Robbie and Katie move into an apartment on the next block and widower Steve Douglas becomes the target of Katie's relentless matchmaking. However, Steve meets a remarkable woman in a high school corridor and the two are quickly attracted to each other.

Robbie needs to talk to his dad-who seems unreachable

The whole Douglas clan conspires to encourage Steve's romance with the lady in question, Barbara Harper. After dinner, Steve and Barbara go back to her house where Steve is predictably nervous around her. They are both serious about their relationship, but neither of them realizes it.

Everyone (Except Barbara) knows Steve is going to propose to Barbara

With the ring finally on her finger, Steve and Barbara's engagement is exciting for everyone except Barbara's five year old daughter who isn't sure she wants to share her mother. Meanwhile, Barbara employs her considerable store of diplomacy in an effort to gain acceptance by Steve's family.

Steve and Barbara have different ideas on how their wedding should go.

After a series of events at which the Bride and Groom wonder if they are doing the right thing, Steve and Barbara have an argument serious enough for them to consider cancelling their wedding.

On Steve's wedding day the groom is predictably nervous. Recalling certain mishaps from his own big day, super efficient Robbie determines that his own father's wedding will be perfect and after a few hours of hectic, last-minute preparations, Steve and Barbara are married in a simple church ceremony.

Steve and Barbara's Honeymoon in a remote fishing village is bustling with hordes of other, younger honeymooners. They end up counselling several couples who are not adjusting to married life. When a bottle of champagne arrives from the family back in Los Angeles, the other honeymooners realise that Steve and Barbara are indeed honeymooners as well.

With Steve and Barbara due back from their honeymoon in Mexico, Katie forces Robbie to lecture Uncle Charley on politeness, and the result of his very puzzling behaviour nearly drives Barbara out of her mind.

Little Dodie feels out of place among her three stepbrothers and her often grumpy uncle, and discovers that being a member of the Douglas family can be a rough and tumble proposition.

When Katie panics as she detects a few gray hairs in her youthful head, a family crisis is not far away. She further worries Robbie by suggesting they discuss preparation of life insurance and superannuation.

When her brothers have more pressing commitments, Steve gets cast in Dodie's school play as a tree, more or less proving Robbie's point that females are instinctive manipulators.

Barbara faces a fiasco when she prepares her first dinner party for Steve's business associates and their wives. The event has Barbara worried to death after a few schedule changes ruin most of her plans. Finally it is Barbara's mother who saves the day.

Barbara is jealous when a glamorous special secretary enters the lives of both Steve and his son, Robbie, and causes a double domestic crisis. Barbara ends up consoling a heartbroken young lady who is eventually fired from her position.

Little Dodie goes to the hospital for a tonsillectomy and insists that her new father stay overnight with her. Barbara understands because she knows that Dodie is finally accepting Steve as her real father. Meanwhile, Robbie and Katie go on a trip to Mexico and leave the triplets in care of the Douglases.

Hoping to renew her funloving friendship, Steve's old girlfriend from Bryant Park, who is now a rich divorcee, comes to town and gives Barbara a few jealous moments.

Robbie is asked to be the best man at the wedding of an old friend from Bryant Park. He decides to go back a week early to show Katie around the town where he grew up but ultimately makes a disappointing visit when he realises that time and years do change things.

Barbara tells her mother that she feels rejected when the boys never tell her their troubles and go to Steve or Charley instead. While Steve is away on business, she is forced to confront one of Chip's teachers when he and another student are accused of cheating in an exam.

Barbara feels that Uncle Charley is lonely playing his Cello, so she talks to a msuic store proprietress who invites three lady musicians to help join in a string quartet.

A Special time consuming project keeps Steve and son Robbie so pre-occupied that they are tired when they arrive home. After the project ends, the co-workers throw a celebration party and when Barbara and Katie arrive with supper for their hardworking spouses, and see a party in full swing, they storm out.

