The Courtship of Eddie's Father

- Season 1

(1969)

On a movie studio tour, Eddie meets aspiring actress, Dolly Daly, who is recently arrived in Los Angeles and who Eddie sees as a potential mother. Eddie invites her home more as an act of generosity than anything. Dolly accepts, much to Tom's consternation especially since he can't fully explain to Eddie why what he did was wrong. Back at the apartment, Tom tries to explain to Dolly that she can't stay but in a losing battle, he ultimately let's her sleep on the couch. The next morning, Mrs. Livingston sees Dolly on the couch and is angry with Tom for what she sees as...

A romantic situation develops after Tom meets Miss Allen, Eddie's schoolteacher. When Eddie's classmates find out, he's teased and tagged a "teacher's pet."

Tom falls in love, and wants to marry a charming model named Lynn whom he has known for some time. Lynn is also very much in love with him.

Eddie is concerned for Mrs. Livingston, who he sees as being all alone in the world. Eddie first wants Tom to marry her, and when Tom explains to Eddie why he can't and won't marry her, Eddie then brings home five-year old Frank, his Japanese friend, to give to Mrs. Livingston to be her son. Frank seems quite happy with this new arrangement. Tom and Mrs. Livingston are obviously concerned as Frank must have a real family who are concerned of his whereabouts. Eddie explains that Frank doesn't have a mother and father, but that he has a mother and a father: they're ...

Norman and Tina convince Tom to try computer dating as part of a story Norman is doing for the magazine. Tom however wants to make it clear to whomever his date that this is purely an academic exercise. Unfortunately for Tom, Norman bring's Tom's computer date over to the apartment on a day Tom is home sick with a cold. Diane Kirby, Tom's computer match, actually works for the computer dating company and is a fervent believer in the powers of her computer. It's love at first sight between Diane and Eddie, and Diane is attracted to Tom, but Diane is not Tom's type. ...

Eddie dreads his first day of school as he likes his current general routine. Tom forces him to go, but Eddie doesn't make it to first bell as he runs home before class even starts. Tom is frustrated, but is just as upset that Eddie is lying about his reason for running home. Tom tries to appeal to Eddie's sense of logic to convince him to go to school. Day after day, Eddie gets closer and closer to making it through a full day, however he is placing up fences around himself from actually letting himself to like the situation. Tom, feeling at the end of his rope, ...

Eddie gets a new second best friend - Tom will always be his best friend - by the name of Max, who Eddie wants to spend time with when best friend Tom needs to do his adult things. Tom finds out that Max's mother, Betty Kelly, is a single parent, which makes Mrs. Livingston think that Eddie is once again "mother shopping". On Eddie's urging, Tom invites Max over to stay for the weekend, and in turn invites Betty over for dinner on a pseudo blind date. She ends up being everything Eddie explained - beautiful with warm round eyes - and what Tom imagined, but she's also ...

Eddie is embarrassed by a knock-out punch he received from Joey Kelly, who Tom learns is smaller and younger than Eddie. Tom is concerned that Eddie is neither fighting back or defending himself against Joey. The last straw for Tom is when Joey knocks out Eddie's tooth. Tom understands Eddie's behavior when he finally meets Joey. Joey is a girl. It's even more clear when Tom learns of and sees Joey's home-life: she is raised by her single father, Joe, a rough and tumble guy's guys who doesn't know the finer details of raising a girl. A learned trait from her father, ...

Mrs. Livingston appears happy but preoccupied, and Tom discovers she is being courted by a well-to-do Japanese manufacturer, Mr. Saito.

Harvey Henshaw, an old college friend of Tom, stops by unexpectedly, Harvey who is in town on a business trip. Friend is overstating their relationship as Tom, although remembers him, probably would have been happy in life if he never saw Harvey again. Harvey is brash and overbearing. However, Harvey is happy to see his old buddy, Tommy, and ingratiates himself quickly into the Corbett household, especially gaining Eddie's favor, Eddie who calls him Uncle Harvey. Despite initially saying that he doesn't want to impose, Harvey stays for dinner, stays overnight (in ...

