To Meg's utter amazement she is asked to dance by Bandstand regular Jimmy Riley,before he is whisked away by another regular Teresa. J.J. quietly rejoins the football team. While Henry's son Sam earns a track scholarship to almost-all-white East Catholic. Jack invites Sam to dinner to meet J.J., being that their both now on the track team. Meg is informed by Teresa to be wary of Jimmy Riley. J.J. gets upset when he finds out Beth applied to Stanford. Helen tries to find a class that will fit her busy schedule at Temple. A Rumor starts circulating about Meg and Jimmy Riley "doing it", which Roxanne thinks is great, because it means Meg's important now. J.J. hears Beth's father call him a "Catholic kid from West Philly" to his country-club friends. Meg is asked out on her first date by Jimmy Riley and she readily accepts. While J.J. dominates the competition in his return to the gridiron.

Jimmy (still sporting a shiner from their first date) asks Meg to be his partner on Bandstand. A Notre Dame recruiter is interested in JJ, but when J.J. doesn't show Jack will have to carry the ball for his son. Patty wants a new water heater and goes around timing everyone's showers to show they need one. Beth tries her best to get through to J.J., but he brushes her off and while Jack is meeting with the recruiter, he gets drunk with Tommy. Helen's walks out on the doctor,when she firsts goes about birth control.Megs thinks her and Jimmy are destined to be a real couple,but he says he only wants to be friends. Jack gives J.J. the cold shoulder over his blowing off the Recruiting meeting. Helen returns to the doctor a second time and it goes much smoother. Things change at the big game,when the team needs a big play, J.J. fakes an injury, before scoring the game winning touchdown on the play Jack taught him.

Meg is angered to hear Luke, the new record shop employee, talking bad about the music she's about to buy. Elsewhere, a sudden cancellation of his deal to supply a hotel with all there new TV's, forces Jack to examine his family's financial outlook and question his own business philosophy. Sam, who is still adapting to life at East Catholic high school deals with a prank gone too far by the football team, while JJ looks on, unable or unwilling to intervene. While Roxanne uses her Bandstand connections to start her own business of selling autographed 45's, starting with Marvin Gaye. Discovering Luke slipped her a Bob Dylan record instead, Meg rushes back to the store to conmfront him. The Prank gets Tommy suspended and he threatens Sam until J.J. intervenes, which draws a nasty response from Sam. Michael shuts down Roxanne's new business, while Jack tries in vain to still make the big Hotel sell, but it's all for not as Mr. Healey refuses to buy them. Lastly, the bitter cold of the nigh

While preparing for the city championships, JJ (Will Estes) discovers some of Philadelphia's police officers have offered his teammates money to throw the game (although Tommy denies it at first), forcing him to question their integrity, as well as that of his police officer uncle Pete who stops by the house for a sudden strategy session. Meanwhile, Meg (Brittany Snow) who shows signs of affection for Luke, a record store clerk at the Vinyl Crocodile and Patty's new piano teacher, is upset with Roxanne's sudden interest in him.Turns out Roxanne was only pretending to like him, long enough so Meg would get jealous and admit she liked him. Elsewhere, Helen leaves the family for a rare girls night out with new age classmate Rebecca. Meanwhile Jack (still saddled with the TV's from the busted hotel deal),prompted by Henry's suggestion, expands his customer base to include a few black customers and Sam deals with backlash from his former friends over the impending game.