1st Season
2000-2001
#1 Pilot
#2 The World of Possibility
#3 Just Friends
#4 Pretty Girls and Waffles
#5 Better Days
#6 Home is Where the Ducks Are
#7 Something Old, Something New
#8 The Whole Truth
 		#9 Your Life Is Now
#10 Losing Streak
#11 Opposites Distract
#12 Hook, Line and Sinker
#13 The Music Box
#14 Valentine's Day
#15 Loyalties
#16 Live Deliberately
 		#17 Exceptions
#18 The Test
#19 Windows of Opportunity
#20 Mind Over Matter
#21 Mixed Signals
#22 Prom Night
Other seasons
1 | 2 | 3 | 4

#1 Pilot: Aired Sunday, October 8, 2000

Ed moves home to Stuckeyville and buys a bowling alley. He also decides to open his own law practice. Ed's friend Mike has trouble having sex with his wife now that she's the mother of his baby daughter. Ed successfully defends Molly against bad garage-workers. Carol and Ed go out on a proper date and share another passionate kiss.

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#2 The World of Possibility: Aired Sunday, October 15, 2000

Ed defends Stuckeyville Stan, the beloved town magician, from having his secret magic tricks revealed. Phil orchestrates the Stuckeybowl reopening, and buys way too much of everything. Carol tries to convince Ed that she's happy with Nick. Nancy thinks her baby daughter might like the nanny better than her own mother now that Nancy has gone back to work.

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#3 Just Friends: Aired Sunday, October 22, 2000

Ed gives Phil the position of manager at Stuckeybowl. Ed goes up against his old law firm when he represents three friends that signed a contract on a bar napkin fifteen years ago. Nancy is frustrated that Mike will never get up at night when the baby cries. Ed finds out Kenny is a Tufts University graduate and a certified pediatric nurse. Ed's wife files for divorce. Ed decides he can't bear to just be friends with Carol, and Carol gets frustrated.

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#4 Pretty Girls and Waffles: Aired Sunday, October 29, 2000

When Carol can't throw Nick a waffle, she decides it's time to break up with him. Nick fights her on it, but Carol stands strong. Ed defends a woman whose employer is demanding the return of the extra money he had been slipping into her paychecks. Ed proves that when the beautiful employee turned down her boss's advances, the boss decided to use the extra money to trap her and get his revenge. When Ed's beautiful client asks him out after the favorable outcome of the case, he turns her down to make a comforting ice-cream sundae for Carol. Molly casts the school musical with a cute new male history teacher, and accuses him of wanting to cast the cuter less talented girl in the lead. Truth is, the pretty girl is talented, and the girl that Molly wants to cast is actually mousy and can't sing... but reminds Molly of herself in high school. Mike attempts to stand up to the overbearing and condescending Dr. Jerome and ends up giving the old man an expert examination.

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#5 Better Days: Aired Sunday, November 5, 2000

Everyone advises Ed not to ask out newly single Carol, but he can't resist making another grand gesture with sky-writing. Ed and Carol end up in a fight when she accuses him of not being the nice guy he purports to be, but finally they agree that they don't want to make any hurried mistakes and they'll just be friends. Ed decides that Stuckeybowl should have an ad on local television and Phil volunteers to direct. After Ed nixes Phil's idea of strippers at Stuckeybowl, Phil makes a beautiful ad that has nothing to do with bowling. Ed represents a woman who had to cancel her wedding after getting a terrible hair cut and wants to sue her hairdresser. It turns out that the woman asked her hairdresser to do it on purpose because she's scared of getting married. Nancy becomes obsessed about wisely using he time on earth and plans some boring educational activities for herself and Mike. Luckily, Mike gets it right when he brings home a french-fry-maker.

