a Cadillac and be retired to watch that block lol
All I know is golden girls and golden palace is just absolutely the BEST 😅 I love them over and over!!!
I much preferred the Empty Nest one with Richard Mulligan it was awesome!
I'd always loved Kristi McNichol, Buddy from 'Family' but I eventually fell in love with the neurotic Carol.
Great show. Which Hallmark would air it with Golden Girls
I did not see this episode when it aired originally, but in syndication, which means I’d already seen “Empty Nest”. I thought this episode was totally weird at the time because it used the same interior sets as EN, but with different characters and furnishings. Plus Charlie was Oliver. It wasn’t until later that I realized the behind-the-scenes details. Definitely one of the most forgettable Golden Girls episodes.
Yes, these Backdoor pilots really stick out during rewatches!
Lol...I liked that episode!
I just caught this ep last week and my mom was in room and was soooo confused lol. I immediately caught that it was supposed to be a back door pilot, but was like how did they go from that to the 'Empty Nest' I loved.
They had to try a bunch of things that didn’t work in order to find something that did. Too bad the show skidded off the tracks when Kristy McNichol left. They had something, but then they lost it. They managed to slightly bounce back with Marsha Warfield and a post-Golden Palace Sophia, but the audience who left when Kristy did still didn’t come back.
what i always find interesting about back door pilots is they will introduce a new character as if they always been a part of the show.
Glad we got Harry, Barbara, Carol, Charlie, Laverne and Dryfus and later Emily, Maxine and Sophia lol I love this show so much I bought the DVDs with the Laff tv logo on them!
Now can people see that Quagmire is Oliver turned Charlie.
ha!
Was coming here to say the same thing. I’ve always thought that. Now the fact that he was originally a pilot confirms it. Quagmire is Charlie 100%.
Giggity Giggity gig-gi-ty
I have known for a while that this was one of the most reviled Golden Girls episodes for a while, but now I know why.
to be fair, I don't like Empty Nest in general, but the initial concept featured unbearably written characters.
I remember the golden verse's "hurricane"
I actually loved that episode with Rita Moreno...never knew that was a set up for a new show.
we're in the minority. i actually liked this episode too. was it the best? no. was it amazing? no. but theres something about it i like.
I think the problem was at least in my opinion that a lot of people including myself aren't fans of when shows do episodes that center on random characters we never met and the main characters are only seen briefly. Looking back, I think the only time I liked when that happened was in Different Strokes when Mrs Garret visited Kimberly's school but that's cause I'm a huge The Facts of Life fan. I also kinda liked it when Girlfriends did that as as backdoor pilot for The Game but that's just cause I love Tia Mowry.
I just rewatched this episode awhile back and I really enjoyed it rita Moreno was great 😊😉
I like everything that Rita Moreno has done.
Nurses...a spinoff of a spinoff.
I don't care what anyone says, I LOVE Paul Dooley **16 Candles movie fame** and Miss Rita Moreno **movie icon**. Plus we got the famous 80s commercial character Joe Isuzu, who plays Charlie. I enjoyed this episode.
I liked Empty Nests epidode too.
That's what makes it so shocking! All these icons given such thin material to work with. No wonder they walked/retooled it... And yet the end result was more than watchable!
I enjoyed the episode as well.
Such great videos! It is so interesting learning about backdoor pilots. Honestly, I always enjoyed when shows expanded their universe with these kind of episodes. Plus I found with this particular pilot as a semi-refreshing take on tv- "bumbling" husband and "hot" wife. But as someone who has only rewatched these shows it makes sense that they do feel a "a little out of place." Nonetheless, I do like them soley for new characters and new settings to be introduced. But I can also see how a viewer who watched these live you'd probably hate it 😭. I imagine waiting a whole week for an episode of your fav show only to have your favorite characters only be in a total of 10 minutes of the episode!
One of the problems is a couple of weeks before the same house was used by the McDowells to smuggle stolen jewelry. Now, two weeks later, one of the new owners, played by Rita Moreno, is best friends with all of the Golden Girls. The relationship didn’t seem authentic. Paul Dooley had guest-starred on GG five months earlier as Isaac P. Newton, the man Rose believed was her pen pal. It was too much for the viewers to believe. Also, it wasn’t funny. Not the fault of the actors, but the writers.
