diff --git a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/RDD.scala b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/RDD.scala
index 54bdc3e7cbc7a..b6fc4b13ad4d7 100644
--- a/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/RDD.scala
+++ b/core/src/main/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/RDD.scala
@@ -1180,7 +1180,7 @@ abstract class RDD[T: ClassTag](
 
   /** User code that created this RDD (e.g. `textFile`, `parallelize`). */
   @transient private[spark] val creationSiteInfo = Utils.getCallSiteInfo
-  private[spark] def getCreationSite: String = creationSiteInfo.toString
+  private[spark] def getCreationSite: String = Option(creationSiteInfo).getOrElse("").toString
 
   private[spark] def elementClassTag: ClassTag[T] = classTag[T]
 
diff --git a/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/RDDSuite.scala b/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/RDDSuite.scala
index 55af1666df662..2e2ccc5a1859e 100644
--- a/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/RDDSuite.scala
+++ b/core/src/test/scala/org/apache/spark/rdd/RDDSuite.scala
@@ -24,7 +24,7 @@ import org.scalatest.FunSuite
 
 import org.apache.spark._
 import org.apache.spark.SparkContext._
-import org.apache.spark.rdd._
+import org.apache.spark.util.Utils
 
 class RDDSuite extends FunSuite with SharedSparkContext {
 
@@ -66,6 +66,13 @@ class RDDSuite extends FunSuite with SharedSparkContext {
     }
   }
 
+  test("serialization") {
+    val empty = new EmptyRDD[Int](sc)
+    val serial = Utils.serialize(empty)
+    val deserial: EmptyRDD[Int] = Utils.deserialize(serial)
+    assert(!deserial.toString().isEmpty())
+  }
+
   test("countApproxDistinct") {
 
     def error(est: Long, size: Long) = math.abs(est - size) / size.toDouble