Brendan O'Carroll's daughter and Mrs Brown's Boys' co-star Fiona had to tell her father to slow down as his family feared his heavy workload would take its toll on the 61-year-old.
"It's got to do with timing and dad's been doing this for quite a while now and it's not always easy," she said.
"He's getting on a bit and, as a family, we decided now is the time he needs to take a break and enjoy his success.
"I was really delighted that he took some time out this year because we all knew that he needed it.
"He's our dad, at the end of the day and we don't want him working to the point where he made himself sick.
"We don't want him burnt out, so he took some time off, played lots of golf and took a big, long break."
Although there wasn't a new run of O'Carroll's hugely popular sitcom Mrs Brown's Boys, the RTÉ-BBC co-production did have two new special episodes over the festive season.
And the sequel to the show's Mrs Brown's Boys D'Movie won't be coming along too soon, although there will be live shows later in 2017 so fans can see the Finglas funny man in the flesh.
"It's not about the money - that has never been a big factor for dad," she explained, when talking about the sequel.
"He needs a decent budget and, if he can't make a movie that he feels is going to be good enough for the audience, then he won't do it.
"The next year is so chock-a-block that I can't see it happening then. It will get made at some stage, maybe in 2018."
