Gimme a Break! Episode Rating Graph

The Kaniskis come home to find burglars at work, when they return home from thei cheif's law enforcement officer of the year award ceremony. However, Nell is at a stip club, seeing male exotic dancers, returns home, tricks the robbers by saying there are jewles in the closet in a locked box, gets the chief's gun, and saves the family from danger. When the reporter shows up, Nell and the girls try to make the chief look good, even though he was tied up by the robbers, and make it look like he was the hero, but finally, the chief admits to the reporter that Nell is the real hero, and she did a very important deed for the family, which they will always be grateful of.

The chief is counting on Katie to do real good on her final exam, but she gets Julie to take it instead. The family is shocked to hear what has happened, when she declines the money they give her for her college life, and she tells them she cheated on the test The cheif is very upset, and then finds out it was Julie who took the test for her. However, Katie appologizes and decides to re-take the test on her own.

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.

Joey is upset because his teacher, Mr. Gronomeir keeps hating him. When Nell invites him to the house to talk about Joey, he trips on Maggies skateboard, and decides to sue, and fakes that he has serious pains. However, he is on his way to spin the big wheel for fast cash on television, and when Nell turns on the television to see him spin the wheel, he wins the big jackpot, and says that he is going to buy an island in the Caribean, and will never have to look at another kid again. Nell is outraged by his act of foolishness.

Joey begins to have a crush on Maggie, and at her husband's birthday party, Nell finds out that he wants to leave New York behind and move to Georgia.

Joey begins to run ilegal gambling tickets from the staff at El Gatspacio, and Nell is horrified when she finds out he was picked up for running them.After Nell brings Joey home, she tries to teach him that gambling is wrong. When her lecture doesn't work, she finally confides in Marty, who uses the game ""Candyland"", as an example that it is wrong for Joey to gamble, bets Joey all their money, and in the end wins, teaching Joey a lesson that it is very wrong for people to gamble their money that they worked so hard to get in the first place.

Nell is furious when she hears a squeaking noise coming from Joey and Matthew's room. When she checks in on them, she finds out that they are caring for Joey's class hamster, ""Harry"", who Joey knows would most likely be used to be tested on human products. Nell and Addy decide to make a fund to stop people from testing animals with human products. Late at night, to stop the squeaking of Harry's cage, Nell pours salad oil on it. However, what she doesn't know is that it is rancid. When she gets another hamster for Joey, she is surprised that it is a girl who has just had six babies, making Joey change his mind about her, after he finds out she killed Harry.

After Addy is laid off at the University for going on strike, Nell hires her as an assistant at Mcdillon and Loud's publishing company where she works. When Nell thinks Addy is too slow at reading manuscripts, she fires her, and Addy, upset at Nell's attitude towards her, refuses to ever speak to her again.

When Officer Simpson leaves his cousins adopted children with Nell to babysit for her, her date who is at the house at the time lets Nell see who he really is, when he shows her his feelings that he has for kids, none whatsoever.

Nell's sister Loretta comes to town when she decides to leave Howard. She confides in Nell on what to do, but Nell doesn't know what she can do to help. Mama Maybelle shows up and calls Nell a homewrecker, and Joey is mad at Nell when he is getting bad grades because he is devoting all of his time to baseball. Loretta tells Nell that Joey should do what he does best, and Nell knows she is right. In the end, Mama hears that Loretta left Howard, and Mama tells her to go back to him, which she agrees to.

Nel is rejected for a job as a receptionist because she thinks she is black. When Addy decdies to go for the same job as well, she is rejected too. They decide to take the case to the Congress of Determined Women, but find out that the man who rejected them is for black rights, and decided to hire a black man instead, because he cannot work with women because they drive him crazy.

Nell finds out that Grandpa is dating Sally Parsons, who was previously dating Officer Simpson. When Simpson finds out he takes it like a baby, but Nell takes it much personal, and tels Sally never to see Grandpa again. In the end, Nell learns that she shouldn't have been snooping into Grandpa's life at all.

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.

Nell finds out that Katie is dating a married author of a famous book. She tells Katie to stop seeing him, and she 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.

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.

