While Nancy and Buddy prepare for their parents' 25th wedding-anniversary party, Willie meets, and falls in love with, a physics student named Lizzy -- who, as he soon finds out, has radiation sickness.

Lizzy dies, but not before Willie convinces her to marry him first.

Kate unhappily contemplates her 49th birthday; T.J. asks Buddy to go steady with him, but she's not sure.

Nancy is jealous of Jeff's new fiancée.

Doug gets propositioned by a female lawyer.

Buddy's English teacher gets outed; Willie suspects Nancy of being a home-wrecker.

Willie fails to understand a black thing; Buddy develops an interest in genealogy.

Buddy's friend Laura returns for a visit, and -- guess what? -- she, too, is now an alkie; a friend of Doug's, a divorced father, is apprehensive about seeing his kids again.

Doug's colleague and protégé turns out to be a child-beater; Nancy finds a puppy; Buddy finally gets into the Thanksgiving spirit.

Buddy, upset by a lack of attention from T.J., tries to make him jealous by hanging out with a geek; Willie catches the eye of his cute über-boss.

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Nancy hits it off with Willie's former writing teacher, but things get awkward when he pans Willie's script.

Kate, slightly sick of family life, checks out a model apartment in a brand-new high-rise condo -- and gets trapped overnight, along with a very pregnant younger woman; Buddy has the bright idea of dyeing her hair blonde.

Willie can't stop reminiscing about Lizzy, so he hooks up with her former roommate; Audrey is depressed because her parents are splitting up, and angry that Doug is representing her mother in the divorce.

Kate volunteers to help a moody (and arithmetic-obsessed) young patient at the Braille institute; Willie works on installing Timmy's new bed; Buddy leaves for a week-end of skiing with T.J. and his parents.

Nancy plays hot-line operator when her classmate attempts suicide, to get back at her married boyfriend for breaking up her; Buddy baby-sits a whiny kid.

Nancy and Jeff aren't sure whether to get back together; Buddy is disgusted that Audrey has fallen for the cheap ploys of the school Casanova.

Willie has an appointment with a big-shot film producer, on the eve of his 21st birthday; then, he and Doug make friends with a stripper.

Medical crises abound in the family when James reveals to Doug that he must soon undergo exploratory surgery, and Nancy begins to miscarry Jeff's baby.

A somewhat unscrupulous former friend of Willie's drops by; Buddy needs driving lessons; Kate and Doug consider taking separate vacations.

Kate has a recurring nightmare about running over a little boy; Buddy gets a pet raccoon.

Everyone at school dislikes Buddy's bohemian friend; Kate gives Doug a plaid jacket he doesn't much care for.

Kate has to go back and repeat a class she flunked the previous semester, and gets picked on by a snobby professor; Doug contemplates early retirement after his tennis partner has a heart attack.

Doug's father starts showing his age.

A pre-Christmas argument with Willie nearly gives Doug a heart attack; Buddy invites her school's janitor to her house, where he quickly endears himself to everyone but Kate.