Jack & Bobby

- Season 1

(2004)

In flash-forwards to the year 2049, White House staffers and the First Lady are interviewed, giving a midcentury perspective on the man who beat the odds and became one of the greatest leaders of his time.

Emotive hippie professor Grace McCallister continues to make life impossible for everyone. She fights chancellor Peter Benedict for executing administrative staff cuts imposed by board budget choices, meaning Vera Vaughn is also out, and because he refuses to continue the unbroken tradition of the Moonlight address to the student body at midnight before the new college year- he gets her to discuss it at dinner, walks out tired of her constant and ill-considered abuse, but still offers her an alternative: she may hold the address. At home, Grace rages to assembled ...

Bobby is admitted to the Challenge program for the academically gifted, but the 'cool' friends he makes there are vindictive vandals who drag him along into trouble, even wreck the kind janitor's shrine for his son who died in war. Ever-selfish ma expects Jack to drop everything and mind Bobby for her while she leaves in a hurry for an inter-faculty bonding event, but Jack decides instead to host the team party which he would have missed when it loses its venue, allowing even the water-polo team to join in. The brothers can't enjoy it much, mounting guard on door and ...

(...) Hopeless mother Grace McCallister not only has a problem with Jack getting on with his dumb blond ex Missy again, she actually objects to her bright eldest son's choice to get back to church. Meanwhile the inconsiderate atheist gets embroiled in more disputes concerning religion at college herself. ...

Eternal social activist Grace decides when Vietnam veteran Jonah Babbage, who since 15 years drifts on the Plains State campus writing obscene Hippie 'poetry', looses his shack to construction of sports accommodation paid for by a major donation, to take him in as 'house guest' till she finds him a permanent home -nothing Christian!-, despite both brothers' strong protest- Jack is furious, Bobby initially terrified by the dirty, ugly, grumpy nut-case. Meanwhile Goth girl Dex decides to shamelessly abuse the boys toilet at school as her dirty 'office' and scares Bobby ...

Mad mother McCallister drags poor Bobby out of bed for breakfast three hours early in the morning invoking some study the brain learns better in the morning, but his tutor, her friend professor Steven Feltz, realizes a thirteen-year old boy's grades go down because of girl-troubles, standard, Jack adds the magical ingredient for kid bro's upcoming exam: his lucky cap; alas the Goth girl convinces him to use a cheat-sheet he didn't need... Chancellor Peter Benedict offers Grace a seat in a committee to decide about student Sara's claim of damages from the university ...

After Goth girl Ellen 'Dex' kisses him in the fitting boot, Bobby worries about his tongue skills; Jack won't teach him, Dex enjoys it but they get caught by ma and big brother, who knows her floozy rep, but Dex's parents and Bobby resist Grace's mindless objections. College guy Dave Wild invites Courtney and friend to a frat party, she's livid to learn pa tried to scare Wild off as chancellor, ever-meddling feminist Grace is even harder on both dad and the suitor. Grace is unflatteringly surprised that Tom Wexler Graham chose to be tutored not by her but by older ...

Feminist fury Grace manages to blame Tom and his 'apathic generation' for signing up 180 girls in a Democrat election party she could only interest 20 students in, next pours her invariably useless haughty advice over Bobby, who is crushed by Dex's rejection, causing him to publicly embarrass himself and finds out Jack talked to the Goth girl, trying to save kid brother from social suicide. When Bobby retaliates by telling Missy about Jack and Courtney's kiss, ma finds them fighting and proves the pointlessness of her 'conflict resolution'. Fortunately the boys' good ...

Bobby is determined to repay chancellor Peter Benedict for 'saving his life' by doing chores, even if it turns out harmful for him or the home, till Benedict discovers him as talented chess partner and promising pupil instead- until he's caught losing on too respectful purpose, but Bobby is soon back bursting with belligerent confidence. While Tom persists in asking Grace's pointless 'academic advice', Jack is furious to desperate when she insist to make his social nightmare come true: meeting girlfriend Missy's non-revolutionary parents reverend and Evelyn Belknap at...

The brothers are understandably suspicious when culinarily hopeless ma announces she's going to cook a Thanksgiving turkey for their guests. Jack's longstanding friend Matt Kramer has committed suicide, his class goes trough grief counseling. After seeing Tom hold hands with Leslie, an ex his age, Grace tells him no romantic involvement between them is possible and gets a surprise visit from her equally flippant, erudite, openly gay kid brother Jimmy, who is great with Bobby and can tell the boys more about their dad, which Grace avoids since he left them, but also ...

Jack gets condoms, feeling it's time to get intimate with Missy, but gets caught by Grace, who hopes somehow to talk her first-born out of premarital sex before college. Meanwhile, Bobby tries to help his friend Warren to get a girlfriend. Putting the trash out at his restaurant job, Jack is the victim of a gang which catches him and roughs him up brutally, a cruel beating for the athlete's body and even worse for his pride and confidence.

