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23 Episodes 1999 - 2000
Episode 1
Fri, Sep 24, 199942 mins
Syd's colleague Dr. Helen Reynolds decides to leave St.Clare clinic to take charge of one in her home-turf now her mentor retires, then changes her mind about leaving city - for small town life. Even Robbie can't cheer up Kyle, Syd realizes fear hurts him more then the chemotherapy should; afterward Robbie finds him drinking badly and stays to water his poison; actually Syd finds Kyle dodged therapy and drags him to a next appointment. Joanie is prickly, worrying irrationally about Hannah's health -taken seriously by Syd against her better judgment- while interviewing pet diner applicants, both weirdos; next day 'professional student' Doug Boyce walks in, a natural with animals, and is hired on the spot. Crazy Molly crashes her car trough the clinic wall, pulls a gun claiming nurse Patrice stole her baby and shoots Helen who just strolled in, then disappears; Helen reconsiders while the police searches... Heather is initially hostile to dog Wally's daddy, believing his wife Trish, who he says wanted pet nor kids; Jim diagnoses their marital break-up stresses the dog, they try to reconcile for his sake.
Episode 2
Fri, Oct 1, 199942 mins
At the anniversary of Jim Hansen's wife's death, he proposes the same commemoration as she in her nightly dream to Syd: a fancy dinner, yet he feels guilty about a letter ma read by accident on Janie's wedding day. Little sister rather remembers their last row that day; seeing dad go trough ma's hat boxes they try there, he catches their failing and won't explain except the letter may have killed ma. Robbie is atypically grumpy and rattled by the idea of 'remembering the good times', resists going at all, tells Syd she wasn't here and 'won't take the blame', just like ma in Syd's dream. Syd is furiously unimpressed when lover Kyle Moran's rude oncologist Dr. Jordan predicts his surgery will probably proceed from definitive arm-diagnosis to amputation, and blatantly refuses their request to let Syd observing in ER... Doug and the pets enjoy his first working day, Joanie is puzzled by his 'canine' idiosyncrasies, especially dog food addiction, which he attributes to a head oil deficiency. Doug doesn't resist being fired as a 'thief'; as customers muss him already she reconsiders and finds he's homeless. Robbie retrieves from an attic stash the letter and his disturbing memory, but is unable to burn it, actually brings it to the restaurant, where dad rips it out of his hands and leaves, saying it was meant to tell Joanie what marriage should be but came out as the opposite, everybody's repressed emotions finally are released...
Episode 3
Fri, Oct 22, 199942 mins
Richie is back in town newly married to Kris. Regarding Hannah they request shared custody. Tracy is intensely overjoyed of her new dog, but her father fears that it makes her ill. Doug enters the Barkery to get some of his favorite food and his job back. Kyle is in doubt whether to move into Hansens' new guest house, i. e. former garage. Hannah makes a high level adventure of her very own and sets matters into perspective at her one year birthday.
Episode 4
Fri, Oct 29, 199942 mins
Kyle invites Syd to a Grand Canyon tent trip. Doug enters the Barkery with a classy dog he claims to be a street dog. Robbie warns Joanie that Doug is somewhat too weird. Robbie grabs an opportunity to matchmake Heather. Syd gets a patient that she remembers from her childhood.
Episode 5
Fri, Nov 5, 199943 mins
Kyle has two tickets to a Bruce Springsteen concert but his dog is very uneasy so Jim offers to dogsit. The Barkery looks likely to be closed as Joanie's finances are very low. Syd suggests that Jim makes a pep talk show there but he's uncomfortable in front of what he sees as a crowd.
Episode 6
Fri, Nov 12, 199943 mins
Robbie plans to let his his father be a star on cable TV. A therapist and Syd have their differences what's best for Kyle who suffers phantom pains. A sports agent for a rising star in grave alcoholic trouble wants help with a contract from Kyle and a favor from Syd.
Episode 7
Fri, Nov 19, 199943 mins
Syd gets Kyle a tempting job opportunity, and so does one of his own old friends. Heather is really unhappy about her love life and seeks spiritual help from a shaman. Robbie sells his father's show to a TV company even if they unconditionally hires a younger host. A new nurse, Izzy, is hired by Syd at her clinic.
