Was Grace Under Fire never really that great of a show to begin with?

Basically, do you feel that when compared to somebody like Roseanne Barr, Brett Butler was unable to grow as an actress? Brett on Grace Under Fire, was pretty much playing her stand-up persona and the entire show was built on her firing one liners one after an other.

Normally, the better sitcoms that star a stand-up comedian (such as Roseanne, Seinfeld, and Everybody Loves Raymond) either feature people who had some experience with acting beforehand, or like I said, soon grew into things.

Also, these sitcoms were you can argue, smart enough to balance out rest of supporting cast with those that had serious acting chops. So on ELR, you had Doris Roberts, Peter Boyle, Patricia Heaton, and Brad Garrett providing excellent support as an ensemble cast behind Ray Romano.

Was the ensemble cast on Grace Under Fire in comparison, really that spectacular outside of merely being there to have Brett Butler bounce her one-liners off of?