Katie resorts to shoplifting in her grief over her mother's death.
A policeman from Chief Kanisky's department fakes interest in Nell in order to be promoted.
Still grappling with grief, Carl is unable to enter the dating scene.
The girls face difficulty dealing with their deceased mother's birthday.
Carl and Nell try to diet but have a night of unbridled indulgence.
Carl is infuriated to find a man in Nell's room.
Carl is overcome with guilt after shooting a man attempting an armed robbery.
Katie's snobbish club rejects Julie's bid for membership.
Julie meets a nice boy at the video arcade.
Nell's performer ex-husband persuades her to request a loan from Carl.
Julie pretends to be Katie when she takes Katie's college-entrance exam.
Katie's medical emergency reveals that she has loose morals.
Nell returns to Alabama for her father's funeral.
Frustrated at not being heard, Samantha takes off in Carl's police car.
Carl's parents feud about an affair that occurred decades ago.
Katie has dreams of stardom with her singing group.
Sam thinks she is pregnant after her first kiss.
When the family catches burglars in their home, Nell saves the day.
Katie's pregnant friend leans on her for support.
An angry Nell is jailed for her outburst at the phone company's office.
Carl has trouble with his brother's romance with a former prostitute.
Feeling left out, Samantha invents an imaginary friend.
Grandpa's brief stay with the family causes problems.
The family rallies to support Katie's friend, a single mother.
Nell and her weight-loss group are stuck in an elevator while trying to rescue their leader.
Carl must deal with a problem member of his department.
Julie and Katie spar over a boy.
Samantha is troubled by the prospect of death.
Nell exposes a sleazy vacuum salesman.
Nell feuds with the neighbor about her barking dog.
Carl donates a kidney to his dying brother.
Carl is enraged to learn that Julie has been smoking.
Carl's decision to fire a female officer faces stiff opposition.
Carl must deal with a bomb threat and pressure to rehire a female officer whom he had fired.
Aunt Blanche pays a visit to the Chief on his birthday and threatens to take custody of the girls after seeing what looks like Nell and the Chief doing an indecent act in the kitchen, when she really was doing the heimlick maneauver on him as he was choking on a piece of his sandwich. In court, Aunt Blanche breaks down, after Nell tells her that Blanche really doesn't want her to raise the girls because she is black. Blanche then decides to drop the suit in the end.
Nell tells about her singing past with a doo-wop girl group. Nell and her two friends, years before she met the Kaniskys, decide to audition and get called back by a famous celebrity. However, the man likes the other two girls, and refuse Nell to be part of the group. Nell knows that the girls are going to visit her and haven't seen her in years, and in the end she finds out they are fat like her, and lost their singing careers after they gained weight.
At the dinner table, Grandpa insists that Eddie should marry Maxine, since they have been going together for six months, and she says that if he ever asked her she would agree. Due to this soft-fit proposal, he agrees to propose to her, and the two plan to marry. However, on their wedding day, Eddie locks himself in the bathroom, after he decides he needed time to think about all of this he is getting into. He tells Maxine that when he was thinking, he knew that he would rather be too old with her, then too old without her. She decides to take him back, and the two are finally married.
Grandpa hides a letter from Grandma and she beleives he is cheating on him. When she secretly takes the letter and reads it, she realizes that the apartment they live in is being converted into a condo and they need to come up with $60,000 or else they have to leave. Grandpa and Nell go to the bank and Grandpa is hard of hearing, as the man at the bank decides to decline him of the loan. Everyone mistakes him as a robber as he decides to turn off his hearing aid because he doesn't like the way the bank treats him. In the end, the police are called, and the Chief tells the bank that his father and Nell would never do such a thing. Grandpa tells the man at the bank that he gave him the money when he was mistaken for a robber, but he wouldn't give it to an honest guy like him. The man gives him a waffle iron and appologizes for the way he treated him. In the end, the Chief tells Grandpa and Grandma that they don't have to move since he made Simpson pose as a building inspector and found enough problems that owner gives up going condo.
When Samantha reads Nell part of the essay she is doing on the Chief for school, Nell tells her it would be a good idea to go to the police station and observe her father in his daily routine. When she gets there, she observes several different scenarios. One scenario involves Mr. Swackhammer having a plumber arrested for stealing his toilet, which he claims flushes up and not down, since the plumber says he didn't pay for it after it was installed. Another Scenario involves a teenage girl that claims her dentist impregnanted her while she was under anesthesia, but the Chief realizes it's a fraud story and knows that she is only trying to cover up for her boyfriend getting her pregnant and he volunteers to tell the girl's parents which she agrees to. The final scenario involves a mother and father worried about their missing baby in the supermarket. The father of the baby snaps and doesn't like the way the Chief handles the job. However, in the end, the child is brought to the police station by the mother of the mentally challenged girl who took her.
While at ""Max's Delicatessen"", Nell and Max see a girl shoplifting. Nell saves her from being arrested, telling Max she is taking her home. Nell finds out she has nowhere to go since her parents left her and her grandmother had recently died. When the Chief finds this out he is ready to arrest her, but she agrees to live with Max and help him out at the store. At first, the two don't get along so well, but they accept that each other has to get by even though there are people in their life that are no longer around.
When Nell is sick at home and the Chief going off to Los Angeles for a meeting, he calls his mother to help out around the house. She shuns away Katie's new boyfriend since he has pink hair, puts garlic on everyone because she doesn't want them to catch Nells sickness, and feeds the family lamb with goats intestines. Fed up by this, everyone forces Samantha to go to Grandpa and tell him to beg Grandma to return home and she falls head over heels for him.
Julie wants to meet Andy Gibb and goes to see him after Nell lets her go, despite the fact that the Chief grounded her, only to be found asleep outside his hotel room. When Nell brings Julie home, the Chief sees that she has been out, knows that she disobeyed her, and plans to arrest Andy Gibb and his group. However, Julie tells him that she fell asleep waiting for him, and the Chief forgives her.
