Gimme a Break!

Nell and Angie go to a bar to meet guys. However, Nell gets sad that she isnt admired by any of the men. She then goes home and the Chief decides to fix her up with one of his officers. What he doesnt know is that the officer is just doing the Cheif a favor so he can get a better job position. The Cheif throws the man out and tells Nell what happened when she comes out ready for her date. Nell realizes he wasnt interested in her because she is overweight. Angie then shows up and invites Nell out and she accepts, even after being rejected by the officer.

A woman with a perfume gift for Margaret on her birthday shows up, learning that Margaret is deceased. When the Cheif comes home, he is upset because it is Margarets birthday and she died 6 months earlier. He decides to take the family out to dinner at a Mexican restaraunt, but when the mariacci singers sing ""Happy Birthday"" to a woman named Margart, the family begins to feel sad again. Nell decides to get out the family home movies to which the Cheif objects to, but in the end is happy seeing Margaret the way he remembered her.

When the Cheif finds a man in Nells room, he tells her he doesnt want her fooling around with guys in the same house as his teenage daughters. Nell decides to quit, and moves in with Angie for one night. The Cheif tries to adjust to Nell not being around and everything goes awry with the turkey being thrown through the front window, and the clothes shrinking in the wash. In the end, Nell gets fed up with staying with Angie and decides to come home, to which the family is overjoyed having her back.

Julie wants to join Katies club, and gets help from Nell and Katie on how to be cool, sitting, and dancing. When she shows up to Katies group of friends, she totally messes up, as they ask her several questions about personal experieces such as kissing and virginity, and she is rejected into the club. In the end, she says she only wanted to be in the club because of the jacket they get, but cries hystericolly, because she knows she cannot be like Katie and her friends. Katie decides in the end to quit the clique that she is in, and decides that she and her sister need to stick together.

Nells finds out that her ex-husband Tony is in town and wants to meet with her. At the house, he tells her that he is going to be on the Merv Griffith show and needs $1,000. Nell agrees to give him the money and lies to the Cheif, telling him she needs $500 for her Aunt to have an operation. The Cheif gives her the money, even if he knows that Tony is going to blow it and not get his big break on the Merv Griffith show. Sure enough, when he auditions on the show, he is told to get off, since they already have enough singers like him.

Katie comes home with pain in her stomache and Nell rushes her to the emergency room. Once there, she meets a pushy receptionist and seeks a doctor on her own time to help Katie. The doctor tells Nell that Katie was using an IUD (Inter-Uterinary Device) as a form of birth control and will be okay. She is shocked to hear the news and so is the chief. The Chief leaves the hospital disgusted, but returns and goes to see Katie. He tells her what would her mother think about her doing that sort of thing if she was still alive? Katie tells him that she and her mother talked a lot about it before she died and she knew Katie had been using IUDS. The Chief understands that he cannot protect Katie from IUDs and other sorts of sexual related issues, but tells her he will always love her.

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 cheifs 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.

Katies band is a big success in Glenlawn as they perform at amateur night at a restaraunt. A big producer spots them, and tells them he loved the act, and offers them a job far away. Katie decides at first she wants to go, because she started her group, and without her, they would be nothing. However, Nell lets her see deep inside that all she wants to be is a star, and she finally decides to stay behind with her family, as her group goes off to see if they can make a success with their career.

The Kaniskis come home to find burglars at work, when they return home from thei cheifs 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 chiefs 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.

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 Nells info. Nell calls Hamilton Storm, Glenlawns 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"".

Katie and Julie go out on a double date as Samantha tells everyone to make room for Debbie Jo, an imaginary friend of hers. The Cheif thinks she is crazy and talks to Nell about sending her to a shrink. When the thought of Debbie Jo gets too far, the Chief grounds Samantha and goes up to her room and pretends to beat Debbie Jo up and tell Samantha that he doesnt want to send her to a shrink. Samantha runs to Nell and says she hates her father and then tells Nell that Debbie Jo is her only true friend and that no one plays with her anymore since Julie is now dating and has no time for her anymore. Nell tells Samantha to tell Debbie Jo she has to leave and she agrees. She puts her inside of her Jewelery box as she says a tearful goodbye to her and tells her that her moms picture will watch over her that she keeps inside of it. Nell comforts Samantha who is finally over Debbie Jo.

