To give you a better idea:
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Gimme a Break!
TMC-4 — 9 years ago(November 06, 2016 09:02 PM)
To give you a better idea:
http://www.imdb.com/board/10081869/trivia
The Cosby Show, with it's affluent black family, redefining the African American sitcom and how blacks were perceived on TV, and becoming a national phenomenon, helped bring an end to Gimme A Break.
After the Cosby show premiered and became a big hit, NBC executives were no longer satisfied with the Nell Carter sitcom about a sassy black maid in a white family.
It seemed old hat, and vaguely stereotypical now. NBC warned Gimme A Break it needed to make drastic changes in the fifth season or they would cancel it. This is when the girls (Samantha, Julie and Katie) were fired, the location was changed to upscale Manhattan, and Nell became an assistant at a publishing house; a more acceptable, yuppy position for a black character in the post-Cosby world. This is also when the show jumped the shark. The original chemistry Nell had with the girls and the Chief was gone, the charm of the original house in Fresno was gone, the charm of the original family which had drawn viewers in was gone. The show quality continued to deteriorate at this point and the show was canceled in 1987.
Granted,
Gimme a Break
to the best of my knowledge, was never a huge hit anyway, as it never cracked the top 30 in the Nielsen's (which was still a pretty big precedent given that we still only had three major networks back then). I'm sure that the untimely passing of Dolph Sweet gave NBC another good excuse to get rid of
GAB
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stevenackerman69 — 9 years ago(November 11, 2016 05:27 PM)
Did you also put this in the trivia section? It seems new. Also, the house was in Glenlawn, not Fresno.
Funny thing: Cosby Show premiered in Gimme A Break!'s old time slot and became a powerhouse. I don't think that helped end it though. This was in 1984. What I think happened was after Dolph Sweet's death in 1985 the show changed without him being there. I know that the network said to make massive changes to the show or it would get cancelled. I guess Nell and the producers wanted to keep going (I might not have, since it was in syndication already and it was five years, which is a respectable run for a show that isn't a blockbuster) so they made the changes to sort of up Nell in status (she was no longer a housekeeper, but a proofreader). Still, doing that and getting rid of the original format hurt the show because people didn't like the changes (the audience) and the ratings went down even more, so the network decided that since it was doing well now and the show was in syndication, there was no need for it to go on and gave it the axe. I think it should've ended with that one hour episode Sam Goes to College and that would've been better.