Nell falls for James Roland, a former member of her weight group , who continues to go to the classes on weight loss. He is impressed by Nell's determination to lose weight, yet Nell seems to think he is in love with the aerobics instructor Vanessa. When Nell decides to binge and pig out on food, Vanessa calls James for assistance. When he shows up at the house she tells James that Nell is in love with him. He asks Nell out and she accepts. However, in the end the Chief wants a break on his taxes and since James is in that business, he helps the Chief out. All goes well until Nell sees his tax return form that accidently ends up misplaced in the Kanisky livingroom and finds out that James is married with three children yet still loves Nell. Nell throws him out and shuts the door, telling him she is still going to go to the weight group each week.
Katie becomes involved with a college professor at Glenlawn Junior College who is much older than her. Nell begins to get upset at the man, when Katie intruduces him to the family, and she gets mad at Katie as well, knowing that he is too old for her. When the Chief finds out that Katie is seeing him, he objects to it, and grounds Samantha for sticking up for Katie. In the end, Katie decides not to see the college professor anymore, to save her relationship with her family.
Katie practices her jazz routine to ""Maniac"" for a show that will be taking pace soon in Glenawn. As the family is getting ready, rehearsing for the show, a boy named Joey comes by collecting for Jerry's kids. The family falls for his act, and as he leaves, Simpson says he is a con artist. Joey Donovan is his name, and his Uncle Jerry dropped him off and left him in Glenlawn, because his dad Tim is at sea. The social worker tells the Chief that Joey will stay with the family over the weekend and will be placed in a foster home shortly. Nell then loses control of Joey, and he escapes, taking her money, and goes to the bus station. However, Nell finds him, drags him home, and doesn't know what she is going to do with him.
Joey goes on a hunger strike and says he is not going to an orphanage. Nell then lies to Joey and tells him that she made a friend of a man whose window she broke years ago when she was a child. Joey beleives her, and knows Nell is not a liar, like many adults he knows are. Nell then tells the Chief he owes her, and she deserves to take Joey in as her foster child. The Chief objects, but Joey tells him he is right, and even himself wouldnt want him as a foster child. The Chief's feelings change, and Joey is accepted into the family as their foster child.
The Mayor of Glenlawn falls for Nell, who wants nothing to do with him. He tells her that the Chief will get his new patrol car if he gets her. At his condo, she seduces him, and he tells her she is coming onto him. She tells him that he treated her wrong, and he appologizes, and tells her he will see her at the ceremony when he donates the patrol car to the Chief.
The Chief is awarded man of the year, and Nell tries to fix him up with a woman named Melissa. What he doesn't know is that she is a man, who was once Officer Simpson's karate instructor in St. Louis. When she knows it has gone too far, Melissa confesses to Nell, who has to tell the Chief she set him up with a man, which ends in havoc.
While Nell is out getting the Chief's clothes cleaned, Addy Wilson, Nell's childhood friend, arrives at the house. She meets the girls, and says Nell's real name is ""Nellie Ruth"". When Nell comes home, she is intrigued by Addy, and begins to think Addy considers her as a women who is illiterate and one who had a chance at a singing career but failed and is now a housekeeper. Nell then goes to night school to get her diploma, but Addy is the teacher there and Nell decides to drop out. In the end, Nell flips out when Addy comes over and then the two reconcile, when she tells her she would never call Nell illigitimate, and is happy for her that she is who she is, and Nell decides to go back to night school to get her diploma.
Nell, the girls and the Chief fix up the spare room at the house and await Grandpa's arrival home from his trip to Poland. When he returns home, he is in happy spirits about the trip, yet sad because he knows how much Mildred would have loved to go, but passed away not too long ago. When Grandpa finds out that he is to live with the family he won't stand for it one bit, yet when Joey comes into the room and watches him pack, they talk about things they share interest in, and Grandpa decides to stay and live with the family and room with Joey. In the end, the Chief says he loves his father and the two hug.
Joey's first Christmas might be a disaster if Nell doesn't get the whole family together. Samantha is going to babysit for a couple, Julie is going out with a boy, and Katie is going skiiing in the mountains. As Christmas night continues, the family surprises Nell, and tells her it was all a scam to have time to bring her Christmas present home for her. Nell is overjoyed to see her mother at the Kanisky house.
Herbie, Samantha's unseen new friend, puts ideas of judgment day into Samantha's head. An earthquake causes Samantha to freak out, and she says she is going to live everyday as if it her last. However, during a storm, their neighbor Wendy rushes over and gives birth, giving Samantha a new meaning to life.
James wants to start over again with Nell after she meets him at a fancy restaraunt during a girls night out with Addy and Angie. She is upset though that her ex- husband, Tony, has ran off and married an 18 year old girl, and tells James she needs more time to think about getting back together with him. In the end, she decides to get back together with him.
Samantha protests against demolition of an historic Spanish site after Nell tells her she did the same thing in Alabama when whites would not serve blacks. When the cheif and Officer Simpson arrive at the scene, the mob doesn't move, and they are all arrested, including the entire Kanisky family, who decides to step in and help Samantha protest. In the end, the site is saved from demolition, everyone is still mad at the cheif for arresting them, and they finally realize that he was only doing his job.
When the Chief tells Samantha that she cannot go out on a date with a boy, Nell decides to tell the girls the story of how she met their mother and how she became a second mother to them. Nell goes to perform in California in 1974, and Margaret remembered Nell from when she saw her sing before and caught her performance. Nell then quits her job when her boss gets kinky with her, and Margaret takes her home to stay with her. She meets the family and she sleeps in Carl's room. When Carl comes home he is shocked to find another woman in his bed, and then grows sick of Nell, since she doesn't have a job. After a few days, a job offer in Bakersfield is thrown upon Nell, and when she gets the aceptance, Margaret tells her she is dying and wants her to raise the girls. She madly regrets it, but deep inside Margaret knows she loves the girls. Nell then refuses the job in Bakersfield and decides she will promise to be there for the girls from then on.
Nell gets hypnotized to remember where she put Katie's ring for graduation, but she ends up remembering a whole lot of the girls' dirty laundry, since the doctor forgot to remove the hypnotic transe, and whenever she heard three knocks, she'd tell the absolute truth. In the end, she tells everyone that she is going to marry James, but tells him the truth that she can't marry him yet, that is until the kids are all grown up.
