Gimme a Break Meets Yet Another 80s Orphan
Explicit content warning
11/29/23 • 86 min
1 Listener
“Nell and the Kid” (April 28, 1983)
As if network TV didn’t have enough sitcoms about non-biological parents stepping in to care for parentless children, Gimme a Break — itself a show about a woman acting as a substitute mother for three girls — has a second season episode in which Nell Carter’s character meets a spunky orphan (LaShana Dendy) and then entrusts her to the care of the neighborhood deli owner (Don Rickles). It didn’t end up becoming its own series, but Drew and Glen are pretty sure that this serves as a sort of soft launch for another show that has the same premise and which launched on NBC’s schedule the following fall.
You can watch this episode of Gimme a Break on YouTube.
Listen to us discuss Gimme a Break’s gay episode.
Go shop at our TeePublic store!
Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
And yes, we do have an official website! We even have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This episode’s art was designed by Ian O’Phelan.
“Nell and the Kid” (April 28, 1983)
As if network TV didn’t have enough sitcoms about non-biological parents stepping in to care for parentless children, Gimme a Break — itself a show about a woman acting as a substitute mother for three girls — has a second season episode in which Nell Carter’s character meets a spunky orphan (LaShana Dendy) and then entrusts her to the care of the neighborhood deli owner (Don Rickles). It didn’t end up becoming its own series, but Drew and Glen are pretty sure that this serves as a sort of soft launch for another show that has the same premise and which launched on NBC’s schedule the following fall.
You can watch this episode of Gimme a Break on YouTube.
Listen to us discuss Gimme a Break’s gay episode.
Go shop at our TeePublic store!
Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
And yes, we do have an official website! We even have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This episode’s art was designed by Ian O’Phelan.
Previous Episode
We Can Be Sad About Matthew Perry Dying and Still Think Friends Is Homophobic
1 Recommendations“The One With the Memorial Service” (March 13, 2003)
Since Matthew Perry died, the tone of conversations about Friends has shifted from looking at all the reasons it wasn’t so great to trying to focus on the reasons we like it. That’s fair. Grief does that. But in seeking comfort in Friends, let’s not rush to thinking that Chandler Bing was something more than one long-running gay panic joke. Matthew Perry was a great comedic actor and we enjoy him delivering a one-liner with perfect timing, but we can acknowledge that without giving Friends a pass for its homophobia.
Here’s the Slate article that inspired this episode, and here’s the Substack post where it originally appeared, with its original headline.
Friends, previously on GEE:
- Everyone Thinks Chandler Is Gay
- Ross’s Lebsian Ex-Wife Gets Lesbian Married
- Rachel Kisses a Lesbian
- Ross Gellar Brings Gay Panic to The Single Guy
Listen to Magnificent Jerk, a great podcast about one woman’s journey to understand how her uncle’s autobiographical movie script became a B-action movie starring Rob Lowe.
Next Episode
A Queer History of SNL, Part Three: The “Not Ready for Prime Time” Era
Welcome to the first of our in-depth looks at LGBTQ humor in specific eras of Saturday Night Live. Of course, we’re starting at the beginning, in the classic era, and yeah, some of them are better than you’d guess and some of them are so much worse. It’s a real grab bag, but there are lessons to be learned about how SNL came to be what it is today and how American humor has evolved since 1975. Buy Josh Trujillo’s new book, Washington's Gay General: The Legends and Loves of Baron Von Steuben. Watch all the sketches featured in this episode here. Here are the sketches, in order:
- Jamitol (S1E1: George Carlin, Oct. 11 1975)
- Long Distance (S1E4: Candice Bergen, Nov. 8 1975)
- Latent Elf (S1E8: Candice Bergen, Dec. 20 1975)
- Household Hints (S1E16: Anthony Perkins, March 13, 1976)
- The Snake-Handling O’Sheas (S2E2: Norman Lear, Sep. 25, 1976)
- Monologue (S4E11: Cicely Tyson, Feb. 10, 1979)
- The Ex-Police (S4E11: Cicely Tyson, Feb. 10, 1979)
- Miles Cowperthwaite (S4E18: Michael Palin, May 12, 1979)
- Not for Transexuals Only (S4E20: Buck Henry, May 26, 1979)
- The Continuing Correspondences of Eleanor Roosevelt (S5E3: Bill Russell, Oct. 20 1979)
Go shop at our TeePublic store!
Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter
Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn
And yes, we do have an official website! We even have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This episode’s art was designed by Ian O’Phelan.
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