throughout the 6 season run of gimmie a break john hoyt played grandpa 2 different ways in the first 2 seasons grandpa was a funny but slightly wacky old man with huge hearing problems and a raunchy sense of humor when new writers took over in season 3 he was transformed into a funny but wise grandfather I am wondering wich verison of grandpa did you like better? I liked grandpa better from season 3 on he was just more realistic

I thought he was funnier in the first 2 seasons.

1st 2 seasons were funnier

I was always used to Season 3-6 Grandpa. It also seemed that he liked the ladies at that time too....

Seasons 3-6 he was the best. He liked the women, but he wasn't totally a pig and was always good with the family.

In Jane Dulo's last episode, his last lines to her character before she passed away were so sweet, and he acted perfectly sane in them, with no hearing problem. They were slowly trying to get rid of that hearing problem he had throughout season 2 a few times.


Season 1 he was totally hard of hearing, season 2 a few times he was able to hear a few things, such as when Maxine said she used to be a hooker at the beginning of season 2 and Grandma's final scene in the series at the end of season 2.


In season 3, they began his character plain and just visiting the house in the season premiere and then again in The Mayor and then Melissa. No mention of Grandma at all, but his character was not hard of hearing anymore at that point, after that, I think they wrote the episode in which Grandpa returned from Poland after Mildred died, so I assume she passed sometime in the fall of 1983 Thanksgiving/Christmas. However, I think Grandpa's Rebellion was taped shortly before the episodes The Mayor/ Melissa, as he meets Joey for the first time in it, but when it aired, I think it was prior to the Christmas episode. So all that aside, I think Granma had passed shortly into the fall of 1983.


By this time, Grandpa did not have a hearing problem and was slowly getting scared of living and afraid what he was to leave his family. This came up in both season 3 and season 4. After that, he had to cope with his son's death, and then quietly settled in NYC after Nell moved there to be close to Addy. He was mostly one who watched Joey/hung around with him or was seen talking about the senior center/his old friends who were never shown in seasons 3-6, and the occasional dates he had from time to time.

I liked both versions of Grandpa, and to be honest, I didn't notice much of a personality change. I just attributed his earlier crankiness to having been married to one person for so long. After she passed, I thought that maybe his sadness matured him a bit.