Nell gives advice on Valentine's day to the entire family as she waits for James to come home from his visit to San Francisco. However, in the end the advice goes awry, since everyones dates turned on them. Each date goes back to the house to apologize for ruining the evening, and Nell storms off to pick James up from the airport. When she gets home, the family tells her that after she left everyone made up with their Valentines and she promises not to be matchmaker again until Joey tells her he is having a problem with his girlfriend.
Nell & Addy appear and compete on Wheel of Fortune during Best Friends week. Nell has $7,600 and wants to win a car. But after commercial, she accidentally says ""GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME A CAR!"". However, in the end, Addy gets $2,700 and solves it correctly ""GIVE ME LIBERTY OR GIVE ME DEATH!"" She buys a trip for two to New York. However, they are scared after the Chief says New York is not a safe place, and Nell thinks someone stole her suitcase as they take another man's who she thinks took hers. When they get to the hotel, they find out that it wasn't her suitcase at all, and that it was actually the man's. They find drugs and a gun in it and are worried sick that the guy will come back and kill them for taking it.
Nell calls the Chief for help and he says he will tell a policeman friend of his about it and he will come up to New York as well, but his flights are delayed three times. Nell then learns that the man they took the suitcase from is a few doors down from them, and gets scared and escapes to get rid of it with Addy. The man is actually a policeman, and thought Nell and Addy took the suitcase for the drugs. However, the policeman who the Chief is friends with arrives and says that they are innocent and friends with a police Chief in California. The two policemen know they must protect them. Out in the street, Nell and Addy leave the suitcase and run to a taxi, but into Tony Randall instead, who lets him take his. Thinking they got rid of the suitcase, they go back to the hotel, learning that Tony saw their suitcase on the street and rushed it back to them. In the end, the policeman runs into their room as Nell decides to fire the gun so the police can hear it outside in the streets.
After the Chief & Nell couldn't take Joey to the rodeo in town, Grandpa decides to take him. But that day, it was raining and Grandpa came down with bad pneumonia. At the hospital, the whole family wants to see him, but the nurse instructs Nell that Joey is underaged. Nell then sneaks Joey in the hospital room. Joey gets out a tape recorder and sings ""Swanee"". Just when Nell and Joey have given up hope, Nell tells Grandpa that he's lost his will power and if he dies she will have to tell Poland that he ""bit the sausage""! Grandpa wakes up and tells Nell that she will never be able to do that and that Joey mispelled Dixie. The two are overjoyed that Grandpa hasn't given up when they see he is up to his old tricks when a nurse comes into the room and he teases her.
Katie decides to ditch college and open her own busines with a friend, which the Chief agrees to. However, Nell doesn't like the idea, because she promised Margaret that she would see all three of the girls go off to college. In the end, Nell tells Katie it is her decision only, and Katie decides to open up her own boutique with her friend, and decides she doesn't need college after all.
Nell decides to take Grandpa to the senior citizen center to have some time to spend with people his own age. While there, the seniors find out that they have to share their space with the youth center since it had just burned down. The director has an arguement with her new love interest, and it is up to one of the teens to help her and her new crush get back together to make his own crush see that he is a man who is full of love. At the dance that the two groups put together, the director and her crush reunite after being locked and handcuffed in a closet.
Nell helps write a book report for a straight-A student who has several children to take care of, and is aways exhausted in class. At her graduation, the man she wrote the report for says he owes it all to Nell, and he cheated, and the two lose their diplomas. As this is going on, Addy has Channel 3 do an interview with Nell, and she admits she cheated and didn't graduate. However, Nell is given her diploma, since she successfully passed all of her classes, and the man gets his as well, who passes an oral exam, and gets a surprise from his wife that she is pregnant again.
Nell and Joey go to New Orleans where Nells sees a man she hant seen in 15 years. The two take Joey to the World's Fair, and when they go to visit a jazz club, he proposes to her. She is baffled by his proposal and doesn't know what to say. As this is happening, a man is watching Joey in the jazz club. When Joey finally sees him looking at him, he goes to Nell and tells him he thinks that the man is his father. The man happily says ""Joey"" as Joey says ""Dad"", and the two embrace, as Nell stares in shock.
Joey and his father reunite, and he takes Joey on a day at the World's fair. He then asks Nell if he can have Joey sleep on his boat, which she agrees to. In the morning, there is no sign of Joey, and Nell finds out the boat went back to Gnome, Alaska. She and the man that asked her to marry him quarrel, and she madly accepts his proposal, but then ditches him in the end. As she walks along the boardwalks in New Orleans, desperately thinking of Joey, he returns to her, and says he went to the hotel but she was gone and he looked all over for her, and the two reunite in a hug.
Nell gets the birthday blues at turning 33. Addy is mocking her as the two are going on a cruise for singles 18-32 years old and she can lie about her age. When the two return home from dinner, the family surprises Nell with a cake and tell her that her birth certificate says she was a year younger than expected. Nell is overjoyed, but Addy is mad, since Nell is now doing what Addy did to her by mocking her about her age. In the end, the kids tell Addy they lied just to make Nell happy, and Nell is accepting of the news, although still wishes she was younger.
An old Polish man finds Grandpa and forces him to marry his daughter. He finds out that Grandpa was the man that came over on the steamship Krakaur in the early 1900's, and that he and his daughter did the hanky panky together. When Nell meets the man's daughter, she tells her that she doesn't care about Stanley, and that she is afraid of her father. When Nell brings her to the house, she finally faces up to her father, tells him she doesn't want to marry Stanley, and says she is in love with an Italian man.
Sam is in love with a boy who just happens to be a big heel. He borrows money from the whole family, and when Nell tells him to leave the house, he and Sam decide to run off. Nell is shocked to find out that Sam's love Jeffrey had left her on the beach and had taken all of her money. Sam swears to never love again, but Nell tells her it will only be her first love and there will be many more.
Nell and Ray Parker, Jr. have a difference of opinion over giving CPR to a fallen man. When the man dies, Nell and Ray decide to give a show for his wife. What they didn't know was that he was a gangster.
