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The Best Episodes of Gimme a Break!

Every episode of Gimme a Break! ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Gimme a Break!!

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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

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  1. #1 Fan Favorite
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    Gimme a Break! Season 5 Episode 22 - Katie's Korner
    8.5/10(31 votes)

    #1 - Katie's Korner

    S5:E22

    Katie, who has been sad since her latest boyfriend left her and is now engaged, is going broke and is deciding to close Katie's Korner. Nell knows that Katie is going to commit suicide because she is very depressed lately and gave Joey a gift for his birthday, which isn't for several months, and is giving Julie and Jonathan her car. When Nell and Addy arrive at the closing of Katie's Korner, they see the lights off and know she is inside. They throw a tree through the window as Katie comes out. Nell tells Addy that she was worried about Katie because her ex-husband Tony left her years ago and she didn't leave him. Afterwards she tried to commit suicide but couldn't go through with it. Katie tells Nell she was offered a job as a buyed at Chadwick's in SanFransisco which offers her $32,000 a year, as wel as a company car.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  2. Gimme a Break! Season 1 Episode 18 - The Robbery
    8.4/10(42 votes)

    #2 - The Robbery

    S1:E18

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  3. Gimme a Break! Season 3 Episode 14 - Flashback
    8.4/10(36 votes)

    #3 - Flashback

    S3:E14

    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 he is shocked to find another woman in his bed, and then grows sick of Nell, since she doesn't have a job. After a few days, a job offer in Bakersfield is thrown upon Nell, and when she gets the aceptance, Margaret tells her she is dying and wants her to raise the girls. She madly regrets it, but deep inside Margaret knows she loves the girls. Nell then refuses the job in Bakersfield and decides she will promise to be there for the girls from then on.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  4. Gimme a Break! Season 3 Episode 16 - Valentine
    8.3/10(31 votes)

    #4 - Valentine

    S3:E16

    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 is having a problem with his girlfriend.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  5. Gimme a Break! Season 4 Episode 21 - Cat Story
    8.3/10(36 votes)

    #5 - Cat Story

    S4:E21

    Officer Simpson ane the chief go out during a stormy night in Glenlawn, to check upon a bridge that had washed out. When the chief returns home, he shows the family Simpsons clothes, and tells them that an officer reported he saw a cat fall into a river, and an officer jump in to save the cat. The family begins to believe that Simpson was the man who tried to save the cat, since he would do anything for his cat ""Sherlock"", who he hasn't seen in several days. Nell receives an envelope from Simpson which contains $5,000, and she is happy she can go on her vacation with Addy to Hawaai afterall. However, in the end, Joey rushes into the house, telling the family that he found Simpson and Sherlock.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. Gimme a Break! Season 2 Episode 1 - Nell Goes to Jail
    8.2/10(52 votes)

    #6 - Nell Goes to Jail

    S2:E1

    While Nell is on the phone with Angie, her phone dies out and a second later a man from the phone company takes the phone away. She gets fed up and goes to the phone company to get it back, claiming that she did pay her bill, but the man there (Mr. Swackhammer) says that the computer called her ""Ms. Fong"", and that she is behind 3 months on it. She gets really aggrevated and pulls the phone out and ends up in Jail, where Simpson acts as a person with no typingt skills at all, jotting down Nell's info. Nell calls Hamilton Storm, Glenlawn's news reporter, and he flies to the scene, reporting that Nell had been wrongfully accused of not paying her phone bill. Mr. Swackhammer then gets a call from his boss, telling him to drop the charges on Nell, and Nell is let free. Nell is then rewarded with a bunch of new phones for the house, and installing them is Mr. Swackhammer, the new ""Telephone Installer"".

    Director:Jim Drake
    Writer:Unknown

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    The 20 WORST Episodes of Gimme a Break!