Mrs. Livingston is unusually preoccupied with her thoughts, and not in a good way. Tom and Eddie learn what's bothering her: she failed her final English exam. She feels ashamed. She also feels she has brought disgrace to the Corbett household. Based on what Eddie's friend Paul saw on TV, Eddie is concerned that since Mrs. Livingston lost face, she might attempt hari-kari, or what Paul and Eddie call berry-berry. Eddie watches her every move and is concerned when she won't let him in the kitchen and is wielding a knife. Eddie, not knowing what to do, calls Tom at the ...

Norman is working on a wedding themed story, which inspires Tina to want to get married, specifically to Norman. On the spur of the moment, she proposes to him. Norman is flabbergasted since they haven't dated and hardly even know each other. Tom thinks it's a nesting instinct in Tina coming through, but he also thinks it's Norman's fault for his off the cuffs "I adore you" and "I can't live without you" comments to Tina. Norman decides that if he says those things, he must really mean them. So he decides to marry Tina. Talk of weddings brings up questions from Eddie ...

Bob, father of Eddie's friend Danny is an expert on camping. He invites Tom and Eddie along for a weekend trip in the woods to "build character, " as he puts it.

Eddie is feeling left out in school. Eddie's teacher, Miss Lister - who is really Mrs. Rogall - is pregnant and the mothers of her students are planning a surprise party for her. Of course, Eddie does not have a mother. Miss Lister finds out about Eddie's troubles and the party when Eddie writes her a note stating that since he doesn't have a mother, the only thing he can provide for her party is his father. In fact, "Mrs. Tom Corbett" receives a letter asking for her assistance in the party. After conferring with Miss Lister, Tom does decide to become Eddie's mother ...

Tom's sister-in-law, Kate, is in town for a visit. Eddie doesn't even know he has this aunt, Tom protecting him from memories of his mother who Kate strongly resembles physically. Tom thinks that family is family and decides to let Eddie meet his Aunt Kate. Kate may look like her sister, Tom's deceased wife Helen, but has a very flamboyant personality. In Tom's eyes, Kate is kooky and irresponsible. After Kate takes Eddie on an outing, Tom feels that Kate may not be the best influence on Eddie, especially since he thinks that Eddie's impressionable mind would think ...

Because Eddie's progress at reading is going slowly, Tom thinks a good solution is to get Eddie a library card. It does the trick as Eddie is enthralled both with his very own library card and by association the book he checked out with it. Tom tells Eddie that having a library card comes with some responsibility, which Eddie apparently forgets as the book becomes overdue. What's worse however is that he can't find the book. Eddie turns his room upside down to locate the book, but to no avail. Eddie's friend, Alice, tells Eddie that he's going to go to jail for losing...

Eddie has a serious problem: he's in love, or at least he thinks he is. The object of his love is Elsie, who just moved in down the hall. He thinks the feeling is mutual since she is keeping a pair of his sneakers for good luck. But not to place pressure on himself or Elsie, Eddie asks Tom to throw him an early birthday party so that Elsie will be just one of several people there on their first "date". Tom, with Mrs. Livingston's assistance, agrees. Elsie is the first to arrive, and based on her actions, it does seem like she likes Eddie as much as he likes her. ...

Retired school teacher, Miss Bristol, moves in down the hall from the Corbetts. The Corbetts and Miss Bristol soon become fast friends. Well meaning in her actions, she individually tells both Eddie and Tom that they spend too much time together, implying to each that perhaps the reason being that the other feels dependent upon the other, rather than the want really to spend the time together. Miss Bristol says so since she thinks that Eddie preoccupying Tom's time prevents Tom from meeting and spending time with women - potential mothers for Eddie - and Tom ...

