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.