Riley and Fran realize they don't have many common friends because of their generation gap, but find her friend Becca and his Danny ideal for a double date on their anniversary. When the girls overhear Riley saying he pretended the cool leather coat she gave him is too delicate for him to wear in construction, she's livid but decides to test him further by giving instead an indestructible watch. Meanwhile Josh has fixed his nasty sister Allison a date with hunky Cory, but she and her cahoot dump the lovely boy just because he's a freshman, hence 'social suicide for sophomores'.

Now Fran has dumped her true love Riley and thrown him out 'for his own good', both of them are miserable enough to become impossible to live with, Fran is filling the Reeves house with TV-sale appliances which do more harm then good. When dumb Becca turns out to be as good at singing ('The Way We Were', perfect for more waterworks from Fran) as Allison stinks at any form of performance, Josh decides to launch her at cousin Merrill's wedding to Riley's mate Danny. There the lovebirds face facts, Josh tells the true reason and conclusions are drawn.

Fran insists till Riley allows reporter Catherine Johnson to write a piece on them as a couple, supposedly as publicity for their businesses, in the local newspaper 'Long Island Life'. Just then Fran's ex Ted drops by to give Alison a driving lesson, but is too proud to decline helping Riley move the couch and gets a heart attack. Because Riley feels guilty even though he couldn't know, they take the recovering bachelor in at home. Josh finally sees a chance to get back at the ever abusive dad from hell when nurse Stacy declines Ted's flirting but eagerly goes out with Josh. When the reporter arrives, everything goes embarrassingly wrong.

When Fran is planning a family vacation her ex-husband Ted pays the family a visit. Ted comes beacuse he is trying to buy is family back by, trying to mend his relationship with Josh, buying Allison gifts and offering Riley a job he can't refuse. The whole family including Riley seems charmed by Ted, but the only one that is not charmed is Fran. Fran does not want her children to get hurt by their father again. Also Josh gets a job at a video store.

Unlike Fran, who still can't admit she needs glasses, Riley remembered it's the first anniversary of his moving in with the Reeves family. So she decides to cook lobster Tetrazzini and he serves it bare-chested, but just then Allison brings her friend Becca for dinner, who thinks Josh is sexy too. Worse next: Fran's nasty ex Ted Reeves, the kids' dad, who dropped by with daughter Allison's laptop. After the way Ted takes Ryan's seat, constantly belittles him and the others practically ignore him, Ryan is out of the mood and wonders if he has any place at all. However the blond hunk's role is soon remembered when everybody needs a savior.

After Fran embarrassed Josh by telling his former schoolmate Barry Regal, now in Wall Street, the med school drop-out is the video store's assistant-manager, everybody goes to the bar mitzvah of a certain Kenny Goldstein. Alas Fran's ex, Dr. Ted Reeves, is there too, badmouthing Fran and Josh and out-staging her hunk Riley with professional model and dancer Rachel Hunter. The united front gives Ted as good as it gets, but back home it hits Fran: so long after Ted's leaving, is he still a valid excuse for their own failures?

Fran invites Riley's parents over for dinner. Donna and Tom (Riley's mom & dad) are shocked when they meet Fran. Apparently, Riley has never mentioned that Fran is older, divorced, and with two children {oh yeah, and she's Jewish}. Tom (Rileys Dad) seems to except Fran and move on but Donna (Rileys Mom) just cannot seem to move passed Fran's age. After a small emergency, the two women realize that they both love Riley and will try to be friends.

After 'family night' charades were a walkover for the girls, Fran is eager to find something Riley and Josh can do - in order to grow closer together, so when he has a construction vacancy, she decides her lover 'obviously' hires her son, never mind neither darling wants that. Both boys try terribly hard, but Josh is as gifted for construction work (roofing, in this case) as Hitler for equality programs. After a long day, Riley tells Fran he just can't keep such an incompetent worker on, and having hired Joshua she should fire him, but she just can't. Only after an extremely painful accident, which hits Riley by cascade from shoulder to nuts, Fran puts the 'father son' job out of its misery, or was that the wrong way to look at it after all?

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Allison's new boyfriend Kurt makes alarm bells to go off for both Josh and Riley. So that causes Fran to re-think her trust in Allison's ability to make smart choices when it comes to dating.

Disapproving of Riley's plans for their first Valentine's Day together, Fran makes a few changes with out consulting Riley, making him feel that Fran controls the relationship. Also Fran does not know that Josh wants to break up with his girlfriend Lilly, so Fran advises her on how to win him over. And Fran's advice to Allison to pursue her secret admirer backfires when the secret admirer's identity is revealed.

Riley's mother Donna called five times before his naive kid sister Jenny arrives, and she sure is a pot-plant, still engaged to Jeremy, her first boy-friend ever since Kindergarten. Josh and Allison make fun of Jenny, Fran takes her shopping as the girlish daughter she never had, to be told her taste is too slutty. Fran sends Josh to show Jenny New York, but they only return after a night when they 'accidentally' got married as drunk wedding witnesses for a couple they just met in a bar. Riley and Fran blame each-other as bad examples. Choosing a legal reason for annulment is painful for poor 'crazy' Josh.

Fran's worries about impressing Riley's high school friends at Riley's high school reunion, but at the high school reunion Fran is being worshiped by Riley's friends' wives. Riley is also high-fived, but they soon think that Fran is Riley's ""sugar mama."" So during the a post-reunion gathering at their house, Riley is determined to prove to his friends that he is not a kept man. Also Fran is shocked to learn that the wives applaud her for having a boy toy.