There is a love triangle in the Corbett household. Eddie has a new babysitter, fifteen year old Glori, a recent transplant from New York. Glori is the best babysitter that Eddie has ever had, and admits to Tom that he wants to marry her since he and she think alike. Glori has great fun with Eddie as well, and even offers to babysit for free. But Glori has her romantic eyes on someone else: Tom. Eddie asks Glori to marry him, although he realizes they would have to wait, eighteen years to be precise. Glori lets Eddie down easy, saying that eighteen years is a long time...

When Eddie tells Mrs. Livingston that she is just like a mother to him, Mrs. Livingston knows that it is time for her to leave the Corbett household for good. She doesn't want to be an obstacle for whoever the eventual Mrs. Corbett will be in the lives of either Tom or especially Eddie. So Mrs. Livingston quits immediately and tells Tom the reason. However, Tom still needs a housekeeper and Eddie still needs a caretaker. This is evident the day after, when the first disaster happens when Eddie needs to get dressed (Mrs. Livingston used to pick out his clothes), and ...

Tom needs to find a suitable guardian for Eddie, just in case something happens to him. Tom and Helen's list of relatives is relatively short from which to choose. Helen's sister, Kate, is unsuitable since she is constantly traveling. Helen's parent's are too elderly. That leaves Tom's mother. Eddie doesn't really know his grandmother all that well as she lives in San Francisco, and doesn't visit all that often. So Tom thinks it's a good idea to bring his Mom to Los Angeles for a visit, although he doesn't tell her or Eddie the reason. Tom's mother is formal, stern ...

Mrs. Livingston, who is in the United States on a visitor's visa, has been turned down in her application for a permanent resident's visa. Thus the Immigration Department plans on deporting her back to Japan. Immigration has referred her file to the Department of Employment for their assessment of Mrs. Livingston's "exceptional abilities" that would qualify her to stay under that proviso. Miss Harriet Ritter, in charge of Mrs. Livingtson's file, is a self-important, self-absorbed woman, who will not listen to Tom's arguments for letting Mrs. Livingston stay. She ...

Norman wants to go on a crash diet. He has a photo shoot in three days and thinks he looks fat. So he takes sanctuary at the Corbett household for the duration, where he knows Tom and Eddie will keep him on the straight and narrow on his diet. Planning to go solely on a watermelon diet, Norman doesn't have an easy time. First he has to contend with watching Tom and Eddie eating Mrs. Livingston's delicious cooking (Japanese style, of course), and after a little while just getting plain hungry from his lack of food. The entire household helps by going for a jog with him...

The magazine has a new majority stockholder, Cynthia Drummond-Randolph, or "Cissy" as she is known to her friends. She's beautiful, stylish, wealthy, philanthropic, conservative and everyone at the magazine is nervous about meeting her. The only person who isn't nervous about meeting her is Norman, who has a chance encounter with this beautiful woman without knowing who she is. Norman is not exactly her type, both in a personal and professional sense, as she does not trust or understand free spirits such as him. After touring the operation, she not only recommends, ...

Tina is on a new astrology kick after the magazine researches an article on such. Based on her chart, she is convinced that she cannot no longer work for Tom since their signs are the worst for each other, so she quits without warning. Tina's replacement is Maryanne Atwater, who is young, beautiful and highly efficient. She knows what Tom wants even before he does. Tom and her astrological signs are the perfect match. And after she brings Tom and Eddie their dinner on an evening she knows Mrs. Livingston is off, Eddie thinks she's "neat-o". However, Tom doesn't think ...

Tom, Mrs. Livingston, Norman and Tina all receive an envelope in the mail, each containing ten, crisp, new $100 bills. None of them know who their secret benefactor is. Beyond each having a different reaction to the money and what to do with theirs, each does want to find out who sent them the money. The only clue is that the address on the envelope was typed on a toy typewriter, just like the one Eddie has. Later at home, Tom hears Eddie typing away behind closed doors in his bedroom. Tom walks in on Eddie typing an envelope. Tom also sees a wad of money in Eddie's ...