Grace al rojo vivo

I loved this series, starring Brett Butler as a strong, yet fallible, recovering alcoholic with three children and a history suitable for talk shows. Or I loved the first few seasons, anyway - my local station messed the show around so much that, when I finally got to see it again, the characters had changed, and most of the humour had gone. With the initial seasons of 'Grace Under Fire', I found it hard to believe the rumours about Butler's personal life intruding onto the set. In fact, I found it hard to believe that Grace Kelly (with a mother-in-law called 'Jean' Kelly - I loved those subtle references, and contradictions - how different could Grace have been from her film star namesake?) wasn't a real person. Everyone on the show in the early years were very believable and very, very funny, Butler and Dave Thomas (Russell, the pharmacist) especially. And far from being another cliched show about 'survivor'-type women, I admired the character of Grace in a way that I didn't with 'Roseanne', a show with a similar premise of a woman (and mother) battling against life. But, as with anything, I think Grace finally ran out of steam, and introducing an older, illegitimate son tipped the balance, in my opinion.

Grace Kelly (Brett Butler) is divorced from her abusive loser husband Jimmy (Geoff Pierson) and raising her three kids, Libby, Quentin, and Patrick, by herself in Missouri. She starts her job at the oil refinery working with lovable co-workers Dougie and Vic among others. Her neighbor friend Nadine (Julie White) sets her up with pharmacist Russell Norton (Dave Thomas). They become best friends connecting over their bad former marriages and lack of sexual chemistry. Nadine is happily married to Wade Swoboda (Casey Sander). There are Grace's sisters Faith and Evie, and her intrusive mother-in-law Jean Kelly. There is Russell's father Floyd (Tom Poston). Grace is a recovering alcoholic since giving birth to Quentin and had given up Matthew (Tom Everett Scott) for adoption.

This Chuck Lorre show is similar to Roseanne if Roseanne got beaten by her drunken husband and left him. I can do without the abuse background which is hard for any comedy. There is good irreverent sarcasm from Butler. Thomas is a veteran who delivers. The cast sometimes barely hold back laughing at their own jokes. Libby and Quentin #2 are great. They're allowed to be little angels and devils. It's a good white trash sitcom. However, Butler's personal addiction demons slowly destroyed the show.

The decline started in the third season and the slide picked up steam in the fourth until its end after a shortened fifth season. I'm not sure how much Emmet's Secret bothered the blue collar fans. A new Quentin #3 was needed to start season four. The new much-older Quentin is an annoying whiny delinquent teen. The fifth season sees the departure of Julie White and some wholesale changes. It's the beginning of the end as Butler fell apart behind the scenes.

I'm the 2900th voter and I'm honestly surprised this is only rated as 6.3. It was a very good show for the first 2 years. Still OK after that. I'd say 7-8 would be fair. But it gets less funny and a bit stale near the end, probably because it was so famously plagued with behind the scenes drama related to Brett Butler's drug addiction and erratic and diva-like behaviour.

Grace Under Fire was a great show that was very funny. The series was clever and witty and very humorous. But Butler's apparent (and might I add obvious) problems hurt the show. At the start, the show's quality didn't suffer, but the final season took a massive blow. Bretler's problems had finally really hurt the show in the ratings and caused it's cancellation. A shame.

I don't understand these complaints about "cliched strong women" and "yet another brassy know-it-all female"-- all TV ever gives us is bimbos as role-models, and you complain about a rare jewel like Grace? Just goes to show how fragile men and their little egos can be. This show was the best of the best. I'm sad the Big Recession had to end and all these Strong Women shows are over, and the Man Shows are back... because we NEED more brassy know-it-all women like Grace. We need an alternative to show our daughters on TV, to keep them from developing bulimia and learning phrases like "Math is hard! Let's go shopping!"

If you had a hideous screeching racist mother-in-law, delinquent kids, a retarded deadbeat ex-husband, and a bunch of goober co-workers at the oil refinery, what would stop YOU from getting loaded? The fact that Grace stays sober under all this is as perfect a role model as you could wish for. The character doesn't (because she's a TV character), and I frankly don't care what the actress does. Grace is brilliant, incisive, witty, vulnerable, and after all, human.

Where else can you hear lines like: "When we're married, we treat our men like vegetables; when we're divorced, we treat our vegetables like men"? All hail.