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#6 Home is Where the Ducks Are: Aired Sunday, November 12, 2000

Ed tries to prove to a representative of a guide to small towns that Stuckeyvill deserves more than three out of five stars. When all his fond childhood memories about his home town turn out to be bust, he organizes the fake annual Festival of Ducks and gets Stuckeyville one more star. Both Ed and Molly are horrified when Carol says she's planning on leaving town to pursue her writing career. The two of them together manage to convince Carol that "her writing" is just an excuse to run away from Nick. Phil mentors a young bowler into winning the Stuckeyville bowling tournament, but it turns out that Phil himself isn't much of a bowler.

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#7 Something Old, Something New: Aired Sunday, November 19, 2000

When Nancy's parents show up for Thanksgiving, Mike waits out Nancy's father to make him finally start a conversation. Ed, who was planning on spending Thanksgiving with his parents in Florida, feels abandoned when his parents decide to go to France. He invites all his Stuckeyville friends over for a big Thanksgiving dinner at the bowling alley. Carol is reluctant, feeling like since she's alone for Thanksgiving she should really be alone, but at the last minute she relents and she and Ed agree to help each other through the holiday in their new single statuses. Ed gets depressed at the lack of tradition when he loses a case representing a teenager who broke into a lake shack on Halloween like Ed used to do when he was a kid, and the school cannon for the homecoming game sounds like a pop gun instead of a big boom. Ed decides to throw tradition out the window himself and cooks a fifty-pound meatloaf instead of turkey. All Ed's guests are disappointed with the idea, and it only gets worse when Ed realizes that the meatloaf is raw in the middle. Luckily, due to Phil's failed turkey-selling scheme, it turns out that there just so happen to be a number of cooked turkeys around to save the day. After dinner, Ed becomes morose, and calls Liz only to not leave a message on her answering machine. Luckily, Mike saves the day with a traditional post-homecoming game of Skid Ball.

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#8 The Whole Truth: Aired Wednesday, December 6, 2000

Ed helps Molly's grandfather, Charlie, write his will, and learns that the man is gay. Charlie is about to come out to his entire family when he dies, and Ed is left to do the coming out for him. Mike's evil boss, Dr. Jerome, brings in another young lively doctor to threaten Mike's claim on the practice when Dr. Jerome retires. Molly starts to realize that she may have feelings for Ed. Ed starts looking for his own place to live and ends up buying Charlie's house after his death. Phil starts up an open mic night at the bowling alley.

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#9 Your Life Is Now: Aired Wednesday, December 20, 2000

Carol feels a bit insecure when she comes face to face with Troy, the star quarterback who dumped her senior year in high school and is now happily married with two kids. Ed looks forward to getting revenge on Troy for making him eat dog food in high school. Both Carol and Ed end feeling sorry for Troy when they realize that Troy still thinks the best years of his life were high school. Ed pulls a prank on an appliance store that wasted a day of his life promising delivery of a refrigerator that never arrived. Ed represents himself when he is later sued by the store, and gets off easy when the judge sympathizes with him. Ed encourages Warren, who has finally given up on Carol, to ask out the most popular girl in school. When Warren crashes and burns after being taunted by the class jocks, Ed cooks up a scheme to make Warren look cool. Warren manages to save face, but still doesn't get the girl.

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#10 Losing Streak: Aired Wednesday, January 10, 2001

Ed's parents come to town and disapprove of his new lifestyle. After he successfully defends two box-makers who are being sued by a co-worker due to a prank (they made him think he won the lottery and he quit his job and left his wife), his parents realize that maybe his new life isn't so bad. When Carol realizes what everyone thought of her in high school, she decides to become the champion of the underdog and takes on coaching the pathetic JV girls basketball team. Using Ed's basketball tips, she successfully teaches them at least a little bit about the sport, and even though they still lose miserably in a scrimmage, she boosts their much battered self-esteem. Kids keep stealing the T off the Stuckey Bowl sign and Kenny and Agnes go on stake out to catch them.