Young Ernie Douglas becomes the unwilling object of the affection of Dodie's six year old friend while Barbara is asked by the Board of Education to take a substitute teacher's job at a local high school. She finds her stepson Chip in the class and he embarrassingly becomes her prized pupil.

A bearded man of mystery confounds the Douglas family and the authorities alike, while Steve is working on a top priority project at home. Barbara soon identifies him as her former father-in-law.

Dodie calls upon her big brothers to help her fight her battles in the school playground when some girls say that Douglas is not her real name. Steve feels he should formally adopt Dodie to make it official but this only solves half of Dodie's problems.

Robbie and Katie have an unpleasant personality clash with the young couple who move into the next apartment in their building. Meanwhile, when Uncle Charley assures Dodie that Katie is her sister, she phones and leaves a message with Robbie. When he forgets to pass it on, a family crisis is not far away.

Chip turns on to economics and is enthralled by the latest book by his accounting teacher, and vows that he will become rich early in life by instituting a break-neck money earning schedule. Whilst working at several jobs, he doesn't take into account the expenses he begins to incur along the way to his goal.

Chip begins studying with a pretty co-ed whose disciplinarian father wants to know why her new friend is spending so much time with her. Meanwhile, on the eve of Steve and Barbara's first wedding anniversary, Dodie announces she is throwing a surprise party, but neglects to tell everyone when or where.

Uncle Charley and Barbara suspect that Chip and Polly are becoming serious about one another. Polly, unhappy at home because of her father's strictness, is afraid of losing Chip because of her parents' meddling. She asks Chip to elope, and taken aback, he asks his father for advice.

Barbara is flustered when she receives a phone call from a former college suitor, and is very apprehensive when Steve invites him to dinner. The entire family is anxious to meet her old flame, thus compounding her uneasiness.

Chip delights Polly with an expensive locket for her 18th Birthday and after their vague conversation, he thinks he's agreed to go steady, but Polly tells her mother that she has become engaged. Perturbed by her husband's probable reaction, Mrs. Williams arranges a luncheon to judge the seriousness of the matter.

Chip and Polly open a joint bank account and Chip takes on a box boy job at a supermarket to accumulate money for their future marriage. Later after she's had an argument with her father, Polly comes to the Douglases with her packed suitcase, but when Chip turns down the girl's offer to elope, she storms out.

Dressed as a cat for a costume party at the home of his employer in Bel Air, Steve goes for gasoline when his car stalls but the police arrest him as a burglar. Meanwhile, Polly notes that there is so much love in the Douglas household, that she just has to become a part of it.

Chip asks Steve's permission to elope, but before he grants it, he insists Chip give Mr. Williams the courtesy of asking his approval too. Chip goes to see Mr. Williams only to have him accusingly flaunt a private detective's report. Realizing that Polly's own father had hired a man to trail them, he storms out before asking for her hand.

Following their elopement to Las Vegas, newlyweds Chip and Polly are beset by nothing but trouble. The universal joint in their car gives out and they have to be towed into town. The hotel where Steve and Barbara stayed is no longer for honeymooners but for singles, and the newlyweds must spend their first night in separate rooms.

After Chip and Polly return from their honeymoon they spend a few days at the Douglases. Soon they move into their own college dormitory, and bridegroom Chip faces a father in law who refuses to speak to his newly married daughter.

Barbara becomes involved in presenting a fashion show for a woman's club luncheon, and Steve reluctantly agrees to become a model for a fashion show, but refuses at the last minute when he realizes he must wear a lacy, ruffled shirt and parade down a runway modelling it.

Chip becomes violently ill after eating Polly's cooking, and she learns from the family that Chip is allergic to some of the foods she's been preparing. Distressed, she feels it would be better for her husband if she left him.

Against his classmate's better judgement, Ernie uses the unwitting Douglas household as guinea pigs for an experiment assigned by his psychology teacher. He cuts inches off Uncle Charley's cane to make him think he is growing taller. Ernie soon finds his father Steve is a little less gullible.

