Mama's in a hurry to get to the mall for a sale and tries to hurry Fran along to finish eating. But before that can happen Fran's boss at the newspaper calls. Telling her she has to come in and re-edit her latest story. Mama is obviously upset because she can't drive and has no way to get to the sale. Meanwhile Vinton, Mama's only son, drops by the house and announces that he and the kids have been evicted from their house. Now he's hoping that he, his daughter Sonja, and his son Buzz, can stay with Mama until he gets back on his feet. Against Fran's wishes Mama agrees. Vint gets the basement, Buzz gets the attic, and Sonja gets Fran's writing studio because she refuses to sleep on the couch. Fran is outraged by this, and her and Mama have a huge argument about it. Fran's mood turns even more sour when she finds out Sonja stumbled up on the book that she'd been working on recently and reads it. Fran says it's an invasion of her privacy and finally makes the decision that she'll move out. Because she can't take the stress anymore. Of course Mama had no idea that Fran was actually writing in her studio. But later as things settle down a bit, her and Mama have a heart to heart and she changes her mind and decides to stay after all.

Vint and Buzz go to a bachelor party in celebration of Vint's impending marriage to Naomi. Meanwhile back at the house, Fran, Ellen, and Mama are decorating the living room when Naomi arrives with a bottle of wine (which Ellen claims is cheap). They get drunk and learn that Ellen thinks her husband, Bruce, is cheating on her with his secretary Peggy. Everyone pretends to be shocked at the news, but had thought that all along and try to convince Ellen that she is wrong. She phones his office and is surprised that Bruce answers and says that Peggy is a saint for letting him keep her there that late and that Ellen didn't to wait up for him. Ellen remarks that the only thing that could ruin this day is if Eunice showed up. The ladies start taking about how Eunice wants to sing at the wedding and all agree it would be a total disaster. Eunice arrives through the back door and over hears the conversation and obviously becomes upset. Coming into the living room she looses her cool. Blabbing t

The day of the wedding is at hand, and Vint and Naomi are ready to tie the knot. While Eunice still wants to sing her solo, she first asks Vint who says she'll have to talk to Naomi about it. Mama then gives Vint his daddy's ring as a wedding present, problem is Eunice thinks it's her ring, because Carl always wanted her to have it. While Naomi is getting ready she shows Eunice the ring, saying it's something blue and she prepares to wear it around her neck. Vint and Naomi say their vows and Eunice, who is already upset at Mama for giving her ring away and has had a few to many beers, prepares to sing her solo in front of the whole crowd. She starts yelling at Mama half way thru about the ring and Mama yells back and it turns into a free-for-all, with Eunice insulting everyone and eventually Ed has to carry out. Later,Mama and Fran sit on the couch, and enjoy the peace and quiet that they now have. Vint (who decided to take the kids afterall), Naomi, and the kids have left for Arizona.

Mama is complaining about not having done nothing with her life, so Naomi suggests she get a job. So Mama heads down to the employment agency, and after freaking out taking the entry test, she has to go through an interview. The Clerk suggest she doesn't have much of a chance of getting a job, until she remembers Raytown Travel is looking for a new secretary. Mama takes the job and starts that Saturday. Mr. Vogelman, Mama's new boss, gives her a quick tour of her duties and leaves as Mama sets up her desk for the day. First she has trouble with the phone, not being able to get anyone to answer when she picked up (she had to push the lighted button), once she got that down, a couple came in and wanted to book a trip to Tahiti. But then the family calls, having a crisis involving Buzz' missing shoes and Sonya locking herself in the bathroom, and soon enough Mama starts being rude to everyone, and Mr. Vogelman decides she's just not the right person for the job so he fire's her.

