Even though she's burning up with fever, Ren still wants to go to school so she can qualify for a perfect attendance award, but her mom Eileen won't let her. Louis tries to fake illness to avoid Coach Tugnut's fitness test, but his dad Steve is not fooled. Ren is in bed with Mr. Pookie watching a musical. A big puff of steam comes from the humidifier and... Ren is at school after all, but when she comes in the office she gets a big surprise--Principal Wexler is singing the ""Morning Announcements,"" complete with a troupe of dancing students! She sees Louis, Twitty and Tawny in the hall. Louis is still looking to get out of gym class, and he and his friends start singing and dancing to the song ""I Always Find a Way."" Ren meets Ruby and Nelson for lunch. They remind her that her science presentation is due today in 6th period. Ren has forgotten all about it and isn't prepared. But Larry Beale is--and he intends to win the science medal with his presentation. While Ren stumbles around tryi

As the Stevens family watches the television anxiously on election night, Eileen is declared the winner of a seat in the United States House of Representatives! This means big--and immediate--changes for everyone, as the family makes hasty plans to move to Washington, D.C. On Louis' last day of school, he and Twitty are sorry to be parted, of course, but neither seems quite as upset as Tom, who's nearly in tears. When it comes time to say goodbye to Tawny, she and Louis awkwardly grope for the right words to say. Louis is on the verge of telling her that he'll miss her, but instead says he'll miss the cafeteria's chili fries! Ren, Ruby and Monique aren't having any trouble expressing themselves, however; all three girls are upset. True to her usual efficient self, though, Ren goes out and finds a new best friend for her two mates. Her name is Denise, and she's a virtual clone of Ren! Meanwhile when Donnie tells Coach Tugnut he's leaving town, the news sends the coach into a catatonic

It was a dark and stormy night... just before Halloween as Ren sits and watches a horror movie alone. She gets a terrifying ""I know you're home alone"" call from someone, but it turns out to be Louis, dressed in his penguin jockey outfit. At school the next day, Ren is the only person not dressed in a Halloween costume. Instead, she is encouraging all the students to get eye examinations, which are being given by Principal Wexler and Coach Tunut, who are looking and acting suspiciously like Dr. Frankenstein and Igor. Meanwhile, Louis has plans for the greatest Halloween prank ever, eyeballs in the turkey gravy. But by lunchtime, his cohorts Tom, Tawny and Twitty have flaked on him. They've all taken the eye exam and are now drinking milk and talking and acting responsibly, like Ren. In fact, everyone now is looking and acting the same way. When they take their dark glasses off--they're missing their eyeballs! Louis runs down the hall in terror trying to escape, surrounded by zombie-like

Ren is having a ""young women's all-night forum""--better known as a slumber party--and she wants everyone to clear out of the house on Saturday night. All the family members agree, including Louis, who says he'll be sleeping over at Twitty's. But he's got a plan--to put hidden cameras in the house and broadcast the evening as ""The Secret World of Girls,"" charging $10 a head to his fellow male students to watch. There's been a young kid spying on Louis and Twitty. They catch him and demand to know what he wants. It turns out the youngster is new in town and is just looking for someone to hang out with. The boys are on the verge of turning him away, but Louis likes his nerve, and nicknames him ""Beans."" After Louis and Twitty wire up the house, Beans distributes flyers promoting the big pay-per-view evening to be held in the Stevens basement. Plenty of guys show up for the broadcast, but it's not very long until the girls all go upstairs, where there is no camera! Louis is faced with an an

In the form of a ""rockumentary"" directed by that noted filmmaker Tom Gribalski, we witness the ups and downs of the Twitty-Stevens Connection, the rock band featuring Alan Twitty on guitar, Louis Stevens on drums, Ren Stevens on vocals, Tawny Dean on keyboards and Artie Ryan on bass, who is replaced by another bass guitarist--would you believe Beans? The rest of the Stevens family is delighted and amazed to find that Ren and Louis are actually getting along and working together as songwriters. But a problem soon arises. Louis comes up with an idea for a rooftop concert to be given at the school, a la the Beatles and U2, even though Principal Wexler will not give permission for it. Ren won't go along with the idea, leading to a big argument between her and Louis, and she quits the band over the dispute. Louis pushes ahead with his idea and the group manage to sneak their equipment onto the roof past Mr. Wexler and Coach Tugnut. But one by one the nervous band members drop out of the pro