Katies friend, Valerie shows up at the Kanisky house with her new baby David. She tells the family that she and her husband Jonathan broke up since he left her for a bleached blonde lady at ""Kentucky Friend Chicken"". Valerie is serious about putting Dvid up for adoption, since she doesnt have a job to afford his upkeep. Nell and the girls take Valerie shopping for baby supplies and leave David with the Cheif, who grows attached to him. When the girls return home the Cheif tells Vallerie that they would have to kill him first before he lets her put David up for adoption and that the family will help her find a job. Nell then takes Valerie to a job interview to become a receptionist and uses her keen sense to drive off fellow competators for the job. In the end, everyone is glad to hear that Valerie got the job and can afford to keep David.

The Chief goes on a stakeout with two officers where they are on lookout for an old-lady targeter. One of the officers dresses up as a woman and stays out in the streets, while the Chief and the other officer wait inside listening to the sounds on the recorder. The Chief cracks a few jokes with the officer about gay people and the officer is offended by this. He then tells the Chief that he himself is gay. The Chief says that he knows its not going to be easy for the officer to be known as a man who has ""come out"". In the end, the Chief is stuck in the bathroom when the other officer hears that the targeter has struck. He runs to stop the targeter and is wounded. The Chief finally is able to see that he is not a bad man after all.

Nell is out of town at her cousins funeral as Simpson storms into the house and says that the Cheif was shot but is alright. The Cheif is mad at Simpson because he accidently shot him in his office when he showed a fellow officer his secret moves with his gun. As he shows the family how he performs the moves, he accidently shoots the gun again and the bullet smashes into the fish tank, killing Gertrude the goldfish. Soon everyoen learns that the Cheif has an assasin against him as Simpson is interviewed on the news, telling everyone he saved him from being shot dead by his gun. Samantha becomes obsessed that God is taking too many people around her and begins to talk to him about why he takes people away. In the end, Sam talks to Grandpa and he tells her that she should enjoy life and take it slowly and not have to worry about death anymore. When Nell returns from her cousins funeral, Samantha fills her in on what happened while she was away and she cannot beleive it, as Simpson shoot

Nell is woken up in the early hours of the morning by a neighbors barking dog. When the Cheif wakes up he sees that she is asleep at the kitchen table and she tells him why she didnt get enough sleep. He phones their neighbor to come over and have coffee and Nell tells her about her dog. She then leaves and Nell goes outside to throw his dog doo inside a bag and light it on fire as he bites her and she takes the neighbor and her dog to court. At court, the neighbor says that the dog never bit anyone before, and the case is dropped, until Simpson shows up and says the dig had bitten two people before and the case is open again, the lady is sued, and the dog will be put to sleep. However, Nell changes her mind and drops the case when she hears about the dog being put to sleep for what he did. The neighbor tells Nell that she will keep her dog inside at night from now on.

The Chief finds a cigarrette in his sock and questions each of the girls about it. When he finds out that Samantha and Katie dont smoke, he tears through Julies 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 Grandpas after he hits her and its 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.

The man who has a bomb strapped to him tells Simpson he knows him from some place. He realizes that hes seen him before at the singles bar. They both talk about how they can never pick up women, and how Simpson likes a woman officer but he cant have the courage to tell her. The man decides at the last second to stop the bomb and tells Simpson he will look him up when he is done his time in jail. Simpson then confesses to the Cheif that he sent a picture of the officer from the Christmas party to the magazine and that is why they chose her to model in it. The Cheif decides to take back his compliment of telling Simpson he is a hero. The Mayor of Glenlawn who is about to be re-elected tells the Cheif to re-hire the officer or else he will fire him. The Cheif decides to go to a live telecast taping with the Mayor and decides to hire the officer back. Simpson finally has the courage to tell the officer he likes her and she decides to go out with him.

Nell tells about her singing past with a doo-wop girl group. Nell and her two friends years before she met the Kaniskys decide to audition to get called back by a famous celebrity. However, the man likes the other two girls, and refuse Nell to be part of the group. Nell knows that the girls are going to visit her and havent seen her in years, and in the end she finds out they are fat like her, and lost their singing careers after they gained weight.