When Katie needs money for her business, Joey helps her out by breakdancing at the beach. Nell finds out Joey's grades are slipping in school, and when Addy finds sand in his shoes, she realizes he is going to the beach after school. When Nell gets there, Joey tells her Katie's buisness is in trouble, and she decides to help her by pawning the couch and tv set, which make the Chief devastated to lose. Nell then says she will call the pawn shop back and get them back.
While at Skipper Dwayne's for dinner, Addy finds out her car is being towed away as Nell is approached by a sleezeball who wants to go out with her. A man at a neaby table tells him to leave her alone and she is swept away by him. When he drops by the house while Addy is there, she is shocked to see that he is her long-lost father who left her mother when she was younger. Addy doesn't want Nell to date him after what he did to her mother and her when she was 8 years old. In the end, Nell takes Addy to dinner and her father is there as Nell sings ""People"" as Addy decides to give her father another chance.
It's a case of sexual harassment when a female officer wants a raise and the Chief will not give it to her. She takes the case to Addy's Congress of Determined Women, and the Chief fears she will take him to court. The Chief worries for nothing when the female officer tells him she had a dream of him seducing her, and knows he is not the type of man who would do a thinkg like that and drops the case. The Chief finally gives her the promotion she had long waited for.
Nell and Addy go up to a ski lodge to find Julie with her boyfriend, Jonathan, after they win their big debate. When Jonathan hurts his foot in an accident, Nell goes to his room to help him, with her date, who is a doctor, and is shocked to see it is Jonathan, and finds Julie in the bathroom. Julie and Nell argue over what has happened, and Nell finally realizes that Julie needs to be Julie and needs to accept her for who she is. Julie and Jonathan share an intimate moment together, as he tells her she's gonna be his first woman ever.
Samantha gets upset at Nell, who disapproves of her going on a camping trip with teenage boys which will not be chapperoned. She gets increasingly angry at her when she favors Joey rather than her, and dresses Joey in blackface when he is to perform ""Toot-Toot-Tootsie"" in front of Nell's Congregation, as a way to get back at him.
After being lifted by a class at night school on how TV tears families apart from one another, Nell decides to make the family stop watching TV for a night. However, once they make the promise, Simpson comes by and tells the Chief that the football game is on, since it's a special Wednesday night game, and Addy comes by to tell Nell that they will watch Dynasty, and to find out who Alexis' lover is. However, the Chief and Nell reject their offers and the family sits down just to chat about what is going on in their lives. In the meantime, Grandpa pretends to have a hearing-aid on as he and Carl listen to the football game on the radio, and Nell pretends to heat up a pie in the microwave as she sneaks the portable television set inside it and sneaks a peak at it as she goes in the kitchen to check on the pie. In the end, Nell finds out what the Chief and Grandpa did, as everyone finds out what she has done, and everyone goes back to watching TV.
Nell and Addy decide to spend Christmas in her apartment a few days earlier, since she is going to Alabama for Christmas, and won't be home to celebrate it then. As the night progresses, a neighbor of Addy's, comes knocking on the door for cooking oil to make french fries, but when Addy and Nell find out he's not married, the two invite him to Christmas dinner, compete with each other to win his affection, and in the end, he decides to ask his wife to take him back.
When the family tells Grandpa to go see a lawyer to make up his will, he refuses in doing so. In the end, Nell finds out he doesn't want to make out a will because he has nothing left to give his family.
Nell is mad that her current flame is going on a buisness trip with another woman, so she leaves him a message on his answering machine, and then gets second thoughts about it, and forces Samantha and Joey to help her go to his apartment and erase the message.
Nell disapproves of Katie accepting a diamond necklace from her new boyfriend and tells her to give it back to him. However, when she is awarded the title of ""Glenlawn's Woman of the Year"", she is given a mink coat, and decides to wear it, as well as the necklace that Katie is to give back, to her gala ceremony, so that everyone will admire her, instead of her best friend Addy. However, when they reach the restaraunt, a robber approaches Nell, and steals the coat and the necklace. Nell then goes hystericol to try and tell Katie that she took her necklace without asking her permission first.
Nell, Addy, and Joey go off to Alabama to arrive for Nell's sister's wedding. Nell is angered because her mother has not changed, and she is still ridiculing her. Nell is happy that soon after the wedding, she will be going back to Glenlawn, and will be away from her mother for good. However, Nell learns that after the wedding Mama Maybelle will soon be moving in with her in Glenlawn.
After hearing the news that her sister Loretta insists that Mama Maybelle move to California to live with Nell in Glenlawn after the wedding, Nell is not keen to the idea. Even when Mama Maybelle finds out that Loretta is planning on sending her to live with Nell in Glenlawn since she and her soon to be husband Howard will be living in Colorado, in privacy, she is not keen either. However the Chief tells Nell that Mama can move in because she talked Grandpa into moving in. Nell can't believe his response. In the end, Mama says she loves Nell, and was always looking out for her, but now all she needs to do is get a small one bedroom apartment and she will be all set and won't have to get in the way of her daughters' lives.
Nell is having a very bad day, due to the fact that Sal Bonaducci charged her more money for her car being fixed, and the library overcharging Joey for a late book. When Nell goes to the library to return it, there is an earthquake, which repeats several times. Nell is trapped in the basement office in the library with a woman who is deaf. She finds out that she and the woman have something in common, since they both wear crosses and worship God. In the end, the Chief shows up and says he will be cutting through the ceiling and the two will be free.
Nell books Sammy Davis Jr. to appear in the town of Glenlawn, and sing for them. However, when she calls Sammy to ask him if he is arriving on time, he tells her that she had scheduled him for the following month instead. When Nell goes to the gas station to get her car washed, Albert, the man at the gas station is a dead-ringer for Sammy Davis, and she tells him if he appears on stage as Sammy to fool the town, she will give him what he has always wanted, Angie. However, in the end, Sammy does show up, and he and Nell sing a number to the town of Glenlawn.
