Living

Fran's parents Hal and Cookie, full-blood Jews who retired to Miami, are visiting her. Riley get to feel barely subtly that he is considered beneath their daughter, as if he were a spineless German sponger. Fran is furious when ma, who disapproves of all her choices, even openly takes Allison's side when the teenager wants to take the pill against PMS, while Fran fears that will only lay her totally open to boy-friend Todd, whom she mistrust even more then teenage hormones. Meanwhile Riley fears he's doing his cause no good by accepting to bet against Hal behind Cookie's back, as Hal looses every time, so he uses his winnings... When the three generations of girls go shopping, they find Todd in the mall, who obviously lied to be out of town. The mothers reconsider.

Fran insists till Riley allows reporter Catherine Johnson to write a piece on them as a couple, supposedly as publicity for their businesses, in the local newspaper 'Long Island Life'. Just then Fran's ex Ted drops by to give Alison a driving lesson, but is too proud to decline helping Riley move the couch and gets a heart attack. Because Riley feels guilty even though he couldn't know, they take the recovering bachelor in at home. Josh finally sees a chance to get back at the ever abusive dad from hell when nurse Stacy declines Ted's flirting but eagerly goes out with Josh. When the reporter arrives, everything goes embarrassingly wrong.

Riley and Fran realize they don't have many common friends because of their generation gap, but find her friend Becca and his Danny ideal for a double date on their anniversary. When the girls overhear Riley saying he pretended the cool leather coat she gave him is too delicate for him to wear in construction, she's livid but decides to test him further by giving instead an indestructible watch. Meanwhile Josh has fixed his nasty sister Allison a date with hunky Cory, but she and her cahoot dump the lovely boy just because he's a freshman, hence 'social suicide for sophomores'.

Riley's mother Donna called five times before his naive kid sister Jenny arrives, and she sure is a pot-plant, still engaged to Jeremy, her first boy-friend ever since Kindergarten. Josh and Allison make fun of Jenny, Fran takes her shopping as the girlish daughter she never had, to be told her taste is too slutty. Fran sends Josh to show Jenny New York, but they only return after a night when they 'accidentally' got married as drunk wedding witnesses for a couple they just met in a bar. Riley and Fran blame each-other as bad examples. Choosing a legal reason for annulment is painful for poor 'crazy' Josh.

When Fran and Riley find 'adult' son Josh has brought a girl, Taylor Urbanski, over in his bedroom, ever scantier dressed, that's okay, but when teenager daughter Alison is seen kissing her slick boyfriend Todd -the one who unwillingly gives gentle Riley violent phantasms- they are dead against it, so Josh is suddenly chased as 'a bad example', and Taylor's mother is a better housewife. Next the hunt is on to catch the teen couple in the act and Riley plants the seed of commitment fear in Josh's sound male bachelor mind.

When Fran tells Ryan she is has no clue about all financial aspects of her interior decorating business, he suggests she should consider taking a business class, like Josh. To both boys' horror she takes that as joining Josh's class in college. As if Fran's boisterous style weren't embarrassing enough, so Josh pretends to be an unrelated 'Re-e-ves', she manages to cheat all too loud at desperately innocent Josh during the first marketing pop quiz, so both are thrown out. Allison has a new boyfriend, Todd, who is charming, bright, polite, slick- Ryan instantly hates him, even more then Fran, who considers Todd a younger version of her nasty ex Ted. If teacher Bryant thought he had seen the last of the Reeve students, that's only because he didn't know her tenacity- yet.

Although Allison screamed she didn't want any fuzz for her 'sweet sixteenth' birthday, both parents decide to give her a memorable one. Fran comes trough: when she spots 'Queer Eye for the Straight Guy' presenter Kyan Douglas in Gregory's shop, she gets him to give Allison and her girlfriends a private make-over at home. Kyan even does the same for Josh, who is proud as a peacock and sends a picture to every girl who ever rejected him; only naturally radiant Ryan is simply too perfect as he is. Scumbag dad Ted had promised tickets for an Andy Vargas concert, but was dumped by Laurie Dean, who would have got them, so he forces Fran to bring the downer. Fran soldiers on till she gets everyone in, and made-up Josh hits on with charming Tina. Back home, the truth gets known, the make-up wears off and Ryan sweetly proves he listened when Fran blurted out she missed out on a memorable sweet sixteen herself.

After Fran embarrassed Josh by telling his former schoolmate Barry Regal, now in Wall Street, the med school drop-out is the video store's assistant-manager, everybody goes to the bar mitzvah of a certain Kenny Goldstein. Alas Fran's ex, Dr. Ted Reeves, is there too, badmouthing Fran and Josh and out-staging her hunk Riley with professional model and dancer Rachel Hunter. The united front gives Ted as good as it gets, but back home it hits Fran: so long after Ted's leaving, is he still a valid excuse for their own failures?

Unlike Fran, who still can't admit she needs glasses, Riley remembered it's the first anniversary of his moving in with the Reeves family. So she decides to cook lobster Tetrazzini and he serves it bare-chested, but just then Allison brings her friend Becca for dinner, who thinks Josh is sexy too. Worse next: Fran's nasty ex Ted Reeves, the kids' dad, who dropped by with daughter Allison's laptop. After the way Ted takes Ryan's seat, constantly belittles him and the others practically ignore him, Ryan is out of the mood and wonders if he has any place at all. However the blond hunk's role is soon remembered when everybody needs a savior.