Ren gets stuck tutoring Beans in a writing program. Meanwhile downstairs at the Stevens house Louis and Twitty get spooked after watching a show about possible alien life on Earth. They get even more scared when a mysterious man in black named Mason comes to the door looking for Beans. But the youngster has disappeared all of a sudden just as mysteriously. Louis and Twitty's imaginations begin to run wild. What do they really know about Beans? Could he be...an alien from outer space? Nervously, the boys secretly track Beans home to his house. Louis and Twitty are laughing at themselves for being so paranoid, but then they look in the window to see Beans greeting his parents--two gigantic bugs! The guys run away screaming. When the boys tell the story to Ren she of course thinks they're nuts, but after she sees the story that Beans has written is printed in indecipherable symbols, she too begins to get paranoid. Once again Beans, as always, pops up mysteriously in the house. But the gov

When an emu that Louis ordered arrives through the mail, his dad Steve puts his foot down on his son's get-rich-quick schemes. But Louis is not so easy to stop. While he's bowling with Twitty and Tom in his basement using milk cartons and a frozen turkey, Louis knocks a hole in the wall revealing a heretofore unkown tunnel. Louis does some research and finds that a rich businessman who made sausages once owned the land their house is on, so along with the other boys and Beans they start excavating the filled-in tunnel hoping to find some of the man's lost wealth. When Steve finds out he's upset with Louis, but soon he goes on an Indiana Jones-type mission with him to recover the treasure Louis has located: A large gold-encrusted sausage! Also, Ren and Larry Beale's rivalry is responsible for Principal Wexler getting a couple of pies in the face, so he sends them to the school's somewhat flaky counselor Miss Shannon, who decides on a radical therapy: she tethers them together! After a c

Louis has a scheme to raise money for a snowboarding trip for himself, Twitty, Tawny and Tom. While everyone else is out of the house on a weekend night, he plans to turn his home into ""Stevens Manor,"" a bed and breakfast inn, and he's already got guests' reservations! When his parents leave on an anniversary trip, he and his friends put on monogrammed shirts, redecorate the house, and greet their new arrivals, who find that the staff includes Tawny playing cocktail-lounge piano and Beans as a masseur! Despite some near-disasters (like Tom turning out to be an obnoxious waiter), the guys seem to be pulling off their plan. Meanwhile Ren is at a sleepover at Ruby's, who is down after breaking up with her boyfriend. The two plan a ""boy-free"" evening, but when her ex calls on the phone, Ruby spends the night talking to him. Ren goes home in disgust and climbs in her bed only to find--there's someone already in it! Ren hits the roof when she finds out what Louis has done and is immediately

Louis and Twitty are desperate to find the new ultra-cool ""Quasi"" sneakers, but they are sold out everywhere. Tom puts them in contact with his underground source, though, and they set up a meeting with ""Scabbie"" at South Creek Mall. Meanwhile, Ren is leading (naturally) a fund-raising meeting for the school paper. Ruby proposes a fashion show at the Mall, an idea everyone likes better than Ren's, including, surprisingly, Ren's devoted disciples Carla and Marla. Soon everyone is neglecting work on the paper and working on the fashion show. Ren gets upset and Ruby accuses her of being mad because the show wasn't her idea, which seems to be true. Ren angrily insists she'll put out the paper by herself. Louis and Twitty take a scary trip through the mall basement and meet up with the even scarier character of Scabbie. He takes their money and goes to his ""secret stash"" of Quasis. When the boys realize that he didn't get their shoes sizes, they quickly determine he's not coming back. Meanw

