Shows Like Empty Nest
If you loved Empty Nest's Family and Comedy storytelling, these series deliver a similar experience — chosen for tone, narrative quality, and viewer satisfaction. Each includes where to stream it now.
★ Top Picks
Carol's Second Act
After raising her two children, getting divorced and retiring from teaching, Carol Chambers embarks on a unique second act: she’s going to become a doctor.
Childrens Hospital
A hospital isn't a place for lazy people. It's a place for smart people who take care of people who aren't smart enough to keep themselves healthy. So begins Children's Hospital, a parody series that follows the lives, loves and laughs of a hospital staff.
The Mindy Project
Obstetrician/gynecologist Mindy Lahiri tries to balance her personal and professional life, surrounded by quirky co-workers in a small medical practice in New York City.
Full House
After the death of his wife, Danny enlists his best friend and his brother-in-law to help raise his three daughters, D.J., Stephanie, and Michelle.
My Three Sons
A widower and aeronautical engineer named Steven Douglas raises three sons with the help of his father-in-law, and later the boys' great-uncle. An adopted son, a stepdaughter, wives, and another generation of sons join the loving family in later seasons.
The Jeffersons
Sitcom following a successful African-American couple, George and Louise “Weezyö Jefferson as they “move on up” from working-class Queens to a ritzy Manhattan apartment. A spin-off of All in the Family.
The Nanny
That flashy girl from Flushing with the heart of an angel (and the voice of a slighty more nasal angel). The comic misadventures of the sweet and sassy Fran Fine, her sophisticated employer, Broadway producer Mr. Sheffield, his boisterous brood and his wisecracking staff.
St. Denis Medical
An eclectic group of underfunded yet dedicated doctors and nurses navigates caring for patients — and each other — while keeping it all together at an Oregon hospital.
More Shows Like Empty Nest
Grounded for Life
Right out of high school, Sean Finnerty got his girlfriend Claudia pregnant. Now she’s his wife, and at just 32, he’s somehow found himself with 14-year-old daughter Lily, two little boys, and a constant struggle between his need to be responsible and his desperate desire to be irresponsible. His judgmental father Walt and devil-may-care brother Eddie are no help at all. When they all get together, stories always start to fly. Of course, Sean’s family will never let him finish a story; they interrupt, they debate, they derail, they defend themselves; just like any good family would.
Father Knows Best
Family man Jim Anderson copes with the everyday problems among his wife Margaret and their three children as they experience day-to-day changes.
Laverne & Shirley
Best friends, roommates, and polar opposites, Laverne DeFazio and Shirley Feeney work together at the Shotz Brewery in Milwaukee and keep each other's spirits up at home.
My Wife and Kids
Michael Kyle is a loving husband and modern-day patriarch who rules his household with a unique and distinct parenting style. As he teaches his three children some of life's lessons, he does so with his own brand of humor.
Good Luck Charlie
Teens PJ and Teddy and tween brother Gabe are typical kids -- that is, until their mother has another baby. The arrival of their new sister completely upends the entire household. When their mother heads back to work after Charlie's birth, it's up to the kids and their dad to keep the home fires burning -- and to keep Charlie out of trouble as she learns to sit up, crawl, walk and run. Teddy, as the older sister, makes a personalized video diary for Charlie, in each episode adding a nugget of wisdom for her baby sibling.
According to Jim
Jim is the typical all-American guy — a macho "everyman" — with a soft spot for his beautiful wife and children. Jim's boyish bravado and humorous antics keep a certain level of turmoil in their home, but there's never a doubt that this "opposites attract" couple are in their marriage for keeps!
Family Affair
Family Affair is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from September 12, 1966 to September 9, 1971. The series explored the trials of well-to-do civil engineer and bachelor Bill Davis as he attempted to raise his brother's orphaned children in his luxury New York City apartment. Davis' traditional English gentleman's gentleman, Mr. Giles French, also had adjustments to make as he became saddled with the responsibility of caring for 15-year-old Cissy and the 6-year-old twins, Jody and Buffy. The show ran for 138 episodes. Family Affair was created and produced by Don Fedderson, also known for My Three Sons and The Millionaire.
Raising Hope
James "Jimmy" Chance is a clueless 24-year-old who impregnates a serial killer during a one-night-stand. Earning custody of his daughter after the mother is sentenced to death, Jimmy relies on his oddball but well-intentioned family for support in raising the child.
Stuck in the Middle
Harley is an engineering whiz who uses her inventions to navigate life as the middle child in a large family of seven kids.
8 Simple Rules
Paul and Cate are raising their three children -- Bridget, Kerry and Rory -- which is no easy task. Oldest daughter Bridget is traversing the dating scene. Kerry is cute and smart, but she has a hard time getting in touch with her true feelings because of her lack of self-confidence. The youngest of the three children, and only boy, Rory is beginning to discover one of life's greatest mysteries -- girls.
The Electric Company
The Electric Company is an educational American children's television series that was produced by the Children's Television Workshop for PBS in the United States. PBS broadcast 780 episodes over the course of its six seasons from October 25, 1971 to April 15, 1977. After it ceased production that year, the program continued in reruns from 1977 to 1985, the result of a decision made in 1975 to produce two final seasons for perpetual use. CTW produced the show at Teletape Studios Second Stage in Manhattan, the first home of Sesame Street. The Electric Company employed sketch comedy and other devices to provide an entertaining program to help elementary school children develop their grammar and reading skills. It was intended for children who had graduated from CTW's flagship program, Sesame Street. Appropriately, the humor was more mature than what was seen there.
Step by Step
Step by Step is an American television sitcom with two single parents, who spontaneously get married after meeting one another during a vacation, resulting in them becoming the heads of a large blended family
Why These Shows Are Similar
These recommendations share core qualities with Empty Nest (1988): Family and Comedy themes, similar pacing, and comparable production quality. NoBadPicks uses TMDB collaborative filtering, genre matching, and AI analysis to surface series most likely to resonate with fans of Empty Nest.
See full details for Empty Nest (1988)