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Empty Nest (TV Series)
''Empty Nest'' is an American television sitcom that aired for seven seasons on NBC from October 8, 1988, to June 17, 1995. The series, which was created as a spin-off of ''The Golden Girls'' by creator and producer Susan Harris, starred Richard Mulligan as recently widowed pediatrician Dr. Harry Weston, whose two adult daughters return home to live with him. The series was produced by Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions in association with Touchstone Television. 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), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sitcom
A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent setting, such as a home, workplace, or community. Unlike sketch comedy, which features different characters and settings in each Sketch comedy, skit, sitcoms typically maintain plot continuity across episodes. This continuity allows for the development of storylines and characters over time, fostering audience engagement and investment in the characters' lives and relationships. History The structure and concept of a sitcom have roots in earlier forms of comedic theater, such as farces and comedy of manners. These forms relied on running gags to generate humor, but the term ''sitcom'' emerged as radio and TV adapted these principles into a new medium. The word was not commonly used until the 1950s. Early television sitcoms were often filme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tony Thomas (producer)
Charles Anthony Thomas ('' né'' Jacobs; born December 7, 1948) is an American television and film producer. He was a producer for the feature film '' Dead Poets Society'' for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1989, and ''Insomnia'', among other films. He is the producer of many successful television series from the 1970s into the 1990s such as ''The Golden Girls'' for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series twice and won three consecutive Golden Globe Awards for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy. Thomas was the producer of ''Blossom'' and many other TV series. He is the co-founder of Witt/Thomas Productions. Early life and family Born Charles Anthony Jacobs in Hollywood, California, Thomas is the son of actor and philanthropist Danny Thomas and his wife, Rose Marie (Cassaniti) Thomas. His father was of Lebanese descent and his mother was of Italian descent. He is the younger brother of actresses Terre Tho ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rita Moreno
Rita Moreno (born Rosa Dolores Alverío Marcano; December 11, 1931) is an American actress, dancer, and singer. With a career spanning eight decades she is known for her roles on stage and screen, and is one of the last remaining stars from the Golden Age of Hollywood. Among her numerous accolades, she is one of the few actors to have been awarded an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony (EGOT) and the Triple Crown of Acting. She has been honored with Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2004, the National Medal of Arts in 2009, the Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award in 2013, the Kennedy Center Honor in 2015, and a Peabody Award in 2019. Moreno's early work included supporting roles in the classic musical films '' Singin' in the Rain'' (1952) and ''The King and I'' (1956), before her breakout role as Anita in ''West Side Story'' (1961), which earned her the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the first Hispanic woman to win an Academy Award. Moreno retu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul Dooley
Paul Dooley (born Paul Brown; February 22, 1928) is an American character actor. He is known for his roles in '' Breaking Away'', ''Popeye'', '' Strange Brew'', '' Sixteen Candles'' and various Christopher Guest mockumentaries. He co-created the PBS children's show ''The Electric Company''. Early life Dooley was born Paul Brown on February 22, 1928, in Parkersburg, West Virginia, the son of Ruth Irene (née Barringer), a homemaker, and Pete James Brown, a factory worker. He said that Parkersburg had few attractions that interested him, as there were not many cultural opportunities. He enjoyed listening to comedians on the radio, especially Jimmy Durante. In high school, he often performed at fairs as a clown named Dooley. In the mid-1950s, he legally changed his surname to match his clown persona, as there was already a Broadway actor named Paul Brown. Dooley was a cartoonist as a youth and drew a strip for a local paper in Parkersburg. In 1946, he joined the United States N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Backdoor Pilot
A television pilot (also known as a pilot or a pilot episode and sometimes marketed as a tele-movie) in United Kingdom and United States television, is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell a show to a television network or other distributor. A pilot is created to be a testing ground to gauge whether a series will be successful. It is, therefore, a test episode for the intended television series, an early step in the series development, much like pilot studies serve as precursors to the start of larger activity. A successful pilot may be used as the series premiere, the first aired episode of a new show, but sometimes a series' pilot may be aired as a later episode or never aired at all. Some series are commissioned straight-to-series without a pilot (although an increasing number of such series have their first episodes titled "Pilot"). On some occasions, pilots that were not ordered to series may also be broadcast as a standalone television film or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pediatrician
Pediatrics (American English) also spelled paediatrics (British English), is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, pediatrics covers many of their youth until the age of 18. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends people seek pediatric care through the age of 21, but some pediatric subspecialists continue to care for adults up to 25. Worldwide age limits of pediatrics have been trending upward year after year. A medical doctor who specializes in this area is known as a pediatrician, or paediatrician. The word ''pediatrics'' and its cognates mean "healer of children", derived from the two Greek words: (''pais'' "child") and (''iatros'' "doctor, healer"). Pediatricians work in clinics, research centers, universities, general hospitals and children's hospitals, including those who practice pediatric subspecialties (e.g. neonatology requires resources available in a NICU). History ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Television Spin-off
