The BEST episodes of Gimme a Break!
Every episode of Gimme a Break! ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Gimme a Break!!
Nell Carter stars as the housekeeper for a recently widowed police chief and his three daughters.
#1 - Mama
Season 5 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/2/1985
Mama Maybelle arrives in Glenlawn to visit Nell, and tells her that she has to have an eye operation, and fears that she may never be able to see again. She tells Nell that she is going to miss seeing, but her sense of hearing may improve, which will help her hear Nell's singing better. Nell is happy that her mother admits she is a good singer. In the end, she is fine, and the family is there to greet her after the operation.
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#2 - Friendship
Season 4 - Episode 24 - Aired 5/4/1985
Nell is angry that Addy has not called her in over a week, and is doing things with other members of the family and not her. When Julie tells her that Addy told her she is having lunch with Yvone Anderson, Nell calls Angie, and the two decide to go to lunch there as well. At the restaraunt, Nell tells Yvonne and Addy that Angie is her best friend, and in the end, Addy tells Nell that she was busy with the Junior Symphony Orchestra, and didn't have much time to call her, and they forgive one another.
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#3 - Julie's Birthday
Season 4 - Episode 25 - Aired 5/11/1985
On Julie's 18th birthday, Nell has a plan to get her and Jonathan back together after they broke up. She keeps orderig pizza, and when Jonathan keeps showing up, Julie hides in the closet, only to have Nell tell him to deliver the pizza there. The Chief however is happy that Julie and Jonathan broke up, because he thinks he is a ditz. In the end, Nell tells Jonathan to go for it and tell her how much he loves her. The two run out of the house, and in the morning, Nell asks Katie where Julie is. Katie tells her she never came home. Nell thinks Jonathan has kindapped her, goes into the kitchen, and Julie and Jonathan walk through the door and say they were in Vegas all night. Nell is angry and thinks that they gambled, but Julie shows her a ring and says they got married. While they are in the kitchen, Nell hears the Chief say ""Is that Julie in there Nell?"", as she screams no! Because she knows the two have some explaining to do to him.
Watch Now:Amazon#4 - Joey's Train
Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/14/1985
Nell is sad and doesn't want anyone to remind her of the Chief since he pased away. Joey recives part of a toy train the Chief gave him, and puts it in the Chief's room. Nell gets mad when Jonathan insists that he and Julie move into the Cheif's old room, but gets extremely mad when Joey plays with his train in it. Grandpa says that Carl would have been happy that the family is still together, bringing him up in their daily discussions. He says that they all loved him, and that it's not right to not talk about him, because he was loved by them. Nell then changes her mind and lets Joey keep the train in the Chief's old room, and lets Julie and Jonathan move into it.
Watch Now:Amazon#7 - The Man From Zoron
Season 5 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/5/1985
Joey is saved by a man from being hit by a bus, and when the man tells the family that he is from another planet, everyone but Nell believes him. The man says he is from Zoron, and that he doesnt have a last name, and is known as ""cute"". In the end, the man leaves, and the family still beleives he is from another planet.
Watch Now:Amazon#8 - Addy's Goodbye
Season 5 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/19/1985
Nell finds out Addy was given a teaching job as the a Dean at Columbia University by a professor she despises and thinks is tricky. Nell and Addy get into a fight at her goodbye party, and Nell does not want to say goodbye to her. However, in the end, she decides it's the best thing to do. She goes to Addy's apartment to say her goodbyes, but when she gets there she finds Addy unpacking, only to hear that the profssor is tricky and selfish, and was only pulling her legs about getting the job in New York.
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#10 - Monkey See, Monkey Do
Season 4 - Episode 23 - Aired 3/30/1985
The Chief gets angry with Katie after her friend who got a part in a play offers her apartment to her. The Chief also gets mad at Samantha for wearing a tactless outfit. The Chief confesses that Julie was always his favorite daughter because she thinks like him. This causes Nell, and the girls to move to Kaites new Apartment. When the Chief tells Grandpa that now this will give them time to get to know one another better, he gives him a face, and he and Joey go to Katie's as well. After the apartment is over crowded, everyone comes home and makes amends.
Watch Now:Amazon#11 - Sam's Little Girl
Season 5 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/9/1985
Sam is taking the role of a big sister to a girl named Pam, a kid from a single-parent home. When Pam arrives at the house, Sam has other ideas of her own, when the new neighbor Chip shows up and asks her to light his pilot light on the stove. Nell is then stuck taking care of Pam, and she is a nuissance to her. Nell then finds out from Sam that Pam's mother left her father for a computer repair man, and Nell finds a way to make Pam like her in the end.
Watch Now:Amazon#12 - The Elevator
Season 5 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/16/1985
Nell finds out that Addy is engaged to be married to her dentist, who has been previously married before, and has several children from each marriage. When Nell decides to accept Addy's engagement as a sign of happiness for her, she helps her select her wedding ring. However, when they begin to quarrel again over the engagement, they both go into seperate elevators, and they break down. Nell gets on her phone and Addy gets on hers and they talk to each other about past times in Alabama to get them through this horrific moment. When Nell tells Addy she should call her fiance, his new girlfriend answers, and Addy decides to shut him out of her life forever. Finally, the fire department arrives and gets them to safety.
Watch Now:Amazon#13 - Nell's New Car
Season 5 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/23/1985
Nell finds out Addy is selling her car, and wants to be the first one to take it off her hands. However, Angie's sister has already purchased it, and Nell talks her out of it. When Nell takes it for a test drive, it breaks down, and she tells Addy that she wants her money back. Addy refuses, but in the end gives in, after she finds out that she is getting money back for it as well.
