Step by Step

- Season 1

(1991)

The Lamberts move in with the Fosters and the kids are fighting right off the bat. Frank and Carol want the kids to think they are dating but Frank accidentally announces that they got married in Jamaica. Al is having stomach pains and Frank believes she is faking it so she doesn't have to go to school. Carol takes Al to the doctor and it turns out that Al was not faking the pain and she needs to have her appendix removed. For a short time, the kids forget their rivalry and are more concerned with Al.

Al asks the pitcher to her baseball team to the school dance. He says yes but when another girl that he likes more ask him he breaks the date with Al. Al is then devastated and her and Mike ask for Karens advise and she makes it worse because no ones ever broke a date with her. Steve Urkel sees her disappointment and tries to cheer her up and it works. They end up going to the dance together while shes wearing a flowery dress. There Roger (the pitcher) notices how pretty Al is without her catchers mask on so he asked her to dance. Of course, she doesn't and tells him ...

Carol's penchant for micromanaging the household had worked well for the Fosters, but it isn't with the Lamberts now part of the family. Frank objects to his having to cash in special "tokens" that will allow him to watch 30 minutes of television, but that's nothing compared to how Al feels about Carol's rules. When Carol refuses to accept Al's criticism, she announces plans to move to Milwaukee to live with her grandmother.

Frank and J.T. are tickled pink when cousin Cody, the cool demolition natural who lives in his van, arrives for a weekend visit. J.T. naughtily bets that even he can't charm Barky into a date. Carol is hopelessly and misleadingly unclear about her expectations for the first wedding month-'anniversary'. So Frank simply buys a super-saw in a hardware-sale, but he finds a Jamaica-nostalgic alternative.

J.T., who needs extra money, agrees to work for Frank. Frank is thrilled though J.T. doesn't feel the same way. After failing horribly there, J.T. works for Carol as a shampoo boy. The only good thing about working as a shampoo boy is that J.T. can touch girls and not get in trouble. Dana needs to build a birdhouse and Al has to write a report on Tom Sawyer. To get decent grades, they switch assignments. Eventually, Brendan points out that it is cheating. After seeing Al's birdhouse, Frank and Al end up talking about construction.

Carol wants the family to bond so she thinks the Port Washington games is the best way to do it. The Lamberts, who have won three years in a row, don't want the Fosters on their team simply because they are not athletic enough. The Fosters find the games to be barbaric but they eventually agree to participate. The Lamberts are devastated when they learn Cody will not be there to help them win for a fourth straight year. Karen turns out to be the secret weapon as her beauty distracts the opponents. It comes down to the last event and Cody shows up to help the Lamberts ...

Carol discover's at Brendan's 6th birthday that a traditional Lambert bowling day isn't his preference, so she arranges a regular kids party, with popular clown Yo-Yo. Alas the star cancels at the last minute, so Frank steps in. Meanwhile the authorities reported Frank and Carol's Jamaican wedding was illegal, so a city hall repeat is required. Unlike Frank, Carol insists on a romantic production. As the reverend she wants to reside is about to leave, it has to coincide with Brendan's party and actually gets merged in.

Dana and her friend Bernice want to see their favorite folk singer at a bar called Jake's. At first, Carol lets her go but later learns from Frank that it is a very dangerous place so she forbids Dana to go. Dana feels that Frank is controlling her so she goes anyway. When Cody learns that Dana went to Jake's, he rushes there and beats up several thugs. Eventually, the numbers are too great and the other thugs are about to beat up Cody. Just then Frank comes in to help Cody. The two of them beat up the others and Dana is saved. Though Frank breaks his hand, Dana ...

Since Carol insists on joint activities, Frank agrees to join her to the opera if the Fosters join camping, a favorite Lambert pastime. The Foster kids wine non-stop from the start, and soon get some reasons, such as a truck parking incident which strands them till the park ranger's weekly visit. Cody realizes they're missing, and goes tracking, but so does a bear, really close.

Cody tries to impress Dana and gets a job as a corporate executive. His job is to put prizes in the quarter machines for the young kids. He puts kids before profit and ends up getting fired. The family decides that an answering machine is needed to retrieve messages. Karen gets a call from a crush named Bobby, but neglects to tell Frank that there was a message for him saying the building he is supposed to remodel is getting demolished. Frank nearly gets killed and Karen gets punished.

