why was gimme a break cancelled

If you grew up in the 80's this show was a must see. Howard Morton's role on the show as Officer Simpson served no purpose anymore with The Chief gone. I used to watch this show when I was a little girl. Dolph Sweet and Nell didn't get along at first but ended up becoming friends. The Complete Series on DVD in Canada on July 20, 2010. One of the senior citizens at the center was Papa Jack Jenkins played by Whittman Mayo in the episode. The series premiered on October 29, 1981. Damn!" She had moved in with her other daughter and son-in-law, who also recently moved to New York and was a TV weatherman. Though I watched Gimme a Break from the start, it goes without saying that I lacked the maturity at that age to fully understand the adult humor and social issues being explored. Gimme a Break! The show has numerous character recast throughout the duration of the series. The other cast was great too. It's cool that we have reruns of it. In her autobiography, Rue McClanahan says this was a bad television show, but at that point in her career, she had to take what she was offered. According to Rod Parker in an interview, at one point during the series Nell Carter had a slight falling out with Joey Lawrence because she thought he was getting too much screen-time. Lara Jill Miller said she routinely saw cocaine on the set. Carter performed both themes. Nell Carter portraying Nell Harper was awesome. Several spin-offs were considered by producing pilot episodes during the series run. Joey's father was portrayed by two different actors Fred McCarren and Patrick Collins (I). Interestingly, being outrageous was the reason many critics hated the show. ", "Gimme a Break! BREAK TIME SERVICE Cancelled. When Carl demands an explanation, Katie makes a snide remark "She can't say anything, she's dead!" The marriage story-line with Lauri Hendler and Jonathan Silverman's characters didn't click with viewers and neither did Silverman's character who was added a series regular. The Alvin Show. In "Julie Smokes", after slapping Julie, Carl says he had never laid a hand on his kids before. NBC warned the producers that if they wanted a sixth season, drastic changes would have to be made or the series would be canceled. It has been nice revisiting the story lines, how real they were , and how people can still relate .i am glad to eee some of the cast is extremely successful RIP to some of the cast who I loved as a teenager . Very good show that was one of many throughout TV sitcom history that revolved around a housekeeper/butler. I was young when this show aired. The "Flashback" episode shows her alive when the girls were relatively young, but still old enough to remember her. One of the episodes is called "Knock Three Times". #80s Began in 1981, ran 6 seasons & 137 episodes. Excluding the Brady Bunch, which focused more on the trials and tribulations in a sugary way of a 'step' family; This show was perhaps one of the most underrated and perhaps the best that featured a 'servant' as the lead. I had a crush on Joey Lawrence and Matt was cute too. The series stars Nell Carter as the housekeeper for a widowed police chief (Dolph Sweet) and his three daughters. Two new characters were added to the cast: Addy Wilson, Nell's longtime friend, and Joey Donovan, an abandoned seven-year-old orphan. While it can be assumed he started a new life after marrying, some lines act as if the Chief were an only child. Another episode has Julie not knowing the cause of her mother's death (it was lung cancer, which is how Carl convinces Julie to quit smoking). episodes. All is resolved when Andy brings up his deceased wife Maybelle, and how he's still not over her, but agrees to go to Lilly's place if she invites him again. to his question about how she'd think her mother would react if she knew her daughter had been arrested. Everyone called Carl "Chief" or "Daddy" except for his parents and brother who called him by his first name. The show centered on the lives of the Kanisky Family in Glenlawn, CA, headed by Carl (Dolph Sweet), the widowed Chief of Police in town. is an American television sitcom created by Mort Lachman. Also, the network had nothing to replace the show with as they were struggling with their programming and ratings during this time period. Five episodes into the sixth and final season, the show changed locales from Glenlawn to New York City, when Nell, concerned for Joeys welfare after he moved there with his absentee father, traveled there to check on him. How much bleeding is normal in early pregnancy? She estimated that at the height of her addiction, she was spending $1000 to $2000 or more a day on drugs. Nell Carter Nell Carter was absolutely magnificent. She appeared in a Season 1 episode as one of Katie's friends. Perhaps television brings Whitney's acting skills out more cause she was really good in her scenes in "Silver Spoons." dckc1966. Required fields are marked *. Nell Carter didn't get along with the original producers, Mort Lachman and Sy Rosen. True Hollywood Story, she was adamant that frequently calling her "Maggie" was a tactic to help young Joey and Matthew Lawrence focus on their lines, rehearsals and shootings without acting up, as kids often do. During the summer 1984 hiatus, Dolph Sweet underwent stomach surgery, which was revealed shortly after to be the first extensive treatment for cancer. These attributes contributed to the producers decision to drop most of the cast for sixth season except for Nell Carter, Thelma Hopkins, Joey Lawrence and John Hoyt. Miller also expressed in the same interview that she felt the producers made a big mistake getting rid of the daughters and implied that the decision came from the girls receiving less story-lines starting around the fourth season and more emphasis being put on Nell Carter and Thelma Hopkins. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); A foster son, Joey (Joey Lawrence), was added to the Kanisky household in season three. In revealing that their late mother, Margaret, was a heavy smoker, Carl reveals that he and Margaret had fought about the issue many times and that he wishes he had slapped her to get her to realize she was killing herself. Rosie O'Donnell made her television acting debut on this show. And because Joey Lawrence was a big hit with audiences, and seemed to supplicate their need on the show. Nell also served as a confidante to the chief's three daughters, 17-year-old Katie (Kari Michaelsen), 15-year-old Julie (Lauri Hendler), and 13-year-old Samantha (Lara Jill Miller). NBC then hired the veteran team of Rod Parker and Hal Cooper to take over as executive producers, following their stint at the recently canceled Love, Sidney. Addy got a job in New York City, so Nell, Grandpa and Joey came to New York to join her. John Hoyt died in 1991, six years after his on-screen son died. I don't remember the original theme song and after looking up old episodes on YouTube I hate it. I vaguely remember the theme song. The show has been renewed for a fifth season, but it was undecided what would be done about Sweets character, Bozek said. The creators of the show were Mort Lachman and Sy Rosen. Learn how and when to remove these template messages, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, Best Actress Television Series Musical or Comedy, "List of Season's Top-Rated TV Shows With PM-Nielsens, Bjt", "Please! Parker was completely bewildered regarding the fallout. We heart TV shows. If you tap now and watch the short video you'll get 30 minutes of ad free music! The Kanisky daughters need all the help they can . I watched reruns of this show when it aired on USA in 1998. Like Laura Jill Miller previously, Joey Lawrence was getting older. Nonetheless, I thought it was funny, and it managed to stand out due to its good cast and themes in its episodes and type of humor. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Series/GimmeABreak. The Chief hits Katie and Julie during the course of the show. Damn! But her mom did and helped her obtain it. There was a Matthew Kanisky in the unaired pilot, and a Matthew Donovan, Joey's brother, who was brought in during the last season. BREAK POINT BOOKS & MORE Cancelled. Moreover, they featured near-identical scorelines: wild card Kimberly Birrell upset No.31 seed Kaia Kanepi 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-1 and No.26 seed Elise Mertens scored her first win over Garbie Muguruza 3-6, 7-6 (3), 6-1. Platinum. Age, September 13, 1948 The original unaired pilot had the same plot as season one, episode one, "Katie the Crook", but it had a different set for the house, and the third Kanisky child was a redheaded boy named Matthew. [5], By contrast, the New York Times found the show promising, praising the performances of Carter and Sweet and the way the show balanced wisecracks with bits of seriousness. Marty (Paul Sand) was their landlord who also owned a Mexican restaurant under the name "Esteban." [13] and two Golden Globe nominations as Best Actress in a Television Series-Comedy or Musical. Her character married the only other Jewish person in the cast, Jonathan Silverman. The blonde oldest girl was very pretty but didn't have much to do, just a "hi Nell" or "bye Dad" and that was it. Nell's family. Pete Schrum who portrayed The Chief's brother Uncle Ed, who got married in season 2, disappeared. Later additions to the cast included Stanley Kanisky (Carls father), Adelaide Addy Wilson (Nells best friend, played by Telma Hopkins), adopted son Joey (Joey Lawrence) and Nells mother, Maybelle. / She says "I'm so glad we're all past that image of the black woman as an Aunt Jemima." So three different actors were cast in the role of the youngest Kanisky child; a boy and two girls. She finally sees eye to eye with him, and thanks God for everyone around her, letting him know she also thanks God for him. ", "Gimme a Break! Sadly, Nell Carter, who played Nell, and Dolph Sweet, who played Carl, have since passed away. Inter-Uterine Device, an implanted birth control device that, at the time, had a reputation for piercing the uterus and causing dangerous bleeding and possible infection. At this point, the only original cast member left was