Episode 8
Fri, Nov 26, 199960 mins
The Hansens plan a real home-cooked Thanksgiving for once, but Syd is asked by her millionaire friend Jerry Kaufman to fly to Hollywood for 'emergency plastic surgery on a boy'; when she finds it's purely cosmetic for his latest rising star client, hunk Cameron Kent, she storms out 'insulted'... Robbie has his own taste of show-business after meeting his friend Tom Cromwell, who landed in the business of historical reconstructions- mainly battles, but now of the first Thanksgiving in New England, getting involved in this project... While Joanie is convinced by a pushy school-girl to have the Barkery sponsor an asylum pets school project, dad worries about his old friend Father Bell's Labrador, or is the owner the problem...
Episode 9
Fri, Nov 26, 199960 mins
Tom Cromwell introduces Mr. Robert (Robbie) Hansen to his professional contacts as the face of the Pilgrim Fathers historical event, then leaves him in charge last minute, with the fancy sports car but no checkbook... Syd and her mates decide to drive penniless old Rose Bidwell all the way from Kansas, but during some line-dancing in Indiana Vonda Vickers collapses, as Syd guesses with MS; alas Cathy drives off at night... Back home, vet Jim sadly diagnoses Pete's loving owner the old priest Duffy with Alzheimer's; when he goes missing, Jim takes Pete looking for him. Frances Carlyle gets sponsor Joanie to do anything, even enter the pound...
Episode 10
Fri, Dec 17, 1999
Syd was hoping to celebrate a family Christmas her late mother's style, but her dad already accepted client Cynthia Blake's dinner invitation, Joanie goes to Hanah's dad, Richie, who is officiously separated from Kris, and Robbie has borrowed to buy wholesale 2,000 Floovies, seasonal fluffy animals he hopes to sell at big profit. When Syd fixes the star on the tree alone, she has a fall and dreams that her mother makes her see what misery would have already happened to the whole family and the clinic if she had stayed in California and married Jerry, who just sent her a palm tree. This inspires her to put a few things right in Providence.
Episode 11
Fri, Jan 7, 200042 mins
A dream of kissing a young Romeo thrills Syd while a real kiss from a man dressed as Zorro sends Joanie to her seventh heaven. Robbie moves into Heather's flat. An old fortune teller dies and leaves a grandson with no legal papers and a grave health problem.
Episode 12
Fri, Jan 21, 200042 mins
Joanie aims at the state's most prestigious toddle 'academy' for Hannah, but the Afgan a friend donated has an adverse effect, so she resorts to pretense and lies. Syd gets her med school professor Dr. Sullivan to admit her to complete her family medicine studies, aborted to start plastic surgery. Charlie sent Heather a ticket to visit him in Orgeon. Dad reminds Robbie of his promise not to chase Heather away, so easy with seduction- the smart son succeeds in obtaining a prized reward: the secret of dad's 'segreto' pasta sauce, which however proves he inherited his ruses... Syd takes on the puzzling case of since 4 years undiagnosable Gail O'Malley's daughter Katy; Sullivan considers it a classical case of Munchhausen, Syd hesitates, even when she finds Gail lied about grandma Lila being deceased, but Sullivan has Social Services separate mother and child...
Episode 13
Fri, Feb 4, 200042 mins
Robbie generously gave Charlie Abbott his bar job back after the Oregon episode, but secretly regrets it when the boy shows him a ring he bought to propose to Heather. Joanie convinces Robbie his best counter-attack is to show his caring side, by baby-sitting Hanna for free, alas without experience. Dad and Heather promise grumpy Lester Moody to put his mischievous ferret down, but can't, and it keeps escaping, ultimately back to Lester; it takes Robbie braving Lester's gun to save the rascal rodent, but that really impresses Heather... Syd's high-school class reunion stars her best friend, Martha Stuart-type celebrity Kerry King, who honors the Hansens by asking to flee the press in their guest house; there Syd finds Kerry's professional perfectionism has turned into compulsive obsession, and she's on a drug...
Episode 14
Fri, Feb 11, 200042 mins
Heather asks Robbie along as moral support when she presents her fiancé Charlie to her mother Donna Tupperman, in Robbie's eyes a classy goddess, who insists on a prenuptial concerning the considerable trust-fund. Heather takes that for malicious sabotage, well-spoken Robbie tries his diplomatic talents... Syd falls for a beautifully furnished old house, feels guilty she's abandoning and going to miss her family, and gradually wonders if the friendly but bothersome new neighbors aren't a fatal drawback. When Heather has a cough, Joanie suspects dad's collie-patient passed on TB to her, however unlikely... Donna wants Robbie to help her lure Charlie away with an environmental foundation grant to work in another state, even kisses him herself...