At least Paul Dooley found great success with "Coming of Age" from 1988 to 1995 which ran for 8 successful seasons.
It moved from CBS Late Nite to Comedy Central with total of 215 episodes during its 8-successful year run.
@@markelijio6012 Rita Moreno was later on HBO’s OZ as a prison nun. She was terrific.
@@jimhaggard7436 Thanks for reminding me, Jim!
I LOVED EMPTY NEST.
AND THE GOLDEN PALACE
Me, too
227, Amen, The Golden Girls, Empty Nest and HUNTER were THE Best Shows on NBC Saturday Nights
@@tnawcwvictoria Those Were The Good Old Days!!!
@@tnawcwvictoria Great memories.
Tbh I personally really enjoyed the episode and wished it stayed true to its pilot, but I see and get why it wouldn’t last long if it did, like Golden Palace
same here! I did a rewatch of the show and although it clearly stood out to me as outliar... i still quite enjoyed it. Also I thought Rita did a great job too! She definitely fit into the GG type of world/humor. Also interesting that the writer of the Golden Girls threw shade at Rita when in the end the show was totally revamped and only one og character survived. To me it kinda just proves her point the pilot needed extra work lol.
“Sad Face Character Actor” 😂😂😂😂
This is my personal opinion. Empty Nest should have ended the same year as The Golden Girls. EN was not the same once Kristy McNichol left.
This just totally blew my mind. I am a Golden Girls fanatic and never knew about Empty Nest!
Ah, wish I could get "Nurses" on DVD...
That was actually super funny!
That pilot was so bad that I couldn’t even finish it. Had to stop halfway through the episode.
That explains why that episode is weird. I guess I never bothered to look it up but now I understand.
I never had a problem with that episode of the Golden Girls, I could watch Rita Moreno all day long lol
Alway hated this episode. NEVER made sense to me collectively. And BTW was there only like 5 actors in Hollywood at the time because the recasting of characters on this show is insane.
That man is Rose's date in another episode named Issac Newton! And in a very early episode Rose goes on a cruise with a man who later is recasted as Miles!!
Good Times was a spin off of a spin off. All in the family: Maude: Good Times.
Florida was Maude's maid.
All In The Family also had another hit spin off The Jeffersons (George, Weezy & Lionel were on that show first)
I'm really enjoying your channel! You know, I'm a huge GG fan, and I actually really liked this episode. Though, I don't think an entire series would've been successfully derived from it. I absolutely adored the actual EN show they did develop. Brilliant!
This was very entertaining! Keep up the work with your channel. I'm very impressed!
Thanks Jamie. We have a new video coming next week.
The worst GG episode. Typical network executives think we will watch anything that is a spinoff from a hit comedy.
Moreno is a icon...this episode she still looks beautiful
And the next day she was ugly, right? Stupid youthism. I have never seen her other than beautiful at any age.
you got that right
Thanks i never knew this info. Loved the Golden Girls...
I think The Facts of Life is the champ of back door pilots that didn’t get picked up
Jo's mechanic cousins? I've seen the episode.
In addition to Jo’s cousins, there was the boys school one, the one with David Spade as Natalie’s roommate, and the episode with Blair taking over Eastland...I’m probably missing another one.
All In the family had several backdoor pilots that weren't picked up as well. It also has many one season spinoffs, counting it's spinoffs that had one season spinoffs (like the Jeffersons spinoff checking in).
Gimme a Break did at least three or four.
@@blackamerican40 With Donnelly Rhodes who was on Golden Girls as Jake.
🤩You guys are awesome!!!
the golden girls are so amazing
Im currently re-watching the series and I just skipped over this episode because I knew from other re-watches its sucks!!! but I did just learn Rita Moroane plays the friend
I actually like this episode
Worst episode of the Golden Girls.
Hands down!
“Mr Fixit” is Juliette Lewis’s dad, Geoffrey Lewis.
Nightmare On Elm Street 4 came out in 1988. This episode came out in 1987. They should have said part 3 instead. Rita's right. This script did need rewrites badly.
