GIMME A BREAK!: KATIE THE CROOK {SERIES PREMIERE} (TV)

Summary

The premiere of this series about Nell Harper, who acts as a caretaker for the Kanisky family -- including Katie, Julie, and Samantha, and their father, Carl -- as a favor to her dead friend, Margaret Kanisky. In this episode, Nell accidentally sucks the goldfish down the vacuum cleaner. Nell also discovers that young Samantha got a black eye at school. When Chief of Police Carl Kanisky arrives home, he blames his daughter's black eye on school busing, leading Nell to flatly announce the chief's goldfish is dead. When the chief finds Julie kissing her study partner, he blames their curiosity on liberal sex education lessons. He then learns his eldest daughter, Katie, has just been caught shoplifting. As Katie and her father argue, she makes a wisecrack about her dead mother, and the chief slaps her and insists she move out. Julie tries to reassure Katie that their father loves her, but Katie packs up her belongings, including a memento from their mother. But Nell says that she promised her dying friend Margaret she would watch over her family, and gently tells Katie and the chief that their lingering anguish over her death is the true reason for their argument. Commercials deleted.

Details

NETWORK: NBC
DATE: October 29, 1981 9:30 PM
RUNNING TIME: 0:22:50
COLOR/B&W: Color
CATALOG ID: T:54053
GENRE: Comedy
SUBJECT HEADING: Comedy; African-American Collection - Comedy
SERIES RUN: NBC - TV series, 1981-1987
COMMERCIALS: N/A

CREDITS

Mort Lachman … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
Coleman Mitchell … Producer
Geoffrey Neigher … Producer
Michael Mount … Associate Producer
Howard Storm … Director
Sy Rosen … Created by, Writer
Bob Christianson … Theme Music by
Nell Carter … Theme Music by
Nell Carter … Cast, Nell Harper
Dolph Sweet … Cast, Chief Carl Kanisky
Kari Michaelsen … Cast, Katie Kanisky
Lauri Hendler … Cast, Julie Kanisky
Lara Jill Miller … Cast, Samantha Kanisky
Howard Morton … Cast, Officer Ralph Simpson
Mike Darnell … Cast, George