Vint, who has a bowling tournament, wants Mama to wash and iron his shirt and have dinner ready early. Then Fran, who has an awards banquet that night, asks Mama to iron the dress she plans to wear. Ellen comes by to pick Mama up and has to remind her of the her appointment she has. So Mama's is in a rush to get to her hair appointment, and she burns a whole in Fran's dress. Ellen and Mama then go to Neidermeyer's in hopes they can find the same dress. After finding it and having to pay $55 for it, Fran comes home early and try's it on. Vint then comes in and finds out Mama not only didn't fix dinner early, she didn't iron his lucky yellow shirt either. As for Fran's dress, turns out it's the wrong dress and it looks almost nothing like the other one. Fran throws a fit and her and Mama have a huge fight. In the end Fran decides to wear another dress.

Claude, having come up with another hair brained scheme, tells Vint that he has a good deal, and Vint could make $1600 (and Claude will make $400 for a finders fee). The plan is for Vint to marry a girl from Portugal who needs her green card to stay in the country. The Family finds out accidently, when Mr. Costa and Zenada drop by for an unannounced visit. It seems Zenada will have to stay with the family for a few days to make it look like a real marriage. Which Mama is of course flat out refusing to let her do. Mama is out bringing in the laundry, when Naomi comes over to complain about the sap falling on her car from Mama's tree. When Mama tells her about the marriage, and she tells Mama how illegal it is and how she saw it on 60 minutes. Seems Vint could get a felony for false marriage if he goes threw with it. Claude and the bride to be stop by to drop off her roll-a-way bed and a few of her things. When Mama starts screaming and manages to explain a few things. Vint begins to rea

Eunice is telling Mama how bad her life sucks, while at the same moment making everyone else's life a living hell too. That's when Buzz comes in and tells Mama about how he just made the debate team after listening to a positive thinking tape. Eunice and Mama both shrug it off as nothing, that is until Eunice gets home and Ed wants his supper, and she starts listening to the tape while she starts dinner and it begins to work. The next day Eunice shows up at Mama's house with presents and a new sunny out look. She gives Vint the old movie reels of their childhood and Naomi gets the ear rings she's been admiring. Eunice then announces she got a role in a play at the Pepper Pot Playhouse. Problem is, her rehearsal schedule conflicts with a sale that she was gonna take Mama too. So she invites Mama to go with her and go to the sale afterwards. Eunice plays ""Sadie"", a small but important part, according to Eunice. With Mama sitting by they make a run through of Eunice's lines and then the d

Mama's going on about Vint's friend Claude being a bum and everything, when Ellen finally brings Mama's silver back. Mama wants Vint to put it up right then, so no one will steal it. But he first gets a call from Claude, who needs a favor. Seems Claude got in a bar fight and he's locked up in jail and needs $250 for his bail. Vint catches Ellen before she leaves and asks her, but she refuses. So he pawns Mama's silver to get the money. The next morning Mama goes to put some stuff away in the closet and discovers it's gone. She wakes Vint up and he admits he took it and pawned it. Blowing her top Mama tells Vint to get her silver back and he then tells her why he needed the money. That only serves to get her madder. In the midst of the screaming match, Vint decides to leave, and Sonya says she can stay with Nancy. So Vint goes to the basement to pack his stuff, but Mama can't stand to see him go and calls him back upstairs and in their own way they make peace, at least for a few moments

Mama, Vint and Ed throw Eunice a suprise birthday party at the bigger jigger, problem is she's hoping for a trip to the Babalonian Roof Gardens. The birthday party soon turns ugly as Vint mentions Duke Reeves (he has a poster on the bar announcing his run for congress), who came to the house one day with flowers wanting to take Eunice out for a soda. But Mama turned him down and sent him away. Eunice starts making a huge scene about Duke being the only man she's ever loved. Vint goes to pick up Naomi and Ed goes to read the bathroom walls, when the argument escalates into an all out fight, and Eunice ends up punching a cop out and Mama wacks one with her pocket book and Mama and Eunice end up in jail. Scarlet, a hooker, arrives soon after they do and their fighting soon gets on her nerves and she tries to mediate a truce. She then tells them about her Mama and how she hated her every day, until she died and how she wished she was still living. Mama and Eunice make up just as Ed comes t

