SEASON 1 – CBS
Created by Marshall Karp
Theme song by Marshall Karp and David Horowitz
- 001. Meet the Brothers Beeby – 10/3/1987
- 33-year-old businessman Julian Beeby (Jason Alexander), who handles product testing, has recently divorced his wife Betsy (Kim Morgan Greene) and moved back in with his brother, 25-year-old construction worker Scott (John Bolger) into a lower-Manhattan apartment. Julian is experiencing a dry spell when it comes to dating, while Scott seems to have no shortage of dates, a fact that is pointed out by their friend Mickey Murphy (Tony Deacon Nittoli) when he visits with them. The boys’ mother, Rae (Anne Jackson), is bitter about the fact that Betsy was caught cheating on Julian and is reluctant to give up a family broach that was previously given to Betsy and which Julian now plans to return to her. Meanwhile, Julian’s friend and business partner Emily Cabot (Gina Hecht) has long been in love with Julian, while he sees their relationship as platonic. When Julian goes to see Betsy to return the broach, he is taken aback when she is highly flirtatious with him. She tells him that she and her new boyfriend have split up and he is now in California. Betsy as recently been promoted after coming up with a new beeper that coughs instead of beeps. After returning the broach, Julian decides to leave, but then seconds later comes back to her and they begin seeing each other every night. The fact that he seems to be walking on air and singing showtunes tips off Scott that he must be dating someone. When Julian won’t tell Scott who he is seeing and assumes it must be Betsy, Julian tells him that he is now dating Emily. Scott immediately tells their mother about it, so she insists on having dinner with them. Julian manages to talk Emily into coming over for dinner, but when both Emily and his mother get carried away and start talking about wedding dresses, Julian finally admits that she is just covering for him dating Betsy, as he knew neither would approve. He then gets a call from Betsy, who wants to postpone their date that evening because she is going to see an old college roommate. Naturally, he assumes that she might be seeing another man, so he stops over at her apartment. When he hears a cough coming out of her bedroom, he tries to confront the man in there, but it turns out to actually be her old female roommate Wanda Glickman (June Stein). Julian is apologetic, but tells her that even though he loves her, he doesn’t think he can ever trust her. She says that she cannot deny it, as she plans to go to California to see her boyfriend, as she doesn’t think things are truly over with him. When Julian gets home, Scott is still up and tells Julian that he isn’t going to say “I told you so” as it would do not good. Julian then asks him if he will listen to him if he tries to give advice. Although Scott says yes, he won’t refrain from drinking a soda before going to be when Julian tells him to. It turns out to be liquid liver for cats. 9/21/25
- 002. Taking Stock – 10/10/1987
- Julian is proud of Scott when he starts looking at investing in stocks to make some money, but when he finds out that Scott is merely going off a stock tip from a manicurist named Ears DeMarco (Margaret Reed) who works on Wall Street, Julian becomes more apprehensive. When he learns that the product is a hair restorer called Hair Tomorrow, he thinks that it will become a penny stock and advises against it. Nevertheless, Scott wants to move forward and convinces Julian to loan him $2000 to buy the stock. Julian independently acquires some of the project and uses it on a test subject named Mr. Olesky (A. Bobby Fields) and determines that no hair whatsoever grows as a result of using it. Emily does some testing of her own by trying to break an ‘unbreakable’ plate using every means available. Eventually she becomes obsessed with finding a way to break it. Julian is about to sell off the stock, but then his mother comes to see him and tells him that she is proud that he didn’t interfere with Julian’s financial plans. However, when the stock goes from 20 cents to 15 cents, he tells his broker Randy to sell it. When Scott brings Ears over to the apartment with a smattering of gifts that he’s bought for her. When he tells Julian that he is paying for it by using his capital gains since the stock price doubled after it went down, Julian starts to panic. When Scott suggests selling the stock, Julian tries to get him to hold onto it. Their mother decides she wants to buy it, but Julian tries to stop her, which is contrary to telling Scott to hold onto it. Scott then hears a message on the answering machine from Julian’s broker that says that he needs Scott’s information to finalize the sale of the Hair Tomorrow stock. Julian tries to find a way to raise the money that he will owe Scott by selling off his baseball card collection. When Julian gets home that night, he hears multiple messages