Grandpa hides a letter from Grandma and she beleives he is cheating on him. When she secretly takes the letter and reads it, she realizes that the apartment they live in is being converted into a condo and they need to come up with $60,000 or else they have to leave. Grandpa and Nell go to the bank and Grandpa is hard of hearing, as the man at the bank decides to decline him of the loan. Everyone mistakes him as a robber as he decides to turn off his hearing aid because he doesnt like the way the bank treats him. In the end, the police are called, and the Cheif tells the bank that his father and Nell would never do such a thing. Grandpa tells the man at the bank that he gave him the money when he was mistaken for a robber, but he wouldnt give it to an honest guy like him. The man gives him a waffle iron and appologizes for the way he treated him. In the end, the Cheif tells Grandpa and Grandma that they dont have to move since he made Simpson pose as a building inspector and found a

While at ""Maxs Delacatesan"", Nell and Max see a girl shoplifting. Nell saves her from being arrested, telling Max she is taking her home. Nell finds out she has nowhere to go since her parents left her and her grandmother had recently died. When the Chief finds this out he is ready to arrest her, but she agrees to live with Max and help him out at the store. At first, the two dont get along so well, but they accept that each other has to get by even though there are people in their life that are no longer around.

Julie wants to meet Andy Gibb and goes to see him after Nell lets her go, despite the fact that the chief grounded her, only to be found asleep outside his hotel room. When Nell brings Julie home, the cheif sees that she has been out, knows that she disobeyed her, and plans to arrest Andy Gibb and his group. However, Julie tells him that she fell asleep waiting for him, and the chief forgives her.

Katie becomes involved with a college professor at Glenlawn Junior College who is much older than her. Nell begins to get upset at the man, when Katie intruduces him to the family, and she gets mad at Katie as well, knowing that he is too old for her. When the Chief finds out that Katie is seeing him, he objects to it, and grounds Samantha for sticking up for Katie. In the end, Katie decides not to see the college professor anymore, to save her relationship with her family.

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 Cheifs feelings change, and Joey is accepted into the family as their foster child

The cheif is awarded man of the year, and Nell tries to fix him up with a woman named Melissa. What he doesnt 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.

Nell, the girls and the Cheif fix up the spare room at the house and await Grandpas 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 wont 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.

Herbie, Samanthas unseen new friend, puts ideas of judgment day into Samanthas 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.

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 doesnt 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.

Nell gets hypnotized to remember where she put Katies 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, shed tell the absolute truth. In the end, she tells everyone that she is going to marry James, but tells him the truth that she cant marry him yet, that is until the kids are all grown up.

Nell & Addy appear & compete on Wheel of Fortune during Best Friends week. Nell has $7,600 & wants to win a car. But after commercial, she accidentally says ""GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME A CAR!"". However, in the end, Addy gets $2,700 & solves it correctly ""GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH!"" She buys a trip for 2 to New York. However, they are scared after the Chief says New York is not a safe place, and Nell thinks someone stole her suitcase as they take another mans who she thinks took hers. When they get to the hotel, they find out that it wasnt her suitcase at all, and that it was actually the mans. They find drugs and a gun in it and are worried sick that the guy will come back and kill them for taking it.

After the chief & Nell couldnt take Joey to the rodeo in town, Grandpa decides to take him. But that day, it was raining & Grandpa came down with bad pneumonia. At the hospital, the whole family wants to see him, but the nurse instructs Nell that Joey is underaged. Nell then sneaks Joey in the hospital room. Joey gets out a tape recorder & sings ""Swanee"". Just when Nell and Joey have given up hope, Nell tells Grandpa that hes lost his will power and if he dies she will have to tell Poland that he ""bit the sausage""! Grandpa wakes up and tells Nell that she will never be able to do that and that Joey mispelled Dixie. The two are overjoyed that Grandpa hasnt given up when they see he is up to his old tricks when a nurse comes into the room and he teases her.

Nell decides to take Grandpa to the senior citizen Center to have some time to spend with people his own age. While there, the seniors find out that they have to share their space with the youth center since it had just burned down. The director has an arguement with her new love interest, and it is up to one of the teens to help her and her new crush get back together to make his own crush see that he is a man who is full of love. At the dance that the two groups put together, the director and her crush reunite after being locked and handcuffed in a closet.

