• Air date: 29 Sep '83 22 episodes
      Gimme a Break! is an American sitcom which aired on NBC for six seasons, October 29, 1981, until May 12, 1987. The series stars Nell Carter as the housekeeper for a widowed police chief and his three daughters.
  • List of Episodes (22)
    • 1. The Groupie

      29 Sep '83
      Julie wants to meet Andy Gibb and goes to see him after Nell lets her go, despite the fact that the chief grounded her, only to be found asleep outside his hotel room. When Nell brings Julie home, the cheif sees that she has been out, knows that she disobeyed her, and plans to arrest Andy Gibb and his group. However, Julie tells him that she fell asleep waiting for him, and the chief forgives her.
    • 2. The Way to a Man's Heart

      13 Oct '83
      Nell falls for James Roland, a former member of her weight group , who continues to go to the classes on weight loss. He is impressed by Nell's determination to lose weight, yet Nell seems to think he is in love with the aerobics instructor Vanessa. When Nell decides to binge and pig out on food, Vanessa calls James for assistance. When he shows up at the house she tells James that Nell is in love with him. He asks Nell out and she accepts. However, in the end the Cheif wants a break on his taxe
    • 3. Katie's Commitment

      20 Oct '83
      Katie becomes involved with a college professor at Glenlawn Junior College who is much older than her. Nell begins to get upset at the man, when Katie intruduces him to the family, and she gets mad at Katie as well, knowing that he is too old for her. When the Chief finds out that Katie is seeing him, he objects to it, and grounds Samantha for sticking up for Katie. In the end, Katie decides not to see the college professor anymore, to save her relationship with her family.
    • 4. Joey (1)

      27 Oct '83
      Katie practices her jazz routine to ""Maniac"" for a show that will be taking pace soon in Glenawn. As the family is getting ready, rehearsing for the show, a boy named Joey comes by collecting for Jerry's kids. The family falls for his act, and as he leaves, Simpson says he is a con artist. Joey Donova is his name, and his Uncle Jerry dropped him off and left him in Glenlawn, because his dad Tim is at sea. The scial worker tells the cheif that Joey will stay with the family over the weekend and
    • 5. Joey (2)

      03 Nov '83
      Joey goes on a hunger strike and says he is not going to an orphanage. Nell then lies to Joey and tells him that she made a friend of a man whose window she broke years ago when she was a child. Joey beleives her, and knows Nell is not a lier, like many adults he knows are. Nell then tells the Cheif he owes her, and she deserves to take Joey in as her foster child. The Chief objects, but Joey tells him he is right, and even himself wouldnt want him as a foster child. The Cheif's feelings change,
    • 6. The Mayor

      10 Nov '83
      The Mayor of Glenlawn falls for Nell, who wants nothing to do with him. He tells her that the cheif will get his new patrol car if he gets her. At his condo, she seduces him, and he tells her she is coming onto him. She tells him that he treated her wrong, and he appologizes, and tells her he will see her at the ceremony when he donates the patrol car to the cheif.
    • 7. Melissa

      17 Nov '83
      The cheif is awarded man of the year, and Nell tries to fix him up with a woman named Melissa. What he doesn't know is that she is a man, who was once Officer Simpsons karate instructor in St. Luis. When she knows it has gone too far, Melissa confesses to Nell, who has to tell the cheif she set him up with a man, which ends in havoc.
    • 8. Nell's Friend

      01 Dec '83
      While Nell is out getting the Chief's clothes cleaned, Addy Wilson, Nell's childhood friend arrives at the house. She meets the girls, and says Nell's real name is ""Nellie Ruth"". When Nell comes home, she is intrigued by Addy, and begins to think Addy considers her as a women who is illiterate and one who had a chance at a singing career but failed and is now a housekeeper. Nell then goes to night school to get her diploma, but Addy is the teacher there and Nell decides to drop out. In the end
    • 9. Grandpa's Rebellion

      08 Dec '83
      Nell, the girls and the Cheif fix up the spare room at the house and await Grandpa's arrival home from his trip to Poland. When he returns home, he is in happy spirits about the trip, yet sad because he knows how much Mildred would have loved to go, but passed away not too long ago. When Grandpa finds out that he is to live with the family he won't stand for it one bit, yet when Joey comes into the room and watches him pack, they talk about things they share intest in, and Grandpa decides to sta
    • 10. A Kanisky Christmas

      22 Dec '83
      Joey's first Christmas might be a disaster if Nell doesn't get the whole family together. Samantha is going to babysit for a couple, Julie is going out with a boy, and Katie is going skiiing in the mountains. As Christmas night continues, the family surprises Nell, and tells her it was all a scam to have time to bring her Christmas present home for her. Nell is overjoyed to see her mother at the Kanisky house.
    • 11. Herbie

