At the last minute, George's speaker at a benefit cancels which leaves him scrambeling to find a celebrity to speak. He sets out to rope Billy Dee Williams into speaking even considering getting a celebrity look-alike. However, George passes himself off as Alex Haley, and Billy Dee agress to speak. Meanwhile, an excited Florence is let down when she mistakes Billy Dee, her idol, for an impersonator.

Florence's latest boyfriend, Buzz Thatcher, proposes marriage which she accepts happily. However, his religious attitudes give Louise a bad feeling about the whole thing.

George is planning a surprise party for Louise in which her gift is a surprise visit from her sister, Maxine. When Louise has a strange reaction to her sister, George is puzzled, unknown to him, her reasons stem to her and Maxine's childhood.

Workaholic George falls asleep in his office, one evening, and has a dream that takes him to the year 1996. In the dream, Louise is celebrating the 22nd anniversary of George's business, who isn't there celebrating, since he passed on a few years earlier.

Louise turns down an offer to be in a play being put on by the Help Center because she wants to spend her evenings with George. However, after an evening at a disco, George catches disco fever and begins spending all night every night at the local disco.

Prompted by Helen, Louise begins taking an art class. However, when George discovers she's been sketching models who pose in the nude, he tries to get her to stop attending class.

The Christmas season brings old friends, Buddy and Zeke, to the Jefferson apartment. With them comes along a long buried secret, one that George can't handle. Buddy and George's mother were once lovers.

Louise has been trying to get a permit for the Help Center but she hasn't been able to get anywhere with the bank. This leads George to go down to the bank and discovers that the banker is an old navy pal of his, one who still holds a grudge over some navy day trickery.

George's new stockbroker is quite a ventriloquist, after he introduces the Jeffersons to his dummy, J.P. However, George has second thoughts about him after he learns that he has spent time in a mental institution.

George decides that he needs a cleaning factory and sets out to find a place for it. Meanwhile, Alan Willis returns to New York and learns that he has inherited a warehouse from his grandfather. Seeing that the warehouse would be perfect for his factory, George goes all out to try to get it, even allowing Alan to move in with the Jeffersons' due to squabbling between Alan and Tom.

Alan moves in with the Jeffersons and George continues efforts to get the warehouse for himself. Meanwhile, battles with the landlord prompt Louise and Helen to try to find a better place for the Help Center.

George is thrilled to get a visit from his favorite cousin, Dusty. George's thrill turns to shock when Dusty asks George for a kidney since his are failing. This leads George to take a long hard look at the pros and cons of parting with one of his organs.

On the evening of her class reunion, Louise discovers in George's will that all of his money would go to her on the condition that she never remarries. This obviously prompts yet another argument resulting in Louise attending her reunion without George.

Florence is reading a novel in which a woman pretends to be different people this gives Florence the idea to act like different people to attract men. While down at the Help Center, she tries it out on a man, unknown to her he's a psychiatrist who becomes convinced Florence has multiple personalities.

When the heat goes out in a few of the apartments in the building, Harry, Tom and Helen convene at the Jefferson's heated apartment, causing cramped space and sore feelings.

George is being considered for a position on a bank's board of directors and when a banker comes over to interview him, Alan and the banker's daughter hit it off. This leads George to worry that because Alan is half black this will jeopardize his chances of getting the position.

Louise is convinced that George and her are in a routine, something that George scoffs at. However, their routine gets shaken up after Louise is brutally mugged resulting in her getting amnesia.

A business trip of Tom's sparks an argument between him and Helen which gets even worse when she discovers that a beautiful blond is accompanying him.

Louise is excited that she's being considered to receive the Volunteer of the Year award due to her work down at the Help Center. However, what she doesn't know is that George is planning to make sure she wins the award by bribing one of the judges.

Harry practically moves into the Jefferson's apartment to avoid his annoying house guest, Felicia. George tries to help him out by giving him tips to throw her out but this results in Felicia thinking that Harry is proposing.

George becomes the holdout when he refuses to sell his first store to a company who is buying up all the buildings on the block. His strategy, holdout to up the offer despite the fact that the company plans to build an expensive apartment building which would put those living there now, out on the street.

Helen gives Louise the news that both of them have been invited to California to attend a convention, however, the planned trip coincides with the date of her wedding anniversary. Meanwhile, George mistakenly plans a business meeting on his anniversary and later at home happily allows Louise to go to California but his joy arouses suspicions in her.

Tom and Alan's fight causes a fight to erupt between George and Louise on the same evening a reporter from Black Life Magazine is to interview them on the subject of happily married life.

George is trying to hide his impotence from Louise and explores many means to cure his problem, including, oysters, medications and even a sex therapist.