Nell Carter, the show's original premise and chemistry were gone and ratings continued to decline. Ambitions. This was meant to be a cliffhanger season finale, as the episode ends saying "To Be Continued", but the next season's premiere had to be retooled to have the family deal with the Chief's death instead of his reaction to Julie's sudden marriage. Unlike movies which appear once, it's hard to rate a TV show since you're dealing with dozens of episodes and several seasons. Nell, first for the girls' mother, and then later after the death of their father. aired 137 episodes over six seasons, with its finale airing on May 12, 1987. The plan was for Nell to become a housemother at Samantha's college dorm, reminiscent of the early seasons of the hit NBC sitcom the The Facts of Life. Other cast members consisted of Dolph Sweet, Kari Michaelsen, Lauri Hendler, Lara Jill Miller, John Hoyt, Joey Lawrence & his brother Matthew Lawrence, Telma Hopkins, Jonathan Silverman, Rosetta LeNoire, Rosie O'Donnell and Paul Sand. In the end, he forgives her, and tells her he was never as rich as he is now that he owns his own deli. NBC canceled the series in the spring of 1987. NBC already had a college oriented show in development starring Lisa Bonet, The Cosby Show spin-off A Different World for the 1987-1988 season. Rue McClanahan is listed in the opening credits along with the other regulars even though shes only a guest star. All of these things would be deemed as child abuse today and would never be in the show. This was and to this day is still one of my all time favorite sitcoms of the eighties. Future seasons adding 'child' Joey Lawrence,Jonathon Silverman and Telma Hopkins as a fine tandem to Nell, especially proving more so important after Dolph Sweets sudden death with 2 seasons left. Please help this article by looking for better, more reliable sources. She went into rehab several times during production and was blowing her money on cocaine every week . Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. "Gimme A Break" was one of those shows that always had something going for itself and for one this was out of a pick of standard 80's family shows that hit a home run and so much more with the prime essential element of actress Nell Carter,who was also a accomplish Broadway singer/dancer who won a Tony award for her work in "Ain't Misbehavin" in 1978. Joey Lawrence didn't audition for his role on the show. It's that easy! Later, when he comes back, the two boys try to prove that he stole her purse by putting another purse out to be stolen, along with money from the cash register. After the death of actor Dolph Sweet after Season 4, the series continued for a season with Nell as the sole head of the Kanisky household, which was sad, so they decided to completely revamp the show, and for the final season, most of the cast (minus the older Kanisky daughters) moved to New York Cityand enter pre-famous Rosie O' Donnel as wacky friend Maggie, and Paul Sand as Marty the loveable landlord. I don't want to go to my grave being known as the girl from 'Gimme a Break, she told The New York Times in 1988. The episode's main plotline was about Nell's stolen purse, but went into the relationship of Mr. Pappalardo, his son, Nicky, his son's friend, and the establishment that Mr. Pappalardo owned and made the boys operate. Another issue was the Lawrence brothers Joey and Matthew, Nell's two young foster kids she was raising had no place in this proposed retooling. "Parents' Week". Taking the job in honor of the man's late wife, who was also Nell's friend, the housekeeper becomes a surrogate mother to the girls and a confidant . Nell's character went back to school to get her diploma and starting taking college courses in child psychology. The producers wanted a foil for Nell to interact with instead of just solving the girls problems. The episode "Cat Story" was performed and broadcast live on March 2, 1985, as a promotional gimmick, which the cast was able to pull off without a hitch. When he returned in the seventh episode, the cast was shocked by his thin appearance. TVTropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. How do they think of this stuff? Lara Jill Miller said the jealousy her character feels when Joey was adopted by the Kanisky clan, and she was no longer the baby of the family, was quite real; She was in fact jealous of the attention Joey Lawrence was now getting on the set. The world of online streaming is a callous one. There were two Matthews on the show. Carters publicist Roger Lane said Carter, Nell Carter, the robustly sassy singer and actress who exploded onto the New York musical stage in the Fats Waller revue Aint Misbehavin and went on to become a popular television star in the series Gimme a Break!, died yesterday at her home in Beverly Hills, Calif. She was, At some point during the mid-1990s, Carter had begun a relationship with a woman named Ann Kaser, but this was not known to the public until after her death. The original version was used for the first two seasons and was replaced with an up-tempo rearrangement with new