Nell and Joey go to New Orleans where Nells sees a man she hant seen in 15 years. The two take Joey to the Worlds Fair, and when they go to visit a jazz club, he proposes to her. She is baffled by his proposal and doesnt know what to say. As this is happening, a man is watching Joey in the jazz club. When Joey finally sees him looking at him, he goes to Nell and tells him he thinks that the man is his father. The man happily says ""Joey"" as Joey says ""Dad"", and the two embrace, as Nell stares in shock.

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.

Sam is in love with a boy who just happens to be a big heel. He borrows money from the whole family, and when Nell tells him to leave the house, he and Sam decide to run off. Nell is shocked to find out that Sams love Jeffrey had left her on the beach and had taken all of her money. Sam sears to never love again, but Nell tells her it will only be her first love and there will be many more.

When Katie needs money for her business, Joey helps her out by breakdancing at the beach. Nell finds out Joeys grades are slipping in school, and when Addy finds sand in his shoes, she realizes he is going to the beach afterschool. When Nell gets there, Joey tells her Katies buisness is in trouble, and she decides to help her by pawning the couch and tv set, which make the chief devastated to lose. Nell then says she will call the pawn shop back and get them back.

Its a case of sexual harassment when a female officer wants a raise and the Chief will not give it to her. SHe takes the case to Addys Congress of Determined Women, and the chief fears she will take him to court. The cheif worries for nothing when the female officer tells him she had a dream of him seducing her, and knows he is not the type of man who would do a thinkg like that and drops the case. The chief finally gives her the promotion she had long waited for.

Samantha gets upset at Nell, who disapproves of her going on a camping trip with teenage boys which will not be chapperoned. She gets increasingly angry at her when she favors Joey rather than her, and dresses Joey in blackface when he is to perform ""Toot-Toot-Tootsie"" in front of Nells Congregation, as a way to get back at him.

Nell and Addy decide to spend Christmas in her apartment a few days earlier, since she is going to Alabama for Christmas, and wont be home to celebrate it then. As the night progresses, A neighbor of Addys, comes knocking on the door for cooking oil to make french fries, but when Addy and Nell find out hes not married, the two invite him to Christmas dinner, compete with each other to win his affection, and in the end, he decides to ask his wife to take him back.

Nell is mad that her current flame is going on a buisness trip with another woman, so she leaves him a message on his answering machine, and then gets second thoughts about it, and forces Samantha and Joey to help her go to his apartment and erase the message.

Nell, Addy, and Joey go off to Alabama to arrive for Nells sisters 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.

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.

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 hasnt 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.

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 Katies as well. After the apartment is over crowded, everyone comes home and makes amends.

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.

Nell decides to take her ex-husbands offer up on performing on his ship. While she is on the ship,she finds out that Tony has left his second wife, who is many years younger than Nell.

Joey is saved by a man from being hit by a bus, and when the man tells his family that he is from another planet, everyone but Nell believes him. The man says he is from Zoron, and that he doesnt have a last name, and is known as ""cute"". In the end, the man leaves, and the family still beleives he is from another planet.

Jonathan leaves on his archeological Mexican dig project. In the meantime, back at the Kanisky house, Julie finds out that she is pregnant with his baby after she decides to go to enlist in the Navy and fails the test.

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 Pams mother left her father for a computer repair man, and Nell finds a way to make Pam like her in the end.

Nell finds out Addy is selling her car, and wants to be the first one to take it off her hands. However, Angies sister has already purchased it, and Nell talks her out of it. When Nell takes it for a test drive, it breaks down, and she tells Addy that she wants her money back. Addy refuses, but in the end gives in, after she finds out that she is getting money back as well for it.

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.

Nell decides to quit college and pursue a real singing career. She becomes the manager for an ex-con who wrote a song in jail and decides to put it to music. When Nell and the ex-con go to Skipper Dwanes for amature night to perform the song, Gary Collins is there, and Nell asks him if he liked the song. Gary says he hated it when the ex-con sang it, but when Nell signs it, he insists that he put Nell on his hour magazine show. When Nell goes backstage to tell the ex-con how he did, she freaks when he has a string of floss out and thinks he is going to kill her. She tells him that she thinks he is going to kill him because Gary hated his song.

