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Join Date: Jan 09, 2001
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- Other Thoughts:
When Nell Carter blew ass during a very serious scene.
After the first side of beef Nell Carter ate.
When Addy joined the show, the character of Nell went from being a kind-hearted mother-substitute, to being cold and calculating against her friend.
This show never jumped because it had nowhere to jump from.
When the Chief (played by Dolph Sweet) died, the cast's heart just wasn't in it anymore.
I'm surprised Nell would want to go back to NY after her disastrous vacation there with Addy.
It was very sad when the Chief died. If a character's death is not prime shark-jumping waters, what is?
This was not a very good show, filled with well-heeled sitcom standbys: a Nanny and the Professor premise, three cute children, a stereotypical senile old man, and a father figure with a hard exterior but a soft heart. Heavy sigh. It was a blatant 'star vehicle' for Nell Carter. Just nothing new or original for this show. However, it did have its moments, now and then, when the writers seem to have been momentarily lucid. When Dolph Sweet died, that was the straw that broke this camel's back. It simply had nowhere to go after that.
That guy who wrote the last vote needs his ass kicked. I agree, the Chief's death was unhealthy for the show, but when you mess with Gimme a Break, you're in deep ****.
I should also mention that the Chief's brother vanished without a trace after Season 2. Chuck Cunningham, are you listening?
I missed the Chief after he was gone.
All the viewers cried when the Chief passed away. The network cried when they saw what happened to the ratings after that.
This was a great show for its first four seasons. Although the premise of a single father dealing with a wisecracking housekeeper was anything but new to television, it worked in part because of the cutting-edge humor and the juxtaposition of the cast, particularly of the Chief with Nell, the girls, and Grandpa. When he died, everything was out of order, it was not quite as funny as it had been, and the ratings went down.
Uncle Ed, the Chief's brother, was a victim of the dreaded "Chuck Cunningham syndrome." He got married and suddenly vanished into thin air.
This show jumped the shark, naturally, when the Chief died (there was nothing the producers could do about that, though). Still, the episodes after that are far funnier than anything currently on NBC, or any other network for that matter.
The episode where Nell got stuck in the elevator with the members of her diet group, PORKO (People Organized to Reduce and Kick Obesity) was a classic. Perhaps their best out of 136 episodes that were made.
Actually this show jumped the shark first when the Chief died, and THEN when they moved. At least they decided to quit before Joey hit puberty.
By the time Samantha started getting her hair done well and developed a figure to make the boys in the audience go crazy...well, that didn't affect the show much, but in the future can we please cancel shows before the child stars hit puberty.
I always cracked up whenever Nell accidentally killed Gertrude the goldfish. The writers remembered not to overdo it, like Kenny on "South Park," which wasn't funny to begin with.
They did a live show where Officer Simpson almost dies and leaves everything he has to Nell.
Here we have a GREAT show, funny storylines, and a lot of laughs. When the "chief" died, there was not much left to see. Although I think the show started to fall when Julie married Jonathan (Jonathan Silverman), since Julie was supposed to be the sensible one of the sisters. After that everything focused on her marriage and etc. With Katie independent and then Nell moving with Adie to NY and the Lawrence brothers, the only episode I enjoyed was the Xmas one. Also notice the transition from the first episodes Nell to the last ons..her character really evolutionated. It was a great show with great starts. I will never forget Helen Hunt's "Valerie", one of Katie's best friends who was about to become a single mother. The birth giving episode in 1981 was one of the funniest ever.
When USA Network showed it, they would cut it so that audience laughter would come after dialogue not intended to be funny. So the Chief would say, "Hey Samantha" and then they would cut to audience laughter. That is unacceptable.
This was one of those shows that just loved jumping the shark, with the addition of Joey (which should be a JTS catergory: Cute Kid Syndrome), the death of the Chief, the headfirst descent of the Kaninsky girls into puberty and the move to New York. But the final fatal jump was when Neil and Addy appeared on Wheel of Fortune as a team (why, I don't know, I think it was "Best Friends" week or something lame like that). Pat, I'd like to solve the puzzle. Is it "Lame Ass Plotline"?