Ren is efficiently doing her job as student administrative assistant to Principal Wexler, while Louis is getting into trouble, as usual. When he whacks Mr. Wexler in the face with his locker door, the principal calls in Mr. and Mrs. Stevens. Steve and Eileen suggest to Wexler that instead of more punishment for Louis that he be given some responsibility like Ren has. Wexler agrees to do it, and gives Louis the job of hall monitor. When Twitty and Tawny hears of this, they think it's great, that their friend Louis will let them be late for class, etc. But things turn out differently when Tom, who takes his job as hall monitor very seriously, gets ahold of Louis. Tom takes the new recruit down to a basement for a secret, cult-like initiation ritual. From then on, Louis begins to take the job seriously too; so serious, in fact, that he busts Twitty and Tawny for violations! Principal Wexler is surprised that Louis is doing so well, and he agrees to Louis' idea of putting up surveillance c

Loius and Tawny are having lunch together at school when she says that she's got something in her eye. Louis takes a close look--and unexpectedly kisses her! Both of them sit there stunned when Ren comes along and snaps them out of it by taking Tawny off for a costume fitting for the play she's writing and directing. Louis tells Twitty about the kiss, but says he doesn't know what Tawny's reaction was. Twitty goes to the play rehearsal to try and find out. Tawny tells him to have Louis meet her the next morning by her locker. Meanwhile, Coach Tugnut, the unlikely theatre advisor, tells Ren her play about Abigail and John Adams is deadly dull and needs to be spiced up. The next day Louis waits for Tawny nervously, but she surprises him by saying she'd like to be his girlfriend! The happy couple walk off hand-in-hand. At home, the Stevens family is watching an old romance movie on TV which gives Ren the idea to give her play a more romantic theme. Donnie is concerned the the movie didn't

Louis is managing Twitty's band. They've got a chance for a gig at a big party thrown by Jason Bagwell, so they are auditioning for a lead singer. Ren hates the band until she gets a look at Jason, then she decides she wants to be the singer in order to go to the party. Louis says no way, but the band likes her much better than the parade of freaks they've been auditioning. Fearing Ren will take over, Louis puts Ren's membership to a vote. The band all vote for Ren and against Louis. Frustrated, Louis gets Tom to program a few instuments and he forms a rival techno band featuring the bizarre poetry of Tawny. Both bands audition before Jason. He rejects them both, but proves himself to be such a jerk that no one wants to get the job anyway. The two groups form a ""super band"" and play their own big gig--at a kids' birthday party.

Ren and Monique are organizing a Sadie Hawkins Day dance, but due to all the hard work and a recent breakup with Bobby Deaver, Ren may be dateless for the dance. Meanwhile Twitty is swamped with invitations from girls while Louis and Tom, not surprisingly, can't get themselves arrested. Twitty assures Louis that Tawny will ask him to the dance, and she appears to be on the verge of doing so, but when Louis brags about the number of girls after him, Tawny declines to ask Louis out. Ren asks several boys to the dance, but the fact that she's babysitting a live pig cramps her style and she gets nowhere. Louis and Tom both try the ""bad boy"" approach to attract dates, but it only works for Tom. Finally, at the last second, Louis begs Monique to ask him out, and she agrees. At the dance Tawny arrives with a popular boy, Tad. She and Louis eye each other all evening, each trying to impress the other. Ren admits to her pig, now named Timmy, that since her breakup with Bobby she really hasn't w

Louis and Twitty are playing a game of stinky sockball. Tom is there, too, but he doesn't care to join in. He is excited, though, when Mr. Stevens brings home a carve-your-own-leprechaun kit. Louis suggest his dad start without him and use Tom to help instead. Soon, though, Louis is surprised and dismayed when Tom gets on a first-name basis with his dad and begins spending more and more time with him. Louis confesses to Tawny that he fears Tom is taking the role of his dad's son away from him. Tawny suggests he find a shared interest with his dad. Steve Stevens is surprised one afternoon at the golf course when Louis shows up, ready to play. But Tom is already there too. The threesome plays, with Louis doing badly while Tom earns compliments from Steve. Louis finally makes a tough shot, but Steve and Tom aren't paying attention. Louis' frustration boils over and he tells Tom he can take his place as Steve's son. Both Tom and Mr. Stevens are stunned--they didn't realize Louis felt this