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#11 Opposites Distract: Aired Wednesday, January 17, 2001

When one of Carol's basement pipes springs a leak, she originally asks Mike for help, but Ed insists on being her plumber in shining armor. Ed pretends to be clueless about piping so she'll accept a bet on whether or not he can fix the leak. Ed then expertly fixes the pipe because he was a plumber's apprentice while in law school, and Carol finds herself standing on a soap box in the middle of a crowded restaurant reading a speech about how wonderful Ed Stevens is. Carol ends up having a lot of fun, and even though Molly warns her not to mess with Ed's heart, she fakes another plumbing emergency to get Ed to come hang out with her. Ed, meanwhile, is distracted because he's butting heads with a new gorgeous district attorney named Bonnie Hane over a grocery shop owner who is putting money in people's parking meters outside his store so that they don't get tickets. Nancy is going for a promotion at work that she's not sure she wants due to her newborn daughter. Although she almost completely flubs a presentation, she gets the promotion. When she finds out she missed her daughter rolling over for the first time, she finally decides to turn the promotion down. Phil tries to promote his new catch phrase, "Shave my poodle."

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#12 Hook, Line and Sinker: Aired Wednesday, January 24, 2001

Phil creates a new iniative at the bowling alley for the employees to come up with new ideas: Kenny creates miniature bowling, Shirley buys a Karaoke machine and Phil invites the residents of Stuckeyville to meet the cast of Happy Days. Michael thinks that Sarah's new babysitter has a crush on him but Nancy thinks he's being ridiculous. Bonnie Hane drops the parking meter appeal and asks out Ed for a drink. Methinks Carol doth protest too much that she's not jealous. Ed and Bonnie end up sharing a kiss. Ed represents an insurance salesman who is fired by a maniacal boss who lets a singing fish decide who he fires. Ed teaches Carol to ice-skate after giving her ice-skates for her birthday.

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#13 The Music Box: Aired Wednesday, February 7, 2001

Warren, still pining after his beautiful classmate Jessica, joins Phil's bowling team when Jessica and her jock buddies form a team for the bowling league. Although Warren is mortified by his freaky teammates, they pull together for him and sabotage Tim the jock's car so that Warren can drive Jessica home. Carol's valuable and important music box is stolen and in trying to get it back and prosecute the man who committed the crime, Ed and Carol and Bonnie Hane end up spending awkward time together. Carol still doth protest too much that she is not jealous. Although Ed acts like a bit of an ass and then makes a half-hearted attempt at breaking things off with Bonnie, he and Bonnie end up going to bed together. Mike confounds his wife's rule of getting rid of things that haven't been used in five years by wearing all his old clothes and using all of his old junk once every five years.

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#14 Valentine's Day: Aired Wednesday, February 14, 2001

Phil tries to teach a loser named Chuck how to pick up women. Chuck fails Phil's ridiculous lessons, but ends up with a Valentine's Day date with Shirley at the batting cages. After arguing over what Ed does and doesn't tell Carol about Bonnie, Ed and Carol are honest with each other. Ed admits that he feels guilty for liking someone else and Carol admits that she's a bit jealous. Ed thinks things are over with Bonnie when she is very cold to him after they spend their first night together, but she apologizes and cooks him a romantic Valentine's Day dinner. Nancy urges Ed to help their local minister who is being fired from his job because he's not drawing enough people to the church. First Nancy and Ed try to jazz up his act, but when that fails they take the church board president to court and succeed in saving the reverend's job.

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#15 Loyalties: Aired Tuesday, February 20, 2001

Ed suggests that Carol have dinner with him and Bonnie to get everyone more comfortable with the situation. Carol reluctantly accepts, planning to bring Molly, but when Molly can't make it, Nancy sets Carol up with her friend Jeff... who Molly has already expressed interest in. The dinner is a bust, because Ed and Bonnie end up fighting over the fact that Bonnie is leaving for a new job in Washington this weekend, and has known about it for a month and didn't tell Ed. Carol and Jeff end up hitting it off, but when Jeff asks if he can call her, she tells him that Molly saw him first and recommends that he call Molly. Ed and Bonnie end up reconciling and although Ed wishes she would stay, he helps her pack up and move. Ed represents a singer-songwriter who's been booted from her band and wants to prevent the band from playing her songs. Big Rudy, the guy from which Ed bought the bowling alley, returns and wants his bowling alley back. When Ed refuses, Rudy tries to get Phil to help him sabotage the bowling alley, but Phil remains loyal to Ed and busts Big Rudy red-handed.

