GIMME A BREAK: Complete Series (Alan Lansburg/Reeves Entertainment 1981-87) VEI Entertainment
1981 was a
pivotal year for television sitcoms; the effect of Norman Lear’s polarizing and
controversial smash hits, All in the
Family (1971-79), The Jeffersons
(1975-85) and Maude (1972-78) giving
way to a gentler, though as progressive ilk of contenders to challenge TV’s
long-ensconced edicts in providing ‘wholesome’ family entertainment.
Television’s ‘safe haven’ for controversial issues in the 1980’s was the situation
comedy – perhaps because, only through humor could more serious subject matter hope
to be addressed, even indirectly, without causing offense – its’ tongue firmly
in cheek. If we laugh, is it really
serious – or is it just NBC? In 1981, the network was far off the mark of ‘must see TV’, having only two hit shows
in its entire roster: Diff’rent Strokes
(1978-86) and Facts of Life
(1979-88). In fact, they were dead last in the Nielsen’s. They needed a hit.
What they were handed was a half hour comedy about a black domestic turning a
widower’s dysfunctional household upside down, in the process, becoming maid
and mother-confessor to a magnificent brood of burgeoning young women. Gimme a Break (1981-87) debuted under a
cloud of suspicion from the critics, who chided NBC on everything from Nell
Carter’s portly carriage to the oversexed nature of its story lines. These
dealt with every conceivable pre and post-pubescent crisis affecting young
girls. Nevertheless, Gimme a Break
was an instant hit with audiences, thanks mostly to the enigmatic Carter; a
charismatic dynamo and bundle of raw energy, fueled behind-the-scenes by a
horrendous cocaine habit.
Only a decade
earlier Carter had made her Broadway debut in the pop/opera - Soon, a legendary disaster that closed
after only 3 performances. After several other misfires, Nell hit the big time
in Ain't Misbehavin, for which she took
home 1978’s Tony Award. Her television reprise of the same role would win her
an Emmy in 1982. By 1979, Carter was
getting noticed elsewhere too; predominantly featured in Miloš Forman’s film adaptation
of Hair. Making the leap from
Broadway to television, Nell had a reoccurring bit part on ABC’s popular
daytime soap, Ryan's Hope. But it
was Gimme a Break that would shoot
Carter’s star into the stratosphere; cast as live-in domestic, Nellie Ruth ‘Nell’
Harper. NBC’s president, Fred Silverman had actually seen Nell on Broadway and
was certain a series could be built around her dynamic presence. What no one
knew then was that Nell harbored a dark secret gnawing away at her insecurity.
Her estranged daughter, Tracey was the result of a rape, not a failed teenage
marriage, as she claimed. Ostracized from her community, Nell placed Tracey in
the care of an older sister while she went off to New York to pursue her
dreams. While waiting for lightening to strike, Carter performed in coffee
houses and small night clubs, falling into the trap of recreational drug use to
unwind after each performance.
With the
exception of its final season, Gimme a
Break is set in the fictional Californian hamlet of Glenlawn.
Interestingly, Glenlawn’s actual location changed throughout the series;
suggested first, as a small town an hour away from Fresno, then, near
Sacramento, and finally, depicted as a suburb of Los Angeles. The character’s
backstory had Nell, a runaway and singer from Tuscaloosa County, Alabama,
befriend Margaret Huffman Kanisky (seen only in flashbacks and played by Sharon
Spelman). Kanisky makes Nell promise to care for her family as she is already
stricken with cancer. Living up to this promise will not be easy, especially
since Kanisky’s husband, Carl (Dolph Sweet) is an overworked and curmudgeonly Police
Chief with more problems on the home front than he can handle. The Kanisky’s
eldest daughter, Katie (19-year-old, Kari Michaelsen) is gorgeous, boy crazy
and pretty wild; middle child, Julie (16-year-old Lauri Hendler) – her
antithesis, as the proverbial bookworm with sassy comebacks, and youngest,
Samantha (14-year-old Lara Jill Miller) an absolute tomboy, praying for puberty
to resolve all her self-esteem issues.