Ah, but you forgot a very important shark jump for Gimme a Break; The wedding of Julie and Jonathan. And adding insult to injury, the Chief died right after that. This show was a victim of bad luck.
Joey Lawrence wasn't so bad on this show, it's just what he did after this that I can't stand. But when they put his little brother Matthew on the show, that was THE moment when I knew Gimme a Break could never be saved :-(
The Chief's death. Nuff said.
Gimme a Break was a perfectly hilarious show its first two seasons--then they switched to a blander theme song and even worse--added scene-stealer Joey Lawrence to hog all the best jokes. This show was much better when it centered around Nell, the Chief and the three girls! They should never have added Grandpa, Addy and Joey at the expense of scripts about the original cast members.
Grandpa Kanisky got watered down a lot during this show's six-year run:
1981-83: Doing the senile old man bit, up until an episode with a stirring speech about treating the aged with dignity.
1983-85: More serious since Grandma died, traded in the senility schtick for the curmudgeon schtick.
1985-87: Loses his son (the Chief), then gets minimalized to the point where all he gets to say by the last season is Hello, to Nell's overbearing mother. This show could have kept up the standards it had set for itself when it first came on by not watering down characters like this.
After The Chief died, you can tell that the cast knew they had jumped the shark and there was nothing they could do to stop the downward slide.
This one did a double jump. First when they moved to New York. Then when that annoying brother of Joey joined the cast. Many say it was after the Chief died. Almost but it did a good job staying afloat. After the move, though, it went into the shark tank.
The title said all. What a lame show. It just reminds me of how bad '80's t.v. was. I hated that fat loudmouth and that little snotnose girl. The nerdy girl reminded me of a girl I used to live near. I couldn't stand her. I did like the blonde. She was a little piece of ass. Everything else sucked, though I pray they never put this on t.v.land.
Gimme a Break had a live episode quite a long time ago. I'm surprised no one voted for this one.
Nell adopting those two kids. Enough said.
The show always sucked! The Chief kicking the bucket didn't help, but I just wanted to let everyone know that one of the most hilarious scenes, though totally racist, was when Samantha is pissed at Nell and convinces that little turd Joey to put on blackface and perform "Me and My Shadow" at Nell's predominantly African-American church. It really was terrible and I shouldn't laugh but I just can't seem to shake the vision of that sitcom-ruining loser child dancing around like Al Jolson. Anyone remember this episode? I've only seen it once and it is still clear in my mind. Now that's good TV, almost as good as "California Dreams."
Back in the '80s, I was a huge fan of "Gimme A Break." If I'm flipping the dial nowadays and come across any of the pre-New York episodes, I'll still watch them. Although many might say moving to the Big Apple was the moment when this show jumped the shark, I must agree with the majority here that the death of Dolph Sweet, "The Chief," was the death of this show. Before The Chief died, Nell was a fun, nurturing surrogate mother for his children. After his death, Nell became a loud, angry bitch, always one step away from a stress-induced heart attack. It just wasn't as charming a show anymore. I don't even want to go into that blight of the sitcom world, Joey Lawrence. Bad, bad, bad. "I'm collecting for Jerry's Kids." Why didn't The Chief and Simpson just shoot him on sight?
I did not see that horrible episode on your list when Andy Gibb was on.
The show normally stunk, but the Andy Gibb guest appearence relly was bad
The show was well on it's way up the ramp to jump with the addition of Joey. It totally jumped the shark when Matthew became a regular. Desperation is an understatement. Not one but two supposedly cute kids to save Nell Carter's career. By the way, what is up with the actors on this show? Are they so dumb that they wouldn't recognize a stage name? Nell Carter's character was named Nell. Joey Lawrence's was named Joey. Matthew Lawrences was named Matthew. Learn to play a character other than yourself. The right to keep one's own name is usually reserved for big name actors such as Bob Newhart or Jerry Seinfeld or Mary Tyler Moore.
Nell Sings, I got a new attitude, drops 600 lbs, finds the lord, gains 800 back, looks like a meatball with arms.