lyrics for season three onward. In one episode the chief takes off his belt and chases around Katie threatening to hit her. Michaelson would binge, purge, and fast. She and Max Green (Don Rickles) catch an orphaned girl named Danny stealing money and food. The final spin-off attempt of Gimme a Break was at the end of season 5 in 1986 in "The Purse Snatcher". is an American sitcom which aired on NBC from October 29, 1981, until May 12, 1987. She said that she passed the bar in three states, had a successful career, and lived a positive life. Sweet continued dropping weight, due to cancer. This would eventually become known as "Must See TV", and come to include shows like Cheers (1982), Family Ties (1982), The Cosby Show (1984), Hill Street Blues (1981), Seinfeld (1989), L.A. Law (1986), ER (1994), Friends (1994), Will & Grace (1998), and The Office (2005), and would dominate the network ratings from the '80s into the 2000s. The one that I really thought that she outdid herself in was the "Emergency". Ditzy friend Angie, senile Grandpa and many credible guest stars , including Tom Poston,Helen Hunt, Don Rickles, Rue McClanahan and Danny Glover. Margaret was dying of lung cancer, and the Chief could not have raised the kids alone. was an American sitcom that ran on NBC for six seasons from 1981-87, starring Nell Carter as Nell Harper, a once-aspiring singer who became a housekeeper for the Kaniskys: patriarch Carl, the chief of police of the fictional Glenlawn, California, and his daughters Katie, Julie, and Samantha. A new theme, with music by Jay Graydon and lyrics by Richard Page, was introduced in the third season and used for the remainder of the show's run. Reruns of the series are a mainstay of many of Sinclair Broadcast Group's The CW, MeTV and MyNetworkTV stations, especially in low-traffic time periods, due to the low-cost barter setup of The Program Exchange. Again, the Kaniskys only appear in one scene, and most of the focus is put on the boys. January 23, 2003 Grandpa (John Hoyt) starts off season 1 as almost deaf and very senile. Your email address will not be published. Hopkins revealed she convinced LeNoire who was hesitant to read the script and take on a role on the series predicting it would be a big hit. on Issac Hayes' hit song "Theme From Shaft.". And there was also occasional humorous interplay with the Chief's children and their grandfather, as well as with some of the early guest. This re-write was due in part of the backlash the show receiving at the time for the depiction of Nell's character as the "black maid" to a white family. FremantleMedia owns the international rights, as they own Thames Television, which acquired Alan Landsburg Productions and Reeves Entertainment Group product in 1990. The first two seasons use a different theme than the later seasons. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. The two made peace in 1997 when Rosie had her hit talk show which lasted for six seasons. Carter's character works in the home of a widowed chief of police who needs help taking care of his three daughters. What chapter does Gatsby meet Daisy at Nicks house. Reportedly, Nell's maternal instincts towards the girls and Joey on the show were quite real. During the third season, Pat Sajak guest-starred as himself when Nell and Addy were contestants on Wheel of Fortune. I like the theme song from the third season. A running gag involved the Kanisky's goldfish, Gertrude. TV Listings. She famously shouted, "Shut your mouth!" He then claimed she wasn't very nice to Lawrence and didn't want to do much with him. Whitney was very young on Gimme A Break, and only had a minute or two on screen. Gimme a Break was almost canceled after it's first season due too poor ratings. Too many changes were made and and the series was a completely different show from when it started. Julie and Jonathan, who were now living in the Chief's old room, found out they were expecting a baby; their daughter, whom they named after Nell, was born before season's end. "Gimme a Break!" became Sweet's last work because of his unfortunate cancer diagnosis, which took away his life in 1985. He talks about how tough he and his family had it growing up, and also touches upon his deceased wife. The new theme has similarities to the first but with a more positive attitude. Carter died in 2003, at age 54. A feisty housekeeper named Nell helps a widowed police chief raise his three daughters in a sassy sitcom that mocked stereotypes by showing a loving relationship . Carter had begun experimenting with cocaine while in the cast of Aint Misbehavin Nell agreed, so as a favor to Margaret she moved into the Kanisky home and took over motherly duties. May 12, 1987 Early episodes implied it was recent, and any bad behavior from the girls was treated as a reaction to it, and the plotlines of a few early episodes revolve around Nell getting used to the family. She made three guest appearances as three different people. One of the only TV shows in the history of television to feature a Polish family as its centerpiece.

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