      05 Jan '84
      Herbie, Samantha's unseen new friend, puts ideas of judgment day into Samantha's head. An earthquake causes Samantha to freak out, and she says she is going to live everyday as if it her last. However, during a storm, their neighbor Wendy rushes over and gives birth, giving Samantha a new meaning to life.
    • 12. James Returns

      12 Jan '84
      James wants to start over again with Nell after she meets him at a fancy restaraunt during a girls night out with Addy and Angie. She is upset though that her ex- husnband, Tony, has ran off and married an 18 year old girl, and tells James she needs more time to think about getting back together with him. In the end, she decides to get back together with him.
    • 13. Samantha's Protest

      19 Jan '84
      Samantha protests against demolition of an historic Spanish site after Nell tells her she did the same thing in Alabama when whites would not serve blacks. When the cheif and Officer Simpson arrive at the scene, the mob doesn't move, and they are all arrested, including the entire Kanisky family, who decides to step in and help Samantha protest. In the end, the site is saved from demolition, everyone is still mad at the cheif for arresting them, and they finally realize that he was only doing h
    • 14. Flashback

      26 Jan '84
      When the Chief tells Samantha that she cannot go out on a date with a boy, Nell decides to tell the girls the story of how she met their mother and how she became a second mother to them. Nell goes to perform in California in 1974, and Margaret remembered Nell from when she saw her sing before and caught her performance. Nell then quits her job when her boss gets kinky with her, and Margaret takes her home to stay with her. She meets the family and she sleeps in Carl's room. When Carl comes home
    • 15. Knock Three Times

      02 Feb '84
      Nell gets hypnotized to remember where she put Katie's ring for graduation, but she ends up remembering a whole lot of the girls' dirty laundry, since the doctor forgot to remove the hypnotic transe, and whenever she heard three knocks, she'd tell the absolute truth. In the end, she tells everyone that she is going to marry James, but tells him the truth that she can't marry him yet, that is until the kids are all grown up.
    • 16. Valentine

      09 Feb '84
      Nell gives advice on Valentine's day to the entire family as she waits for James to come home from his visit to Sanfransico. However, in the end the advice goes awry, since everyones dates turned on them. Each date goes back to the house to appologize for ruining the evening, and Nell storms off to pick James up from the airport. When she gets home, the family tells her that after she left everyone made up with their Valentines and she promises not to be matchmaker again until Joey tells her he
    • 17. The Big Apple (1)

      16 Feb '84
      Nell & Addy appear & compete on Wheel of Fortune during Best Friends week. Nell has $7,600 & wants to win a car. But after commercial, she accidentally says ""GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME A CAR!"". However, in the end, Addy gets $2,700 & solves it correctly ""GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH!"" She buys a trip for 2 to New York. However, they are scared after the Chief says New York is not a safe place, and Nell thinks someone stole her suitcase as they take another man's who she thinks took her
    • 18. The Big Apple (2)

      23 Feb '84
      Nell calls the Chief for help and he says he will tell a policeman friend of his about it and he will come up to New York as well, but his flights are delayed three times. Nell then learns that the man they took the suitcase from is a few doors down from them, and gets scared and escapes to get rid of it with Addy. The man is actually a policeman, and thought Nell and Addy took the suitcase for the drugs. However, the policeman who the Chief is friends with arrives and says that they are innoce
    • 19. Rodeo

      08 Mar '84
      After the chief & Nell couldn't take Joey to the rodeo in town, Grandpa decides to take him. But that day, it was raining & Grandpa came down with bad pneumonia. At the hospital, the whole family wants to see him, but the nurse instructs Nell that Joey is underaged. Nell then sneaks Joey in the hospital room. Joey gets out a tape recorder & sings ""Swanee"". Just when Nell and Joey have given up hope, Nell tells Grandpa that he's lost his will power and if he dies she will have to tell Poland
    • 20. Katie's College

      15 Mar '84
      Katie decides to ditch college and open her own busines with friend, which the Cheif agrees to. However, Nell doesnt like the idea, because she promised Margaret that she would see all three of the girls go off to College. In the end, Nell tell Katie it is her decision only,and Katie decides to open up her own boutique with her friend, and decides she doesnt need college after all.
    • 21. The Center

      19 Apr '84
      Nell decides to take Grandpa to the senior citizen Center to have some time to spend with people his own age. While there, the seniors find out that they have to share their space with the youth center since it had just burned down. The director has an arguement with her new love interest, and it is up to one of the teens to help her and her new crush get back together to make his own crush see that he is a man who is full of love. At the dance that the two groups put together, the director and
    • 22. Class of '84

      03 May '84
      Nell helps write a book report for a straight-A student who has several children to take care of, and is aways exhausted in class. At her graduation, the man she wrote the report for says he owes it all to Nell, and he cheated, ad the two loose their diplomas. As this is going on, Addy has chanel 3 do an interview on Nell, and she admits she cheated anddidnt graduate. However, Nell is givenher diploma, since she successfully passed all of her classes, and the man gets his as well, who passes an