Gimme a Break - Season One |  | Directors: Dick Harwood, Herbert Kenwith, Howard Storm, Jim Drake, Linda Day
Actors: Nell Carter, Kari Michaelson, Dolph Sweet, Lauri Hendler, Lara Jill Miller
Studio: Universal Studios
Category: DVD
List Price: $19.98
Buy New: $11.10
as of 11/22/2009 00:19 CST details
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Rating:  32 reviews
Format: Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, Subtitled, NTSC
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number Of Discs: 3
Running Time: 467 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.1 x 5.4 x 0.6
MPN: D29413D
UPC: 025192941320
EAN: 0025192941320
Theatrical Release Date: October 29, 1981
Release Date: February 14, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Nell Carter shines as Nellie Ruth Nell Harper the role that twice earned her Emmy® and Golden Globe Award nominations and helped redefine the meaning of family. Available for the first time ever on DVD Gimme a Break! is the funny hip and sometimes poignant portrayal of the Kanisky family: widowed Police Chief Carl; his three daughters Katie Julie and Samantha; and their unflappable housekeeper-turned-surrogate mother (Carter). This 3-disc set includes all 19 episodes from Season One as well as a preview from Season Two bonus episodes from the smash-hit sitcoms Kate and Allie and Charles in Charge and a special featurette that takes a look back at other great TV shows of the eighties. Featuring renowned guest stars such as Danny Glover Rue McClanahan and Helen Hunt Gimme a Break! is the beloved sitcom that delivers both love and laughs.System Requirements:Running Time: 468 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: TELEVISION/SERIES & SEQUELS Rating: NR UPC: 025192941320 Manufacturer No: 29413
Amazon.com
Actress-singer Nell Carter provided the heart and soul for this much-loved NBC family series (1981-1987) about a black woman who cares for a white police chief's daughters after the death of their mother. Though some of the show's humor was derived from jibes about Ms. Carter's size and the clash of parenting styles between the no-nonsense Chief (stage veteran Dolph Sweet) and Carter's warm, sassy Nell Harper, Gimme a Break also addressed more serious and emotional subjects with surprising warmth and drama. The debut episode, "Katie the Crook" (which is featured on this three-disc set, along with the other 18 episodes from the 1981-82 season), does a fine job of touching on the tougher issues, as the Chief's three daughters (Kari Michaelson, Lauri Hendler, and Lara Jill Miller) each react to the mother's untimely passing in realistic manners. Other episodes in the first season offer a good blend of humor and pathos, including "Mom's Birthday" (in which Nell allows the family to celebrate their mother through home movies), "The Emergency" (a rare TV storyline about teen birth control), "Your Prisoner Is Dead" (the Chief is traumatized after killing a drugstore burglar, and considers retirement), and "Nell Goes Home" (Nell is rejected by her ailing father during a trip to Alabama). Much of the credit for the show should go to the cast, especially Ms. Carter and Sweet (both who have since passed away), though veteran character actor John Hoyt deserves mention as the family's grandfather; their enthusiasm for and skill behind the roles is undoubtedly a large reason why Gimme a Break still enjoys a following. The first-season set includes a preview of the show's second season (the episode "Nell Goes to Jail"), as well as episodes from Charles in Charge and Kate and Allie, two other popular family sitcoms from the '80s. A 30-minute featurette on '80s TV (the same one featured on the Charles in Charge first-season set) rounds out this fan-pleasing set. -- Paul Gaita
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 32
 Loved this series then and I still do. July 30, 2009
Bubbles (Maryland)
I recently purchased this dvd set and watched the whole thing in one night. I had forgotten how funny this show was. It is definitely very 80's. It's funny that some of the issues that they dealt with on this show were considered to be somewhat explicit at the time but not so much anymore. I also found it to be very interesting that Nell's character believed that she was an attractive, sexy woman even though she was not a size 2. (As a woman who is also not a size 2, I found it refreshing because you don't see much of that on tv these days.) Nell didn't let her size or race get to her because she believed in herself. There are some very, very funny moments and some very tender moments (specifically in the episode "Mom's Birthday".) I laughed so hard I cried and then I cried so hard that I had to laugh at myself. Anyway, the first season is great and I'd recommend it to fans of the 80's and anyone who likes to laugh.
