Seasons & episodes

Chester phones Fletch at the laboratory, and he convinces Mary that Chester is in possession of dangerous plutonium 239. Mary exposes Chester's threat to Nurse Gimble, but she suggests Mary's regressing into fantasy. Charlie finds an ad in a magazine, giving him hope that a doctor in New Jersey can restore what's missing from the groin. Nurse Gimble theorizes about the violent nature of men. Tom sells his first recreational vehicle then meets live wire trucker Annie Wylie.

Tom visits Annie's trailer and accepts a dinner invitation from her. Dr. Fermin advises Cathy to sell her unborn baby to a needy, but wealthy, couple. Tom finds Mary's story about Chester's nuclear device difficult to believe.

At the Capri Lounge, Loretta sings "Moanin' in the Night."

Loretta foresees trouble for Mary and Tom when Annie decides to remain in Fernwood for an extended visit. Mary and Gore Vidal get to know one another. Charlie admits to Loretta his embarrassment over her new song. Loretta suggests hypnotherapy as a cure for Charlie's sexual dysfunction.

Garth Gimble, Nurse Pat's husband, tells Ackerman his plan to promote the hospital through a Mary Hartman Homecoming Day and burial of a time capsule to be opened in 2076. Ackerman realizes that he must release Mary early in order to have Gore Vidal's participation in the time capsule burial. Loretta warns Mary that Tom is getting too close to Annie Wylie. Loretta attempts to hypnotize Charlie.

Mary is told that she'll select the items for the time capsule being buried by the Fernwood Chamber of Commerce. Grandpa visits Mary and recognizes Chester as a madman. Loretta tantalizes Dr. Medwick with her erotic dreams. Cathy considers aborting the baby. Martha receives a letter regarding George's disappearance.

Mary schemes to bury Chester's Peanuts lunch box containing the nuclear device in Fernwood's time capsule. Martha receives a phone call from Jack and Jill Renquist, who claim they can make contact with George on the flying saucer. Detective Johnson continues to get closer to Martha. Mary and Wanda watch Merle, Annie, and Commissioner Rittenhouse on Clete Meizenheimer's public affairs show Tee Vee Dinner. During the broadcast, Merle accuses the commissioner of corruption, and Rittenhouse chokes to death on his TV dinner.

Tom and Heather give Gore the brush off, so he interviews Martha. Mary is in a lather to get Heather's old Peanuts lunch box, which is identical to Chester's. Mary and Tom discuss their friendships with Gore and Annie. While Chester is distracted by playing a game with Heather, Mary switches the lunch boxes, but she might have been caught.

Gore promises to promote Ackerman and Fernwood Receiving on The Merv Griffin Show, but first he has to convince Merv. Annie accepts Tom's offer to park her trailer in his driveway. Mary phones home and notes Tom's lack of enthusiasm over Mary Hartman Homecoming Day. Wanda reassures Merle that he's not to blame for Commissioner Rittenhouse's death. Charlie phones Dr. Fratkis, who offers reconstructive surgery for $5000.

Just as Mary leaves the hospital, sex therapist Mona McKenzie is admitted for getting too much of a good thing. Nurse Gimble continues to show up with more bodily injury. Jack and Jill Renquist visit Martha and promise to make contact with George just as soon as she pays their expenses. Wanda insists that Merle assume her late husband's position as zoning commissioner. Charlie runs into Jody Troxel, the son of Charlie's old friend Hubie.

Mary tells Tom that she switched Heather's lunch box with Chester's. Garth decides to use Mary's comment "you're only as recovered as you think you are" as the PR catchphrase for Fernwood's economic growth campaign. Watching the time capsule ceremony on television with Mona, Chester realizes that he was tricked. Annie has breakfast with the Hartmans, inciting Mary's jealousy. Charlie introduces race car driver Jody to Loretta.

An oblivious Martha receives another visit from Detective Johnson. After a letter from Sgt. Foley arrives, assuring Cathy that it's physically impossible for him to be the father of her child, she makes a decision about Dr. Fermin's offer. Mary and Tom enjoy a night of passion. Annie promises Mary that she'll leave Fernwood. Tom tells Mary and Annie that he's been chosen to star in a commercial for the RV dealership. Mary vows to find a way for Cathy to keep her baby.

Tom asks Mary to leave but allow Annie to stay as he films his TV commercial. Wealthy Brian and Christine Addams drop by the Shumway kitchen to meet with Cathy, and express interest in buying her baby, but Cathy doesn't warm to Christine's snobbish attitude. Tom gives Heather a C.B. radio. Garth and Wanda both have plans regarding Merle's future career. The true nature of Garth and Pat's relationship becomes clear when they move into the former McCullough home.