Katie's mother gives Katie and Robbie a vacation by taking the triplets to St. Louis with her for a couple of weeks. Robbie figures that now is the perfect time to do all of the things they haven't been able to do when they had the boys to look after.

A boyhood friend from Bryant Park, rides his motorcycle back into Robbie's life and awakens Robbie's wunderlust with appealing tales of travel and adventure. Intrigued by Jim's stories of freedom, Rob agrees to take a holiday from Katie and the triplets.

Dodie and some of her girl classmates in the second grade get a big crush on Mr. Turley, their new teacher, and right away they make a batch of cookies for him. Dodie's crush begins to fade when she finds out that her Mr. Turley was once one of Barbara's students.

Barbara suspects that a promotion for Steve maybe in the works and as her suspicions become stronger, a routine investigation on Steve's family background turns up some rather startling information when it focuses on Uncle Charley.

Level-headed Katie becomes a jealous, suspicious wife when a pile of circumstantial evidence stacks up against Robbie, as she suspects him of seeing another woman.

Ernie and his friend Elmore both flunk their driving licence tests, while their dates for a dance both pass. Ernie and Elmore take part in a ruse to conceal this situation from their dates, but instead they end up in trouble with the law when they realise they are stranded after a date.

Ernie is left in charge for one day when Steve and Barbara are off to Chicago for a golf tournament while Uncle Charley attends a string music festival. Little Dodie and her friend take a shopping excursion into town but don't have enough money for the bus ride home.

Dodie studying piano, Margaret on the violin and Susan at clarinet, comprise the 'Rondelay trio' and Dodie tells Steve and Barbara the good news that they'll practice at the Douglas house for their upcoming recital.

The rear bumper of Ernie's car is struck by a teenage girl in a parking lot. Ernie's car suffers no real damage but the other car's fender is crumpled. Before very long, this involves Ernie in an ill-fated romance.

Barbara leaves Ernie in charge of looking after Dodie after she has to go shopping. However Dodie goes to her friend Drucilla's house, and when Barbara returns he cannot remember where she is. After Dodie is found, Barbara sends them both to their rooms for the day. Then Ernie and Dodie rebel when they feel that they've been unjustly punished.

Uncle Charley is elated when he gets word that his pugislistic shipmate and buddy is going to visit him in a few days. However, Charley is forced to concede that times and people do change when the tough-talking, bad mannered ex-sailor he once knew isn't so terrible anymore.

Rob is laid off from work, but decides to move with Katie and the boys to San Francisco to accept a job at another company. They move into an apartment and meet several other tenants. One of them suggests Rob is always tired from the burden of supporting his family. Feeling disheartened by this and other remarks, Katie thinks that Rob doesn't want her and the triplets anymore.

Steve's look-alike Scottish nobleman cousin Fergus, comes to America looking for a bride to take back to his hometown of Sithian Bridge and moves in on the entire Douglas family, much to the dismay of Uncle Charley.

When Uncle Charley learns that Fergus is looking for a wife to take back to Scotland to provide him with heirs to carry on the family name, he takes out an ad in the local newspaper in an effort to rid the Douglas home of his nemesis.

Steve's Scottish cousin Fergus, after only one date with Bowling Alley Cocktail Waitress Terri Dowling, proposes but gets turned down by her. She feels inadequate to return to Scotland as royalty, but is eventually persuaded by Steve.

The wedding day for Steve's Scottish cousin and bowling alley waitress Terri Dowling finally arrives amid the traditional confusion and tears. They leave for a three day honeymoon in Las Vegas but Uncle Charley is worried about the lack of thankyou from them.

Having no choice, Steve takes the triplets to work where a secretary offers to take them home until he is finished. However he accidentally loses her details and when she finally rings, she announces that the boys have run out the front door, much to Steve's annoyance.

Chip complains about Polly's lack of sales resistance because they have an apartment full of useless things. But she is trapped by a salesman into giving a dinner party for eight people in exchange for a free set of cookware.