Actually, the song Joey performed in blackface was "Toot-Toot-Tootsie Good-bye."
This is a rare show on which it jump the shark for the same reason TWICE!!! First cute little Joey joined the cast, then cute little Andy joined. My God, what were they trying to do, overkill with cute?
Did anyone notice a first-season episode when Nell went back home to see her dying father after a 16-year absence? In that episode, her mother was played by Hilda Haynes (I believe that was her name), and her name was Emma. Also, Nell's sister was named Marie in this episode, and Marie's husband was named Robert. Yet, in a later season Nell's mother and sister were regulars on the show, but her Mom was now played by Rosetta LeNoire and named Maybelle. And Nell's sister was now named Loretta and she had an ex-husband named Howard and a son Jerome (both were mentioned in one episode but never seen). In the above-mentioned first-season episode, there was no Loretta, let alone no Howard (Jerome might not yet have been born). Were the producers of the show aware of this inconsistency?
Where to begin? This show jumped so many times it's hard to keep track. Let's list 'em: 1. Chief dies. Dolph Sweet. Actor extraordinaire. Deserved better than to be teamed up with the human slab of beef known as Nell. 2. Addy was annoying. There should be a law against mouthy, shoot-from-the-hip best friends on sitcoms. I hate spitfires. 3. Lawrence brothers. That's death, man. 4. Joey in blackface. Oh man....
Another one from Nell's father's funeral episode and another that falls into the racist remark category (if there were to be one): The Chief goes out of town before Nell goes to see her family. Julie and Katie have dates, but Nell doesn't want to leave Samantha home alone. When Samantha arrives with Nell, Nell's family thinks Samantha is Nell's daughter. Samantha says, "It's weird being the minority." Later, Samantha sees a picture of Jesus (as a black) on the wall, and asks the Preacher who's at Nell's family's house: "Who is that?" "Why, that is Jesus, child," says the preacher. Samamtha: "I thought Jesus was white." Nell's sister: "Really? I thought he was black." Samantha: "Maybe Fotomat sent you the negative." Nell: "Now, honey, everyone has their idea of Jesus. White people want him white, black people want him black, and Kermit the Frog wants him green."
I didn't find anything specifically bad with this show overall, I thought it was pretty entertaining. The loss of Dolph Sweet hurt a lot, he was probably the best actor on the show, but I don't remember thinking that it jumped at that point, not even the addition of the cute kid, Joey Lawrence, hurt my viewership of this show, I didn't become disgusted with this show until they moved to New York and added Joey's little brother and her friend, Adie. That's where it jumped for me. I never quite understood the concept of moving from one make believe home to another make believe home. What difference does it make? Hell, if you can't think of any damn thing else to write, just end the damn show. I don't care if a show is set in California, New York or frickin Milwaukee, I just want to be entertained, I could give a crap less where you move, if you're acting and writing goes to ****, I'm turning you off. I also think they wasted some pretty good talent by starting to exclude the three girls once they started to get older, I thought they were pretty good actresses and deserved to have their character's developed further. What the hell is it with sitcom writers? It seems like once a kid starts to grow up, they run out of things to write for them to say.
I feel this show jumped the shark when the Chief died, because when the Chief died it lost the same tension effect like when Mike and Gloria left the scene on all in the Family. The Chief always had a controversy on the back burner when it came to him and Nell Carter going head to head on opinions of running of the household and the raising of the girls. Not to mention the fact that it just carried the classic confrontation of man and woman in a living together environment.
To me, an ultimate fan of the show, it got very good during the 3d season when they changed the credits around and made the show more 80's like. After the 4th season, and the death of the chief it really went down. The writers then had no more use for the girls and sent them their seperate ways in the 6th season premiere. I think that the writers should have let the girls go in the 5th season finale, and had ended the show there. The New York season was a waste. Very good but a waste. First Nell wanted to move there, then when she did she wanted to move back to Glenlawn, then she liked it there, and then she had lots of troubles there. What a way to erd a show by moving it to a different place. If the chief never died the show would have lasted a 7th or 8th season and the girls wouldn't have left the show. I think that the chiefs death had the biggest outcome of the cancellation of this series. All of the characters were played well. Its only that after season 4, the final 2 seasons didnt get high ratings as the previous ones.
