Editing Empty Nest (section)

==History==
An early version of the series initially appeared in the 1987 ''Golden Girls'' episode "Empty Nests" which was intended to act as a [[backdoor pilot]] for the spin-off, which was to begin during the fall 1987 TV season.

In the episode, George and Renee Corliss (played by [[Paul Dooley]] and [[Rita Moreno]]), were introduced as the Girls' neighbors, a middle-aged couple suffering from [[empty nest syndrome]]. Their teenage daughter Jenny (Jane Harnick), who had left for college, and Renee's brother Chuck ([[Geoffrey Lewis (actor)|Geoffrey Lewis]]), also appeared. The Corlisses also had an annoying neighbor played by [[David Leisure]] (although in this version his character was named Oliver).

Rita Moreno later criticized the ''Empty Nest'' pilot, calling it a "very, very bad show."<ref name="Moreno"/> She explained that the script desperately needed rewrites from creator Susan Harris, but she was very sick the week of shooting so it was left to other writers to fix. According to Moreno, "every day they kept changing my character, to the extent that by the time we got to do it in front of an audience I couldn't remember Line 1 because the attitudes had changed so many times. That was the most embarrassing experience...we must have done, I would guess, about 15 takes in front of an audience."<ref name="Moreno">{{cite video| url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfzdYFm985I |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211222/HfzdYFm985I| archive-date=2021-12-22| url-status=live| title=Rita Moreno on "The Golden Girls"| website=Foundation Interviews| date=2012-09-13| access-date=2020-05-29}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

Ultimately, the series did not go ahead as planned and the premise was later extensively revamped with a new cast before ''Empty Nest'' debuted in 1988. The set of the Corlisses' house, however, was exactly the same as the one that later became the Weston residence.