Watch Now:AmazonApple TV#14 - Nell's Gifted Child
Season 5 - Episode 11 - Aired 11/30/1985
Nel finds out that Joey is a gifted child, and should take a test to see what grade he should be placed into. When Joey tells her that the 4th grade is fine, and that he just wants to play baseball, she insists that he take the test, and gives him several instruments to play to see which one suits him best, the piano being the top. In the end, Joey runs off to the park, and Nell knows he is there when she finds out he wasn't at the school to take the test. She decides to let Joey stay in the 4th grade because a nine year old is supposed to have fun, and not work their tail off.
Watch Now:Amazon#15 - Katie's Apartment
Season 5 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/7/1985
Nell finds out that Katie is dating a married author of a famous book. She tells Katie to stop seeing him, and then tells her she is old enough to do what she wants. Katie then tells Julie to come to her apartment and asks her for advice on what to do. In the end, Katie decides to not see him anymore.
Watch Now:Amazon#16 - Snippets
Season 5 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/14/1985
Nell and the gang decorate the Christmas tree as Joey pretends that he is sick, but wants to help out as well. During the Christmas gathering, the family recalls events from the past. In the end, Joey tells Nell that he was only pretending to be sick because he didn't have enough money to buy her a Christmas present, but she tells him it doesn't matter.
#17 - Second Chance (1)
Season 5 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/4/1986
Nell decides to quit college and pursue a real singing career. She becomes the manager for an ex-con who wrote a song in jail and decides to put it to music. When Nell and the ex-con go to Skipper Dwane's for amateur night to perform the song, Gary Collins is there, and Nell asks him if he liked the song. Gary says he hated it when the ex-con sang it, but when Nell sings it, he insists that he put Nell on his hour magazine show. When Nell goes backstage to tell the ex-con how he did, she freaks when he has a string of floss out and thinks he is going to kill her. She tells him that she thinks he is going to kill him because Gary hated his song.
#18 - Second Chance (2)
Season 5 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/11/1986
The ex-con is sad that Gary hated the song, and decides that singing is not the career for him. Nell then appears on Gary Collins' Hour Maganzine Show, and decides to go back to college afterall.
#19 - The Answering Machine
Season 4 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/12/1985
Nell is mad that her current flame is going on a buisness trip with another woman, so she leaves him a message on his answering machine, and then gets second thoughts about it, and forces Samantha and Joey to help her go to his apartment and erase the message.
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#20 - Breakdance
Season 4 - Episode 7 - Aired 11/10/1984
When Katie needs money for her business, Joey helps her out by breakdancing at the beach. Nell finds out Joey's grades are slipping in school, and when Addy finds sand in his shoes, she realizes he is going to the beach after school. When Nell gets there, Joey tells her Katie's buisness is in trouble, and she decides to help her by pawning the couch and tv set, which make the Chief devastated to lose. Nell then says she will call the pawn shop back and get them back.
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#21 - Daddy's Little Girl
Season 4 - Episode 8 - Aired 11/17/1984
While at Skipper Dwayne's for dinner, Addy finds out her car is being towed away as Nell is approached by a sleezeball who wants to go out with her. A man at a neaby table tells him to leave her alone and she is swept away by him. When he drops by the house while Addy is there, she is shocked to see that he is her long-lost father who left her mother when she was younger. Addy doesn't want Nell to date him after what he did to her mother and her when she was 8 years old. In the end, Nell takes Addy to dinner and her father is there as Nell sings ""People"" as Addy decides to give her father another chance.
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#22 - Carl's Delicate Moment
Season 4 - Episode 9 - Aired 11/24/1984
It's a case of sexual harassment when a female officer wants a raise and the Chief will not give it to her. She takes the case to Addy's Congress of Determined Women, and the Chief fears she will take him to court. The Chief worries for nothing when the female officer tells him she had a dream of him seducing her, and knows he is not the type of man who would do a thinkg like that and drops the case. The Chief finally gives her the promotion she had long waited for.
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#23 - Julie's Lie
Season 4 - Episode 10 - Aired 12/1/1984
Nell and Addy go up to a ski lodge to find Julie with her boyfriend, Jonathan, after they win their big debate. When Jonathan hurts his foot in an accident, Nell goes to his room to help him, with her date, who is a doctor, and is shocked to see it is Jonathan, and finds Julie in the bathroom. Julie and Nell argue over what has happened, and Nell finally realizes that Julie needs to be Julie and needs to accept her for who she is. Julie and Jonathan share an intimate moment together, as he tells her she's gonna be his first woman ever.
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#24 - Baby of the Family
Season 4 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/8/1984
Samantha gets upset at Nell, who disapproves of her going on a camping trip with teenage boys which will not be chapperoned. She gets increasingly angry at her when she favors Joey rather than her, and dresses Joey in blackface when he is to perform ""Toot-Toot-Tootsie"" in front of Nell's Congregation, as a way to get back at him.
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#25 - TV or Not TV
Season 4 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/15/1984
After being lifted by a class at night school on how TV tears families apart from one another, Nell decides to make the family stop watching TV for a night. However, once they make the promise, Simpson comes by and tells the Chief that the football game is on, since it's a special Wednesday night game, and Addy comes by to tell Nell that they will watch Dynasty, and to find out who Alexis' lover is. However, the Chief and Nell reject their offers and the family sits down just to chat about what is going on in their lives. In the meantime, Grandpa pretends to have a hearing-aid on as he and Carl listen to the football game on the radio, and Nell pretends to heat up a pie in the microwave as she sneaks the portable television set inside it and sneaks a peak at it as she goes in the kitchen to check on the pie. In the end, Nell finds out what the Chief and Grandpa did, as everyone finds out what she has done, and everyone goes back to watching TV.
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