Officer Simpson ane the Chief go out during a stormy night in Glenlawn, to check on a bridge that had washed out. When the Chief returns home, he shows the family Simpsons clothes, and tells them that an officer reported he saw a cat fall into a river, and an officer jump in to save the cat. The family begins to believe that Simpson was the man who tried to save the cat, since he would do anything for his cat ""Sherlock"", who he hasn't seen in several days. Nell receives an envelope from Simpson which contains $5,000 and she is happy she can go on her vacation with Addy to Hawaii afterall. However, in the end, Joey rushes into the house, telling the family that he found Simpson and Sherlock.
When all of the staff at the police station get sick, it is up to Addy and Nell to help them out. Simpson makes the two official police deputies, and there is a call that there are burglars at the Kanisky house. Nell and Addy, like scared cats, go to the house and check it out in the dark with flashlights, to find Grandpa and Joey home at the same time. In the end, two robbers leave Nell's room with a televison.
The Chief gets angry with Katie after her friend who got a part in a play offers her apartment to her. The Chief also gets mad at Samantha for wearing a tactless outfit. The Chief confesses that Julie was always his favorite daughter because she thinks like him. This causes Nell, and the girls to move to Kaites new Apartment. When the Chief tells Grandpa that now this will give them time to get to know one another better, he gives him a face, and he and Joey go to Katie's as well. After the apartment is over crowded, everyone comes home and makes amends.
Nell is angry that Addy has not called her in over a week, and is doing things with other members of the family and not her. When Julie tells her that Addy told her she is having lunch with Yvone Anderson, Nell calls Angie, and the two decide to go to lunch there as well. At the restaraunt, Nell tells Yvonne and Addy that Angie is her best friend, and in the end, Addy tells Nell that she was busy with the Junior Symphony Orchestra, and didn't have much time to call her, and they forgive one another.
On Julie's 18th birthday, Nell has a plan to get her and Jonathan back together after they broke up. She keeps orderig pizza, and when Jonathan keeps showing up, Julie hides in the closet, only to have Nell tell him to deliver the pizza there. The Chief however is happy that Julie and Jonathan broke up, because he thinks he is a ditz. In the end, Nell tells Jonathan to go for it and tell her how much he loves her. The two run out of the house, and in the morning, Nell asks Katie where Julie is. Katie tells her she never came home. Nell thinks Jonathan has kindapped her, goes into the kitchen, and Julie and Jonathan walk through the door and say they were in Vegas all night. Nell is angry and thinks that they gambled, but Julie shows her a ring and says they got married. While they are in the kitchen, Nell hears the Chief say ""Is that Julie in there Nell?"", as she screams no! Because she knows the two have some explaining to do to him.
Nell is sad and doesn't want anyone to remind her of the Chief since he pased away. Joey recives part of a toy train the Chief gave him, and puts it in the Chief's room. Nell gets mad when Jonathan insists that he and Julie move into the Cheif's old room, but gets extremely mad when Joey plays with his train in it. Grandpa says that Carl would have been happy that the family is still together, bringing him up in their daily discussions. He says that they all loved him, and that it's not right to not talk about him, because he was loved by them. Nell then changes her mind and lets Joey keep the train in the Chief's old room, and lets Julie and Jonathan move into it.
Nell decides to take her ex-husband's offer up on performing on his ship. While she is on the ship, she finds out that Tony has left his second wife, who is many years younger than Nell.
While continuing to perform on Tony's ship, Nell discovers that he has fallen in love all over again with a woman that Joey befriends on the ship.
Joey is saved by a man from being hit by a bus, and when the man tells the family that he is from another planet, everyone but Nell believes him. The man says he is from Zoron, and that he doesnt have a last name, and is known as ""cute"". In the end, the man leaves, and the family still beleives he is from another planet.
Nell finds out Addy was given a teaching job as the a Dean at Columbia University by a professor she despises and thinks is tricky. Nell and Addy get into a fight at her goodbye party, and Nell does not want to say goodbye to her. However, in the end, she decides it's the best thing to do. She goes to Addy's apartment to say her goodbyes, but when she gets there she finds Addy unpacking, only to hear that the profssor is tricky and selfish, and was only pulling her legs about getting the job in New York.
Jonathan leaves on his Mexican archeological dig project. In the meantime, back at the Kanisky house, Julie finds out that she is pregnant with his baby after she decides to go to enlist in the Navy and fails the test.
Mama Maybelle arrives in Glenlawn to visit Nell, and tells her that she has to have an eye operation, and fears that she may never be able to see again. She tells Nell that she is going to miss seeing, but her sense of hearing may improve, which will help her hear Nell's singing better. Nell is happy that her mother admits she is a good singer. In the end, she is fine, and the family is there to greet her after the operation.
Sam is taking the role of a big sister to a girl named Pam, a kid from a single-parent home. When Pam arrives at the house, Sam has other ideas of her own, when the new neighbor Chip shows up and asks her to light his pilot light on the stove. Nell is then stuck taking care of Pam, and she is a nuissance to her. Nell then finds out from Sam that Pam's mother left her father for a computer repair man, and Nell finds a way to make Pam like her in the end.
Nell finds out that Addy is engaged to be married to her dentist, who has been previously married before, and has several children from each marriage. When Nell decides to accept Addy's engagement as a sign of happiness for her, she helps her select her wedding ring. However, when they begin to quarrel again over the engagement, they both go into seperate elevators, and they break down. Nell gets on her phone and Addy gets on hers and they talk to each other about past times in Alabama to get them through this horrific moment. When Nell tells Addy she should call her fiance, his new girlfriend answers, and Addy decides to shut him out of her life forever. Finally, the fire department arrives and gets them to safety.
Nell finds out Addy is selling her car, and wants to be the first one to take it off her hands. However, Angie's sister has already purchased it, and Nell talks her out of it. When Nell takes it for a test drive, it breaks down, and she tells Addy that she wants her money back. Addy refuses, but in the end gives in, after she finds out that she is getting money back for it as well.
Nel finds out that Joey is a gifted child, and should take a test to see what grade he should be placed into. When Joey tells her that the 4th grade is fine, and that he just wants to play baseball, she insists that he take the test, and gives him several instruments to play to see which one suits him best, the piano being the top. In the end, Joey runs off to the park, and Nell knows he is there when she finds out he wasn't at the school to take the test. She decides to let Joey stay in the 4th grade because a nine year old is supposed to have fun, and not work their tail off.