Jonathan leaves on his archeological Mexican dig project. In the meantime, back at the Kanisky house, Julie finds out that she is pregnant with his baby after she decides to go to enlist in the Navy and fails the test.

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 on New York.

Nell decides to take her ex-husband's offer up on performing on his ship. While she is on the ship,she finds out that Tony has left his second wife, who is many years younger than Nell.

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.

When the whole staff at the police station gets food poisoning, it's up to Addy and Nell to help them out. Simpson makes the two official police deputies, and there is a call that there are burglars at the Kanisky house. Nell and Addy, like scaredy cats, go to the house and check it out in the dark with flashlights, to find Grandpa and Joey home at the same time. In the end, two robbers leave Nell's room with a television.

Nell books Sammy Davis Jr. to appear to the town of Glenlawn, and sing for them. However, when she calls Sammy to ask him if he is arriving on time, he tells her that she had scheduled him for the following month instead. When Nell goes to the gas station to get her car washed, Albert, the man at the gas station is a dead-ringer for Sammy Davis, and she tells him if he appears on stage as Sammy to fool the town, she will give him what he has always wanted, Angie. However, in the end, Sammy does show up, and he and Nell sing a number to the town of Glenlawn.

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 gonnas be his first woman ever.

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 cheif 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.

Nell is having a very bad day, due to the fact that Sal Bonaducci charged her more money for her car being fixed, and the library overcharging Joey for a late book. When Nell goes to the library to return it, there is an earthquake, which repeats several times. Nell is trapped in the basement office in the library with a woman who is deaf. She finds out that she and the woman have something in common, since they both wear crosses and worship God. In the end, the Chief shows up and says he will be cutting through the cieling and the two will be free.

Nell continues to talk Samantha out of moving to Sanfransisco with Katie. She then realizes that Samantha is still 17, and she has legal control over her still. Addy finally calls Nell and tells her that Samantha did get the scholarship, and that it was a computer error. An excited Samantha, decides that she is going to college afterall. Nell finally sees Julie and Jonathan to the front door as they say their goodbyes. Nell knows that the girls are all grown up now, and that she has the house to herself.

Nell tries to convice Samantha to stay in college, and in the end, is successful at doing so. She also is successful at helping a fellow studen of Sam's to both stand up to his father and get his book published.

In the series premiere, Samantha comes home with a black eye, and Nell teaches her a few skills on how to fight. Julie an her friend are studying on where babies come from, and as the cheif comes home, he walks into the kitchen to find them kissing. Simpson then arrives at the house with Katie, who was picked up for shoplifting, but wasn't arrested. Katie has been actin like this because of the recnt death of Margaret, her mother, and the cheif and her make amends in the end.

Nell tells about her singing past with a doo-wop girl group. Nell and her two friends years before she met the Kanisky's decide to audition to get called back by a famous celebrity. However, the man likes the other two girls, and refuse Nell to be part of the group. Nell knows that the girls are going to visit her and havent seen her in years, and in the end she finds out they are fat like her, and lost their singing careers after they gained weight.

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.

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 amature 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 signs 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.

Nell recives a letter from Joey in New York, telling her that he is fine, but she knows that Tim is not taking proper care of them. She returns to New York, where she ruins Addy's date with a lawyer, and tells her the two will get Joey back. She spies on him at the playground, and he sees her, and she tempts him with a big southern meal at Addy's Apartment. Nell finally agrees to become roomates with Addy and move to New York. When Tim shows up to pick up Joey, he tells Nell he wants to go back to sea, and as much as he loves his boys, he has no time to be with them. He offers her to be their full guardian, and she accepts.

Joey and his father reunite, and he takes Joey on a day at the World's fair. He then asks Nell if he can have Joey sleep on his boat, which she agrees to. In the morning, there is no sign of Joey, and Nell finds out the boat went back to Gnome Alaska. She and the man that asked her to marry him quarrel, and she madly accepts his proposal, but then ditches him in the end. As she walks along the boardwalks in New Orleans, desperatly thinking of Joey, he returns to her, and says he went to the hotel but she was gone and he looked all over for her, and the two reunite in a hug.