Premiering in
mid-October, Gimme a Break hardly
enthralled critics. Washington Post’s dough-faced, Tom Shales was particularly puerile
in his assessment of the pilot, suggesting he wished he could sue NBC for such
a ‘paleolithic comedy’, and, in a
bizarre instance of the proverbial ‘pot’ calling the kettle black (no pun
intended), he bashed Nell Carter for being ‘balloonish’,
while completely ignoring the heft of her on-screen charisma. Undaunted by the
negative press, NBC kept Gimme a Break
on the air. Very shortly, they would be handsomely rewarded for their faith in
Carter and the show. The earliest episodes in Season One are vignettes devoted
to small, simple and thoroughly digestible truths about adolescence, doled out
by the motherly Nell; as examples: finding Samantha come home with a black eye,
dealing with Katie’s first offense for shoplifting, or having to set the record
straight after Julie and a friend begin to study ‘where babies come from’. Season One also found time to investigate
what the fictional Nell Harper and her employer, Chief Kanisky did in their
spare time; Nell, haunting a single’s bar with disastrous results, and the
Chief, briefly becoming involved with ‘an old flame’, sending the girls into a
panic over the prospect of welcoming a new ‘stepmother’. Respectfully, the show also dealt head on
with parental/spousal loss, and, Nell’s ongoing desire to lose weight by
battling ‘unsuccessfully’ against temptation.
In hindsight,
Season One of Gimme a Break was
rather progressive, despite its placement as a frothy sitcom; addressing such
morality issues as live-in lovers, a fatal shooting of a suspected robber,
cheating on a college entrance exam, and, a near-fatal infection caused by a
bleeding IUD. The most heartfelt episode in Season One engages Nell, after
receiving a phone call from her mother that her father is dying. Rushing to his
side, the old curmudgeon initially shuns his daughter’s affections, still
miffed she ran away from home at the age of sixteen to become a singer.
Meanwhile, Samantha, who has accompanied Nell, is beginning to feel guilty
about refusing to hug her own father after they had an argument. In the end,
Nell’s father dies and Nell learns, at his funeral, he was truly grateful for
their reunion. The Chief arrives at the funeral and is given a heartfelt hug by
Samantha. But the best episode in Season One, to elicit the biggest laugh,
involved the Kaniskys return home to discover a burglary in progress. Held
hostage by the criminals, Nell – who has arrived late to this hold-up – convinces
the thieves to unlock ‘a box of jewels’, retrieving the Chief’s gun instead and
keeping the burglars at bay until the police can arrive.
Perhaps feeling
angst and regret over the child she had given up, behind the scenes, Nell
Carter was very maternal towards Michaelson, Hendler and Miller; overseeing
their dating prospects and gingerly counseling the young brood on the windfalls
and pitfalls of growing up in the spotlight. Alas, on the flipside, Nell was
indulging in food and powdering her nose for $1000 a week, suffering through
her own anxieties in private. Miraculously, Nell’s addiction never impacted her
work. Even more of a startle, at least
for the cast, was Carter’s abrupt announcement shortly after Gimme a Break’s runaway success, she
had secretly married mathematician and lumber executive, George Krynicki in a
ceremony populated by crossdressers, bisexuals and drag queens. Auspiciously,
the marriage was off to a rocky start when the bride, having consumed too much caviar
and champagne, spent her wedding night hugging the porcelain bowl, sick to her
stomach in their rented suite. Sometime
later, Nell would convert to Judaism for her man. But the marriage remained
tenuous at best; Krynicki, spending most of it abroad and apart from his wife,
who continued to indulge her vices in his absence. One night, in 1982, Carter’s
demons had the better of her; good friend and casting director, Joel Thurm,
along with close friend, Dr. Larry Siegler breaking into Carter’s house to find
her unconscious and unresponsive on the bathroom floor, wearing only a mink
wrap.
Revived and
brought back from the brink, Carter struggled to maintain an air of
professionalism as Gimme a Break
entered its Second Season. A few of the story lines in Season Two hit close to
home; the opener, sending Nell to jail for refusing to pay a ‘past due’ phone
bill she claimed to have already covered. Season Two also inveigled the Chief
with a prostitute who helps him nail a bad cop and dealt with Kanisky’s bigotry
regarding gays on the police force. On the humorous and lighter side, Nell
dealt with problematic relatives, a clumsy grandpa and Aunt Blanche, who
threatened to take custody of the girls; also, Sam’s imaginary playmate –
Barbara Jo. Nell also helped a divorced mother find suitable work to help
support the baby she was contemplating giving up for adoption. Sibling rivalry
reared its ugly head as Julie and Katie engaged in an all-out catfight over a
handsome young man from school. Meanwhile, Samantha dealt with teenage anxiety
in a heartfelt conversation with God over death stealing too many people from
her that she loved. Part of Gimme a
Break’s lasting appeal was that from the outset it never shied away from
addressing ‘real’ issues with unvarnished clarity. Hence, an episode about
Julie taking up cigarettes morphed into the Chief bonding with his daughter
over the reason he quit smoking: because it contributed to the death of his
beloved wife.