Mary details her attitudes about Annie in the journal given to her by David Susskind. Martha receives photographic "evidence" that George was beamed aboard a UFO. After Cathy decides to not to let the Addamses buy her baby, Cathy discovers it's too late for an abortion. Later, Brian visits Cathy and asks for a second chance. Wanda admits to Mary that she's in love with Merle.

Mary complains that she now feels like a sex object. Brian and Christine tempt Cathy with $40,000, but she must agree to have a second baby, fathered by Brian. Mary meets Jody and gives Loretta the same warning Loretta once gave her about Dennis Foley. Merle confesses his sinful past to Wanda, but she sees his repentance as a political asset. Detective Johnson offers to get Martha a job acting in police training films.

Martha and Detective Johnson storm the Gimble house after hearing Pat's screams, but the couple manages to cover up Garth's abuse. Mary gives Charlie an alpha wave machine to help cure his impotence. Jody wants Charlie to manage his racing career. Loretta and Mary discuss Charlie's desire for an expensive transplant operation from Dr. Fratkis, but Mary suggests that Loretta make Charlie jealous instead, forcing him to make love to her. Mary is astonished by Tom's professionalism in the TV commercial. Pat turns up at Tom and Mary's back door and collapses in their kitchen.

The Gimbles' excuses for Pat's injuries become more complex and less likely. Grandpa Larkin and Cathy discuss her deal with Brian and Christine Addams. Loretta persuades Jody to help her make Charlie jealous, but once they practice kissing, Jody forgets he's just acting. Charlie catches Loretta and Jody in a clinch, and threatens to mop the walls with Jody.

Loretta is dismayed when her scheme to make Charlie jealous only incites his anger. Jody gives Charlie a cut of the race winnings, enough for Charlie to make a down payment on his testicle transplant with Dr. Fratkis. Clete informs Merle of a terrible disaster at the Condos for Christ construction site. Heather arranges a welcome home supper for Annie after her accident, but Mary has other plans for the celebration.

Dr. Fratkis informs Charlie that he has to find his own donor for the testicle transplant. Cathy moves into the Addams mansion, but is dismayed when Christine hides her in a secluded attic room. Merle needs to clear his name in the Condos for Christ disaster caused by the late Commissioner Rittenhouse's shoddy materials. Mary gives Annie a cake baked with aspirin.

When Martha tells Mary that Cathy left home to live with the wealthy couple buying her baby, Mary thinks Cathy is just like Melinda Mason on the soap opera Hope for Tomorrow. Martha declines Detective Johnson's offer to play a rape victim for the police academy because she has to catch a bus for Colorado and meet George atop a mountain. Tom and Annie discuss alcoholism and share martini glasses of soda water with a twist. Heather and Tom talk about the pain of growing up and deciding whether to have an affair or a nervous breakdown first.

Brian explains to Cathy that he and Christine are plotting to pass her baby off as their biological child in order to inherit money from Christine's wealthy father. Merle offers himself as a donor for Charlie's transplant, but Charlie refuses after learning that Dr. Fratkis has located a donor, unaware that the donor isn't human. Mary arranges a party for Tom, who announces that he's been promoted to general manager. Pat gives Mary a sober warning about Tom, but Mary is confused about what never comes: yesterday or tomorrow.

Charlie and Dr. Fratkis agree to perform his transplant immediately. Loretta is hired to sing at the drag races and composes an impromptu song about making her man whole again. Wanda convinces Merle to build a political career as monument to Jimmy Joe, but she can't succeed in turning him on. Mary wants to get out of the house and into tomorrow by having a second child.

Martha and Detective Johnson practice rape, and Mary gets the wrong idea. As Charlie prepares to leave for his transplant in New Jersey, he and Loretta discuss the return of their former love life. Tom's induction into the Jaycees is cause for celebration at the Capri, but he and Annie abstain. Mary stuns Tom with her announcement that their second baby is going to be Cathy's child.

Tom, Mary, and Heather all agree to adopt Cathy's baby as their own. Merle's guilt over sinning with Annie is tempered by the intriguing voice of Big Honey on Annie's CB radio. Annie recognizes Tom's shock at finding Merle in her trailer, and they discuss how a woman can be "just one of the guys." Mary informs Cathy of the plan to adopt her baby, but Cathy suggests a child raised in the Addams home will never have to write to an advice column about life's problems.