Episode
Gimme a Break!: A Kanisky Christmas
Overview
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.
Details
- Series
- Gimme a Break!
- Season
- Season 3
- Episode
- Episode 10
- Air date
- 1983-12-22
- Runtime
- 30 min
Episode context
A Kanisky Christmas is Episode 10 in Season 3 of Gimme a Break!. It aired on 1983-12-22. The runtime is 30 min.
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Episode 9: Grandpa's Rebellion
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.
Episode 11: Herbie
Herbie, Samantha's unseen new friend, puts ideas of judgment day into Samantha's head. An earthquake causes Samantha to freak out, and she says she is going to live everyday as if it her last. However, during a storm, their neighbor Wendy rushes over and gives birth, giving Samantha a new meaning to life.
More episodes from this season
Episode 8: Nell's Friend
While Nell is out getting the Chief's clothes cleaned, Addy Wilson, Nell's childhood friend arrives at the house. She meets the girls, and says Nell's real name is ""Nellie Ruth"". When Nell comes home, she is intrigued by Addy, and begins to think Addy considers her as a women who is illiterate and one who had a chance at a singing career but failed and is now a housekeeper. Nell then goes to night school to get her diploma, but Addy is the teacher there and Nell decides to drop out. In the end, Nell flips out when Addy comes over and then the two reconcile, when she tells her she would never call Nell illigitimate, and is happy for her that she is who she is, and Nell decides to go back to night school to get her diploma.
Episode 12: James Returns
James wants to start over again with Nell after she meets him at a fancy restaraunt during a girls night out with Addy and Angie. She is upset though that her ex- husnband, Tony, has ran off and married an 18 year old girl, and tells James she needs more time to think about getting back together with him. In the end, she decides to get back together with him.
Episode 7: Melissa
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.
Episode 13: Samantha's Protest
Samantha protests against demolition of an historic Spanish site after Nell tells her she did the same thing in Alabama when whites would not serve blacks. When the cheif and Officer Simpson arrive at the scene, the mob doesn't move, and they are all arrested, including the entire Kanisky family, who decides to step in and help Samantha protest. In the end, the site is saved from demolition, everyone is still mad at the cheif for arresting them, and they finally realize that he was only doing his job.
Episode 6: The Mayor
The Mayor of Glenlawn falls for Nell, who wants nothing to do with him. He tells her that the cheif will get his new patrol car if he gets her. At his condo, she seduces him, and he tells her she is coming onto him. She tells him that he treated her wrong, and he appologizes, and tells her he will see her at the ceremony when he donates the patrol car to the cheif.
Episode 14: Flashback
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.
Episode 5: Joey (2)
Joey goes on a hunger strike and says he is not going to an orphanage. Nell then lies to Joey and tells him that she made a friend of a man whose window she broke years ago when she was a child. Joey beleives her, and knows Nell is not a lier, like many adults he knows are. Nell then tells the Cheif he owes her, and she deserves to take Joey in as her foster child. The Chief objects, but Joey tells him he is right, and even himself wouldnt want him as a foster child. The Cheif's feelings change, and Joey is accepted into the family as their foster child
Episode 15: Knock Three Times
Nell gets hypnotized to remember where she put Katie's ring for graduation, but she ends up remembering a whole lot of the girls' dirty laundry, since the doctor forgot to remove the hypnotic transe, and whenever she heard three knocks, she'd tell the absolute truth. In the end, she tells everyone that she is going to marry James, but tells him the truth that she can't marry him yet, that is until the kids are all grown up.
Episode 4: Joey (1)
Katie practices her jazz routine to ""Maniac"" for a show that will be taking pace soon in Glenawn. As the family is getting ready, rehearsing for the show, a boy named Joey comes by collecting for Jerry's kids. The family falls for his act, and as he leaves, Simpson says he is a con artist. Joey Donova is his name, and his Uncle Jerry dropped him off and left him in Glenlawn, because his dad Tim is at sea. The scial worker tells the cheif that Joey will stay with the family over the weekend and will be placed in a foster home shortly. Nell then looses control of Joey, and he escapes, taking her money, and goes to the bus station. However, Nell finds him, drags him home, and doesnt know what she is going to do with him.
Episode 16: Valentine
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.