from Ears trying to get Scott to sell off his stock as it begins plummeting. Then she shows up and tells Julian that the stock hit rock bottom before they realized that it is better used as a hair remover, and it has now hit one dollar per share. When Scott, their mother, and Mickey all come over to celebrate, Julian finally admits that he dumped the stock when it was fifteen cents per share. Everyone gives him the cold shoulder, until they tell him that they had merely set him up with the messages from Ears and information about the hair remover to play a trick on him. In reality, the stock did reach a penny. Julian is tempted to say that he told Scott so but ultimately refrains after what he did. Emily then shows up at the apartment with the big news that she was finally able to break the plate. 9/21/25
- 003. The Post Graduate – 10/17/1987
- Rae asks Jules and Scott if their old friend and neighbor Gwen Spaulding (Cynthia Harris) could use their loft to display her sculptures for an art show since the studio she was going to use has flooded. The guys agree to this, and also privately recall the crush they had on her growing up. Gwen is quite flirtatious with Scott, asking him if he would be willing to sit and pose for her in the nude. Although she seems to only remember Jules as the ‘funny one’, she also tells him how wonderful his hands are and ask if she can use them for her art project Stable Boy with Horse. After they get everything set up in the apartment, Gwen decides that she doesn’t want to display a giant hand in the show, so Jules offers his assistance to help her bring it back to her place. She winds up seducing him, and the two of them sleep together, despite Jules’ trepidation. The next morning, he tells Scott about this but assure him that it is a one-time thing. Gwen sends Jules flowers and then comes to see him. They both agree that it would be a one-time thing but then wind up kissing again. Jules sends flowers back to Gwen via Mickey, who slips up and tells Scott that he took flowers to her for Jules. Rae then comes over, and having seen the flowers being delivered to Gwen, accuses Scott of having the affair. Jules goes to see Gwen to put an end to the whole thing, and the two of them part amicably. As they give each other a final kiss, Rae shows up and is aghast to see it. Jules comes clean and admits that he sent the flowers to Gwen, but then Gwen interrupts and said that he only did it as a thank you, as she had given Jules the giant hand sculpture. Later, Gwen sends Jules a photo of her Stable Boy with Horse artwork, but Jules isn’t crazy about how she utilized his hand. Nicholas Wyman is art dealer Tom Garson. 3/11/26
- 004. The Mom Who Came to Dinner – 10/24/1987
- After Rae’s apartment is robbed, Jules brings her back to their apartment for her to stay the night, even though Rae became somewhat of a hero after she stopped the robber Eddie Dayton (Rob Morrow) by using a curtain rod to hold him at ‘gunpoint’. At first, Scott is annoyed that she is there, as his date April (Josie Bell) came downstairs half-dressed. She winds up leaving, but Scott is more understanding when he hears what happened. After one night, Rae returns home, and Scott arranges another date with April, who brings along a very attractive friend named Heaven Melrose (Dawn Ann Billings) to be Jules’ date. This date comes to an abrupt ending when Rae shows up at the house, suddenly scared to stay in her own. Things are made even worse when Sergeant Victor Morales (Jamie Tirelli) comes over and tells them that Eddie Dayton is out on bail and was overheard saying that he will seek revenge on the ‘curtain rod lady.’ He advises Rae to say with her sons until the trial to be held in six weeks. After several days, Jules becomes annoyed because he feels he is taking care of their mother while Scott comes and goes as he pleases. As they are having dinner that night, Scott once again says he has a date and is leaving, invoking the wrath of Jules. Even though Rae says that they should both go out, Jules insists that they should both stay in an that Scott is being selfish. Rae says that she is ready to go home, and Scott agrees that it should be up to her. While the two guys are fighting, Rae sneaks out and heads back home. There she sees that Eddie is staking out her apartment and tells the doorman to invite him up. Instead of being scared of him, Rae yells at him for his behavior and then tells him to get off her back. Although she refuses to drop the charges, she tells him that she will help him get a job when he gets out. Scott and Jules both show up after hearing that the doorman invited him up, but Rae says there is nothing to worry about and that she is just talking to her friend Eddie. Later, as they marvel at how strong and independent their mother is, Scott arranges another date with April and Heaven again. 3/11/26
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