Nell finds out that Katie is dating a married author of a famous book. She tells Katie to stop seeing him, and then tells her she is old enough to do what she wants. Katie then tells Julie to come to her apartment and asks her for advice on what to do. In the end, Katie decides to not see him anymore.
Nell and the gang decorate the Christmas tree as Joey pretends that he is sick, but wants to help out as well. During the Christmas gathering, the family recalls events from the past. In the end, Joey tells Nell that he was only pretending to be sick because he didn't have enough money to buy her a Christmas present, but she tells him it doesn't matter.
Nell decides to quit college and pursue a real singing career. She becomes the manager for an ex-con who wrote a song in jail and decides to put it to music. When Nell and the ex-con go to Skipper Dwane's for amateur night to perform the song, Gary Collins is there, and Nell asks him if he liked the song. Gary says he hated it when the ex-con sang it, but when Nell sings it, he insists that he put Nell on his hour magazine show. When Nell goes backstage to tell the ex-con how he did, she freaks when he has a string of floss out and thinks he is going to kill her. She tells him that she thinks he is going to kill him because Gary hated his song.
The ex-con is sad that Gary hated the song, and decides that singing is not the career for him. Nell then appears on Gary Collins' Hour Maganzine Show, and decides to go back to college afterall.
Jonathan returns home, giving attention to everyone accept Julie, who beleives that Jonathan doesn't love her anymore. In the end, Jonathan tells Nell that he knows that archaeology is not the career for him and that he rushed into things by marrying Julie and getting her pregnant. He tells her he was not at work when they called to talk to him, and instead he was in Bakersfield, looking at a chalk factory that he hopes that he and Julie will soon run in the near future. Nell tells him that Julie needs him, and he should tell his problems to her instead. He finally tells Julie his problems, and tells her that they will be great parents soon when their baby is born.
Joey accidently shoots Nell when he finds the Chief's gun in one of her dresser drawers. The whole family, including Mama Maybelle, who comes for a visit, helps Nell out when she is shot in the foot. However, Joey runs off everytime he comes face to face with Nell. In the end, Joey wants to buy Samantha an ice cream cone after he accidently hit her finger with a baseball, and Nell decides to take him to get it. When they get in the car, the engine sputs, reminding him of the gun, and he tells Nell that he is finally sorry for what he had done.
Nell finds out that Grandpa is dating Sally Parsons, who was previously dating Officer Simpson. When Simpson finds out he takes it like a baby, but Nell takes it much personal, and tells Sally never to see Grandpa again. In the end, Nell learns that she shouldn't have been snooping into Grandpa's life at all.
Nel is rejected for a job as a receptionist because she thinks she is black. When Addy decides to go for the same job as well, she is rejected too. They decide to take the case to the Congress of Determined Women, but find out that the man who rejected them is for black rights, and decided to hire a black man instead, because he cannot work with women since they drive him crazy.
Nell's sister Loretta comes to town when she decides to leave Howard. She confides in Nell on what to do, but Nell doesn't know what she can do to help. Mama Maybelle shows up and calls Nell a homewrecker, and Joey is mad at Nell when he is getting bad grades because he is devoting all of his time to baseball. Loretta tells Nell that Joey should do what he does best, and Nell knows she is right. In the end, Mama hears that Loretta left Howard, and Mama tells her to go back to him, which she agrees to.
When Officer Simpson leaves his cousin's adopted children with Nell to babysit, her date who is at the house at the time lets Nell see who he really is, when he shows her his feelings that he has for kids, none whatsoever.
Katie, who has been sad since her latest boyfriend left her and is now engaged, is going broke and is deciding to close Katie's Korner. Nell knows that Katie is going to commit suicide because she is very depressed lately and gave Joey a gift for his birthday, which isn't for several months, and is giving Julie and Jonathan her car. When Nell and Addy arrive at the closing of Katie's Korner, they see the lights off and know she is inside. They throw a tree through the window as Katie comes out. Nell tells Addy that she was worried about Katie because her ex-husband Tony left her years ago and she didn't leave him. Afterwards she tried to commit suicide but couldn't go through with it. Katie tells Nell she was offered a job as a buyed at Chadwick's in SanFransisco which offers her $32,000 a year, as wel as a company car.
When Nell's grandmother passes away and leaves her a nice amount of money, she decides to split it with the family, and decides to let them spend it on something that is fun since it was found. Nell goes to the bank and finds out that her check has bounced, and needs the money back, but in the end, everyone had bought her something with the money, since she is always giving them things and money everytime they need it.
While at a Greek restaraunt with her freinds, Nell's purse is stolen, which upsets everyone. However, the two Greek waiters have their own plan of getting the purse back for her.
Samantha, excitied that she has gotten into Littlfield College in New Jersey, is let down when she recieves a letter in the mail, saying that the school cancelled her scholarship. As this is going on, Julie and Jonathan, the proud new parents of baby Nell, are finally moving to Bakersfield to have privacy for a change, and to manage the chalk factory, as Simpson helps them with the move. Nell then calls Addy, who says she will do all she can to make sure it was an error, and that Samantha will get her scholarship back. While Samantha is in despair, Katie arrives home one last time to have her laundry cleaned before she moves to SaFransisco, and tells Samantha to come with her and she will give her a job there. When Simpson arrives for another load of Julie and Jonathan's belongings, Nell tells him she is losing her girls, but Simpson tells her she will always have him.
Nell continues to talk Samantha out of moving to Sanfransisco with Katie. She then realizes that Samantha is still 17, and she has legal control over her still. Addy finally calls Nell and tells her that Samantha did get the scholarship, and that it was a computer error. An excited Samantha, decides that she is going to college afterall. Nell finally sees Julie and Jonathan to the front door as they say their goodbyes. Nell knows that the girls are all grown up now, and that she has the house to herself.
