Synopsis of Pilot
Written by TK
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.
Ed is living in New York, working as a lawyer/proof-reader at a large firm. On the same day, he gets fired from his job for missing a $1.6 million comma in a contract, and finds out that his wife, Liz, is sleeping with a mailman. He returns to the small town of Stuckeyville where he grew up. There, he looks up his old high school crush, Carol Vessey, who is now teaching English at the school they both attended, and dating an older English teacher named Nick Stanton who Ed remembers as his teacher when he was in high school. Nick convinces Carol to come bowling with him, his best friend Dr. Mike Burton, and Mike's wife Nancy. He bets Carol that if he can make a strike backwards with his eyes closed, she'll go to the pond with him (the pond was an old make-out spot favorite in high school). He makes the incredible bowl, and he and Carol have a pleasant evening walking around the pond. At the end of the night, Carol gives him a spontaneous kiss. Ed takes the kiss to heart and decides to move back to Stuckeyville. In fact, he even busy the bowling alley where they played that night. When Carol hears the news, she is overwhelmed, and hopes that Ed didn't do all this because of that one kiss. Ed assures her (lies lies lies) that it had nothing to do with the kiss.
Ed moves in with Mike, Nancy, and their four-month-old baby Sarah. He finds out that the bowling alley actually doesn't get much business. He meets his staff: Phil, Kenny and Shirley. They're all a bit irregular. Phil comes up with the idea of Ed offering free legal advice to anyone who bowls three games. Ed is originally against the idea, but comes around when Phil's little bit of advertising starts to drum up business for the alley.
Mike makes jokes about the fact that he hasn't had sex with his wife, Nancy, since before their daughter was born. Nancy takes these comments to heart and decides to seduce him that night. It turns out it wasn't actually Nancy's fault that they hadn't had sex in so long. Mike is having trouble thinking of Nancy in that "dirty" way that's necessary for sex since she became the mother of his baby daughter.
Carol deals with a precocious student named Warren in her class who obviously has a big crush on her and makes no effort to hide it.
Ed finds himself representing Molly, a good friend and fellow teacher of Carol's, against the men who did work on her car. He manages to prove that the stupid hydraulics they installed in her car were not by her request and she shouldn't have to pay for them. Ed decides to open a real law practice in the bowling alley.
As Carol is fending off a flirting high school student, Ed goes all out to win her heart, showing up in her classroom dressed as a knight and bearing flowers. He asks her out, and she declines, reminding him that she has a boyfriend. Ed assures her that Nick is not the right person for her. Carol has been looking forward to her weekend out of town with Nick, but at the last minute Nick cancels because he was suddenly inspired to write chapter 17 of his book. She is upset that he doesn't seem to realize how important this weekend was to her and doesn't seem to care that she's upset about his cancelling. She asks Ed out to dinner, and he happily accepts. They have a pleasant dinner of ribs, and at her front door, they share a passionate kiss. Carol invites him inside, but Ed is realistic and says that it's almost like they're on a double-date, what with Liz and Nick lurking in the back of their minds. Ed quickly regrets his wise decision, but by then Carol has realized that he's right and they go their separate ways that night.
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