Jonathan returns home, giving attention to everyone accept Julie, who beleives that Jonathan doesnt love her anymore. In the end, Jonathan tells Nell that he knows that Archaeology is not the career for him and that he rushed into things by marrying Julie and getting her pregnant. He tells her he was not at work when they called to talk to him, and instead he was in Bakersfield, looking at a chalk factory that he hopes that he and Julie will soon run in the near future. Nell tells him that Julie needs him, and he should tell his problems to her instead. He finally tells Julie his problems, and tells her that they will be great parents soon when their baby is born.

Nell finds out that Grandpa is dating Sally Parsons, who was previously dating Officer Simpson. When Simpson finds out he takes it like a baby, but Nell takes it much personal, and tels Sally never to see Grandpa again. In the end, Nell learns that she shouldnt have been snooping into Grandpas life at all.

Nells sister Loretta comes to town when she decides to leave Howard. She confides in Nell on what to do, but Nell doesnt know what she can do to help. Mama Maybelle shows up and calls Nell a homewrecker, and Joey is mad at Nell when he is getting bad grades because he is devoting all of his time to baseball. Loretta tells Nell that Joey should do what he does best, and Nell knows she is right. In the end, Mama hears that Loretta left Howard, and Mama tells her to go back to him, which she agrees to.

Katie, who has been sad since her latest boyfriend left her and is now engaged, is going broke and is deciding to close Katies 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 isnt for several months, and is giving Julie and Jonathan her car. When Nell and Addy arrive at the closing of Katies 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 didnt leave him. Afterwards she tried to commit suicide but couldnt go through with it. Katie tells Nell she was offered a job as a buyed at Chadwicks in SanFransisco which offers her $32,000 a year, as wel as a company car.

As she is at a Greek restaraunt with her freinds, Nells purse is stolen, which upsets everyone. However, the two Grek waiters have their own plan of getting the purse back for her.

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.

Joey meets Matthew finally, and is mad that he has a little brother. Tim says that he has some matters to take care of and will meet Nell and the boys at a restaruant shortly. Nell and Addy then decide to take the boys to the park and they have a blast. As Addy and Nell sit and talk on a park bench, they realize that Joey and Matthew have disappeared and Nell calls the police. Joey and Matthew were taken to a museum by a police officer who tells Nell they are not fond of one another and are arguing back and forth. Later, the boys are fine, and everyone returns to Addys, where Nell and Tim talk in private at Addy and the boys look at her computer. He tells her he wants her blessing so he can raise the boys in New York, now that he has a job there. He tells the boys and everyone deicdes to go out for pizza. In the end, Joey returns back in the apartment as Nell stays behind and finds out that she is not going to live with them and he cries. Nell tells him to keep her picture and she wi

Nell tries to get a job at a famous New York publishing company. She then decides to rent an apartment in Greenwich Village where she, Addy, Joey and Matthew move into.

Nell is furious when she hears a squeaking noise coming from Joey and Matthews room. When she checks in on them, she finds out that they are caring for Joeys class hamster, ""Harry"", who Joey knows would most likely be used to be tested on human products. Nell and Addy decide to make a fund to stop people from testing animals with human products. Late at night, to stop the squeaking of Harrys cage, Nell pours salad oil on it. However, what she doesnt know is that it is rancid. When she gets another hamster for Joey, she is surprised that it is a girl who has just had six babies, making Joey change his mind about her, after he finds out she killed Harry.

As Nell and her mother are at the bank to put items into Mama Maybelles safe deposit box, a con man shows up, tells Nell that there is a con man in the bank who is taking peoples money, tells Nell he is a detective and to take her Mamas money out for the con man to take, then he will follow the guy outside and arrest him, but for Nell not to follow. When he doesnt come back, Nell realizes she was tricked, and Mama Maybelle is very upset. However, downstairs at Martys restaurant, the guy shows up with a date, and Nell tells him she wants her money back, tells a waiter to alert the police, and brings Addy downstairs to snap photos of the guy. The officer doesnt believe Nells story, until the guy says his name is one name, then the waiter calls him another name and hes finally caught for fraud.

Nell gets a call from her highschool secret admirer, whom she never knew personally in Alabama. She decides to met him at El Gatspacio since he is in town, and she knows that he cannot have a successful relationship with a woman because he has never forgot about her. When she arrives at El Gatspacio, he calls her, telling her he wrote her a note years ago in school, and that he canot meet her, but in the end, surprises her by showing up at the restaraunt, after Nell has an emotional breakdown on the phone with him, telling him that she is a wonderful woman who did make fun of the note he gave her years ago.