Ren is an organizer of the ""Beacon of Help"" fund-raiser, where people will work, walk, skateboard, etc. for pledges of money. Louis wants to find something suited to his talents which also might impress Tawny. He decides to ""doze for dollars"" and is scheduled to spend 48 hours in a bed in a department store window. He soon draws a crowd and news media, who dub him the ""amazing boy."" Ren is irritated that she does the hard work and Louis gets the attention. But Louis' fame proves fleeting when he's upstaged by a skateboarding dog. He also can't go to the ""Fun-tasia"" festival where Tawny is spending the day with Zack Estrada. Loius calls Tawny on the phone and admits he should have washed cars with her and Twitty instead of being selfish, but she can't hear him. Louis wants to leave the window early, but his malfunctioning bed threatens to swallow him up. Tawny realizes that Louis is more interesting than Zack, and she comes to visit him.

Ren and Louis are both looking forward to Zack Estrada's party with anticipation and nervousness. Ren has told her friend Ruby that she's planning to make her move on Bobby Deaver at the party. Louis decides to go when Tawny and Twitty say they're going, but he's afraid because he can't dance. He goes to Betty London's dance studio but all she teaches him are the rhumba, cha-cha, etc.—dances that he doesn't think will impress Tawny. Ren is mortified when she hears Louis will be at the same party as her and Bobby. She stipulates all sorts of no-contact rules for Louis to follow. At the party, Louis is too shy to ask Tawny to dance. Ren's attempts to hook up with Bobby meet with disaster. First her hair gets caught in a houseplant, then her foot gets stuck in the toilet. Louis is amused with his sister's plight at first, but he senses that Bobby is as important to her as Tawny is to him. To help her out, he creates a distraction by doing the tango with Mrs. Estrada, which impresses Tawn

Ren Stevens looks like a shoo-in for "Student of the Semester" and among her biggest supporters are Principal Wexler and two admiring young cub reporters, Carla and Marla, who are writing about her for the school paper. But the unthinkable could happen: in Mr. Rupert's wood shop class Ren may get a "C" on her final project. Louis helps her to cope with the possibility that she may have to accept less than perfection. Meanwhile, Louis' locker has become a mess, and it's not all his fault this time, as a broken steam pipe is creating new life-forms in the muck. Principal Wexler gives him a dusty old janitor's closet as a temporary space, and Louis uses it to create "Casa de Fiesta", a spot which becomes as popular as Studio 54 among the students.

In Mr. Lopez's algebra class, Tawny and Twitty are doing great, but Louis is pretty much clueless. Despite his teacher's warning about the upcoming mid-term, Louis shows no concern about learning the material. Instead he spends his time with Beans working on some strange device. We soon learn what its purpose is: it's a snow machine, and Louis takes it to Principal Wexler's house to try and fool him by faking a blizzard so he will cancel classes on the day of the algebra exam. The ruse almost works until Ren comes along and blows Louis' cover. In a meeting with Mr. and Mrs. Stevens, Wexler comes down hard on Louis, suspending him for a week. Eileen Stevens takes the job of tutoring her son while he's out of school and she puts him through a tough course of learning. But Louis still gets nowhere with the algebra. Ren confronts Louis and asks why he went to such trouble to get out of a test. Louis admits that he just doesn't understand anything about algebra but is embarrassed to admit t

At school, Louis and Tom are fooling around with Tom's boomerang when Louis flings it in the direction of Ren, Ruby and Monique, nearly hitting them. The group looks for the lost boomerang, but instead of finding it Ren stumbles upon something else. a metal briefcase, the kind used to carry large sums of cash! When the gang gets home, they open it up and check it out. Amazingly, they find that it IS full of money--$4,412 to be exact! Everyone starts mentally dividing up the loot and deciding how they are going to spend it--except for Ren, of course. Though the others are reluctant, they finally listen to Ren when she tells them the money is not theirs and must be turned over to the proper authorities. They all agree that Ren, being the most responsible one, should take the money to the police. But on the way to the station, Ren sees a pair of lizard-skin pants in the window of an expensive botique. She stops in to look, and the saleswoman there does quite a sales job on her, so much so

Ren is overjoyed that June Marie is going to be her ""pre-high school mentor."" She excitedly sings her praises to everyone in the family, but Louis is only interested in finding his missing tape of a favorite Saturday Night Live episode. He gets some surveilance equipment from Tom and begins spying on family members to find out who taped over his show. While doing this he finds out that June Marie is only using Ren in an effort to make a play for their brother Donnie. Louis tells Ren but of course she doesn't believe him.