Buzz and Sonya are getting ready for the the high school's Homecoming dance, when Vint tells the kids they both have to be in by midnight. Both complain, but Sonya (who's older) doesn't understand why she has the same curfew as Buzz. Vint says it's because she's a girl. Later Vint tells Buzz to take an extra hour if he wants. Which really upsets Sonya when she finds out, she tells Vint that she might not be back on time and storms out with her date. Vint, Mama and Fran are sitting up waiting to see if Sonya will be home on time. When Buzz comes home an hour before midnight, seems his date thought he was a jerk and dumped him for a football player. Just as Vint is getting worried, Sonya shows up still pissed and screams at Vint again. She storms off again into the kitchen and Mama follows where she finds out, Sonya had to come home, because her date had a curfew of midnight himself.

Mama is all dressed up as Fran gets back from the store and she wonders ""Who Died?"", Sonya soon asks the same question, before Mama reveals she has a date with an old beau she hasn't seen in some 40 years. Much to the family's objections Mama goes out with her old him. After staying out most of the night on there first date and having such a great time, not to mention worrying poor old Fran half to death. Woody asked Thelma to go up to the lake with him like they did 40 years ago. She readily excepts to everyone's surprise. The family protests, most notably Vint, but Mama goes anyway. When they reach the cabin Mama gets nervous and starts an argument much like she did 40 years ago. After discussing the situation over a beer they both decide they made the right decision so long ago and end up coming home earlier than either had planned.

Didi, an old friend of Naomi's and a professional wrestler, talks Naomi into being a last-minute substitute for her ailing tag-team partner for a match. When Mama accidentally knocks Didi out just before the match, Naomi and Mama have to wrestle against Didi's weighty opponents.

Vinton learns that he is about to lose his job because Kwik Keys is being shut down by the new owners, a corporation called Bernice. When Bubba discovers that an old stock certificate Mama owns is now ten shares of Bernice, she sets out to save Vinton's job.

When Mama slips on a roll of pennies in the bank, the family suggests that she sue the bank. To this end, she hires a sleazy lawyer Settlement Sam and fakes serious injuries.

After watching detective movies on TV for a week, and hearing that Iola's mother is missing, Mama dreams that she is a film noir-style detective hired to find her client's mother.

Bubba's off to a rally for the homeless, as Mama and Iola are off to the Rayplex, while Vint and Naomi are headed out to route five to see the new housing development. Mama gives Bubba $20 just in case he needs it and then he accidently packs her wallet in his back pack and heads out. She only notices this as her and Iola are leaving. So Mama heads for the rally to get her wallet back and Iola heads for the theatre. But Mama gets arrested along with the the other's at the rally and gets locked up, even though she tries to convince them she's not homeless. The phone is busy when she calls home so she's out of luck and into the cell she goes. Where she discovers that the people there are much like her, including her Cousin Cora.

Trying to update the church's phone directory is hard enough, but having to do it with everyone running in and out is impossible. But fortunately for Mama her wishes of a quite house are answered. First Bubba announces that he's pledging a fraternity called ""Sigma Alpha Pie"" or ""SAP"" and will be away all weekend. Then Iola asks Mama to watch her goldfish for the weekend while she takes her parents on a trip. Vint gets a call next and he and Naomi are invited to use a friends cabin all weekend. Mama anticipates a few days of peace all alone, but after finishing the update on the phone directory and realizing the Tv is on the blink and not being able to read, she is totally consumed with boredom. So much so that she starts talking to the goldfish, while also over feeding him. Not to mention reorganizing the kitchen is a complete failure as she ends up out on the front Porch ""Singing in the Rain"" literally.

Vint and Naomi are doing their taxes while Bubba works on Mama's, but their using the long form and she's using the short. So they figure out they'll get a $300 refund, while Bubba tells Mama she'll owe $250.T hat is until she starts listing items she could deduct. Like pies she made for the bake sale and clothes she gave away for a rummage sale.