A spinoff in television is a new series containing characters or settings that originated in a previous series, but with a different focus, tone, or theme. For example, the series ''Frasier'' was a spinoff of the earlier series ''Cheers'': the character Frasier Crane was introduced as a secondary character on ''Cheers'', and became the protagonist of his own series, set in a different city, in the spinoff. Spinoffs are particularly common in sitcom. A related phenomenon, not to be confused with the spinoff, is the crossover. Some spinoffs are "engineered" to introduce a new character on the original television series, just so that that character can anchor the new spinoff – that episode of the original series is often known as a "backdoor pilot". For example, the character Avery Ryan appeared in two episodes of the Las Vegas-based '' CSI: Crime Scene Investigation'' before the premiere of '' CSI: Cyber''. A revival, a later remake of a preexisting show, is not a spinoff. Thi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sitcom
A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent setting, such as a home, workplace, or community. Unlike sketch comedy, which features different characters and settings in each Sketch comedy, skit, sitcoms typically maintain plot continuity across episodes. This continuity allows for the development of storylines and characters over time, fostering audience engagement and investment in the characters' lives and relationships. History The structure and concept of a sitcom have roots in earlier forms of comedic theater, such as farces and comedy of manners. These forms relied on running gags to generate humor, but the term ''sitcom'' emerged as radio and TV adapted these principles into a new medium. The word was not commonly used until the 1950s. Early television sitcoms were often filme ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nurses (American TV Series)
''Nurses'' is an American sitcom television series that aired on NBC from September 14, 1991, to May 7, 1994, created and produced by Susan Harris as a spin-off of ''Empty Nest'', which itself was a spin-off of ''The Golden Girls''. Synopsis The series revolved around a group of nurses working at the same Miami hospital as ''Empty Nest''s Dr. Harry Weston. The main characters were strong-willed nurse Annie Roland ( Arnetia Walker), sarcastic nurse Sandy Miller ( Stephanie Hodge), dim-witted nurse Julie Milbury ( Mary Jo Keenen) and Latina nurse Gina Cuevas ( Ada Maris) who frequently reminisced about her homeland, the fictional San Pequeño. Also in the cast were arrogant Dr. Hank Kaplan ( Kip Gilman), wise-cracking orderly Paco Ortiz ( Carlos Lacamara) and flaky nurse Greg Vincent (Jeff Altman). Florence Stanley had a recurring role during the first season as Dr. Riskin. Changes were made after the first season in an effort to boost ratings. David Rasche joined the cast a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Golden Girls
''The Golden Girls'' is an American sitcom created by Susan Harris that aired on NBC from September 14, 1985, to May 9, 1992, with a total of 180 half-hour episodes, spanning seven seasons. The show's ensemble cast stars Beatrice Arthur, Betty White, Rue McClanahan, and Estelle Getty. It is about four older women who share a home in Miami, Florida. It was produced by Witt/Thomas Productions, Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions, in association with ABC Signature, Touchstone Television. Paul Junger Witt, Tony Thomas (producer), Tony Thomas, and Harris served as the original executive producers. ''The Golden Girls'' received critical acclaim throughout most of its run, and won several awards, including the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series twice. It also won three Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy, Golden Globe Awards for Best Television Series – Musical or Comedy. Each of the four stars received an Emmy Awards, Emmy Award, making it ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ABC Signature
ABC Signature was a production arm of the American Broadcasting Company (ABC), which is a subsidiary of Disney Television Studios, a sub-division of the Disney Entertainment business segment and division of The Walt Disney Company. The studio's banner was also used by Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment for its distribution of the studio's shows on home video starting in 2008. Established in 1950 as the television unit of the company under the name Walt Disney Productions, it was renamed Walt Disney Network Television in 1983 and was merged with a separate studio known as the first incarnation of Touchstone Television, which was established in 1985. Disney rebranded the studio as ABC Studios in 2007 in an in-house push to drop secondary brands. It was then renamed to ABC Signature on August 10, 2020, after it merged with another separate studio, ABC Signature Studios. It was dissolved on October 1, 2024 and folded into 20th Television, which had been acquired by Disney i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Witt/Thomas Productions
Witt/Thomas Productions is an American television and movie production company run by TV producers Paul Junger Witt and Tony Thomas. The company was consistently productive between its founding in 1973 and 1999, but is still active, producing an occasional film or TV series project. It has produced more than 25 American primetime television series, mostly half-hour sitcoms. Witt/Thomas is perhaps best known for producing the popular sitcoms ''Soap'', '' Benson'', '' It's a Living'', ''The Golden Girls'' (along with its sequel, '' The Golden Palace''), '' Empty Nest'', '' Blossom'', '' Nurses'' and '' Brotherly Love''. Witt and Thomas have also produced many cinematic works, including the 1989 box office collection success '' Dead Poets Society''. Numerous Witt/Thomas television series were created and co-executive produced by Susan Harris, then Witt's wife. The shows that had involvement from Harris were produced under the modified title Witt/Thomas/Harris Productions. Histor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