YES! December 3, 2008
Janice Jackson (FL.)
I seen all of them a million times i just love it Nell is so so funny every body in the show is funny yo!!! JJ
Sell Gimme a Break to Shout! Factory, or Arts Alliance America June 11, 2008
D. DiRienzo (Bayonne, NJ USA)
Gimme a Break! was a great show of the 80s, but why did Universal Studios stop after releasing Season One on DVD? Since there is hope for stalled series, which was said on May 28, 2008, I hope Gimme a Break! will be coming back to DVD soon!! Universal Studios should sale the rights of releasing the 5 remaining seasons of Gimme a Break to Shout! Factory. If not, there is always Arts Alliance America, who bought Charles in Charge last year. Please Universal Studios, sell Gimme a Break! to one of the independent companies!! Fans of the show will be more than happy once Gimme a Break returns to DVD!
Gimme a Break - Season 1 March 26, 2008
M. Reynolds-Lamb (Hiram, Georgia)
First episode was really bad but the rest are great. Will be looking out for other releases.
 Pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed it...but... February 9, 2008
Reading Public (Trinidad, West Indies)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I grew up watching "Gimme a Break" and enjoyed myself immensely. As with sitcoms, cartoons etc. that you watch as a child and then again as an adult, you realise how many things went over your head. In the very first episode Carl comes home from work talking about a gay cop wanting to come out of the closet. It was a big deal then back in the 80s and is still a big deal now. Some of the episodes deal with issues of cheating, stealing, teen sexual issues (dating, pregnancy, birth control)...in short, the social issues of the time. The more things change the more they stay the same...
It was so much fun watching this DVD, I could hardly wait for one episode to end and another to begin. I was able to fully appreciate all of the adult humour and content, and relate to the pop culture references that I remember so well (Billy Dee Williams was a really big deal back then). I was laughing out loud quite a bit and I loved that. So many times, a purchase made for nostalgia turns out to be so disappointing. It's never as good as you remember it but this was all that and MORE!
I had a couple of "Whoa Nellie! Where have I seen this before?" moments a couple times:
1. Overweight cop named Carl (Family Matters)
2. Girl named Samantha who is a tomboy called Sam, who comes home with a black eye from a fight with a boy (Who's the Boss?)
And a couple of "Heyyyy, I know that person!" moments with the following guest stars:
Johnny Brown (Good Times, The Jeffersons)
Harrison Page (Benson, Webster, Fame and a dozen other shows in the 80s)
Jack Carter (Match Game)
Liz Sheridan (Alf, Seinfeld)
Mary Jo Catlett (Diff'rent Strokes, That's So Raven)
Ben Powers (Good Times)
Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon etc.)
Crystal Bernard (Wings)
Jay Johnson (Soap)
Helen Hunt (Mad About You, Twister etc.)
My very favourite "extras" though were Alvernette Jimenez (Angie) and John Hoyt (Grandpa Kanisky). They contributed quite a share to my laughs, and I wish that I could have seen more of Angie (the Black "dumb blonde")especially. What a character!
One cool feature that I haven't seen on my other DVDs is that if you select to play by episode, it gives you a little synopsis of that episode right on the screen so you don't have to be fiddling with DVD cases and papers to see what that episode is all about. Also, it's not Closed Captioned but does contain English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing.
THE BUT - The DVD quality is pretty inconsistent. On Disc 1, the video is typical 80s - muted colours - the characters look so pale that they're almost green, then on Disc 2 the colours get better and they look a bit more human, while on Disc 3 they are positively rosier, darker and glowing with health! The audio track does contain some crackling and popping but not too noticeable during the episodes. The worst part of the audio would be at the beginning and end of the episodes when the theme song plays. Some bits sound quite like when a cassette's been stretched out, and the hissing is more noticeable then. Bet you haven't heard the word "cassette" in ages! As with the video, the audio gets progressively clearer by DVD. Odd, maybe I got a weird set...
All in all, it's ***** for the content and about *** for the DVD quality. Pity, because Universal's taken so much time to make sure each DVD is in its own case in the box set. That quality could have been transferred over into the internals of the set as well.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 32
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