Nurses (TV series)

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This article is about the television show. For the profession, see nurse.

Nurses is a television sitcom that ran on NBC from 1991 to 1994. It was developed and produced by Susan Harris, and was a spin-off from Harris's earlier series Empty Nest. The nurses of the show's title were stationed at the fictional Community Medical Center (the same hospital that employed Empty Nest's Dr. Harry Weston). Nurses was set in the same Miami, Florida, neighborhood as Empty Nest and Harris's The Golden Girls; characters from all three series made occasional guest appearances on the others.

Initially, the main characters were Head Nurse Annie Roland (Arnetia Walker), Nurse Sandy Miller (Stephanie Hodge), Nurse Julie Milbury (Mary Jo Keenen), and Gina Cuevas (Ada Maris). After struggling to gain viewers for its first two seasons, the show received an infusion of "star power" with the addition of Loni Anderson to the cast as an administrator; ratings failed to improve, however, and NBC cancelled the show after its third season.

Although mostly given to broad humor -- one running gag involved the Latina character's constant refrain of "In my country ..." (which was analogous to Golden Girl Rose Nylund's famous non-sequitors beginning with "Back in St. Olaf...") -- the show occasionally dealt with serious topics, as when Dr. Hank Kaplan (Kip Gilman) faced the possibility of testicular cancer.^[1]

[edit] Trivia

Actor Carlos Lacamara, who played the supporting role of Paco Ortiz, was reunited with actress Ada Maris in The Brothers García, where their characters were husband and wife.