The number of that sequel surely must have been what troubled her so much.
@@NuntiusLegis I'm surprised she didn't quit acting right on the spot
There's a 1986 episode of Super Password where Betty White and Lucille Ball mention A Nightmare on Elm Street. Those old broads loved them some Freddy Krueger. (The original movie was shot, in part, at Desilu Studios).
@@nickstadler1906 Which has later known as CBS Studios today.
Rose’s question is a legitimate question one would have if you need to see the other movies in a franchise to follow it.
That Mr.Terrific is also another episode I avoid with great conviction.
Gees I totally agree
I like the Mr Terrific episode lol. Empty Nest is the episode I tend to skip. The one where Sophia buys the nectarine, I skip. It wasn’t funny. I skip this one and the one about the pregnant teen neighbor, Mary. I also don’t like flashback episodes in shows. I tend to skip these. Flashback episodes as in when they highlight scenes from previous episodes. I HATE those. I also hate when shows do random dream or western episodes lol. Ive seen sitcoms that do a western episode or a weird dream episode the character wakes up from
The Dick Van dyke one is a horrible episode.
It's hilarious to me that so many fans hate the same episode. Mr Terrific is the WORST!
Mr. Terrific is so bad it’s actually funny to me! 🤣
We never got to see the pack in the same day here in Spain, but Saturday would definitely have been my favorite day of the week there. I absolutely loved The Golden Girls and still do, and I really liked Empty Nest too and the frequent appearances of the girls. Never knew about Rita Moreno's. Fascinating and so funny.
That Don Cheadle hotel joke is unintentiomally brutal.
Oh my gosh I remember this! I thought I was just young and confused but I remember empty nest changing.
Also you should have mentioned Seth McFarlane did a Hurricane homage featuring Family Guy, American Dad and The Cleveland Show
Charlie from empty nest is who quagmire is based off of
When she said « She comes in wearing an outfit that would make Joey say » CZcams rudely cut her off with a febreeze ad so I had a good laugh with « an outfit that would make Joey say ‘Febreeze’ »😅
It’s amazing how crap really does get flushed away with time. I’ve never heard of this show, yet I know Golden Palace and, obviously, Golden Girls, oh and Rita Moreno!!
I remember being confused about why Joe Isuzu was on a TV show
God, that Rita burn was awful. You can't get away with that these days...hopefully.
Right?! Hard to believe they put that in -- and got away with it.
There was another scene on an Empty Nest episode where Charlie leaves the Weston house to go home and says “I have to go take out the trash”. And Carol says “what’s her name?” Charlie goes, “Rita.” Ouch! lol
@@malocchia LOL!!! 😉😉😉😏😏😏😏😏😏😆🤣😂
'Hopefully'? Why is it a good thing (particularly for comedy/entertainment) that such a relatively tame line on a PG sitcom can't be spoken now? What, is it that hearing the word 'slut' is enough to ruin someone's day? Because, well for one thing this is a GOLDEN GIRLS video. Anyone so offended by that word, likely wouldn't wouldn't be here showing interest in a show in which 'slut jokes' were a staple of virtually every episode, lol.
I actually don't think most of us are too sensitive to handle hearing something like that. Not even today, not even despite what we might be told.
@@janesmith7676 SAY IT AGAIN! All this anti "slut shaming" idiocy is beyond exhausting. "Slut" jokes were a cornerstone of GG's humor, and always used playfully.
To be fair, it does seem odd that they took potshots at Moreno (if that's truly what it was). Either way, I grew up with women playfully calling each other "slut", "hussy", and a million other similar things - NEVER intended seriously. This hypersensitive younger generation seems to not understand the many varied purposes of comedy.
when these shows were brand new, I loved Empty Nest but refused to watch Golden Girls because I thought it was a show for old people. But, in my late teens and early twenties, I ended up watching the whole run.
I remember this episode
Quagmire character was based on Charlie from empty nest
Fortunately, Rita Moreno is still kicking ass at 91.