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  7. Gimme a Break! Season 5 Episode 12 - Katie's Apartment
    8.2/10(25 votes)

    #7 - Katie's Apartment

    S5:E12

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  8. Gimme a Break! Season 6 Episode 1 - Sam Goes to College (1)
    8.2/10(31 votes)

    #8 - Sam Goes to College (1)

    S6:E1

    Samantha, excitied that she has gotten into Littlfield College in New Jersey, is let down when she recieves a letter in the mail, saying that the school cancelled her scholarship. As this is going on, Julie and Jonathan, the proud new parents of baby Nell, are finally moving to Bakersfield to have privacy for a change, and to manage the chalk factory, as Simpson helps them with the move. Nell then calls Addy, who says she will do all she can to make sure it was an error, and that Samantha will get her scholarship back. While Samantha is in despair, Katie arrives home one last time to have her laundry cleaned before she moves to SaFransisco, and tells Samantha to come with her and she will give her a job there. When Simpson arrives for another load of Julie and Jonathan's belongings, Nell tells him she is losing her girls, but Simpson tells her she will always have him.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  9. Gimme a Break! Season 1 Episode 13 - Nell Goes Home
    8.1/10(44 votes)

    #9 - Nell Goes Home

    S1:E13

    As the Cheif is getting ready to leave for an assignment in New York, Samantha is mad that she can't go fishing with a male friend of her's due to the fact that he will not be around to watch them. After he leaves, Nell gets a call from her mother telling her that her father had a heart attack. Nell takes Samantha back home to Alabama to visit her family. At her house, Nell is told by her mother that her father doesn't want to see her. However, Samantha is sad for the way she treated the Cheif because he wouldn't let her go fishing. Nell realizes she will see her father even though he doesn't want her to. In his room, he acts the way he did to Nell when she was younger, and doesn't mind that he is dying. He still doesn't forgive Nell for running away when she was 16. In the end, Nells Father dies, and at his funeral, Nell is told to read the Eulogy that her father wrote. He actually was happy that she came home to him after all those years. Nell sings ""Amazing Grace"" as the Cheif walks

    Director:Will Mackenzie
    Writer:Booker Bradshaw

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  10. Gimme a Break! Season 4 Episode 22 - Police Mamas
    8.1/10(29 votes)

    #10 - Police Mamas

    S4:E22

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. Gimme a Break! Season 5 Episode 23 - Found Money
    8.1/10(24 votes)

    #11 - Found Money

    S5:E23

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  12. Gimme a Break! Season 6 Episode 2 - Sam Goes to College (2)
    8.1/10(29 votes)

    #12 - Sam Goes to College (2)

    S6:E2

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  13. Gimme a Break! Season 1 Episode 17 - Sam's Affair
    8.0/10(36 votes)

    #13 - Sam's Affair

    S1:E17

    Samantha and her friend Scottie from her baseball team decide to sit on the couch and watch some television. As they are intimidated by a love story, they talk about kissing, and they decide to try it. As Julie and Katie walk in on them, they suspect that they have been fooling around, and when the cheif finds out, he tells Samantha that after she kisses a boy she will end up pregnant. Due to this remark, Samantha mistakes that she can get pregnant from kissing, and seeks help from Julie, Nell, and Grandpa, but they aren't very good at it. Finally, when Nell sees Samantha crying in her room, she tells her that she thinks she is pregnant, and Nell tells her never to beleive what her father says because he is full of it, and she decides to teach her the facts of life.

    Director:Jim Drake
    Writer:Unknown

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  14. Gimme a Break! Season 2 Episode 8 - Katie Steals Julie's Jock
    8.0/10(36 votes)

    #14 - Katie Steals Julie's Jock

    S2:E8

    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.

    Director:Jim Drake
    Writer:Unknown

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  15. Gimme a Break! Season 4 Episode 3 - Nell's Birthday
    8.0/10(33 votes)

    #15 - Nell's Birthday

    S4:E3

    Nell gets the bitrhday blues at turning 33. Addy is mocking her as the two are going on a cruise for singles 18-32 years old and she can lie about her age. When the two return home from dinner, the family surprises Nell with a cake and tell her that her birth certificate says she was a year younger than expected. Nell is overjoyed, but Addy is mad, since Nell is now doing what Addy did to her by mocking her about her age. In the end, the kids tell Addy they lied just to make Nell happy, and Nell is accepting of the news, although still wishes she was younger.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  16. Gimme a Break! Season 4 Episode 17 - Alabamy Bound (1)
    8.0/10(30 votes)

    #16 - Alabamy Bound (1)