Episode 15
Fri, Feb 18, 200042 mins
Donna tries to convince Robbie tempting Charlie with a one year environmental foundation grant for Oregon is the only way to make him happy 'and thus Heather' as there is no other way to stop them marrying, yet proves cruelly impatient. Testing the water, Robbie finds Heather most determined, even belligerent. Patrick, the painter Robbie recommended and brought around fast to redecorate Syd's guest-house, charms himself in favor with her and Joanie, who suddenly 'realizes' the Barkery can use a handyman's touch: hired at first sight, they rival to spoil him, any excuse to swoon while his studly body stretches on the ladder; he sure has a way with words, stressing the synaesthetic properties of colors. Syd urges desperately reluctant family friend Karen Potter to get tested for breast-cancer after it killed her sister Missy, her asking Joanie's advise stirs the sisterly jealousy bitterly, putting poor pa in the middle but there's another unknown factor... After talking Charlie over, Robbie feels miserable, so Donna shamelessly seduces and kisses the cute kid; Charlie and Heather surprise them both...
Episode 16
Fri, Feb 25, 200042 mins
Vet Jim sighs he'll have to replace Heather now she's marrying Charlie and moving to Oregon with him. Robbie is a wreck, but Donna Tupperman asks him to disclose the groom was married and divorced twice; however Heather already knows, so he earns a kiss by suggesting to marry straight away. Heather tells Jim she loves Robbie but considers him not the marrying kind. Robbie helps Charlie over cold feet and tells Donna off, then bails out as best man... Joanie hears the police is looking for Doug Boyce, who was seen in town again; she finds him in the park, he's now a rich lady's in-living dog-walker. She convinces him to face the court, which sentences him to community service for the dog releasing, but in Animal Control. However.. An old man waves a knife in the clinic, desperate for morphine, faints and says he just need three more days alive. Lawyer Daniel Hartman explains to Syd it's fraud master Monroe Ellison, who got 25 years for embezzlement but was released for terminal cancer, the statute of limitation on his $25,000,000 loot on a secret offshore bank account expires in two days, yet she refuses to infringe on his patient confidence, then learns about both men's emotional commitment... Donna asks Robbie a last favor: getting bride Heather the right ring, and matching groom...
Episode 17
Fri, Mar 17, 200042 mins
After eloping from her wedding with Charlie and a week of pre-marital bliss, Robbie not only proposes to Heather, but decides to escape the Hansen wedding curse straight to 'paradise', stat- but does Las Vegas qualify on a $1,700 honeymoon-budget? Then the gambling bug bites badly... Syd feared the storm would hurt the Hansen house, but grumpy, impatient city inspector Simon's sentence on the clinic's roof is far worse: clear out in an hour; she diagnoses old Chinaman Tao with an unspecified exotic strain of malaria... Newfoundlander Doug promises his storm expertise to Joanie in the Barkery, then at dad's, where bloodhound Sam escapes; while the men go looking in the ever-worsening storm and discuss Doug's suitability for Joanie, it strikes a tree which falls inside...
Episode 18
Fri, Mar 31, 200042 mins
Dad Jim's 60 birthday is approaching, but the kids nearly forgot about it, and his accountant insists it's time to consider selling out to retire in wealth; the best bid seems to be offered by the modernist, commercial Garribaldi brothers he abhors as 'circus surgery'. While he's rationally convinced, it makes him so grumpy that he actually denies poor Robbie, who was mercilessly and bluntly thrown out of ex-bride Heather's apartment after the Las Vegas disaster -she even scolds his 'squandrous' peace offer of roses- permission to stay in the attic for a while again 'no longer a little kid', so he decides to bail out on the birthday dinner Syd planned and use good ice-hockey seats... Syd's patient Ted Lumley, a gentile TV salesman, asks her help to prep his precious private for a bris (Jewish circumcision) but chickens out, even if that probably cancels his marriage to Jewess Debbie... Joanie tries to make dog-walker Doug postulate for a more stable job, as junior executive in a pet-related company...