Julie wants to join Katie's club, and gets help from Nell and Katie on how to be cool, sitting, and dancing. When she shows up to Katie's group of friends, she totally messes up, as they ask her several questions about personal experieces such as kissing and virginity, and she is rejected into the club. In the end, she says she only wanted to be in the club because of the jacket they get, but cries hystericolly, because she knows she cannot be like Katie and her friends. Katie decides in the end to quit the clique that she is in, and decides that she and her sister need to stick together.

Julie invites a handsome boy at school to come over to stud with her, but he falls for Katie, and the two go out. When Katie comes home, Julie and her have it out in a hilarious catfight of sister versus sister. In the end, Katie finds out that the boy knew Julie was Katies sister and wanted to go over the house so he would get a date with her. Katie and Julie final make up when Katie tells Julie what the boy told her.

Angie tells Nell that she is going on a trip to Mexico with the money she made by selling vaccums. She urges Nell to attend a gathering where the operator of the sales talks about how rich everyone is getting off of the product. Nell then has a party at the house and invites people to it and demonstrates the amazo vac. However, it does not work the way she intended it to, and goes back to another meeting and tells everyone that the salesman is a fake after doing research on him.

While at ""Max's Delacatesan"", Nell and Max see a girl shoplifting. Nell saves her from being arrested, telling Max she is taking her home. Nell finds out she has nowhere to go since her parents left her and her grandmother had recently died. When the Chief finds this out he is ready to arrest her, but she agrees to live with Max and help him out at the store. At first, the two don't get along so well, but they accept that each other has to get by even though there are people in their life that are no longer around.

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.

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.

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 stay and live with the family and room with Joey. In the end, the Cheif says he loves his father and the two hug.

Nell and Joey go to New Orleans where Nells sees a man she hant seen in 15 years. The two take Joey to the World's Fair, and when they go to visit a jazz club, he proposes to her. She is baffled by his proposal and doesn't know what to say. As this is happening, a man is watching Joey in the jazz club. When Joey finally sees him looking at him, he goes to Nell and tells him he thinks that the man is his father. The man happily says ""Joey"" as Joey says ""Dad"", and the two embrace, as Nell stares in shock.

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 afterschool. When Nell gets there, Joey tells her Katies 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.

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.

When the family tells Grandpa to go see a lawyer to make up his will, he refuses in doing so. In the end, Nell finds out he doesn't want to make out a will because he has nothing left to give his family.

Nell disapproves of Katie accepting a diamond necklace from her new boyfriend and tells her to give it back to him. However, when she is awarded the title of ""Glenlawn's Woman of the Year"", she is given a mink coat, and decides to wear it, as well as the necklace that Katie is to give back, to her gala ceremony, so that everyone will admire her, instead of her best friend Addy. However, when they reach the restaraunt, a robber approaches Nell, and steals the coat and the necklace. Nell then goes hystericol to try and tell Katie that she took her necklace without asking her permission first.

Joey is saved by a man from being hit by a bus, and when the man tells his 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.

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 suites 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.

Jonathan returns home, giving attention to everyone accept Julie, who beleives that Jonathan doesn't love her anymore. In the end, Jonathan tells Nell that he knows that Archaeology is not the career for him and that he rushed into things by marrying Julie and getting her pregnant. He tells her he was not at work when they called to talk to him, and instead he was in Bakersfield, looking at a chalk factory that he hopes that he and Julie will soon run in the near future. Nell tells him that Julie needs him, and he should tell his problems to her instead. He finally tells Julie his problems, and tells her that they will be great parents soon when their baby is born.

Joey accidently shoots Nell when he finds the cheif's gun in one of her dresser drawers. The whole family, including Mama Maybell, who comes for a visit, helps Nell out when she is shot in the foot. However, Joey runs off everytime he comes face to face with Nell. In the end, Joey wants to buy Samantha an ice cream cone after he accidently hit her finger with a baseball, and Nell decides to take him to get it. When they get in the car, the engine sputs, reminding him of the gun, and he tells Nell that he is finally sorry for what he had done.

When Nell's grandmother passes away and leaves her a nice amount of money, she decides to split it with the family, and decides to let them spend it on something that is fun since it was found. Nell goes to the bank and finds out that her check has bounded, and needs the money back, but in the end, everyone had bought her something with the money that they had given her, since she is always giving them things and money everytime they need it.