I think GAB would have lasted longer if they kept the girls around in either Glenlawn or New York. It was not hard to do remember they kept the girls together on The Facts of Life after it was time for them to leave Eastland. They opened up Edna's Edibles and they lived together and had wonderful times with each other just like they did in the first 4 seasons. Katie Julie and Sam could have stayed in California or moved to New York and kept contact with Nell. Only Sam was really close to Nell during that last season and kept up guest appearances on the show but Julie and Katie never visited and if they did that was an ep I missed. They stayed on during season 6 that was in Glenlawn but the season 6 in New York. Nell did not have to live with them but they at least needed to be close by because that is a strong bond. The way Mrs Garrett was moving toward a new direction in FOL is what they could have done on GAB meaning they did not have to be mother and daughter but the could have been close friends. Gimme A Break was truly an underrated show that got cut off before it really had a chance to continue. The show could have had 7-8 seasons but NBC took them off without a true ending. GAB ended in 87 and if it got 3 more years it could have made it to the 90's.

In season 5, Nell kept saying "This is the 80s! This is the 80s! What are you girls gonna do when the 90s get here?"

I think they had a guess, since Facts of life was still on in 1985/1986 and in it's 7th/8th season, that GAB would be around close to the end of the 1980s or maximum 1990/1991.

Nell never had a real ending. She was with her best friend in an apartment, had her two adoptive boys, and I believe she lost her job when MacDillon and Loud was sold in "Joey The Giggilo", several episodes before the show got cancelled.

It's been 23 years since GAB ended, and we never knew what became of the girls, Joey, Matty, the NY tenants, et.

If they had made a GAB reunion, the best time for it would have been maximum 2000/2001, when they did the Facts Of Life reunion, and Nell was alive and well to do one.


Had there been a reunion, they would have had to talk about Grandpa's death, since John Hoyt had passed on in 1991, and possibly Simpson, if the family kept in touch with him after the move away from Glenlawn. It would have been nice to see the family one last time to see what became of everyone.

Gimme A Break never had the ratings that the Facts of Life had. I don't think it was ever going to last that long. The reason NBC forced the changes that last year was because the ratings weren't great. I think Dolph Sweet's death had alot to do with it. The thing is though that GAB was about a family. It wasn't just about Nell and when they got rid of the girls they broke it up. The show just wasn't the same anymore. I would still watch it and Nell was great as she always was but something was missing....and that something was the girls.

GMAB was a top 40 show for the first 4 seasons. When Dolph Sweet passed away and Season 5 came along the ratings started slipping. So NBC decided to get rid of the girls and focus on Nell only. I think it was a big mistake. They added new characters like Rosie O. character and Paul Sand character. We still saw grandpa but the show wasnt the same. I also hated the addition of Joey Lawerence real brother Matthew. By the time the changes occured GMAB was in the 60's in the ratings or near 70.

Btw...did anyone notice the apartment Nell moves into in NY is the same apartment used on One Day at a Time....and the outside part of the set looks like the set of Punky Brewster.

GMAB was a top 40 show for the first 4 seasons. When Dolph Sweet passed away and Season 5 came along the ratings started slipping. So NBC decided to get rid of the girls and focus on Nell only. I think it was a big mistake. They added new characters like Rosie O. character and Paul Sand character. We still saw grandpa but the show wasnt the same. I also hated the addition of Joey Lawerence real brother Matthew. By the time the changes occured GMAB was in the 60's in the ratings or near 70.

Btw...did anyone notice the apartment Nell moves into in NY is the same apartment used on One Day at a Time....and the outside part of the set looks like the set of Punky Brewster.


I had no idea of a lot of the facts that you just pointed out! Thank you very much for sharing!

I never watched One Day At A Time, but saw a clip on you tube, and YES, that was indeed the same set. They just added two more windows I think in the livingroomn section, and had a wall here and there added. ODAAT ended before GAB, I believe, as it was on in the late 1970s and early 1980s, right? So by the time that show ended, GAB was making the move to NY and needed a new set. Not sure what year ODAAT ended, but I am just guessing sometime before or around September of 1986. I want to say that it's pretty sure that was the SAME set as ODAAT, only 2 exta windows in the living room, a few dividing walls, and a totally open kitchen instead of the closed one on GAB.

I also get that feeling about Punky Brewster's apartment hallway when I watch the NY episodes and the hallway scenes, however, it seems as if Nell's apartment is where Mrs. Johnson's was, and Marty's is where Punky's was, because of the way it is filmed and the enterances to the livingrooms being on certain sides of the TV screen. But I strongly doubt that was the Punky set as Punky was also filming at that time I believe.

Just for the record, I would like to point out that "One Day At a Time" ended in the spring of 1984.

One Day at a Time had 9 seasons so it did not have to end in the 90's because it would have warn out it's welcomes. It kind of got annoying long before it ended. Wow I had no idea that that was the ODAAT set but as I look at an episode of season 6 of season 6 of GAB I could see how it could be the set. The living room is bigger and the kitched is closed instead of the open kitchen they used on ODAAT and lets not forget that hallway I knew that hallway had a sort of special way about it. I keep seeing Punky and Cherrie running down the hallway as Miss Johnson is fussing at them even though Nell and the gang are there. How many sets have been reused on tv is it between stations or between whomever wants the sets for their show?