EMPTY MESS

EMPTY NEST
1988-1995 NBC

MAD #294, April 1990
w: Josh Gordon (Arnie Kogen)
a: Mort Drucker

Usually the term 'empty nest' refers to the children moving out and the parents having the house to themselves. Here the children move in. The premise was that Dr, Harry Weston (Richard Mulligan), a pediatrician, lost his wife Libby, and his grown daughters Carol (Dinah Manoff) and Barbara (Kristy McNichol) lived with him. His secretary at work was Laverne (Park Overall) and annoying neighbor Charley (David Leisure, known previously for his role as Joe Isuzu, the lying spokesperson for Isuzu cars). Rounding out the cast was Dreyfus, the archetypal smarter-than-people dog.

   -Mulligan had a role in the Blake Edwards film S. O. B. but was not nominated for an academy award.
   -McNichol was in a movie called Two Moon Junction, not Half Moon Junction, which doesn't seem like it would be on MAD's radar anyway.

The show was a spinoff of The Golden Girls and sometimes members of the cast made appearances on the show.

Charley was a cruise director for a living.

   -Laverne was very much a Southern stereotype.
   -Blanche (Rue McClanahan) was another cast member from The Golden Girls.
   -Mulligan appeared the films The Group and One Potato, Two Potato.

Another letter from a cast member.