I saw this episode once in syndication and had no idea what was happening. By far the worst GG episode
0:34 I miss those power hour tv blocks :)
They tried to make Rita Moreno a tv star for many years. Never really happened. She did just fine without tv success.
idk, she's doing really well in the 2017 version of One Day at a Time
Wow, that introduction of Chuck made Top of the Heap look like Curb Your Enthusiasm.
I didn't know Empty Nest was a spin-off of Golden Girls nor that nurses was a spin-off of Empty Nest. And David Leisure was great! Also that hurricane ep was a big deal.
It only did good in ratings since it was after Golden Girls, after they moved it to a different time slot it bombed hard.
I liked the empty nest episode of Golden Girls. I also like the show Empty Nest that was the eventaul spinoff except I don't think it actually fits the premise of an empty nest.Which is when parents have kids that have moved out on their own and now have no one living at home. Harry had anything but an empty nest.
I just realized the Oliver/Charlie most likely inspired Quagmire. 🤔
I loved Empty nest
Wasn't a fan of this episode either but always loved that menthol blue kitchen for some reason 😅 Still think it's a great set today 💙
I saw a biography of the lady who played their neighbor I forgot her name but she said they changed the script a dozen times and she couldn't remember her lines and everyone was pissed off on set
You do know you're talking about rita moreno right? She has an oscar and an emmy and a grammy and a tony. I dont think they're pissed at her anymore😂
@@shahd986 go look up her talking about golden girls
@@tj205bama Then as punishment for not knowing her, you should be sent to OZ for 6 months for being so disrespectful and forgetting an iconic legend!! Hopefully you'll get her as a nurse/counselor
@@shahd986 At least, Rita Moreno did her best and try a little bit more. She made an lovely comeback on the "One Day at a Time" remake as well
as an host of "Championship Ballroom Dancing" on A&E. Since 1990, she did a number of print and TV ads for No Nonsense.
The pantyhose that last.💻🖥🖨📓🖊📂
Pretty awful of Susan Harris to attack Rita Moreno who was the best thing of that episode. Empty Nest was a good show but I enjoyed that episode of Golden Girls and in no way see it as the worst just because it’s a back door pilot. It’s better then the Hurricane episode where they changed Dorthy’s sister into a broke woman who would sleep with Stan. That episode is awful.
rose, nobody likes to wash dishes.
I remember David Leisure when he was in Dorothy’s dream appearing as a contestant on “Jeopardy!” except the game was fixed his way only for round 1.
oddly enough, drifus, the dog, was part of the golden girls so it's tied there.
a Saturday night sitcom lineup.... could you even imagine pitching that
I just found this video from watching that episode for the first time. It was pretty bad but i feel like its more cringey that they made that joke about rita when they made the official show when it wasn’t her fault that the writing was bad and there were production issues when making the backdoor pilot
I don't recall this episode.
I used to watch Empty Nest. I probably watched a lot of both those shows. However, for some reason, the only episode I can remember is the episode where the doctor found out the kid had botulism. :)
I remembered the episode where Harry went on a date and tought his date how to eat spaghetti
I liked Nurses
"Empty Nest" was on 7 years? It felt like about 5 minutes.
Rita Moreno oddly looked like Penelope Cruz in the 80s.
I still can’t get over that Rita wasn’t Oscar nominated for the new WSS in which was marvelous in a very well written role.
I have never seen this episode!!
You didn’t miss much!
I swear I hated that episode, I still change it to this day I’m sorry but Rita just rubbed me the wrong way In that episode 😂🤷🏽♀️
_Golden Girls_ also spun off _Nurses_ (1991-1994) which ran for 3 seasons and 68 episodes.
"Nurses" was a spin- off of "Empty Nest." "Empty Nest" was a spin -off of the "Golden Girls."
How have I never seen this GG episode? What Season:Episode is this and where can I watch it in entirety?
"Empty Nests" Season 2, episode 16. It's currently streaming on Hulu.
Skeevy neighbor who’s an airline pilot? Why do I have a feeling this guy inspired a character on a completely different show years later? Giggity.
Rita Moreno is a legend but that episode was unwatchable, not due to her but because she wasn't given much to work with.