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#16 Live Deliberately: Aired Wednesday, February 28, 2001

Ed takes on a new client, Willy Johnson, who has discovered a way to make bacon tastier, but during one of his experiments he almost dies during an explosion. After his near-death experience, Willy decides to do everything and attacks life with a new fervour that makes him a favorite at the Smiling Goat and also gets him arrested for disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace and indecent exposure. Willy, after romancing Molly, decides to leave town, leaving Molly disappointed, but Molly adopts some of his bravado and gets up the nerve to ask out Jeff, the cute guy from the book club. Ed, jealous of Willy's energy and feeling like he's getting old, decides to do everything he did when he was eighteen, and almost kills himself eating two pies in a row, bowling fifty games without sleeping, and running to the top of a nearby mountain. Warren, trying to impress Jessica Martell, pretends to be a scholar of Henry David Thoreau, but finds himself actually moved by "Walden." Warren decides to try to simplify his life like Thoreau did and goes camping for the weekend. He tries to get Jessica to come with him, but ends up with Donna, another girl in his study group who has the same appreciation for Thoreau as he does. Phil tries various methods to get a raise from Ed, and finally annoys his boss so much that he gets it.

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#17 Exceptions: Aired Wednesday, March 28, 2001

Carol asks Ed to talk to the gym teacher at her school, Frank Kerwin, because Kerwin is failing one of Carol's star students, Clark, in gym and ruining his otherwise great chances at a college scholarship. Ed talks to Frank, and ends up defending the man in court when Clark's parents sue him because he agrees with Frank's reasoning and principles. Carol is very cold to Ed when she feels like he's gone over to the dark side. Ed finally realizes that while Frank's reasons sound good, he's really just making Clark the casualty of another war. Frank wants to point out to the school administration some of the problems with their rigid grading system to avenge another student, Sean Ellis, who lost his chance at college scholarships when he failed English and was no longer allowed to play basketball. Ed resigns as Frank's lawyer because he's too committed to both sides of the argument, and the principal of the school finally steps in and resolves to modify the grading rules so that kids don't get destroyed. Carol feels guilty about the student she failed in English who is now working at a convenience store instead of playing in the NBA. Shirley tries being Ed's secretary rather than a bowling alley employee, and even though she's not very good, Ed hires her on permanently in the position. Phil gets a sexy female "intern" to fill in for Shirley in the bowling alley. Molly finally tells Ed that she doesn't want to be a go-between for him and Carol anymore. Mike and Dr. Jerome go to war over a patient with a rash, and Dr. Jerome insults Mike in every way possible, including using a skit with child actors.

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#18 The Test: Aired Wednesday, April 4, 2001

Ed's high school girlfriend, Kara, asks for his help in divorcing her husband. Kara suspected her husband was cheating on her, and so paid a friend to seduce him. The friend actually ends up sleeping with Kara's husband, and Kara sues her husband for the $100,000 he promised her in their pre-nuptial agreement if he ever cheated on her. Ed convinces Kara to drop the case which she agrees to only once her husband tells her definitively whether or not he was cheating on her before her setup. Nancy isn't sure she trusts the nanny, Carmela, with her daughter. Nancy sets up all sorts of complicated tests for Carmela, but soon realizes that she's just feeling guilty that she's not spending more time with Sarah herself. Carol tries to rally the other teachers together to keep the music teach, Mrs. Gennacarro, from being laid off due to lack of funds. Phil even organizes a dramatic concert with the whole town performing. Finally, Carol has to admit defeat and simply tries to carry on Mrs. Gennacarro's great teaching traditions.