Mama, Fran and Naomi take Vint to the Bigger Jigger to try and cheer him up over not getting a promotion at Kwik Keys. Naomi then convinces Vint to do his Fred Astaire routine for the Jigger's talent show. She rushes home to get his costume and sheet music and arrives back to find him nervous and about to quit. But after some urging from Naomi he goes on and he's a smash hit and wins the contest, along with the $100 prize and is invited back for the Saturday night show But Vint let's the little success go to his head. He first buys a new jump suit and changes his stage name to ""Vinnie Vegas"". Even going so far as to change his routine to something completely different. Mama and Fran (who he fired) refuse to go and after he tells Naomi to act like one of his groupies and not his wife, she stays home to. But Mama, Fran and Naomi soon realize how big a flop he's gonna be and they rush to the Bigger Jigger to stop him. They arrive in time and Mama pulls him into the men's bathroom, which f

Mama and Iola are working hard on a homemade quilt to enter an upcoming contest when Iola comments about the house being so quiet lately. Vint and Naomi arrive home from visiting a friend of their's who just had a baby girl. Which gives Naomi the idea that she wants one too. Mama's dead set against the idea and makes it clear to Vint about her feelings. When that bit of pushing fells to get through. Mama decides to give them a taste of what having a baby is like. So, thinking they have a day off, she sets a little plan into motion to discourage them. Namely asking to babysit for one of her neighbors, who has a baby with a real penchant for high pitched crying. Problem is Naomi and Vint have decided to go into work late, leaving Mama to baby sit little Garth. It's a chore to finally get him to stop crying, but every time Mama gets him to be quiet someone slams a door and he starts again. In the end, Mama is wore out and falls asleep right as Naomi and Vint come in.

Naomi's ailing and all the signs point to her the Stork being on the way for her and Vint. A fact that Mama is the first to discover, after administering ""Aunt Ida's Tater Masher Test"". Naomi is hesitant to tell Vint, because he wanted to wait to start their family until they get their own place. Mama accidently spills the beans to Buzz and Sonya, who think it's great. But Fran is worried how they can manage having another person in the house. Vint's surprisingly favorable reaction to the news, prompts a discussion as to were it will be sleeping. A screaming match results as no one wants to give up their room. Naomi,wanting to make sure she is pregnant, makes an appointment.The doctor runs some tests and tells her to wait. One by one the family arrives at the doctor's office, First Mama and then Vint, followed Buzz and Sonya, lastly Fran. All have ideas on what they should do for the baby. Mama settle it by saying the babies bunking with her. Unfortunately come to find out, it was a

Bubba wants to borrow $200 to buy a new drum set, while Iola's upset that she can't get her jewelry box open to put her pearls away, so she brings the box over for Vint to open. When he can't, Bubba quickly borrows a bobby pin and opens it easily. Iola heads home only to return a few minutes later in search of her beloved pearls, which have mysteriously disappeared. Iola is quick to accuse Bubba, who comes in with a brand new drum set, claiming he borrowed them from a friend of a friend who's name he forgets. Pretneding to defend Bubba, Mama throws Iola out. Now convinced, she too accuses Bubba. Feeling betrayed by his own family Bubba attempts to run away from home. She finds him at the ""Rayhound"" station and tells him the story of what happened when Eunice tried ran away.

When Mama traumatizes Vinton at work with the "Binky Bunny" lunchbox she made for him when he was a kid, she must find a way to cure him of his trauma before he loses his job.

A man from the State Department asks the Harpers to host a Russian national named Olga for one day as part of "Project Heartland."

Mama's sworn enemy and next door neighbor, Fred Gebhart blows leafs back into Thelma's yard which starts a screaming match that has to be broken up by Iola.She then makes Bubba rake up the leafs,where he meets Fred's grand daughter Terri,who just moved to Raytown.The attraction is instant between them. After only two dates Bubba and Terri announce their getting married.Which makes both Fred and Thelma insist they break up.Vint and Naomi think it's great as does Iola,as this becomes the topic of conversation until Thelma can't handle it anymore. Fred then comes to visit and they come to realize that since their gonna be in-laws they had better try to settle the feud.It comes out that the whole fued had nothing to do with them,it was actually there spouses who did everything.So they bury the hatchet.