Ren and Louis are at the carnival on a Ferris wheel when the ride gets stuck with them at the top. As the two argue, a repairwoman comes climbing up to their bucket and serves as a moderator for their argument. In flashback we see Louis' first days at junior high and how he embarrasses Ren. We also see the early rivalry between Ren and Larry Beale plus Louis' first flirtations with Tawny.

Louis finds a penny on the school grounds. As he bends over to pick it up, a scaffolding with workmen on it tumbles to the ground around him, but it misses him. A uncanny lucky streak begins for Louis. A dreaded test is cancelled, he wins a free fashion makeover, he get a reward when someone's lost bird flies right to him. Meanwhile Ren is worried about Ruby's obsession with the British pop trio BBMak, as is Ruby's friend Nelson. After Ruby stays up all night listening to the radio trying to win a contest with the prize of attending BBMak's recording session in Sacramento, Ren and Nelson decide to stage an intervention for her. They tell her to stop with her fantasies about the group and focus her feelings on a person who is attainable. The intervention seems to have worked. As Ruby leaves the Stevens house, she passes the newly-made-over Louis. Later she tells Ren she's already found a new love in her life. To Ren's horror, she says that it's...Louis! In an effort to turn her off of L

Ren is ecstatic when she finds out that her braces will come off in the morning before her 8th grade school picture will be taken. When the dentist removes them, he says she has a slight infection and gives her some oral medication which has ""mild side effects."" Ren looks great and rushes to school to get her picture taken. The disinterested photographer doesn't tell her that her cheeks are now grossly swollen. In the halls everyone stares and laughs at Ren. Louis shows his sister a mirror; Ren is horrified. She chases down the departing photographer, Mr. Krapezi, but he says there will be no reshoot unless the principal authorizes payment. Ren is sure Principal Wexler will do it for her, but by the time she sees him, the swelling has gone down and he won't consider it. At home, Louis brings in the horrible yearbook photo that's arrived in the mail. Ren's mom tells her how she led a protest for women's studies in college and suggests Ren could do the same. Ren organizes a demonstration

Eileen Stevens is throwing a fancy dinner catered by French chef Pierre for the Lieutenant Governor Woods and his wife Dottie during which she hopes to persuade him to help pass her family care bill. Ren is angry with Louis, though, because the kids must eat take-out food in the back yard because Louis has been such an embarrassing slob at previous dinners. Louis steals food from the kitchen, infuriating the chef. A duck shows up in the Stevens' back yard, and Louis names him ""Seymour."" When Chef Pierre comes out in the yard looking for his ""canard"" to be served as the main course, the Stevens kids refuse to give up Seymour. The chef leaves the house in a huff. The hungry Lt. Governor doesn't want to talk politics before eating. Louis whips up some appetizers made mostly out of candy, but the Lt. Governor and his wife think they're Chef Pierre's creations and say they are wonderful. Donnie goes out on a desperate search for duck but can't find any until he comes upon the ""Bucket O' Duc

Louis badly wants a set of drums he's seen in a pawn shop window, but his parents say that he (and they) have accumulated too much junk that just sits around the house. Louis proposes they have a garage sale. Steve and Eileen go for the idea and tell their son he can buy the drums if they make enough money. Meanwhile, Ren is apprehensive about Scott Brooks coming by to be her ""study date,"" and Ruby is there to help get the two together. While the three are studying, Ren's favorite stuffed animal from her childhood, Mr. Pookie, gets mistakenly included with the items to be sold at the yard sale. The sale is successful--even Donnie's old unwashed uniforms and cleats are bought by Coach Tugnut. But when Scott leaves, Ren looks for Mr. Pookie, who was hidden away during the study date. She can't find him, and her mom breaks the bad news to her: he was sold at the yard sale! Ren accepts the news maturely at first, but later she finds out from Ruby that Scott has gone back to his old girlfri