Remember the episode where the older sister Katie winds up in the hospital because of complications and bleeding stemming from her I.U.D.? Pretty heavy stuff for a sitcom like Gimme A Break. Later in the episode Nell is left to explain why Katy is in the hospital and she has to smooth Katy's being sexually active over with Dad. This one does not age well because the I.U.D. is such a dated early 80's form of birth control. An idealic time where the teenage characters only concern was possibly getting pregnant and not with getting AIDS.
okay show until chief died- liked chief and nell couldnt stand the family-julie annoying nerd, samantha-whose acting ability was limited to only two modes, eye rolling and crossing her arms-katie-cutey-grampa K-talks about growing up in the 'OLD Country" but has no accent (Poland?)-and the worst and most horrid Joey the bowl hair cut freak always mugging for the camera.JUMP!!
when ray parker jr. (of ghostbusters theme song fame) makes an appearance on 1 episode.
After about the 2nd time Nell almost sucked up Gertrude the fish with her vacuum cleaner in the opening. What was the vacuum cleaner doing in a fish bowl in the first place? How come she never got electrocuted? Why was she such shrill, bitter crabby pants?
Gimme A Break went down hill after they moved to New York. Rosie as the neighbor was a +. While emphasizing Joey Lawrence - the new young child made the show lose it's appeal.
The move to New York was unnecessary. Nell and Addie taking care of the kids just didn't feel right without the dad being gone. The 3 daughters I missed watching (I was crazy about Lara Jill Miller) and the addition of Rosie O'Donnell didn't help. Open Wide Shark!!!
Gimme a Break jumped the shark when the chief died. After this happened the series should have been cancelled. The best character on the show was Katie. She was a real cutie!
The death of Dolph Sweet send this show speeding up the ramp. His character was the best thing in this show, along with Kari Michaelsen (Katie) because she was quite a babe. Mr. Sweet was a familiar face on TV and movies playing either heavies or cops. I think he might have played more cops. He was a good character actor but I have to admit that personally I did not think he had the comic timing for sitcoms although he had the great deadpan look. As for Miss Michaelsen, she was very pretty. For me it was between her and Blair (Lisa Whelchel) for teen (early 20's?)queen. That era just didn't have as many sitcom babes for that age group. Well maybe you can add Mallory (Justine Bateman) too. The show was basically a show about a family with Nell Carter taking the role of the mom. Personally most sitcoms about families just about make me want to jump into shark infested water. This show basically had nothing new to offer although it tried to tackle serious subjects. Most of the humor comes as slapstick or insult humor, very low level humor. I stopped watching when Katie begins to be featured less. I don't even remember the New York episodes. One thing I don't understand is why some critics lauded the appearance of Jonathan Silverman he absolutely added nothing to the show and his acting was mannered.
Definitely when the New York move happened. "Gimme A Break" was never a great show, but it was an entertaining show that (if it were around today) would be one of the Top 5 sitcoms on TV (that's how bad Sitcoms are today). It was enjoyable, and I thought the show handled the Chief's death as well as could be handled. However, the move to New York was completely ill-advised and the episodes there were not good at all. BEST CHARACTERS: The Chief, Nell's Mother (who should have been seen a lot more). WORST CHARACTERS: Grandpa and any of the New York add-ons. BEST EPISODES: the two-parter at Nell's sister's wedding, Ken Berry as guy who thinks he is an alien, and the night Nell and the Chief broke their diet by pigging out on everything in sight. Enjoyable, but not great.
When Nell sang that long, sappy song at the end of the World's Fair special two-part episode.
Gimme a Break played in our town at 5:30pm in the mid 80's so I got to see it alot.I really like the Chief's character...the show took a dive after he passed away in really life...I agree with those individuals that mentioned they like Kari Michaelson..."Katie"...She was a really "cutie" and was featured less and less in later years....the show seemed to feature Joey Lawrence too much...this lowered the target age group because at the time I really did not have much in common with a seven year old boy!
