Season 4

September 22, 1986

Brash new transfer student Jason Crawford takes a shine to Emma and won't accept her lack of interest in him, muc h to the amusement of the rest of the family -- particularly when he showers her with gifts of food deliveries. Jennie advises Jason to back off a little, but he shows up again with flowers -- for Jennie.

September 29, 1986

Kate and Allie find a wallet containing $5,000 in cash, and the grateful owner gives them a $500 reward -- so Kate challenges Allie to spend her half on something frivolous she will enjoy.

October 6, 1986

Chip's scrapes are not all due to baseball: he's being bullied at school, but is embarrassed to admit that his tormentor is an apparently sweet little girl.

October 13, 1986

Kate's surprise birthday party is delayed while she recuperates in hospital, so Allie checks in to keep her company.

October 20, 1986

His bedside manner's irresistible, so Kate's in love...

October 27, 1986

The kids plan a Hallowe'en haunting -- and so do their mothers.

November 3, 1986

Jennie's boyfriend is pressing her to go all the way, so it looks like time for the dreaded mother-daughter conversation.

November 10, 1986

Allie gives Charles a lecture on responsibility when Chip and Jenny feel he has abandoned them for his new family, but Allie discovers that Clare and baby Stuart aren't seeing much of him either.

November 24, 1986

Kate and Allie recall their most famous fight, seventeen years ago -- during which Kate went into labour.

December 1, 1986

Jennie gets a chance to sing on cable tv -- if she can leap the hurdle of Allie's excessive enthusiasm.

December 8, 1986

Allie and her boss Eddie are stranded in the studio by a blizzard -- and must keep the show on the air.

December 15, 1986

While Kate's away on a business trip, an ex-football player makes a play for Allie.

January 5, 1987

Kate and Allie buy each other third-anniversary gifts, but with an O. Henry twist: Allie pawns her camera to buy a shade for Kate's antique lamp, while Kate sells the lamp to buy Allie a camera lens.

January 26, 1987

Allie triumphantly graduates from college, but learns that a diploma isn't necessarily a ticket to the job of her choice.

February 2, 1987

Jennie arranges a date for Emma. Kate and Allie interfere in Jennie and Emma's latest spat.

February 9, 1987

Emma has to decide between going to college at Columbia or UCLA.

February 16, 1987

At a singles bar, Allie becomes the target of a bet between three men on the prowl.

February 23, 1987

Kate tries to explain love to Louis. The family meet Louis' mentally challenged friend Catherine, who clearly has a crush on him, so Kate tries to persuade Louis that a woman really likes him and he assumes she means herself.

March 2, 1987

Allie dreams that she and Kate are characters in ""I Love Lucy."" Mail forwarded to Allie from Connecticut contains a perfumed envelope addressed to Charles, marked ""Private and Personal"". Struggling to keep from opening it, Allie falls asleep in front of late night TV and dreams herself and Kate into old episodes of ""I Love Lucy"" and ""Mary Tyler Moore.""

March 16, 1987

The arrival of a bouquet with a card saying simply ""I'm sorry"" prompts everyone to recount how badly they were treated that day -- by clerks, bank personnel, schoolmates -- and to speculate on who exactly is apologizing to whom.

March 23, 1987

To dig up enough money for a date, Chip opens a pet cemetery. To finance a date, Chip starts a pet-burial service.

April 6, 1987

Fed up with constant demands from the kids and Kate, feeling overworked and unappreciated, Allie goes ""on strike"" -- then gets worried when the others start to cope without her.

May 4, 1987

Emma asks Kate to talk about her work as a travel agent for her school's ""Women's Career Day,"" causing Allie to realize how much she hates her job at the movie theatre -- until it burns down. When Kate encourages her to find a job she wants, such as the museum job she has always wanted, Allie finds a position in the gift shop of the ""Museum of Contemporary Art"" -- and her happiness causes Kate to realize how much she hates her job. Kate's talk turns into a rant about needing the courage to quit her job & then Allie arrives home to say the Museum's sprinklers causes a flood and she is unemployed too.

May 11, 1987

Kate and Allie cater Charles' and Claire's anniversary dinner.

May 18, 1987

Kate and Allie deal with a demanding socialite's children's party, while Allie mopes over turning 39 without a surprise party of her own.