Season 1
20 episodes · Sep 20, 1991
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- S1E1
When Irish Eyes are Smiling
Sep 20, 199130mIt's 1956 Brooklyn, where Jules and Sophie Berger live in the same apartment as their daughter, son-in-law, and two grandchildren, who experience meaningful events in this opener: his budding social life separates 14 year-old Alan from his less mature friends, while 9 year-old Nathaniel meets Dodger great Gil Hodges.
- S1E2
Death in Brooklyn
Sep 27, 199130mFor Sophie, the funeral of her Uncle Ira (whom no one really liked) requires total family attendance—on the Sunday of Alan's Dodger game date with Katie Monahan.
S1E3Boys of Summer
Oct 4, 199130mAlan is asked to be on a television show that showcases young baseball players in a competition at Ebbets Field, winning him the chance to meet several Brooklyn Dodgers players. Depressed after not winning the competition, he goes to visit his father at work while the family worries about his whereabouts.
- S1E4
Sylvia's Condition
Oct 18, 199130mDuring the family gathering for Succoth, a Jewish thanksgiving ceremony, free-spirited Aunt Sylvia, who follows the ""beat"" movement, announces that she is getting a divorce from her husband. Sophie is horrified when Sylvia says she is stifling in the marriage and desperately tries to talk her out of her decision.
- S1E5
What I Did for Love
Oct 25, 199130mKatie is so upset that her school science project didn't work out properly that Alan ""fixes"" the results for her, which only serves to make her more upset; meanwhile, George and Grandpa annoy the women in their lives when they resort to doing a favor for Sid's cousin Morty (the loan shark) to get tickets for a Harry Belafonte concert.
- S1E6
War of the Worlds
Nov 6, 199130mNeither Katie's parents nor Alan's grandparents think they should be dating out of their faith, so the desperate kids arrange a meeting between the two families. Things go from bad to worse during the uncomfortable dinner when obnoxious Uncle Willy and his wife Miriam turn up at the same Chinese restaurant the families have chosen as neutral ground.
S1E7Dinner at Six
Nov 13, 199130mWhile their elders are away at a wedding in Boston for the weekend, Alan and Nathaniel are trusted to stay on their own. Then Warren, inspired by an article in Life, comes up with an idea for a ""dinner party"" with Katie and her friends ""the Marys,"" and Nathaniel is excluded. But the tables are turned on the boys when Nathaniel gets sick and the girls pay more attention to him than to them.
- S1E8
Old Fools
Nov 20, 199130mNathaniel is upset when Jules and Sophie's cousin Myron, once partners in the hatmaking business, have a falling out at the weekly Friday night poker game and stop speaking to each other. In the meantime, Uncle Joel is helping George and Phyllis get through an income tax audit.
- S1E9
Saturday
Nov 27, 199130mOn a ""once in a blue moon"" Saturday, George is off work, so Alan and Nathaniel look forward to having some fun with their dad--but the adults decide ""Family Chore Day"" comes first. Well...that is until Grandpa, George, and the boys end up test driving a beautiful red Buick to Coney Island and Phyllis and Grandma play hookey at the new Danny Kaye movie with a stop for ice cream at Sid's afterward.
S1E10Get a Job
Dec 8, 199130mSid wants to branch out into catering and hires Alan, Warren and Benny to be waiters at his first wedding, but when Benny makes himself sick sampling the food and the three boys begin participating in the entertainment, Sid finally gets fed up. When Alan's dad and grandfather rush to help out, Alan--and finally Warren and Benny--learn a lesson about responsibility.
- S1E11
Where Have You Gone, Jackie Robinson?
Dec 11, 199130mThe weekly ""Cousins Club"" meeting may survive the devastating news that Jackie Robinson has been traded to the arch-rival New York Giants (from the Brooklyn Dodgers)until Aunt Miriam chooses that time to reveal that Uncle Willy has cheated on her with a model named Cookie LaBarbera.