Despite the relatively
light-hearted atmosphere on the set, Nell Carter would later describe this
period in her life as one of the darkest; an insidious cycle of cocaine,
binge-eating and alcohol conspiring to tear down her defenses; using booze to
bring her down for a badly needed night’s rest and narcotics to pump her up for
another electrifying performance while shooting these episodes. Pressures
mounting, a few of Nell’s closest friends convinced the actress to enter rehab.
They also encouraged her to lose weight. Meanwhile, Gimme a Break soared in the ratings; Carter, praised for her work
with a Best Actress Emmy nomination while each of her pubescent co-stars became
role models for young girls across America. At one point, Kari Michaelson was
coaxed by Carter into a romance with former Bee Gee, Andy Gibb who was making a
guest appearance on the show in 1983. Michaelson was smitten, but quickly
discovered Gibb was suffering the aftershocks from his own severe substance
abuse. Although in love, Michaelson ended their affair not long thereafter,
reverting to an unhealthy eating disorder to temper her mood swings and
depression. Despite a stint in Betty Ford, Gibb’s spiral continued until his
premature death from myocarditis in 1988. Only the year before he had declared
personal bankruptcy, his drug habit having eaten through his fortunes. In a
cruel twist of fate, Nell Carter’s destiny would prove uncannily similar.
By Season Three,
Carter’s chronic drug abuse could no longer be concealed. Director Jim Drake
recalls rehearsing entire episodes without Carter on the set, using a double to
read her lines in order to get other cast member’s reactions, later to be
inserted into the finished episodes. Nell would later acknowledge she lost
whole weeks to these euphoric stupors, her dealer actually delivering cocaine
to her house. As Gimme a Break was
filmed before a live studio audience, by show time Carter somehow always
managed to get her act together and perform with the ensemble on cue, dazzling
fans with her rapid-fire delivery and other anecdotal witticisms, lobbed at the
audiences, purely for their amusement between takes. Like the late Robin
Williams, Nell Carter was unquestionably a gifted raconteur and lover of the
absurdities of life which she could turn on a dime and exploit to her own
comedic advantage. At the end of Season Three, Carter received her second Emmy
nomination. And although producers felt Gimme
a Break had proven itself a winner, when executives spied a 7-year-old
blonde moppet, named Joey Lawrence in a guest appearance on The Tonight Show starring Johnny
Carson, they immediately set about finding a way to introduce him as a
reoccurring cast member. For Laura Jill Miller, Lawrence’s arrival spelled
trouble. She was no longer ‘the baby’
of this ensemble, a reality made painfully clear when puberty effectively
turned the one-time gawky teen into a stunningly attractive looker.
Writers grappled
with three of their cast mates fast growing up before the eyes of the world;
penning story lines to frankly address, among many other topics, sex, menstruation,
shoplifting and boys. Season Three also marked the debut of Telma Hopkins as
Nell’s shoot-from-the-hip/sometimes friend, Addie Wilson, and, a seismic shift
in casting that no one was expecting. During mid-season, Carter had repeatedly
called in with ‘the flu’ – code for being unable to pick herself up after
another drug and alcohol binge. Her marriage to George Krynicki was over.
Desolate and exhausted, Nell announced she was taking time off to go and see
good friend, Liza Minnelli perform in England. But somewhere en route to the
after party, Nell instead made the decision to swallow a bottle of sleeping
pills dashed with champagne; a failed suicide attempt that caused Minnelli to
put her friend on the first plane back to America. Carter entered a tough love
rehabilitation program at the Hazelton Treatment Center in Minnesota where she
was reduced to scrubbing toilets and washing floors on her hands and knees as
part of her penitence. Emerging from the experience clean and sober – and, 91
lbs. thinner – producers of Gimme a
Break were eager to capitalize on Carter’s new ‘healthier’ look. Alas, left to her own accord, Carter pursued her
love of food even more aggressively than before, wrecking all her hard-won
gains.
As Season Four
began shooting, Gimme a Break was
dealt another blow. Co-star Dolph Sweet had taken time off to have what was
then described as routine stomach surgery for a benign cyst. Alas, the tumor
turned out to be cancerous. Returning to the set in just under a month and
ready to resume work, Sweet’s costars were startled by his noticeable thinness
and slightly haggard appearance. For the remainder of Season Four, Sweet’s
weight continued to plummet, gradually going from thin to gaunt, and finally,
emaciated by season’s end. Throughout the ordeal, Sweet shrugged off rumors anything
of consequence was the matter with him, encouraging producers to allow him to
continue to work. But on May 8, 1985, Sweet succumbed to stomach cancer. He was
just 64 years old. Ironically, his final appearance on Gimme a Break aired just 3 days later, marking his funeral. When Gimme a Break returned for its Fifth
Season, the very first episode dealt expressly with the death of Carl Kanisky.