Nell and Joey fly to New Jersy to move Samantha to her college living space at Littlefield College. While they are there, and New York is so close by, and Addy as well, who is now living there because she has gotten a job at a big University, they deicde to visit her and see how she is doing. Nell is surprised that Addy has a basement apartment, in which the view consists of being able to see tiny dogs and peoples feet who walk by. Nell gets furious when the construction workers outside maske noise and she is not able to hear anyone, so she goes outside and gives them a kick on the leg. In the meantime, she is really worried about Samantha, who shows up in New York to go see a musical with a new guy friend of her's. As Nell is in the Bathroom, she hears Sam out in the livingroom, but the door is stuck. She kicks it down and Sam and her new firend go off to see a musical on Broadwat. Also, Joey is told that his father is in New York and has a big surprise for him. Joey is anxious and ho
Joey meets Matthew finally, and is mad that he has a little brother. Tim says that he has some matters to take care of and will meet Nell and the boys at a restaruant shortly. Nell and Addy then decide to take the boys to the park and they have a blast. As Addy and Nell sit and talk on a park bench, they realize that Joey and Matthew have disappeared and Nell calls the police. Joey and Matthew were taken to a museum by a police officer who tells Nell they are not fond of one another and are arguing back and forth. Later, the boys are fine, and everyone returns to Addy's, where Nell and Tim talk in private at Addy and the boys look at her computer. He tells her he wants her blessing so he can raise the boys in New York, now that he has a job there. He tells the boys and everyone deicdes to go out for pizza. In the end, Joey returns back in the apartment as Nell stays behind and finds out that she is not going to live with them and he cries. Nell tells him to keep her picture and she wi
Nell recives a letter from Joey in New York, telling her that he is fine, but she knows that Tim is not taking proper care of them. She returns to New York, where she ruins Addy's date with a lawyer, and tells her the two will get Joey back. She spies on him at the playground, and he sees her, and she tempts him with a big southern meal at Addy's Apartment. Nell finally agrees to become roomates with Addy and move to New York. When Tim shows up to pick up Joey, he tells Nell he wants to go back to sea, and as much as he loves his boys, he has no time to be with them. He offers her to be their full guardian, and she accepts.
Nell tries to get a job at a famous New York publishing company. She then decides to rent an apartment in Greenwich Village where she, Addy, Joey and Matthew move into.
Nell is fed up with the new apartment in New York, and tells Addy she wants to go back to Glenlawn to get some of that good California air inside of her again. When Gradpa calls, he tells her that he sold the house to leave Glenlawn behind and move to New York with her. She then meets her upstairs tennant Mrs. Tercobi, who bakes her a cake. In the end, Nell knows that if she can make it there, she can make it anywhere, after being inspired by Frank Senatra's ""New York, New York"".
After Addy is laid off at the University for going on strike, Nell hires her as an assistant at Mcdillon and Loud's publishing company where she works. When Nell thinks Addy is too slow at reading manuscripts, she fires her, and Addy, upset at Nell's attitude towards her, refuses to ever speak to her again.
Nell is furious when she hears a squeaking noise coming from Joey and Matthew's room. When she checks in on them, she finds out that they are caring for Joey's class hamster, ""Harry"", who Joey knows would most likely be used to be tested on human products. Nell and Addy decide to make a fund to stop people from testing animals with human products. Late at night, to stop the squeaking of Harry's cage, Nell pours salad oil on it. However, what she doesn't know is that it is rancid. When she gets another hamster for Joey, she is surprised that it is a girl who has just had six babies, making Joey change his mind about her, after he finds out she killed Harry.
Joey begins to run ilegal gambling tickets from the staff at El Gatspacio, and Nell is horrified when she finds out he was picked up for running them.After Nell brings Joey home, she tries to teach him that gambling is wrong. When her lecture doesn't work, she finally confides in Marty, who uses the game ""Candyland"", as an example that it is wrong for Joey to gamble, bets Joey all their money, and in the end wins, teaching Joey a lesson that it is very wrong for people to gamble their money that they worked so hard to get in the first place.
As Nell and her mother are at the bank, a con man shows up, tries to attempt to fool Nell to take her mother's life savings, and is successful in doing so, as Nell falls for his trap.
Nell decides to buy a Christmas tree, as does Addy, who both know that it costs too much for one in New York. As the gang begins to celebrate Christmas New York style, Joey tells Matthew that there is no such thing as Santra Claus, and Nell blames Marty for the whole thing. In the end, Nell realizes that Marty always didn't believe in Santa Claus because he never got the toy train he saw in a store window when he was a child. In the end, Nell invites him to Christmas dinner, and on Christmas morning, he is surprised to see the toy train he has always wanted, which both Addy and Nell say they didn't get for him. Thus, proving to both Joey and Matthew that there is a Santa Claus afterall.
Nell gets a call from her highschool secret admirer, whom she never knew personally in Alabama. She decides to met him at El Gatspacio since he is in town, and she knows that he cannot have a successful relationship with a woman because he has never forgot about her. When she arrives at El Gatspacio, he calls her, telling her he wrote her a note years ago in school, and that he canot meet her, but in the end, surprises her by showing up at the restaraunt, after Nell has an emotional breakdown on the phone with him, telling him that she is a wonderful woman who did make fun of the note he gave her years ago.
Nell gives Addy a loan to buy a new dress to attend a gala event, knowing that she will pay her back in no time at all. As time passes, people in the building begin to take advantage of Addy, and ask her for money which she does give them. Everyone tells Nell that Addy is a saint for giving them money when they need it, but Nell is mad that Addy has not paid her back the money she borrowed from her. Nell goes to Marty for advice, and he insists that Nell makes a contract, but she gets mad and rips it up. In the end, Addy finally does repay Nell the money she loaned her.
