{"id":138007,"date":"2026-09-15T11:42:04","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T16:42:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=138007"},"modified":"2026-09-15T11:42:23","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T16:42:23","slug":"1980s-tv-shows-a-trip-down-memory-lane-with-david-leisure-charley-dietz-in-empty-nest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=138007","title":{"rendered":"1980s TV Shows:  A Trip Down Memory Lane with\u2026 David Leisure (Charley Dietz in \u201cEmpty Nest\u201d)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1545664804358300\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><br \/>\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block; text-align: center;\" data-ad-layout=\"in-article\" data-ad-format=\"fluid\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1545664804358300\" data-ad-slot=\"8616314829\"><\/ins><br \/>\n<script>\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/script><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=138007\" rel=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=138007\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-138008 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2680-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2680-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2680-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2680-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2680-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/2680.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Exclusive Interview by Karen Beishuizen<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u201cEmpty Nest\u201d was a television sitcom that aired on NBC from 1988 to 1995. It ran for seven seasons and 170 episodes. The series was a spin-off of \u201dThe Golden Girls\u201d and starred Richard Mulligan as the widowed pediatrician Harry Weston. Dinah Manoff and Kristy McNichol played daughters Carol and Barbara. David Leisure played the womanizing neighbor Charley Dietz who entered the house at all hours of the day helping himself with stuff he needed. <!--more--><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>KB: &#8220;Empty Nest&#8221;: What was the show about?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>It was about a pediatrician whose wife had died, and his daughters had moved out of the house, and he had a big red dog and an obnoxious mooching neighbor, which was me. However, in the first season, in the first few episodes, the writers had to lay pipe, as they say, creating reasons why the daughters would come home and see their dad. So they moved them back into the house so the nest wasn\u2019t empty any longer, ha ha.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>KB: How did you get the part as Charley Dietz?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>I got the part of Charley Dietz by way of being Joe Isuzu on TV, which was a character I played selling Isuzu cars and trucks. Paul Witt and Tony Thomas put me in a pilot that we shot for \u201cEmpty Nest\u201dwith a complete set of different actors: Paul Dooley, Rita Moreno, Geoffrey Lewis, and me. And I was fortunate enough to be the only one that they kept in the cast when they revamped the show with Kristy McNichol, Dinah Manoff, and Richard Mulligan. Once again, I\u2019m a lucky guy.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>KB: What did you like about the character and how did you make it your own?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Well, I didn\u2019t have to work too hard. I was already a lying, smarmy car salesman for Isuzu, so becoming an obnoxious, mooching next-door neighbor wasn\u2019t much of a stretch.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>KB: What was it like working with Richard Mulligan?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>My dear friend Richard, I miss him so much. He was the captain of our ship. He considered all of us his actors, and he wouldn\u2019t let us get away with any shenanigans on the set. He also wouldn\u2019t let anybody mess with us. He protected us, he fought for us. He was a great man. I learned a lot about being a good person from him, especially on a set.<\/p>\n<p>There was this one time we were doing a scene together, and it just wasn\u2019t working, so Richard said to me that if I took his line, he took my line, so basically we were switching parts. Then the scene would work. When we got to notes, which is what you do when there\u2019s some issue with the script and the writers rewrite it, he didn\u2019t tell the writers what he told me, and I was wondering why he did that? Finally, it dawned on me that he was trying to get the writers to write it so they own it! So he was very sensitive to how people work.<\/p>\n<p>He was also a comic genius. Once we were short 2 minutes of airtime, and the writers could come up with anything to stretch out the scenes. Doesn\u2019t sound like much, does it? But two minutes is a lot of dead air! So Richard said, \u201cI\u2019ll fill your two minutes at the top of the show, but I\u2019m only going to do it once!\u201d So he made coffee and toast like Charlie Chaplin for two minutes, no dialogue, and it was the funniest thing you ever saw!<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>KB: How did a week on the set looked like from getting the script to filming?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s a very interesting question. You can read a script at the table while you\u2019re all sitting down, and everything seems great. Every joke works. Everything seems perfect. Then all you gotta do is get up out of your chair, walk 10 feet to the set, and do the same thing, and somehow it doesn\u2019t work! Then the writers have to rewrite it until it does work. It&#8217;s a weird phenomena. We would still get new dialogue pages on the set on film night sometimes. Another weird phenomenon is called a \u201cswing set\u201d. It\u2019s where a scene is played on a set on the stage, but it\u2019s around the corner and not in front of the audience, and invariably it\u2019s a hard place to make people laugh when they\u2019re not right in front of you, so it always came off looking bad.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>KB: Where was the show filmed?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Right in the middle of Hollywood.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>KB: Do you have a favorite episode where you starred in and why this one?