In many ways, Sweet’s loss marked the real ‘end’ to a show that would continue
to lumber on – increasingly with less finesse and steam – through two more
agonizingly unoriginal seasons. Indeed, by 1985 NBC had grown disinterested in
the fate of Gimme a Break in lieu of
their latest zeitgeist, The Cosby Show
(1984-92) In the shadow of ‘Cosby’s’ portrayal of the upwardly
mobile and affluent all-American black family, Nell Carter’s ever-devoted house
maid, rearing three white girls, suddenly appeared downright stereotypical to ‘off
the plantation’.
Threatened with
cancellation, producers of Gimme a Break
introduced Jonathan Silverman as a compassionate love interest for Julie. They
also brought in Joey Lawrence’s younger brother, Matthew to promote the show’s
‘cute factor’. Then, inexplicably –
and to the show’s ever-lasting detriment – writers elected to uproot everyone
from sunny California to a cramped brownstone apartment in New York, including
Addie Wilson, who would become Nell’s next-door neighbor. But the most
egregious overhaul was yet to follow when mid-season edicts were handed down,
informing Kari Michaelsen, Lauri Hendler and Lara Jill Miller that their
services were no longer required on the show. Unceremoniously, and virtually
without warning, all three were fired. As Gimme
a Break prepared for Season Six it introduced yet another new face to its
revolving roster; Rosie O’Donnell as Carter’s boorish upstairs neighbor -
dental hygienist, Maggie O’Brien.
O’Donnell had
already established herself as a sassy comedienne. Now, she was aggressively
making strides to become the dominant force on Carter’s hit series; a move bolstered
by the writers but shunned by Nell, who believed this was a total betrayal of
her audience-drawing prestige. Rumors on the set abounded that Carter would not
speak to Rosie unless referring to her by the fictional character’s name, and
only then, to casually reference a scene or make a comment regarding the next
take. Having already sold the syndication rights for a cool $70 million, NBC finally
had enough. Gimme a Break was
canceled after its Sixth Season; just as well, as by then the audience had
virtually given up watching it – partly, due to all the epic changes along the
way that, cumulatively, conspired to completely alter the co-starring chemistry
audiences had fallen in love with in the first place. Arguably, NBC also
wrecked any chance the show had for survival by continuing to muck around with its
scheduling, repeatedly moving Gimme a
Break into the most obscure time slots, simply to fill a programming void
rather than amplify its one-time high profile standing as part of their ‘must see TV’ line-up.
After being
given its Last Rites, Gimme a Break
went off the air in May of 1987. For Nell Carter, the cancellation was
devastating. She was inconsolable for days after the cast wrap party, refusing
to see even close friends as she fell into dark despair. Carter’s modus
operandi had always been based on an extremely flawed premise; that her stardom
would go on forever…or, at least, the foreseeable future. Denied her comedic
pulpit and the cash advances that went with it, Nell Carter briefly reconciled
with her husband and elected to start a family. At 41, this hurdle was not so
easily overcome. Carter suffered three miscarriages before filing for divorce
and officially swearing off men. But only 18 months later, she threw her heart
in the ring yet again, marrying Canadian record producer, Roger Larocque in a
midnight Vegas nuptial that was as ostentatious as it proved bizarre. At 300+
lbs. Carter was grotesquely overweight and diabetic.
The last act to
Nell Carter’s life remained true to her rocky start. Another divorce and
another diet to slim, trim and manage her health problems briefly proved
successful. Alas, time was hardly kind to Nell. In the eighteen years since Gimme a Break went off the air, she had
suffered through a series of aneurysms that greatly affected her ability to be
as rambunctiously quick with a quip. But by the early 2000’s Nell appeared to
rebound, both physically and professionally, making a comeback on stage; also,
turning out for nostalgic TV interviews, and, as a guest star on such popular
prime time programs as Ally McBeal
(1997-2002). Encouraged to return to her
first love – the stage – for Raisin (a musicalized version of the
drama, A Raisin in the Sun) Carter was fitfully optimistic she could
reinvigorate her career yet again. But on Jan. 23, 2003, her body was
discovered by her 13-year-old son, Joshua, lying face down on the floor in the
private bathroom of their rented Beverly Hills duplex. She was only 54, and,
despite her fame and professional work ethic, had left behind barely $200 in
her bank account. At Nell’s request, it was later made public that her children
would be raised by 39-year-old Anne Kaiser who, in life, had been Carter’s
business partner and (wait for it), her lover; a minor bombshell, to say the
least.