This show was great when Dolph Sweet was alive. After he died, the show took a downward spiral into disaster and Sh*tsville. Joey Lawrence? UGHH!! The only redeeming episode with him was the one in which Samantha tricks him into doing a blackface routine at a black church. I just kept hoping the congregation would beat him to death but alas it was denied me. I just wish Sam would have just told Nell after her guilt trip over the affair, "Oh, calm down and have another pie."
You had to wonder why anyone would phase out Kari Michaelson (Katie)and Lara Jill Miller (Sam) and add to the storyline of the goofy middle sister. Katie especially was very cute, as LJ got older and cuter they wrote her less, too. Why feature more and more of Nell Carter, as she hulked out to become more and more Nell Carter? uggh!
The funniest show was in the first few seasons...when Nell went to jail for arguing with the guy at the phone company, and she called that vain Black reporter to cover the "injustice." Simpson typing one key every ten seconds was hilarious, especially when he asked her about her weight. Not many laughs afterward though...they should have pulled the show when Joey came on and the Chief died.
Thank you for reminding me of the IUD episode! I watched this show when I was in elementary school, and when this episode came on, my mother decided it wasn't an appropriate show for me to watch anymore. So I had to watch it in secret. The shame! And in my pathetic prepubescence I actually thought Joey was cute.
For me this program really didn't jump till they moved it in the final season, then I found it unwatchable. Without the core family and cast it wasn't the same program it once was. As for the death of the Chief, as sad as it was that they lost such a beloved and valued character I think they managed to carry on. After all there's an old saying in show business, the show must go on. I have seen many program rebound after losing a core character, because they had no other choice but to carry on. To me there are very few examples of a program not being able to recover after the death of an essential star: Chico and The Man, part of the appeal of this program was the two main characters banter and chemistry, without Prinze this was lost, and News Radio, which couldn't make it after the death of Phil Hartman, for the main reason that he was the only funny on in the entire cast.
If it wasn't for Kari Michaelsen in the aerobics outfit, and the somewhat sexy ditzy young daughter, this show wouldn't have lasted more than six episodes. Isn't Joey Lawrence really a young Ted McGinley?
This show was redeemed by one saving grace: Master thespian Dolph Sweet. He did yeoman's work rescuing a thankless role like "Chief Kaminsky" and making it respectable. Bravo, Dolph. Also, I loved the older daughter, but the genius producers phased her out in favor of hideous rapscallion Joey Lawrence (replete with bowl haircut, stolen brazenly from Eight Is Enough's Adam Rich). At least poor Dolph wasn't alive to see the horror.
Referring to the funeral episode, when Samantha tells Nell its hard being the minority, I dont think that was necessarily racist, it was just an observation that she has never been around blacks very much and feels out of place, where as Nell is around whites every day of her life, and has to be a minority every day, as well as being a woman and overweight; so she has three strikes against her; it was a very telling and meaningful comment. I say that because even though it was played for laughs and was a standard one liner, I still remember it and reflect on it twenty years later while I can't remember the funniest lines from last week's Friends episode. Granted the Jesus picture debate was a bit contrived, but again it brings up interesting questions on the dynamics and meaning of race that most sitcoms wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole today.
With the death of Dolph Sweet (and therefore of Chief Kaminsky), its single unifying force was gone. And just this past Thursday, Nell Carter passed away at age 54. Oh, how the deaths of the stars can make one remember their stories.
On Gimme a Break, Katie's pregnant friend actually got married while she was in labor at their house, so she was about to become a married mother, not a single mother.
It jumped mostly when the show moved. After season one it changed due to pressure from black groups. Remember in the first year, Nell had only recently met the mother and came to be the housekeeper. In fact there was a flashback episode where the mother told Nell she was going to have die having just had cancer or something like that. Thus the sitcom was just another black maid raising the good ole white folk. So in season two they made the storyline say Nell raised the girls from the time they were little. Also Joey was Nell's not the chief's. This made no sense. They may have even made the transition to NYC work if they had dumped the kids. And despite what anyone says Joey Lawrence turned out to be extremely good-looking.
