diff --git a/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.23.0.txt b/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.23.0.txt
index fb63dc16249b2..661402e4f2f27 100644
--- a/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.23.0.txt
+++ b/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.23.0.txt
@@ -1099,6 +1099,7 @@ I/O
 - Bug in :meth:`pandas.io.json.json_normalize` where subrecords are not properly normalized if any subrecords values are NoneType (:issue:`20030`)
 - Bug in ``usecols`` parameter in :func:`pandas.io.read_csv` and :func:`pandas.io.read_table` where error is not raised correctly when passing a string. (:issue:`20529`)
 - Bug in :func:`HDFStore.keys` when reading a file with a softlink causes exception (:issue:`20523`)
+- Bug in :class:`HDFStore` export of a :class:`Series` or an empty :class:`DataFrame` with timezone-aware data in fixed format (:issue:`20594`)
 
 Plotting
 ^^^^^^^^
diff --git a/pandas/io/pytables.py b/pandas/io/pytables.py
index f9a496edb45a3..efd2e02e12c8b 100644
--- a/pandas/io/pytables.py
+++ b/pandas/io/pytables.py
@@ -2695,30 +2695,24 @@ def write_array(self, key, value, items=None):
                                                 _tables().ObjectAtom())
             vlarr.append(value)
         else:
-            if empty_array:
+            if is_datetime64_dtype(value.dtype):
+                self._handle.create_array(self.group, key, value.view('i8'))
+                getattr(self.group, key)._v_attrs.value_type = 'datetime64'
+            elif is_datetime64tz_dtype(value.dtype):
+                # store as UTC
+                # with a zone
+                self._handle.create_array(self.group, key, value.asi8)
+
+                node = getattr(self.group, key)
+                node._v_attrs.tz = _get_tz(value.tz)
+                node._v_attrs.value_type = 'datetime64'
+            elif is_timedelta64_dtype(value.dtype):
+                self._handle.create_array(self.group, key, value.view('i8'))
+                getattr(self.group, key)._v_attrs.value_type = 'timedelta64'
+            elif empty_array:
                 self.write_array_empty(key, value)
             else:
-                if is_datetime64_dtype(value.dtype):
-                    self._handle.create_array(
-                        self.group, key, value.view('i8'))
-                    getattr(
-                        self.group, key)._v_attrs.value_type = 'datetime64'
-                elif is_datetime64tz_dtype(value.dtype):
-                    # store as UTC
-                    # with a zone
-                    self._handle.create_array(self.group, key,
-                                              value.asi8)
-
-                    node = getattr(self.group, key)
-                    node._v_attrs.tz = _get_tz(value.tz)
-                    node._v_attrs.value_type = 'datetime64'
-                elif is_timedelta64_dtype(value.dtype):
-                    self._handle.create_array(
-                        self.group, key, value.view('i8'))
-                    getattr(
-                        self.group, key)._v_attrs.value_type = 'timedelta64'
-                else:
-                    self._handle.create_array(self.group, key, value)
+                self._handle.create_array(self.group, key, value)
 
         getattr(self.group, key)._v_attrs.transposed = transposed
 
@@ -2771,7 +2765,11 @@ def read(self, **kwargs):
     def write(self, obj, **kwargs):
         super(SeriesFixed, self).write(obj, **kwargs)
         self.write_index('index', obj.index)
-        self.write_array('values', obj.values)
+        if is_datetime64tz_dtype(obj.dtype):
+            values = obj.dt._get_values()
+        else:
+            values = obj.values
+        self.write_array('values', values)
         self.attrs.name = obj.name
 
 
diff --git a/pandas/tests/io/test_pytables.py b/pandas/tests/io/test_pytables.py
index b34723d6cf72c..4e3816d7be0fd 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/io/test_pytables.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/io/test_pytables.py
@@ -2792,10 +2792,28 @@ def test_empty_series_frame(self):
         self._check_roundtrip(df1, tm.assert_frame_equal)
         self._check_roundtrip(df2, tm.assert_frame_equal)
 
-    def test_empty_series(self):
-        for dtype in [np.int64, np.float64, np.object, 'm8[ns]', 'M8[ns]']:
-            s = Series(dtype=dtype)
-            self._check_roundtrip(s, tm.assert_series_equal)
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize('dtype', [
+        np.int64, np.float64, np.object, 'm8[ns]', 'M8[ns]',
+        'datetime64[ns, UTC]', 'datetime64[ns, US/Eastern]'
+    ])
+    def test_empty_series(self, dtype):
+        s = Series(dtype=dtype)
+        self._check_roundtrip(s, tm.assert_series_equal)
+
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize('dtype', [
+        'datetime64[ns, UTC]', 'datetime64[ns, US/Eastern]'
+    ])
+    def test_series_timezone(self, dtype):
+        s = Series([0], dtype=dtype)
+        self._check_roundtrip(s, tm.assert_series_equal)
+
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize('dtype', [
+        'datetime64[ns, UTC]', 'datetime64[ns, US/Eastern]'
+    ])
+    def test_empty_frame_timezone(self, dtype):
+        s = Series(dtype=dtype)
+        df = DataFrame({'A': s})
+        self._check_roundtrip(df, tm.assert_frame_equal)
 
     def test_can_serialize_dates(self):