Ps: as for the 80s insensitivity to mental illness, yea, it sucks, but it's still better than the romanticization going on today
You got a point. Not only is mental illness romanticized, it's getting worse and we're hypocritical about it
It just wasn’t funny. The husband wasn’t funny. Although I liked him when he was cast as Isaac Newton in one of the earlier seasons when Dorothy and Blanche tried to set him up with Rose
Episode 13 of season 5 "Mary Has A Little Lamb" feels like a backdoor pilot. The girls feel like secondary characters in their own sitcom. I never read anywhere that it was a backdoor pilot but it sure feels that way. That one is definitely one of the worst episodes of GG.
Yes, I agree with what you're saying.
I adore the empty nest episode it wasn’t bad.
It was horrific!
@@tjames9698 the girls were still funny and the other characters weren’t super out of place compared to other guest stars. As an isolated episode it was good and good enough to hold its own. I personally don’t get the hate
See, I like the episode as well, because it gave a glimpse into their lives outside of what we normally got to see.
Agreed
@@andS7 'The girls' were barely at all featured, instead giving us an entire episode about characters who we never saw before and never saw again. They just presented Rita's character indeed, as a "fifth Golden Girl" despite that she wasn't one, and which made it odd and off-putting to viewers. We didn't know that they were doing a backdoor pilot experiment, so how the hell were we supposed to take this nonsense? It was something that was never done with other guest stars so I really don't know how you can even compare those other situations to this one.
Lest we forget that Rita herself hated filming the episode and the creative process was a botched mess. Leaves very little to defend there.
So the episode with Rita Moreno was a backdoor pilot for a spin-off? I didn’t know that.
Empty Nest also had a spin off called Nurses
Yup, we get to NURSES at @05:58 in the video.
Great video!!!!
thank you kindly!
You should do one on Gimme A Break! They had 3...well 4 actually, attempted spinoffs. The first was in season 2 "Nell And The Kid" where it would spin off into Max, about a delicatessen owner named Max who takes in an Orphan named Dani who steals; The 2nd one was in season 3 called "The Center" where the senior citizens must share their center with the kids of the area becuase their youth center burned down...not sure how this one would have went had it gotten a pilot order...maybe just the seniors there again after the teens leave? 3rd was in season 5 "The Purse Snatcher" where Nell feels her purse was stolen at a Greek Restaurant named The Last Word...that was gonna be the title of the spinoff...about a Greek restaurant owned by Mr. Pappalardo, and his son and his roommate Tyler work there. The last was either a back door pilot for Lara Jill Miller which would have also starred Nell, or a season 7 continuum where Nell goes to Sam's college for "Parent's Week" at the end of season 6 and gets her to stay on campus and her fiance ditches her to write his screenplay of the book Nell got published...season 7, or the spinoff series was to have Nell leave NYC for Warren, NJ and would have been housemother to Sam, sort of like Mrs. Garrett was on Facts Of Life.
You can watch a lot of these old shows free on youtube.
I was going to make a comment about how the show NURSES
was a spin off of the golden girls til watching this video corrected my belief.... NURSES
was a spin off empty nest(ONE of my FAVORITE tv shows up growing up in The Bahamas)
Also,
Regarding the intro theme song for the first season(which was more like yacht rock)
In the second and final season(of nurses),
The intro song was actually changed into a more uptempo beat closer to early 90's
Beat tracks..... WAYYYYYYY BETTER Intro theme
Ohh could u talk about a Backdoor pilot series that outdid it’s predecessors like success wise or just all around impact?!!
Very interesting idea! What the big success stories? NCIS. Facts of Life. What else?
I feel it didn't go was cause it was boring as hell
Richard Mulligan was picked because he can carry a show. This guy can’t.
I've always been a little confused. Is the title of the episode "Empty Nest" or "Empty Nests"? I've seen it listed both ways.
imdb has it listed as "Empty Nests" but the Golden Girls Wiki says "Empty Nest"
Wait, she was the nun from HBO's Oz!
Paul Dooley and Rita Moreno in a series together - YES!!! But not THAT one!
ha!
So The Golden Girls Cinematic Universe includes The Golden Palace, Empty Nests, and Nurses?
i dont get when Empty Nest is Not on DVD OR Reruns
Thank God they revamped Empty Nest! Love RM, but hated the episode.