Nell has a better job in her company as a book editor. However, that tears her away from staying with the boys. When Joey tells Nell that he's doing a Walk-A-Thon fund raiser for his school & wants to sign up sponsors. But Nell doesn't want Joey to go alone with Matthew wandering the streets of New York. But Grandpa disagrees. Joey also has to take Matthew to his guitar lesson as well. After school, Joey decides to go get sponsors, and takes Matt with him. When Joey goes to a doctor's office, he tells Matt to wait for him. Then Matt hears music coming from next door & sees a band rehearsing. Then the band lets Matt jam with them. Joey finds that Matt's missing and he searches all over for him. When he arrives home, he asks Marty for his help and Marty called the police. Nell enters & Marty tells her Matt's missing. Nell takes the receiver while Marty looks @ his restaurant. Nell is mad at Joey for losing his brother. Then Marty finds Matt & took him home. Joey's mad at Matt
Nell decides to quit her job so she could stay home with the boys. So Nell decides to get a new job instead. When she told Joey that, he was delighted. Then the phone rings and the company wants Nell to come to her interview. Nell tells Joey to watch Matthew, but he's still mad at him. So she calls Matthew and he comes with his guitar ready to go to a guitar lesson that Nell forgot. But Joey still won't take Matt to his guitar lesson. Nell's mom advises her to let the apron strings go, and to let Joey grow up. So while talking to Joey, she hears a puppy coming from Matthew's bedroom. They find the puppy outside the fire escape in a box, so she tries to get the puppy inside and her shoe's caught in the fire escape. Nell calls for Maggie to help. But she's scared of heights. Then a fireman comes and with a crowbar, gets her boot out of the fire escape. The fireman says that Joey's the hero who came to him asking him to bring his crowbar. Nell then tells Joey he can participate in
Joey begins to have a crush on Maggie, and at her husband's birthday party, Nell finds out that he wants to leave New York behind and move to Georgia.
Joey is upset because his teacher, Mr. Gronomeir keeps hating him. When Nell invites him to the house to talk about Joey, he trips on Maggies skateboard, and decides to sue, and fakes that he has serious pains. However, he is on his way to spin the big wheel for fast cash on television, and when Nell turns on the television to see him spin the wheel, he wins the big jackpot, and says that he is going to buy an island in the Caribean, and will never have to look at another kid again. Nell is outraged by his act of foolishness.
When Joey's favorite television star ""Captain Jerk"", is hospitalized after swallowing a whistle, it is up to Nell to give him a blood transfusion since she has the same type of blod as him. However, as she goes to his hospital room to meet him, she finds out that he is predjudiced as she heards him talking to his co-stars about how much he hates blacks and how he organizes a group of people who are for a white society. She realizes that she must tell Joey the truth, that his favorite telvison star doesn't favor blacks. In the end, Capatain Jerk tells Nell to be on the show, but swallows his whistle again when he sees she is black. He gives her money, and tells her to not tell anyone she is black and gave him blood, which makes hm partially black as well. Joey hears this, and depite not believing Nell before, he finally knows that his hero is predjuduce and he and Nell leave the hospital knowing that Captain Jerk is nothing but one.
Nell knows that her boss is beginning to fire many workers on the job, and when she finds out he has a daughter named Molly that is Joey's age, she sets the two up, so she can work her way to staying on the job. What Nell doesn't know is that Joey is turning into a Gigolo, leaving the family everyday for Molly, even during Matthews birthday party. In the end, Nell madly storms into Molly's room, and tells Joey to come home for his brothers party. When her boss comes in and tells her to stop yelling, she tells him she doesn't have to set Joey up with his daughter in order to stay on the job. Nell is surprised when her boss tells her it doesnt have to be that way, since he just sold the company.
Nell finds out that it is Parents Week at Littlefield College in New Jersy, and she is upset that Samantha didn't invite her to attend it. However, she decides to go anyways. When she arrives at the college, Samantha is stunned to see her, and she begins to barge in on student's lives. She sits in on an English class of Sam's, and Professor Dudley gets upset with her. Afterwards, she meets a boy who wants to switch his career from Teaching to Fashion design, but cant stand up to his father, who is actually Professor Dudley. In the end, Sam and Nell are about to go to bed as Sam tells her a secret she has been keeping from her. She is in love with a student named Eric, and she and he are going to drop out of College and get married and move to South Dakota, where the two will live on a farm, since he doesn't have enough money to stay in school. Nell drops to the floor when she hears this.
Nell tries to convice Samantha to stay in college, and in the end, is successful at doing so. She also is successful at helping a fellow studen of Sam's to both stand up to his father and get his book published.
Nell prepares for Mary-Ellen Baldwin's arrival, a snobbish foe of hers from Alabama. She arrives in New York to tell Mama Maybelle along with Nell that she is knocking down the old church to make room for new condos. Mama Maybelle, displeased with the act of fooishness, rejects the check for $5,000 that Mary-Ellen gives her, but Nell wants the money. Mama Maybelle then decides she is going to Alabama to save the church. Once they arrive there, Mama Maybelle goes off to see Mayor Watson about what she can do about the church, as Nell and Joey stay at the Church, as she tells Joey about her father and how he preeched. In the end, she is amazed by her father's memories, and when Mama Maybele returns to tell her there is nothing she can do to save the church, Nell rips up the checks, saying that she will fight for her father's church, evel if she looses. Mama Maybelle is very proud of Nell for once in her life, since she finally made a right decision.
Nell is wooed by an African man who invented chocolate chip cookies in his African country. She is given a necklace by him, and is given a proposal to be his wife. She tells Addy that they should all move to Africa if she decides to accept his proosal, but in the end she declines it, when he tells her his mother wants him to marry a pure woman who hasnt had sex before. She is however, mad that she gave back the expensive necklace that she was given by him.
As Grandpa comes to get the boys' pajamas, since they are sleeping in his apartment, now that Addy is sick in bed, he tells Nell that her mother has a date. Nell wonders why her mother would have a date, and when her mother shows up, she meets her date, ""Ernie"", a man from her past. It turns out that he was a jazz musician that knew her mother before she had met and married Nell's father. When they were young, he took her to a dance contest, and asked her to go on the road with him, but she rejected. Nell cant beleive that this is true, since Mama Maybelle calls him ""Sneakers"", which is what her dogs name in Alabama was as well. In the end, as Ernie waits outside for Maybelle, Nell asks her mother if the two of them ever had sex, and Mama Maybelle tells her that Nell should know the answer to that question, and tells her she has a lot of growing up to do, and that she must realize that her mother is a woman, just like herself.
A retrospect of 80s TV pop culture touchstones including Miami Vice, The A-Team, Magnum P.I., Simon & Simon, Gimme A Break!, Charles in Charge and others. Includes interviews, fun facts and trivia.