- S1E12
The Gift
Jan 1, 199230mAfter his beloved fourth-grade teacher Miss McCullough announces at ""Open School"" that she is getting married and leaving for Japan with her serviceman husband, Nathaniel is not only devastated, but he refuses to adjust to his new teacher--to the point where he is sent to the principal's office. Meanwhile, Benny's conscience bothers him after he forges a note from his mother.
- S1E13
Boys and Girls Together (1)
Jan 15, 199230mBenny is too shy to ask a girl out on a date, so to help him out, Alan asks Karen Frankel, a classmate Benny has always liked, to a couples-only party, and asks Katie to go with Benny, then they will ""trade"" later on. But Benny develops a crush on Katie and Alan learns that Karen has had a crush on him for years. Meanwhile Sophie and Phyllis help organize a rummage sale which honors the fallen son of a neighbor in aid of a veterans' hospital, while George invests in one of the new Polaroid cameras.
- S1E14
Boys and Girls Apart (2)
Jan 22, 199230mBenny tells Alan that Katie is now his girlfriend and they can't be friends any longer; meanwhile, Karen Frankel further misunderstands her relationship with Alan, and, during preparations for the rummage sale, Aunt Sylvia and Sid seem to be hitting it off.
- S1E15
Boys and Girls Together Again (3)
Jan 29, 199230mKatie finally explains her feelings to Benny and eventually he and Alan resolve their differences--after he makes peace with Karen and Benny has a heart-to-heart with Grandma. Meanwhile, the rummage sale wildly achieves its goal, and Sid invites Aunt Sylvia back to the store for champagne.
- S1E16
On the Road
Feb 5, 199230mPhyllis and George allow Aunt Sylvia to take Alan into Manhattan to Nero's Coffeehouse to hear Jack Kerouac recite poetry, but when they are late coming home, Grandma and Grandpa follow them, whereupon Sylvia and her beat friends and the older folks discover they aren't so different after all.
- S1E17
Great Expectations (1)
Mar 4, 199230mThe results of the NY Standardized Aptitude Test rattle the boys, especially Benny, whose career profile turns out to be ""forest ranger,"" but Alan is even more shocked when he's accepted at the Bronx High School of Science. Feelings are mixed from other quarters although the plethora of relatives Phyllis phones are delighted--but the most reluctant of all may be Alan. Meanwhile, the Cousins Club has agreed to finance Sylvia's new poetry magazine, ""Sludge""--if Sophie doesn't explode at what looks like Sylvia's growing romance with Sid.
- S1E18
A Tale of Two Boroughs (2)
Mar 11, 199230mAlan's reluctance to go to the Bronx High School of Science worries George enough that he has a talk with Mr. Greer about the pros and cons of Alan's attending, but when Alan finally gathers his courage and tells his mother he doesn't want to go, the confrontation hurts both of them--putting George in the middle. In the meantime, Benny seems to be reconciled to being a forest ranger, in a big way.
- S1E19
Rainy Day
Apr 13, 199230mOn the Sunday they were planning to go to the Statue of Liberty--Nathaniel has been studying it in school--it pours, so George proposes that they hold ""Rainy Day Indoor Olympics"" in the hall, but Ring-a-Lievio, hallway hockey, and Johnny-On-the-Pony seem tougher on George than they are on the boys; meanwhile, a hurt cousin Bernard awaits news of his fiancee, who was supposed to meet him on the Number 63 bus and never showed up and Phyllis and Jules try to assemble a jigsaw puzzle of the Statue of Liberty.
- S1E20
On the Line
Apr 20, 199230mDuring a crucial basketball game between Rigo Park and the Jewish Community House junior league, Alan wins two free throws after one of the opposing players makes a foul. One successful basket will tie the hotly contested game, two will win. But as Alan psyches himself up for the task, his imagination runs wild, first in thoughts of what events led up to the game, then in a series of wild flash fantasies in which he fears that if he blows the shot, he will ruin his whole life.