Grace Under Fire

"Grace Under Fire" was a great sitcom. It had unique characters and a wonderful story line. Brett Butler was able to use some of her own life experiences to make the show realistic, yet funny. She did an excellent job of portraying Grace Kelly. Brett is the only comedian that I think fitted the role of Grace perfectly. The other cast members of the show were just as perfect for their roles. This show had a lot of talented people on it, and I wish the show was still on. This is, and always will be my favorite sitcom.

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.

It ran during a time when I wasn't watching much TV, but I really enjoyed it. I just caught a rerun on the Oxygen Network, and it was nice to see it again.

Brett Butler is one of the most talented actors ever. Her show was clever, smart, and free of the saccharine that plagues a lot of sitcoms. The supporting cast—Dave Thomas, Paul Dooley, Tom Poston and others—fleshed out a genuine portrait of America with believable, sympathetic characters. I'd love to see Ms. Butler do another TV show. I know I'd watch it.

I caught her once on "Celebrity Jeopardy," and she showed that she's as smart as she seems. I don't mean to ignore the rest of the cast, but hell, Butler is one of the greatest talents out there, and I miss her show.

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.

I'd just like to combat the last viewer comment I saw up here, which was slightly sexist and rather negative about the show. 'Grace Under Fire' did slip in its later seasons, but originally it was a clever, well-written show with a tight, vibrant cast and some great lines. I'm glad to see it airing in syndication now.