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#19 Windows of Opportunity: Aired Wednesday, May 2, 2001

Carol thinks Ed is being unlike himself when he opposes a young couple getting married at Stuckeybowl simply because the young man bowled a strike. Carol convinces Ed that these enthusiastic kids, who have only known each other for six months, have just as much of a chance of making their marriage work as anyone else, and Ed finally comes around and helps them celebrate their joy. Ed defends a man, Jamie, who asked his brother Steve to help him lose weight. Jamie didn't expect Steve to go to the lengths he's gone to, like smashing Jamie's new car and humiliating him in public, and is now looking to take out a restraining order on his well-meaning brother. Steve fights it every step of the way, because he's concerned for his overweight brother's health, but the judge rules in favor of Jamie. Warren, with encouragement from Carol, finally gets up the nerve to ask out Donna Tozzi. Even though he's incredibly nervous and gets his foot caught in the escalator at the movie theater, Donna is charmed and gives him a kiss goodnight.

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#20 Mind Over Matter: Aired Wednesday, May 9, 2001

Molly is happy when she has a great date with Jeff even though it's a little weird that he takes her to a Mensa meeting. However, when Jeff admits that he asked out Carol first, and Carol told him he should ask out Molly, Molly stops taking Jeff's calls and blows up at Carol. Carol and Molly finally make up and Carol encourages Molly to give Jeff another chance. Ed represents one of his bowling customers, Harry, who has recovered from bad arthritis due to some very expensive pills his doctor sells him. When Harry finds out that they're just sugar pills, he and many more of the doctor's patients want their money back. Though they win their case against the smarmy doctor, the placebo pills stop working and they all start suffering from their arthritis again. Ed tries unsuccessfully to get Stuckeybowl landmark status so he can be assured that even if he dies, Stuckeybowl will live on. When an elderly group of bowlers show up for their annual midnight bowl on May 9th, Ed uses their history to get the landmark status he so desperately wants.

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#21 Mixed Signals: Aired Wednesday, May 16, 2001

After Jessica Martell breaks up with her boyfriend, Warren can't decide whether to ask Jessica or Donna to the prom. With Ed's advice, he finally asks Jessica, who turns him down, and then quickly asks Donna, who already got a date while he was making up his mind. Warren blames Ed for his datelessness. Ed has Vega$ Night at Stuckeybowl and invites Carol. Carol feels like it's sort of a date with Ed, and isn't sure how she feels about that. Carol and Ed almost share a kiss on the site of their first kiss, but are interrupted. Ed represents a golfer who almost won the Stuckeyvill open except for a fan yelling out on a final putt. It turns out the "fan" is an old mal-treated caddy getting revenge, but Ed still can't win his case. Mike is reluctantly drafted into arranging an award banquet for Dr. Jerome who insists that the affair be simple and classy. Mike almost pulls it off the way Dr. Jerome wanted it, even managing to give a glowing speech about his hated boss, but at the last minute the flamboyant party-planner sabotages the affair with a cheesy dance number. Mike revels in Dr. Jerome's discomfort even though he knows who will pay for it later.

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#22 Prom Night: Aired Wednesday, May 23, 2001

Ed is paid a visit by an old friend from his high-powered law firm, and finds out that the old firm has gone through some positive changes and is now doing pro-bono work for the EPA. Ed is tempted when his friend asks him to come back, but realizes that he belongs in Stuckeyville. Ed tries to help one of his elderly female clients keep her heat and electricity on. Ed and Carol struggle with their friendship after their almost-kiss. Carol asks Ed to join her in chaperoning the prom, and they come close to kissing again at Ed's house later that night, but are interrupted by the return of Bonnie Hane. Warren plans to attend the prom with his friends, but when he finds out they have dates, he hires an escort to be his. Luckily, Warren manages to share a dance with Donna Tozzi. Phil makes an audition tape for VH1 by attempting to shock innocent bystanders, and plans to move to New York when he is selected as a finalist.

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