In the years
since its debut, Gimme a Break has
remained in syndication on various cable networks, though oddly, not as readily
revived as one might expect. The show’s topical and dramatic moments are
certainly worthy of rediscovery, as is the exuberant central performance given
by its high-octane star – always ready to give even the most benign line her
very best. And certainly, in its early days, right on to the end of Season
Three, few sitcoms of its generation could rival Gimme a Break for its sassy joie de vivre; exploring the pleasures
and pitfalls of raising three teenage girls on the cusp of womanhood. Perhaps the best that can be said of the show
today is that audiences departed most every episode with a warm fuzzy feeling
in their hearts and a sincere smile spread across their faces. Today, in an era
where even the most puerile dreck is frequently touted as ‘must see TV’, returning to Gimme
a Break is like being startled at seeing an old friend anew, after an absence
for far too many years. Nell Carter’s zest for life is really what continues to
propel Gimme a Break as a
cornerstone series from the 1980’s; that, and her superb interplay with co-star,
Dolph Sweet – her perfect foil. The rest of the cast would be nothing at all
without either presence to pluck and ply their personalities with a witty
one-liner, a sly grin, or just a big ole heartfelt hug, comforting their
sorrows and dashing away all of their tears. In life, one sincerely wishes for
a Nell Carter to make our ordinary lives as spectacular by design. But in
death, Nell Carter will always live on as the fictional Nell Harper. As Nell
would likely attest to, “Ah, honey…I am
good!”
Gimme a Break has long been available on DVD. What can I tell you?
We are entering the summer months – a time when I usually binge watch my
favorite TV shows from the past to fill a void as my favorite comfort food. The
first Season of Gimme a Break was
released through Universal Home Video before being licensed – along with the
remaining five – to VEI Entertainment. Aside: VEI has had a long and spotty
history remastering TV shows to disc, resulting in discs that lock up during
playback or poor video/audio quality that renders its efforts virtually
unwatchable by today’s standards. Gimme
a Break looks about what you might expect: shot on tape and sporting fairly
flat colors, brightly lit to the point where the image can appear almost
digitally harsh. Still, there ought to be a way – costly, no doubt – to provide
better image stabilization and a faux up-conversion to transfers that (let’s
face it) will never look as good as we remember and, in no way, can live up to
the advancements in technology that have since revolutionized television
viewing. That said, this repackaged ‘Complete
Series’ box is basically identical to the individually released Seasons.
Curiously, VEI felt the need to include a disclaimer for Seasons 3-6 that reads
“This DVD contains technical anomalies
inherited in historical footage.” Exactly what this means or what they are,
is open for discussion – but actually, I detected no tape lag, audio dropouts
or other anomalies usually associated
with tape to DVD transfers. Even better, these episodes are complete, each
running approximately 25 minutes, with eight episodes per disc. The audio is a
big fat Dolby Digital 2.0 mono with varying volume levels from episode to
episode. Honestly, would it have cost that much more to balance the audio
across all of these episodes?
As Season One
was originally released via Universal Home Video, there are subtitles. VEI’s
quick n’ dirty route for the remaining seasons does not afford them a similar
luxury. Finally, Season One contains an 80’s Flashback Featurette (something
Uni did in the early days of its TV to DVD releases) as well as bonus episodes
from Kate & Allie; presumably,
because if one loves Gimme a Break
they will also flip for this totally unrelated sitcom. Personally, I love Kate & Allie. But its resemblance
to Gimme a Break escapes me. You
might as well have included an episode from Magnum P.I., Columbo and
Knight Rider for all the sense it
makes. Bottom line: Gimme a Break is
a fun, warm-hearted and occasionally astute sitcom from the decade that
certainly can be looked back upon as mining the genre for all its worth. While
these transfers won’t win any awards for DVD authoring or mastering, they
present the show as well as it will likely ever look without a Blu-ray upgrade.
So, judge and buy according. Puttin’ a
new face on the old one is a joyous way to lazily pass the time with a
smile.
FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)
Season 1 – 4
Seasons 2-3 – 3.5
Season 4 – 3
Seasons 5-6 – 2
VIDEO/AUDIO
3
EXTRAS
1
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