Seasons & episodes

Uncle Charley's romantic tales of adventure captivates Ernie's teacher. The pretty, middle-aged lady is fascinated by the old boy's partially-true tales of his exciting life on the high seas. Soon the ex-seacook is aghast to learn she has given up her teaching job and he is further torn when she explains her savings will buy them both a one-way ticket to Pango-Pango and asks him to marry her before they leave.

Ernie Douglas's new school friend is little Laszlo, whose gypsy family is camped outside of town. Soon the gypsies are camped on the front lawn of the Douglas home. To Steve's amazement and Uncle Charley's disgust they stage several hours of singing and dancing.

Other fathers help their sons in a school science fair, but Steve tells Ernie he's on his own. Soon his project turns to disaster when his very crudely built electric clock absolutely refuses to run. After vainly pleading that most of his classmates are getting parental help, on the day of the fair, Ernie must be forced to go to school.

The older members of the Douglas family find their social lives complicated when little Ernie decides to accompany them on all of their dates. Uncle Charley decides he must be the one to put his foot down and set the boy straight.

A genial bum Ernie brings home for dinner outrages Uncle Charley by eating everything in sight and then decides to stay the night even though he wasn't invited. Steve feels that they should let Ernie work things out for himself.

Robbie leaves school after contemplating a very important offer from a former school drop out who now heads his own Real Estate company. When giving some new home buyers a tour of one of the company's display homes, he discovers that the houses are not what they seem.

Uncle Charley's old seafaring buddy arrives with a wonderful proposition: He wants Charley to join him as first mate for a six month fishing cruise in the Carribean. The family then conspires to demonstrate to Charley that he is not needed, but they really don't want him to leave.

On a visit to Hawaii, Robbie falls in love, Ernie almost gets arrested and Uncle Charley is pursued by an old girl friend from 1945, who weighs 200 pounds now. Charley thus finds it necessary to stay in hiding until the plane leaves for home.

The Douglases move to California, where at first they are depressed to find the residents as chilly as the weather is warm. Robbie enrols in the University and is totally captivated by a blonde girl, and Uncle Charley is initiated into the rapid-fire procedure of shopping in supermarkets. The family begins to feel that their next door neighbors represent the characteristic stand-offishness of all Californians until they discover that they moved into the neighborhood the day before they did.

After advice from his father who tells him it isn't right to tie himself down to one girl, Robbie Douglas, intending to break off his romance with Katie Miller, ends up proposing to her. Soon his heart over rules his head and he buys an engagement ring and sets a wedding date.

Robbie and Katie pick a wedding date two weeks off. Katie's sorority sisters decide to do some private investigating on their own. Prospective groom Robbie then undergoes the complete once-over by his fiancee's family and runs the gamut of numerous cousins, aunts and a crotchety grandmother.

The day before her wedding Katie Miller feels she faces complete disaster. When Robbie tries to console her, she flares up at him and after a short argument, the pair declare the wedding is off. Of course, Grandma Collins thinks otherwise.

Early on his wedding day, Robbie Douglas and his family are peacefully oversleeping. They awaken just in time and scramble madly to get ready as Robbie and Katie are soon married amid traditional confusion and tears. The lost family dog, Tramp, returns in time to join the family in the front pew.

Robbie and Katie come home from their honeymoon to face the problems of newlyweds in a previously all-male household. Katie finds her role difficult, for Charley insists on continuing as the family cook and attending to all the laundry. Robbie becomes worried about her frequent weeping spells.

For their fourth week wedding anniversary, Katie decides to earn some money for an expensive gift for Robbie by taking a one week job as a tea-room waitress. Robbie lunches at the tea-room and finds Katie, who has taken over as a last-minute replacement for the cigarette girl, in an abbreviated costume.

At school, Ernie meets Mike, who offers to play with him, but the family is exasperated to know Mike likes tomboyish pranks. Then there's a problem persuading Ernie to accept his new friend when he learns that she's really a girl.

Attractive lady engineer Eileen Talbot is assigned to help Steve Douglas on a rush project in his office, and she applies her many talents to assure romantic, as well as technical success. Only level headed Katie recognizes her as a manipulating female long before the gullible male Douglases do.

Chip learns the meaning of empathy when he helps Ernie out of a predicament when he somehow winds up with two dates with two different girls for the same dance, when he doesn't even like girls to start with.

One stormy night while Steve is in San Francisco, Katie is alone in the Douglas house while the rest of the family is attending a ballgame. Her tenseness builds as late in the night she hears a scary rythmic noise, and hysterically calls Steve to report that the family has not yet returned and that she hears a loud thumping sound.

Chip manages to outwit the machine age when a computer is used to select partners for picnic dates for the boys in his class and girls from another school. He is soon startled to find that his date, although sweet and likeable, is six feet tall.

Katie is worried when Steve invites her visiting Aunt to spend a week at the house while he is out of town. Before long, she is molding the entire household into her image of a cultured family. When she slips some money under Katie's pillow, the girl angrily announces that this behaviour cannot continue.

When minor irritations arise in the Douglas household, Robbie and Katie move temporarily into a borrowed apartment while their friends are away. Their life is complicated by the absence of a coffee pot, a pull-down bed that won't go up and the lack of a television set.

Chip Douglas is so nervous about taking his driving test that his new sister in law Katie decides to help by taking the test with him. Soon after they both get their driving licenses the family car collects a big scratch, but neither will plead guilty.

Chip invites his neighbour's long-haired, guitar playing boy from Liverpool as a key addition to his off-key rock and roll band. The English lad's soft, folksong guitar is a disappointment and obviously won't work with the raucous amplified trio, but he helps them to win a trophy in an amateur talent contest.