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Yes, I do have a favorite episode. There was one where Dinah Manoff, who was my nemesis\u2014or I was her nemesis\u2014on the show, and she gets scared, and all of a sudden I\u2019ve protected her from a bad guy, and I chased him away. We begin to cuddle, we have to kiss, and then we have an affair. It was so hard to get through that kissing scene because we cracked up! She\u2019s like my sister, and we couldn\u2019t get through the kiss hardly at all, especially with a Live audience who were screaming, it was a lot of fun and a lot of hard work to get through it without cracking up.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>KB: Are you still in touch with the other actors of the show?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Yes, as a matter of fact, we see each other every few years at autograph shows and personal appearances. I\u2019m also friends with some of the guest stars we had and I stayed in touch with over the years, but Dinah Manoff and Kristy McNichol, they\u2019re my sisters, and very dear friends.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>KB: Looking back now, would you have played Charley Dietz differently?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Nope. I did have to wear a lot of different, weird costumes on the show. Like one week, I\u2019d be in a pirate outfit with a parrot on my shoulder. Or I&#8217;d be dressed like a guru. One week, I was wearing a shark outfit with my face coming out of its mouth, and as I was walking across the set, the warm-up guy (a warm-up guy is a comedian who keeps the audience engaged while they set up between scenes) asked me to answer some questions from the audience. So this woman asked me how I prepare as an actor for my part each week. I said, \u201cLady, if I was a better actor, I wouldn\u2019t have to wear these fucking costumes!\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>KB: How do you explain that this show is still beloved after 40+ years?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Well, all I can say is like \u201cThe Golden Girls\u201d, which was also a great show, it\u2019s just easy watching. It doesn\u2019t take you too much to pay attention to it, and it\u2019s a lot of fun. The shows are fun.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><em><strong><span style=\"font-size: 14pt; color: #808000;\"><a style=\"color: #808000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.authorhouse.com\/en\/bookstore\/bookdetails\/232300-BOXING-INTERVIEWS-OF-A-LIFETIME\">Click Here to Order Boxing Interviews Of A Lifetime By &#8220;Bad&#8221; Brad Berkwitt<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"wpforms-container wpforms-container-full\" id=\"wpforms-126533\"><form id=\"wpforms-form-126533\" class=\"wpforms-validate wpforms-form wpforms-ajax-form\" data-formid=\"126533\" method=\"post\" enctype=\"multipart\/form-data\" action=\"\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fposts%2F138007\" data-token=\"2acb8883df9b549637a958aa76f956f2\" data-token-time=\"1789587809\"><noscript class=\"wpforms-error-noscript\">Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.<\/noscript><div class=\"wpforms-field-container\">\t\t<div id=\"wpforms-126533-field_4-container\"\n\t\t\tclass=\"wpforms-field wpforms-field-text\"\n\t\t\tdata-field-type=\"text\"\n\t\t\tdata-field-id=\"4\"\n\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t<label class=\"wpforms-field-label\" for=\"wpforms-126533-field_4\" >Comment Message or<\/label>\n\t\t\t<input type=\"text\" id=\"wpforms-126533-field_4\" class=\"wpforms-field-medium\" name=\"wpforms[fields][4]\" >\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<div id=\"wpforms-126533-field_1-container\" class=\"wpforms-field wpforms-field-name\" data-field-id=\"1\"><label class=\"wpforms-field-label\">Name <span class=\"wpforms-required-label\">*<\/span><\/label><div class=\"wpforms-field-row wpforms-field-medium\"><div class=\"wpforms-field-row-block wpforms-first wpforms-one-half\"><input type=\"text\" id=\"wpforms-126533-field_1\" class=\"wpforms-field-name-first wpforms-field-required\" name=\"wpforms[fields][1][first]\" required><label for=\"wpforms-126533-field_1\" class=\"wpforms-field-sublabel after\">First<\/label><\/div><div class=\"wpforms-field-row-block wpforms-one-half\"><input type=\"text\" id=\"wpforms-126533-field_1-last\" class=\"wpforms-field-name-last wpforms-field-required\" name=\"wpforms[fields][1][last]\" required><label for=\"wpforms-126533-field_1-last\" class=\"wpforms-field-sublabel after\">Last<\/label><\/div><\/div><\/div><div id=\"wpforms-126533-field_2-container\" class=\"wpforms-field wpforms-field-email\" data-field-id=\"2\"><label class=\"wpforms-field-label\" for=\"wpforms-126533-field_2\">Email <span class=\"wpforms-required-label\">*<\/span><\/label><input type=\"email\" id=\"wpforms-126533-field_2\" class=\"wpforms-field-medium wpforms-field-required\" name=\"wpforms[fields][2]\" spellcheck=\"false\" required><\/div><div id=\"wpforms-126533-field_3-container\" class=\"wpforms-field wpforms-field-textarea\" data-field-id=\"3\"><label class=\"wpforms-field-label\" for=\"wpforms-126533-field_3\">Comment or Message<\/label><textarea id=\"wpforms-126533-field_3\" class=\"wpforms-field-medium\" name=\"wpforms[fields][3]\" ><\/textarea><\/div><script>\n\t\t\t\t( function() {\n\t\t\t\t\tconst style = document.createElement( 'style' );\n\t\t\t\t\tstyle.appendChild( document.createTextNode( '#wpforms-126533-field_4-container { position: absolute !important; 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It ran for seven seasons and 170 episodes. The series was a spin-off of \u201dThe Golden Girls\u201d and starred Richard Mulligan as the widowed pediatrician Harry Weston. Dinah Manoff and Kristy McNichol played daughters Carol and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":138008,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35042],"tags":[35712],"class_list":["post-138007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-1980s-tv-shows-a-trip-down-memory-lane-with","tag-1980s-tv-shows-a-trip-down-memory-lane-with-david-leisure-charley-dietz-in-empty-nest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=138007"}],"version-history":[{"count":-3,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/138007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/138008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=138007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=138007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=138007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}