Barbara Mandrell makes a special guest appearance on “Empty Nest” as Laverne’s (Park Overall) friend, Ellen, whom Laverne sets up on a blind date with Harry (Richard Mulligan). In the same episode, Charley (David Leisure) takes a stand against a co-worker’s aggressive advances towards Emily (Lisa Rieffel), in “Charley to the Rescue,” an episode of “Empty Nest.” The episode was written by Robert S. LaZebnik and directed by Steve Zuckerman.

Laverne convinces Harry to go on a blind date with Ellen, her beautiful, charming friend from Boston, certain that she is his “dream woman.” Harry agrees to the date, but he is sorry he did when he finally meets Ellen and discovers that she is from Boston, Mississippi, and she is not the cosmopolitan sophisticate he was expecting. What’s worse, Ellen possesses the same obstinate, controlling traits of Laverne’s that Harry finds…less than desirable. Sheer diplomacy is the key to Harry’s survival if he is to break the news to Laverne that he doesn’t care to pursue a relationship with Ellen because she’s too much like Laverne!

Erstwhile, Charley gets Emily a job filling in as a cocktail waitress with the cruise ship he works on. But when the ship’s lecherous stand-up act, Alan (guest star Tom Gallup), relentlessly tries to pick-up on Emily, Charley recognizes a little too much of his own philandering in Alan and tells him to leave Emily alone. Humiliated by Charley’s affront to him, Alan tells Charley that not only is he going to “kick his butt from here to Panama” for interfering, he’s also going to get him fired.

Barbara Mandrell is a show business veteran of 29 years, and is one of the most instantly recognized faces in country music. She has received nine People’s Choice Awards and has been honored six consecutive times as “Favorite All-Around Female Entertainer” (1982-87). The Country Music Association twice voted her “Female Vocalist of the Year” in 1979 and 1981, and the American Music Awards voted her “Favorite Female Country Music Vocalist” six times in 1980 through 1986. Mandrell has made over 80 television appearances, in addition to her critically acclaimed weekly variety series, “Barbara Mandrell and the Mandrell Sisters,” which ran from 1980 to 1982.

“Empty Nest” also stars Dinah Manoff and Paul Provenza. The series is a Witt-Thomas-Harris Production in association with Touchstone Television. Paul Witt, Tony Thomas, Susan Harris, Fred Freeman, Lawrence J. Cohen, Arnie Kogen and Robert LaZebnik are series executive producers and Roger Garrett is the co-executive producer. Susan Harris is series creator.

Touchstone Television is a part of Walt Disney Pictures and Television, which is a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company.

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Part of the show’s fifth season press kit.