Shark Bytes

I discovered this show accidentally and have been addicted since the first day. I have no idea how I totally missed it when it originally ran in the nineties. I must have been in a coma.

Having come from an abusive marraige which I have never totally healed from in the eighties I somehow found the show very healing. I loved Grace's strength and humor. I adored every character and laughed harder than I remember laughing in a long time. I started watching in what must have been 4th season episodes and grieved when Rick left the show. I was then in shock when Nadine disappeared and Quentin went from being a little boy to being 16 from one episode to the next. I agree with a previous blogger that it all just happened too quickly with too feeble of an explanation. I adored Julie White in Nadine's character. Without her the show just didn't hang together any longer. People who make these shows have to realize that some of us on the outside live very lonely narrow lives and we begin to look at the people in their shows as "family". At least give us time to realize that one of our favorite characters is going to be leaving. Develop a plot line that helps us through the transition and gives us hope that the character may return for a cameo appearance from time to time. It was disconcerting that Wade never even seemed to care that Nadine and his baby were jerked from his life. It was like the pink elephant in the middle of the living room that nobody is allowed to talk about. I googled the show to try and find out what happend and discovered the show's history then it made sense.

I had no idea there was so much information on the internet regarding sit coms from the past.

Anyway, the show has just started with episode 1 on the Oxygen channel and I intend to watch every episode. I love love love the show. I really liked the little boy that played Quentin in the pilot. He was great too bad he didn't stay with the show. I googled Brett Butler and can't seem to find much that she is doing lately although someone mentioned that she is is on "My Name is Earl" So I'll see if I can find her there. I am also trying to find current work by Julie White. She just cracked me up.

I wonder if Brett and Julie have made up and become friends yet. Surely if Elizabeth Taylor and Debbie Reynolds could become friends and make movies together again then these two can mend broken bridges.

Anyway this show was very cathartic to me as a victim of domestic abuse and I think that it is the best sit com of all time. Brett Butler has always been a genius. I remember laughing so hard at her HBO show. I hope she returns to us soon because we miss her.

It just got boring. And they kept missing great opportunities that presented themselves as they went along. There was clearly on-screen chemistry between Brett's character and the boss-man character she dated at some point during the series. That should have been allowed to develop. It would have eventually changed the tone and "purpose" of the show to something other than all about a deadpan single woman taking life on the chin and still livin' it but thats kind of what life is about, change. Plus, the series is a textbook case on how NOT to handle actors and replacements of actors if necessary, as well as how not to add confusing characters. Growing her son up from 12 to whatever by recasting during a summer break was stupid, it would have been better to just try to do it seamlessly like they tried on Roseanne and the beckys. Not great, but less fourth-wall disentegrating. The loss of Nadine with nary a good-bye to the viewers in some proper storyline way was another textbook case of how not to handle an actor and a storyline. And, to be frank, the pharmisist was just stupid. Never fit, never was anything other than Bretts own faceless back fence neighbor as Tim Allen had in Home Improvement. The pharmisist could have delivered all his lines from behind a pharmacy counter where he was never seen, only heard, and it would have worked just as well for the role he was, which was just someplace to let Bretts character demonstrate that it was the time in the episode for her to learn something and change by the time the episode was over. This show is really a testament to people who produce shows, that they shouldn't let themselves be bowled over just cause the main actor has some opinions. Actors are paid to act. Producers are paid to make shows that are interesting to watch. Looking back its clear to see that what was working on this show was the show, and they should have repleased the lead. The way this show was going, people would have bought anybody playing the lead Brett character. I mean, come on, it doesn't take a genuis to make emotionless deadpan jokes which are really nothing more than saying just whats being thought. Brett Butler should have been fired the moment she started messing things around and repleaced with somebody who could play the lead "Grace Kelly" character with some real talent. Strange, and I say all this after really kind of liking the show. Textbook case of letting the inmates run the aslyum.

"If it wasn't for the sad alcohol/drug use of Brett Butler, the show would've been a success."

- The show, at least to me was a great success. And although Nadine (Julie White) was important as a cast member, no one else would have been able to play Grace Kelley besides Brett Butler. In other words, Nadine (Julie White) was a replaceable character. You can easily find another actress that can do the same quality of work for that role.

Whatever happened with Butler happened but that doesn't stop the show from being great. In my opinion, there are no longer good sitcoms on the air. I'd watch Grace Under Fire any day.