A show called "America Up Close" is doing a "blended family" segment and the Foster/Lambert family is chosen. Carol is embarrassed because the whole world will see that the kids constantly fight. Carol's prediction was correct and she ends up making Frank sleep on the couch. Dana convinces the other kids to be nice to each other. The next day during filming, the kids are nice to each other and Carol and Frank make up.

Carol's car is doing pretty much everything except running correctly so she and Frank decide they need a new car. Frank brings Carol to his pal's car lot. Frank tries to get a good deal but Carol gets the better deal. J.T. has a date so he uses Carol's car, then someone borrows the car from J.T. Penny finds a man who is a mortician. She brings him over for dinner at Frank and Carol's but he talks about his job too much.

J.T. and Cody believe in aliens so Dana and Karen tease them. They try to make the guys like idiots by having a UFO fly over the house. Cody and J.T. learn of the plan and decide to play some mind games of their own. Frank's office is a mess and Carol attempts to help him organize the place. Carol puts all the information into a computer which pleases Frank. Soon after, Carol loses the information that was on the computer. They end up going through a dumpster to find the information that was in shoe boxes. After getting garbage poured on them, they find the boxes.

Frank and Carol go away for the weekend leaving Dana in charge. Dana has only one rule--no parties. The hotel is a dump but Frank and Carol try to make it work. Everything is going smooth until Frank throws his back out. At home, Dana has two friends over for a study group. Since she has two friends over, she allows each kid to have two friends as well. Eventually, a party breaks out. J.T. gets stuck in the chimney just before Frank and Carol get home and the fire department has to come over to free J.T.

After lecturing Dana endlessly about her drivers test, Frank is one day late to renew his license administratively, and fails the written test himself. Al tricks Frank into allowing her to learn drumming. For once she doesn't seem to feel like quitting soon. Dana now even drives Frank, until real traffic proves terrifying and he passes his make-up test.

Mark is doing homework for a classmate because he is being threatened. Carol feels that Mark should confront the bully in a peaceful way while Frank suggests that Mark defend himself. The bully happens to be a girl which gets Al's attention. Al begins to consider Mark a brother and sticks up for him. J.T. is running the 100M for the JV track team and breaks the school's record. Dana has to write a report on J.T. for the school newspaper. She writes a negative article but J.T. gets the typesetter to publish a very positive one.

J.T. helps Al come up with a name for her band and he becomes the manager. The band gets to perform at the bowling alley where Frank just did a remodeling job. The other four girls in the band get the flu and J.T. is forced to get Dana and Karen as replacements. Since no one else is available, J.T. and Cody dress up as girls. The crowd finds out J.T. and Cody are guys and Carol saves the band by performing herself. There is a mouse loose in the house. Frank wants to kill it but Carol believes the mouse should live.

Carol decides to go back to school to finish college. Between that and the beauty shop, there is not much time left for housekeeping. When Frank steps in to relieve Carol of some the work, it becomes apparent that they have both taken on too much.

Frank's contractor friend, John Patterson, invites him and his family to join an exclusive country club. While the Lamberts and Fosters engage in a series of gags, Dana fumes about having to come along in the first place; she's sure she'll be embarrassed by Frank's oafish, clumsy ways. However, she winds up sticking up for her step-father when she finds out the only reason Patterson invited him to join was to make him the butt of cruel jokes.

JT is so desperate to be introduced to school 'hottie' Tina that he agrees to be Dana's slave for a whole humiliating week. Frank's father, grandpa Bill, visits and presents his far younger bride Luanne Dexter to the family. Frank remembers having seen her as bachelor party cake stripper, but they never discuss this matter. When he gathers the courage, Bill doesn't believe him. Date Tina proves a terrible, incompatible snob.

Frank is turning forty and Carol fears he'll go through a midlife crisis and maybe have an affair. So she gets him a boy's dream, flying lessons, and goes along. Unfortunately the flight instructor, Mel, has health problems. Cody and J.T. got him the shower head he wanted for his birthday and insist on installing it themselves - without the instructions. The girls bicker about baking a birthday cake.

Port Washington's Lodge elects Frank as first deputy Grand Mallard. So he can coach Cody to pledge as new member, and supervise that his project isn't too ludicrous even for that bunch. He also gets to MC the Mother and Miss Mallard pageant. Karen sees that as her first step to a modeling career, so Carol can't refuse entering, nor leave after judge Howard overdoes his customary 'flirting'. The grand day arrives for both.