    S4:E17

    Nell, Addy, and Joey go off to Alabama to arrive for Nell's sister's Wedding. Nell is angered because her mother has not changed, and she is still ridiculing her. Nell is happy that son after the wedding, she will be going back to Glenlawn, and will be away from her mother for good. However, Nell learns that after the wedding Mama Maybelle will soon be moving in with her in Glenlawn.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  17. Gimme a Break! Season 4 Episode 19 - The Earthquake
    8.0/10(32 votes)

    #17 - The Earthquake

    S4:E19

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  18. Gimme a Break! Season 5 Episode 8 - Sam's Little Girl
    8.0/10(28 votes)

    #18 - Sam's Little Girl

    S5:E8

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  19. Gimme a Break! Season 1 Episode 14 - Samantha Steals a Squad Car
    7.9/10(45 votes)

    #19 - Samantha Steals a Squad Car

    S1:E14

    As the chief is preparing a speech for an awards banquet, Nell accidently sits on his cap, which ticks him off. As the two fight, Samantha comes home, complaining that a girl called her a dumb Pollak, but Nell and the cheif are too busy arguing. To get their attention, she tells Nell ""how would you like it if somebody caled you a niggar?"" The chief gets her attention, goes on a rampage, and she locks herself in the bathroom, only to escape through the bathroom window, steal her fathers squad car, and take off to the police station, where she meets a drunkard named Bill, who is out of his cell, drunk in the cheif's office. In the end, the chief and Nell show up at the police station, and all is forgiven, as Nell tells Samantha that they should have listened to her in the first place, instead of fighting over a stupid squashed police cap.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  20. Gimme a Break! Season 2 Episode 13 - Julie Smokes
    7.9/10(32 votes)

    #20 - Julie Smokes

    S2:E13

    The Chief finds a cigarrette in his sock and questions each of the girls about it. When he finds out that Samantha and Katie don't smoke, he tears through Julie's room and then appologizes when she tells him she would never smoke. However, she smokes when he leaves the room but he catches her. She then moves to Grandma and Grandpa's after he hits her and it's up to him to get her to come home. He tells her that years before he and Margaret were smokers and he quit and so did she, but went on and off until it was too late and she got lung canger and died. In the end, Julie realizes that is the reason why he slapped her and she agrees to come home and stop smoking.

    Director:Jim Drake
    Writer:Ed Jurist

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  21. Gimme a Break! Season 3 Episode 10 - A Kanisky Christmas
    7.9/10(39 votes)

    #21 - A Kanisky Christmas

    S3:E10

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  22. Gimme a Break! Season 3 Episode 20 - Katie's College
    7.9/10(42 votes)

    #22 - Katie's College

    S3:E20

    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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  23. Gimme a Break! Season 4 Episode 12 - TV or Not TV
    7.9/10(29 votes)

    #23 - TV or Not TV

    S4:E12

    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 Alexi's 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 mean time, 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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  24. Gimme a Break! Season 4 Episode 23 - Monkey See, Monkey Do
    7.9/10(29 votes)

    #24 - Monkey See, Monkey Do

    S4:E23

    The chief gets angry Katie after her friend who got a part in a play offers her apartment to her. The Cheif also gets mad at Samantha for wearing a tactless outfit. The Cheif confesses that Julie was alwasy his favorite daughter because she thinks like him. This causes Nell, and the girls to move to Kaites new Apartment. When the Cheif 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.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  25. Gimme a Break! Season 4 Episode 25 - Julie's Birthday
    7.9/10(40 votes)

    #25 - Julie's Birthday

    S4:E25

    On Julies 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, nly to have Nell tell him to deliver the pizza there. The Cheif however is happy that Julie and Jonathan broke up, because he thinks he is a ditz. In the end, Nell tells Jonathan to g 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 ere 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 Cheif say ""Is that Julie in there Nell?"", as she screams no! Because she knows the two have some explaining to do to him.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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Best Episodes Summary

"Katie's Korner" is the best rated episode of "Gimme a Break!". It scored 8.5/10 based on 31 votes. Directed by Unknown and written by Unknown, it aired on 4/5/1986. This episode scored 0.1 points higher than the second highest rated, "The Robbery".