Uncle Charley leaves for a week's vacation in San Francisco but meanwhile, birthdays disrupt the Douglas household, when Barbara, Katie and Polly turn against their spouses over the men's apparent oversight.

Childless young marrieds Chip and Polly Douglas suddenly find themselvs the temporary guardians of several young children including the triplets, when Katie flies to Peru for a weekend rendezvous with Robbie. Meanwhile, Steve, Barbara and Charley go on a camping trip and Barbara isn't exactly Mrs. Daniel Boone -- as Steve eventually finds out.

Barbara's natural enthusiasm bubbles over into an embarrassing evening for Steve and some of his business associates. Barbara explains to Steve that adrenalin gets her going in competition, and she is apprehensive when he is asked to play in his work's bowling team for fear she will make him lose concentration.

Katie Douglas takes a job singing in a small coffee house, but both Steve and Charley have their doubts about the man she is going to work for. After meeting the owner's wife, they realise she is in very good hands.

Polly fears that Chip is losing interest in her as a woman, and she takes some very dramatic steps to remedy the situation. Ernie gets the impression that the marriage is on the rocks when he finds out she is sneaking away from school and making mysterious calls to a man named Andre.

Uncle Charley is persuaded to fill in as a Cello teacher to a small group of reluctant young music students. His teaching methods leave much to be desired as he makes sure that they practice and practice for the upcoming recital.

Katie's triplets are spotted by a talent scout for a production company and are selected to appear in a television commercial. The temperemental Director yells when the boys misbehave and make a shambles of the studio. Grandfather Steve is asked to replace the actor doing the same so the boys will feel at ease.

Katie decides to put the triplets in a nursery school during the day when she fills in for a friend as a secretary, a move that enrages Uncle Charley when he hears about it. Later, it becomes apparent that he goes missing every afternoon causing the family to worry.

A little first grader named Alfred develops a big crush on third grader Dodie Douglas -- much to her displeasure. When Uncle Charley invites him to dinner, Dodie tries to fake illness to get out of it. Very soon Alfred's mother reports that he is missing.

When the Douglas men feel sorry for Katie because of her husband's continued absence, they proceed to overwhelm her with attention by each one of them taking her out to the same restaurant each night.

Dodie commits the entire Douglas family to a time consuming project - the awesome task of getting a four foot tall bag of Peanuts into small little sacks which they hope to sell at the school fair to raise money for Korean orphans.

Steve suddenly becomes accident-prone when his youngest son Ernie tries to discover by graph and observation how the moon's lunar phases affect people's behaviour.

While Steve becomes pre-occupied with a time-consuming project named Taurus, Barbara blossoms forth as a Championship Cook. Her recipe for 'Tangy Tidbits' wins her a trip to Hawaii for the final cookout.

Although Barbara is feeling very ill, she is saddled with the responsibility of looking after the entire Douglas household but in the end, to escape the pressure, she just walks out leaving Steve in a worried state.

The Douglas family becomes concerned about Dodie's despondency when Tramp, the ageing family mongrel, keeps disappearing at night. Meanwhile, Uncle Charley makes her a rag-doll and names it Arfie.

Katie becomes disillusioned about life without Robbie, and seriously thinks about divorce after speaking with another of the wives in the same situation. Meanwhile, Dodie and her two pals campaign to Barbara to let them have a slumber party.

Chip decides to quit his Chemical Engineering studies in favour of a rock music career when he meets up with a former friend who is now a big star. When Barbara visits John in the studio she is baffled by all the switches on the recording console, and realises that professional musicians know what they're doing, so how will Chip handle it?

Steve's boss Bob Anderson and his wife share 'Where-did-we-go-wrong?' panic as they struggle to communicate with their son; Steve and Barbara are the counselors. The teenager is rude and disrespectful to his parents but his insolence doesn't bother them nearly as much as not knowing if he is taking drugs.