Grace under fire was a great show when she was working at the oil refinery and nadiene was on it. The whole cast was very funny. Russel and grace were a very funny comic pair. After she left the refinery it was ok but lost a lot.

i liked this show. i remember watching it every day after school. brett butler is funny, and i love her sarcasm.

Grace Under Fire began as a Roseanne clone which quickly found a niche of its own with the single abused parent angle. I don't think its downward spiral can be attributed to any one thing but rather a succession of events. The first and second seasons were, for the most part, quite funny and entertaining. Home life and work were balanced out by the comical kids and intruding neighbors, and there were some hysterical episodes (Nana Lil's funeral, from season one, is a genuine riot.) The scripts held just the right balance of written dialog and improvisation to make the show unique and fun.
I think the first sign of trouble was Brett Butler's knack for replacing writers/producers, as Chuck Lorre, who created the show, was put on notice almost immediately. Her notion of funny was many times at odds with the staff, which caused inevitable tension. Season 3 was rocky at best, but season 4, with the replacement of Jon Paul Steuer's character and set change from the old house to the new one, really put the show in futile shark-infested waters. Brett's subsequent shenanigans on the set, the loss of the oil refinery workplace, and Julie White's departure in season 5 really put the nails in the coffin. Add in Butler's painkiller addiction, and it's no wonder this show is a textbook example of good intentions gone bad.
The show did make it to the magic 100 episodes desired for successful syndication, but I can only imagine the patience it requires to sit through any of the show's final season episodes...Butler is a mere shell of her former self. Almost exactly ten years to the day the show was finally put out of its misery by the network, it's interesting to note that Butler has since cleaned up her act and enjoyed renewed television success as Earl's mother-in-law on "My Name Is Earl", among other projects. Still, one can only look back and wonder how great this show could have been if not for all the controversy surrounding the final seasons. Regardless of how promising the series was when it first began, how it all ended may sadly be Butler's enduring legacy.

I believe that GUF (Grace Under Fire) jumped the shark when Julie White (aka Nadine Swoboda) left the show. Julie was a true essence of the show. If it wasn't for the sad alcohol/drug use of Brett Butler, the show would've been a success.

Jumped in pre-production and just got worse as Brett's drug and alcohol problems worsened.
Ironically, as her problems increased, so did her control of the show - not a good thing, I think!
Basically the show was a blatant rip-off of "Roseanne" only not as funny and, remarkably enough, far more crude and vulgar.
I didn't like that big musclebound lunkhead from "In The Heat Of The Night" as her boyfriend either.
A study of the rise and fall of Brett Butler's career should be taught in every high school anti-drug program in the country!

Hard-drinkin', hard livin', pill poppin' white trash. That sums up Brett Butler.

You can almost smell the booze off of her breath when you watch her on TV.

I never thought she was funny.

I believe that aside from the personal luggage that Brett Butler was carrying late in the shows run,it really jumped the Shark for me when i heard of the extremely adult behaviour that Ms Butler seemed to think was o.k to exhibit in front of the young actor playing her son on the show.
I am not a strict moralist but there is never a time and place to bare your breasts to a twelve year old boy.
Even through the painkiller haze she must have known how wrong she was.

I won't say it was a jump the shark moment, but I stopped watching the show when one of Grace's friends was having marriage trouble. When she starts to talk about personal stuff, Grace suggests she talk to her husband instead of herself. Her friend scoffs "You're my best friend, Grace. Bill is just my husband." Cue laughtrack. Grace says nothing. Another sitcom joins the male bash train.
Bye bye!

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Alan's departure was more his decision than the show's, but they certainly had a hand in it, allowing the working atmosphere to become so poor. He left for many of the same reasons the rest of the cast did. They had a wonderful thing going with the relationship between Grace and Rick and they should have done whatever it took to keep Autry on board. He was more than just a romantic interest. He was an amazing character all to himself. Much like Grace, he was far more than he appeared to be. Losing other cast members was a shame, but the show could have been salvaged if Autry had remained, leaving Rick and Grace's relationship intact as an anchor.

GUF seemed promising at first with Dave Thomas of SCTV fame in the cast. But what we ended up with was a grasping at the popularity of "Roseanne" and trying to bottle that lightning twice (didn't happen) and Brett, tell us what you really think! Nasty, angry and depressing with a laugh track, that was "Grace Under Fire".

When Grace entered the final season Nadine was gone, and she was a great balance to Grace's harsh jokes. The way they explained her absence was really weak too. Nadine made the show cool cause she was more naive than Grace and would look at things positively where Grace always looked for doom.