Josh's latest girl-friend Gina's phone number became partially illegible after Fran washed his trousers complete with his wallet, but he tries every possibility till he finds the girl, and dates for a concert. When they hear it's Ryan's favorite band, while his job forced him to rush off to building sites so often they hardly ever spend any time together anymore, Fran decides to pretend looking forward to it so they'll be together there, dragging Josh along. Alas Ryan's firm has another emergency, so she's stuck with a date-hungry guy and gets crowd-surfed off. When Gina invites Josh backstage with two friends, he generously invites Ryley and ma, provided they don't betray to be family, but Fran spots Alison, with disastrous consequences for everyone.

Josh has a date with an ex of Riley.

Fran's parents Hal and Cookie, full-blood Jews who retired to Miami, are visiting her. Riley get to feel barely subtly that he is considered beneath their daughter, as if he were a spineless German sponger. Fran is furious when ma, who disapproves of all her choices, even openly takes Allison's side when the teenager wants to take the pill against PMS, while Fran fears that will only lay her totally open to boy-friend Todd, whom she mistrust even more then teenage hormones. Meanwhile Riley fears he's doing his cause no good by accepting to bet against Hal behind Cookie's back, as Hal looses every time, so he uses his winnings... When the three generations of girls go shopping, they find Todd in the mall, who obviously lied to be out of town. The mothers reconsider.

When Fran tells Ryan she is has no clue about all financial aspects of her interior decorating business, he suggests she should consider taking a business class, like Josh. To both boys' horror she takes that as joining Josh's class in college. As if Fran's boisterous style weren't embarrassing enough, so Josh pretends to be an unrelated 'Re-e-ves', she manages to cheat all too loud at desperately innocent Josh during the first marketing pop quiz, so both are thrown out. Allison has a new boyfriend, Todd, who is charming, bright, polite, slick- Ryan instantly hates him, even more then Fran, who considers Todd a younger version of her nasty ex Ted. If teacher Bryant thought he had seen the last of the Reeve students, that's only because he didn't know her tenacity- yet.

When Fran and Riley find 'adult' son Josh has brought a girl, Taylor Urbanski, over in his bedroom, ever scantier dressed, that's okay, but when teenager daughter Alison is seen kissing her slick boyfriend Todd -the one who unwillingly gives gentle Riley violent phantasms- they are dead against it, so Josh is suddenly chased as 'a bad example', and Taylor's mother is a better housewife. Next the hunt is on to catch the teen couple in the act and Riley plants the seed of commitment fear in Josh's sound male bachelor mind.

Fran flirts with Riley's boss to get a job.

After having a nervous breakdown, 25-year-old Josh Reeves gets booted from medical school. So he decides to go back home. So when he arrives, Josh discovers his mother Fran Reeves has gotten over her divorce and starts a new relationship with a hunky and young man named Riley. Josh also finds out that Riley is 6 months Junior to him. Also Josh discovers his room to be a gym, and Josh's walk in closet now belongs to Rileys buddy Duane. And Josh's bratty young teenage sister loves her new life style. At Fran's urging, Josh must learn to become a part of his new ""family.""

It's Halloween, so Josh is eager to get Riley and Fran out of the house, so he can entertain his present girlfriend Tina. It goes great, till the police drops off devilish sister Allison, only because all cells are full, for driving to a party -she told Fran that Todd drove- without ever having had a license. Meanwhile Riley learns to his light shock Fran has brought him to a costume party -he makes a very cute Indiana Jones- without invitation, as earlier to a funeral, so she can hunt for interior decoration customers. Alas one of the guests, bar-girl Beth, throws champagne in Riley's face, so Fran, who throws drama scenes as if he were Bluebeard, tails him, learns he lived nearly two years with Beth and stood her up at the altar... Josh decides to put Allison on the worst slave duties he can think up till she rather tells ma herself.

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Although Allison screamed she didn't want any fuzz for her 'sweet sixteenth' birthday, both parents decide to give her a memorable one. Fran comes trough: when she spots 'Queer Eye for the Straight Guy' presenter Kyan Douglas in Gregory's shop, she gets him to give Allison and her girlfriends a private make-over at home. Kyan even does the same for Josh, who is proud as a peacock and sends a picture to every girl who ever rejected him; only naturally radiant Ryan is simply too perfect as he is. Scumbag dad Ted had promised tickets for an Andy Vargas concert, but was dumped by Laurie Dean, who would have got them, so he forces Fran to bring the downer. Fran soldiers on till she gets everyone in, and made-up Josh hits on with charming Tina. Back home, the truth gets known, the make-up wears off and Ryan sweetly proves he listened when Fran blurted out she missed out on a memorable sweet sixteen herself.

Fran wants Riley to feel like part of the family, so she decides to start their own family album and is taken aback when Riley mentions adding pictures of their kids one day. Also Josh is comforted when Fran reassures him that being pregnant with him was the best thing that could have happened. So Riley gets his first taste of fatherhood when Allison starts to have boy problems.

Ryan built a shoe-carousel for his six months anniversary with Fran, so what can she give him? She goes for strip- classes, from obviously queer dance instructor Allan. Josh expects a surprise for his birthday on Sunday, so when she asks him to make himself scarce on Saturday 'for a girls book club' -actually to strip for Ryan- he assumes that's to be his surprise party. Ryan loves his self-unwrapping present, till Josh walks in on them. Alison's unorthodox 'self-expressive' school project has Fran, Ryan and Josh visit the principal- it's a piñata in the shape of the team mascot, which spills not just peppermints but also condoms, as a protest that the school budget for sex seduction was cut to pay for new athletic equipment. After witnessing the atypical family dynamics, which they all defend, Josh not quite, Sir decides she turned out better then could be expected and lets her off.