Episode 19
Fri, Apr 14, 200042 mins
Idealist Heather is tickled pink she can work for this year's Earth Day regional committee, and presents her hand-picked stand-in: Robbie, who keeps doing bar evening shifts at the same time. Alas his social skills aren't matched by secretarial ones; dad doesn't have the heart to fire him, but sets a crafty hamster trap... Syd was excited that a New York med school reunion offers her another chance with hunky bachelor Eric, who even sent her flowers, but is preoccupied by lying patient Talia, whose baby needs a blood transfusion from her haughty black single father Marcus Weber, who refuses unless Talia dumps her charming white mate Jake, the baby's loving dad... Doug has a great innovating idea, the aromatic pet mating collar in functional colors, but promises his boss a prototype demonstration without having tested anything, Joanie helps while instincts don't. Actually his success comes at a surprising price...
Episode 20
Fri, Apr 28, 200042 mins
Dad is reluctant to be Syd's friend photographer Monica Lang's American workers series vet, but a puppy abuse project gets him riveted. When his daughters see them getting on like a house on fire, they fear the younger woman might, once the fire subsides, leave him and keep the house... Robbie considers game shows a lame waste of time, especially Chuck Chance's 'Down on Your Luck' where contestants tell their pitiful loser story before playing the trivia quiz, but hearing the prize is $100,000 still gets a fan to give him Providence auditions specifics. The only hurdle is abusive quiz-master Chuck himself, but Robbie's rascal charm seemingly gets his assistant Andi Paulsen on his side.
Episode 21
Fri, May 5, 200042 mins
Robbie is already in heaven expecting to win $100,000 on TV in two weeks, and generously roots for dads happiness with much younger Monica Lang, who his sisters sort of selfishly shun as step-mother-to-be. Syd's old friend John Currier intends to turn from workaholic to recreational angler after beating his pancreatic cancer; alas the oncologist tells her it spread hopelessly already... Joanie stupidly starts a fire in her Barkery and wakes up in the strong arms of part-time barman-fireman Burt Ridley; even better, he asks her out for lunch and calls her the only significant girl since he has both jobs, only after a passionate kiss lets her realize he's her secret Zorro... Quizmaster Chuck Chance's assistant Andy shows Robbie a trivia gossip book; he does well in Down On Your Luck, but wonders how many answers are in that very book... Syd invites Monica for a family dinner but sees her intimate with a younger man. John dies...
Episode 22
Fri, May 12, 200042 mins
Robbie is cramming trivia for the next round of Down on Your Luck, his ticket to a chance of winning $100,000, but assistant Andi insists he can only succeed if she continues -as he suspected- feeding him answers, which would cost 40%, and his self-respect... Syd is not herself, obsessed with getting fat or going mad, even gets Alice in Wonderland day-dreams and faints feverish. Dad looks forward to an exhibition of Monica's photographs, including some with him, but didn't tell the kids in time. Monica has a new assignment, a month in Paris in all- and asks Jim along. Discovering her colleague Donald feels being in a Nicaraguan prison created a unique bond starts trouble when the reporter pair is urgently sent to cover a Karen (tribal) rebellion in Burma... Joanie feels her Burt is too much of a gentleman, but hopes that will change in old Bud & Darlene's 'exclusive' B&B Château D'Amour- alas she's rather put to domestic - and he to repair chores, by the time they're alone they doze off, in the morning the oldies even steal her elaborate breakfast. Syd is hospitalized for a CAT scan...
Episode 23
Fri, May 19, 200042 mins
The Hansen family hopes to be strong and supportive now Syd is comatose, cause unknown, dreaming about ma and St.Peter introducing her 'in between' to paradise or return to life, a paradoxical choice her body and heart must make. Andy suggests Robbie will need the $100,000 prize to pay for Syd's long-term care, and announces she'll move on to an LA game show after his finale. Joanie is happy with Burt and his new Dalmatian puppy, kissing and dining yet absent-minded, but he is called for a huge fire, and gets trapped inside. After Syd gets convulsions only to revert to an even deeper state then coma, Jim remembers Syd was with him in a cloud of mosquitoes at the marina, Dr. Hopper concurs encephalitis is around. Robbie is not handed the answer but knows it anyway, only...