Nell has a better job in her company as a book editor. However, that tears her away from staying with the boys. When Joey tells Nell that hes doing a Walk-A-Thon fund raiser for his school & wants to sign up sponsors. But Nell doesnt want Joey to go alone with Matthew wandering the streets of New York. But Grandpa disagrees. Joey also has to take Matthew to his guitar lesson as well. After school, Joey decides to go get sponsors, and takes Matt with him. When Joey goes to a doctors office, he tells Matt to wait for him. Then Matt hears music coming from next door & sees a band rehearsing. Then the band lets Matt jam with them. Joey finds that Matts missing and he searches all over for him. When he arrives home, he asks Marty for his help and Marty called the police. Nell enters & Marty tells her Matts missing. Nell takes the receiver while Marty looks @ his restaurant. Nell is mad at Joey for losing his brother. Then Marty finds Matt & took him home. Joeys mad at Matt

Joey begins to have a crush on Maggie, and at her husbands birthday party, Nell finds out that he wants to leave New York behind and move to Georgia.

When Joeys favorite television star ""Captain Jerk"", is hospitalized after swallowing a whistle, it is up to Nell to give him a blood transfusion since she has the same type of blod as him. However, as she goes to his hospital room to meet him, she finds out that he is predjudiced as she heards him talking to his co-stars about how much he hates blacks and how he organizes a group of people who are for a white society. She realizes that she must tell Joey the truth, that his favorite telvison star doesnt favor blacks. In the end, Capatain Jerk tells Nell to be on the show, but swallows his whistle again when he sees she is black. He gives her money, and tells her to not tell anyone she is black and gave him blood, which makes hm partially black as well. Joey hears this, and depite not believing Nell before, he finally knows that his hero is predjuduce and he and Nell leave the hospital knowing that Captain Jerk is nothing but one.

Nell finds out that it is Parents Week at Littlefield College in New Jersy, and she is upset that Samantha didnt invite her to attend it. However, she decides to go anyways. When she arrives at the college, Samantha is stunned to see her, and she begins to barge in on students lives. She sits in on an English class of Sams, and Professor Dudley gets upset with her. Afterwards, she meets a boy who wants to switch his career from Teaching to Fashion design, but cant stand up to his father, who is actually Professor Dudley. In the end, Sam and Nell are about to go to bed as Sam tells her a secret she has been keeping from her. She is in love with a student named Eric, and she and he are going to drop out of College and get married and move to South Dakota, where the two will live on a farm, since he doesnt have enough money to stay in school. Nell drops to the floor when she hears this.

Nell prepares for Mary-Ellen Baldwins arrival, a snobbish foe of hers from Alabama. She arrives in New York to tell Mama Maybelle along with Nell that she is knocking down the old church to make room for new condos. Mama Maybelle, displeased with the act of fooishness, rejects the check for $5,000 that Mary-Ellen gives her, but Nell wants the money. Mama Maybelle then decides she is going to Alabama to save the church. Once they arrive there, Mama Maybelle goes off to see Mayor Watson about what she can do about the church, as Nell and Joey stay at the Church, as she tells Joey about her father and how he preeched. In the end, she is amazed by her fathers memories, and when Mama Maybele returns to tell her there is nothing she can do to save the church, Nell rips up the checks, saying that she will fight for her fathers church, evel if she looses. Mama Maybelle is very proud of Nell for once in her life, since she finally made a right decision.

When Grandpa comes to get the boys pajamas, since they are sleeping in his apartment because Addy is sick in bed, he tells Nell that her mother has a date. Nell wonders why her mother would have a date, and when her mother shows up, she meets her date, Ernie, a man from her past. It turns out that he was a jazz musician that knew her mother before she married Nells father. When they were young, he took her to a dance contest, and asked her to go on the road with him, but she refused. Nell cant believe that this is true. In the end, as Ernie waits outside for Maybelle, Nell asks her mother if the two of them ever had sex, and Mama Maybelle tells her that Nell should know the answer to that question, and tells her she has a lot of growing up to do, and that she must realize that her mother is a woman, just like herself.