It might have jumped when Chief died, but I think that this show survived that tragedy, to tell y'all the truth. This show used to crack me up! Nell Carter was a funny lady, and along with the IUD episodes, and the black Jesus one, there were some edgy subjects highlighted on this show that made it avoid jumping because they were done well. Was there an episode where one of the girls calls Nell a "******"? I seem to remember this, and am not sure if it's just my imagination. It was a pretty good show that could occasionally afford the self inflated sense of morality to do a few very special episodes. Joey, however, was the defining moment where they totally cleared the shark and never looked back. I think that around this time, too, they started singing more. That's never a good move.
As if one bowl-cut headed moppet wasn't enough, Joey's little brother joins the cast! Gimme a Break indeed!
When Nell and the remaining cast members (including Joey's little brother) move to NYC. Actually when Joey's little brother joins the cast might be the "worser" of two evils.
Two words...Joey Lawrence. We can blame NBC for unleashing one of many talent-challenged Lawrence brothers upon humanity.
MEMO to every TV network: Everyone hates Joey Lawrence!! You got that? EVERYONE!!! I do not know a single person who doesn't hate him. From the moment Nell opened the door and saw him, I thought, "Oh no. Please, God, no." That Carol Channing hairdo was bad enough, but when they had him breakdancing and wearing Madonna rubber wristbands intertwined I almost put my foot in the TV screen. And then later it was like "Oh my God, it has a brother! The first Lawrence was the jump, and the second was the nail in the coffin. (The adult actors were good though, and they shouldn't have moved to New York.) It's too bad the Lawrences are American born, or we could have them deported, and Joey is definitely the worst.
The Dolph shows were only slightly bad. The post-Dolph shows were terrible. If they didn't have Kari in that damn aerobics outfit that one time I wouldn't have had to watch all the Lawrence horror.
GIMME A BREAK was an NBC sitcom that starred Nell Carter as a woman who becomes the housekeeper for a widowed police chief with three daughters. I know at the time a lot of people were bothered at the thought of a black woman playing housekeeper to a white family, but, as a black man, that did not bother me. I thought Nell Carter and Dolph Sweet played extremely well off each other and the show forever jumped the shark with the death of Mr. Sweet. After that, it was all Nell all the time and just too much of a good thing. It's all right to hae a bombastic lead character on a sitcom as long as there is a character a little more laid back to play against her and balance that out. The balance was gone with the unfortunate passing of Dolph Sweet and the show became unwatchable shortly afterwards.
What the hell is everyone's problem? This show never jumped the shark really. I must admit that after the death of Dolph Sweet that it wasnt as funny as the earlier seasons but this show beats the hell out anything thats on tv nowadays. Lara Jill Miller (Sam) was the best actress on the show even though the cast was perfect together, and even Joey Lawrence wasnt that bad! I hate now seeing almost everyone on this show passed away but it will always be in my memory as one of the best shows ever to air on tv! Thank God, the DVDs are coming out now! 
The Chief's death caused this one to Jump. Never the best show, "Gimme a Break" hit its stride in its second season, and from seasons 2-4 was at its peak. Considering the early episodes were a little dry, adding Grandpa & later Addy added something to the show. Joey was a little unnecessary, but I don't think he really hurt the show. After the Chief died (between the end of the 4th season and beginning of the 5th) things went downhill. Jonathan Silverman (who actually first appeared in the 4th season) was a waste of space, the girls were pretty much all grown-up, and the show was just going nowhere. It was a noble effort to move Nell, Addy and Joey to NYC in the fall of 1986, but they should have just changed the name of the show- it was NOT "Gimme a Break" anymore...the new adds were annoying, especially Paul Sand...then NBC started bouncing it around the schedule...that was a sure sign it was a wrap...
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09-26-2013, 02:42 AM
Gimme a Break! Boned the Fish When...