After his cowardly roughing-up by a gang while putting out the trash at his restaurant job, Jack decides to return to daily athletic team training, leaving Bobby without a jogging partner, but refuses to involve the police just for suddenly pseudo-maternal Grace's sense of 'civic duty'. Courtney meets charming Sig frat pledge Nate Edmonds by freeing him from the tree in the chancellor's home front lawn which he was tied to naked by way of hazing, albeit cupping. When Nate invites her to a frat party, she lies to be a Sig(ma), but the real problems are the age-gap and ...

Jack's wrecked knee has also wrecked the family budget; Mindy almost lost interest in him, drags him to her ex Randy's party, where the rivals have a fist-fight. In the doctor's waiting room Jack gets blatantly lectured by inconspicuous scoliosis patient Katie, just for never noticing her before. Grace accepted to spend the weekend naked in Tom's parents' St. Louis property, without even remembering the annual meteor shower camp she promised Bobby six months in advance; Tom decides to go camping there 'coincidentally' instead. As their endless unrelated tattering ...

Bobby wants substitute-father figure Peter Benedict to teach him deer-hunting, badly enough to blackmail hypocrite pacifist meat-eating ma Grace to permit it by threatening to tell Jack about her affair with Tom, who stops her wining about the 'bloody killing' by stripping for love-making- till they see Jack, still on crutches, staring at them in their underwear, most unamused, doubting she can love any more then be honest, disgusted Bobby had to hide it for her, worried he'll be left with the pieces when the age-difference explodes in her face. Courtney uses her ...

Because his mate Warren feels they're ignored by the cool crowd, Bobby decides to organize a sleep-over for them and show a porn DVD on his PC, which he must steal from the video-store- of course the disk itself is missing unless you pay; only a snow storm keeps the cool kids in, but Tom tempts them to indoor 'catch the flag' by promising the winning team a beer each, without telling it's non-alcoholic, still great fun and a feather on Tom's cap. Married but flirtatious professor Roger Hennessy accidentally catches his old flame Grace kissing student Tom, which he ...

Bobby and Warren's odd jobs firm's first customer, an old bag, hires them for a mean job: carry from her garage, reeking of her cats' piss, the boxes stored for months by her cousin Timmy Swain, to put with the trash. When Warren drops a box and goes trough it with dubious motives which Bobby rebukes, they find several wallets, including the one stolen from Jack, who thus is able to identify his violent robber in the hardware store where the fiend works, but is told by police officer Burke prosecution isn't realistic, so he asks Marcus to make sure he doesn't 'get ...

Bobby has a school preparation on his ancestry, which requires help from ma about her and pa, but as Jack warned it's hard enough to get her to start talking at all, about pa she sticks to the utter lie the Mexican busboy was a Chilean archaeologist. Instead of behaving like an educator she even insists Bobby either goes along with her fake family history or takes a failing grade 'for once'. Because of a suspicious classmate's questions he's found out and utterly embarrassed, but still she expects him to accept 'she has a good reason', so finally he breaks open the ...

Jack no longer considers Katie his dream-partner, wanting Courtney back, but she has also pawned her heart to another... Grace proudly accepts to make a speech...

When Missy tells Bobby she's pregnant of his baby, all Grace's feminist obsession simply subside to tell him there's no greater burden then raising a child alone, except doing so with a girl like Missy. Reverend Belknap could equally have spared himself the trouble to preach about Christian duty, atheist Jack feels it's up to him to do the right thing and wreck his life. Courtney finally manages to make Missy admit to her and ultimately to Jack the father is not him bur her irresponsible ex Randi... Meanwhile Bobby's exploration of religious services has concluded he ...

It's not bad enough that Grace ignores Bobby's warning not to volunteer as chaperon for his class trip, she pedantically takes over from the admiring female history teacher and turns the weekend in Philadelphia into such a teenager hell that all his classmates blame the poor boy, who cleverly gives her exactly what she deserves: their own declaration of independence, providing she may never play any part in any class activity. Yet Bobby grants her some time together, without third parties... Jack scolds Missy for attending a party with Randy, only to hear startled ...

After the accident, Jack wisely refuses Grace's 'help', but decides to tell the police he was driving, so his drunk teammate Marcus avoids criminal prosecution. Bigot reverend Belknap tells the boys to stay away from Missy's funeral and delivers a grim sermon without any compassion for the sinful kids coming to Old Testament justice, even her, which his wife Evelyn leaves him for. Warren makes a big production out of a prankish collection for a time capsule to commemorate their transition from junior - to senior high school with Bobby, but when he hears from Grace ...

When Grace drags poor Bobby along to Huntsville, the clever kid works out it's for the only notable institution there, a jail. He learns their Mexican dad, Juan Roberto Alba, is doing time there, she claims it's a mistake. Jack is furious that she took his kid brother there, and decides to come along to protect him. When Bobby, who first thanks Peter for being his de factor substitute father, wants to finally meet his biological pa, ma confesses she lied again: Juan may never be released as he was convicted for homicide. Now Bobby is disgusted and refuses to come, but...