ax.get_xticklabels & ax.get_yticklabels is returning a list of empty strings when I run the code via script/ipython interpreter, but works as expected (returns list of ticklabels) when called in ipython notebook. This makes me think it's a backend bug, but I'm mystified.

Env:

Python 3.5.1 |Continuum Analytics, Inc.| (default, Dec  7 2015, 11:24:55) 
[GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5577)] on darwin

matplotlib version:

• 1.5.1 (installed in different anaconda env to verify not a beta bug)
• 2.0.0b1.post1730.dev0+gfdce976 (last pulled in a few hours ago)

This will reproduce it: (I use agg here, but MacOSX is exhibiting the same behavior)

import matplotlib
matplotlib.use('agg')
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
fig = plt.figure()
ax = fig.add_subplot(1,1,1)
ax.plot([1,2,3])
print(list(l.get_text() for l in ax.get_xticklabels()))
print(list(l.get_text() for l in ax.get_yticklabels()))

Both print statements yield ['', '', '', '', ''] when they should be [0, 1, 2] & [1, 2, 3]