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Step by Step Season 3 Episodes
Season 3 Episode Guide
23 Episodes 1993 - 1994
Episode 1
Way-Off Broadway
Fri, Sep 24, 199330 mins
To become closer to a new boyfriend, Dana auditions for - and wins - the role of Juliet in a local production of "Romeo and Juliet." However, her bid at stardom is placed in jeopardy when she learns her co-star is the very man she detests the most: Cody.
Episode 2
The Apartment
Fri, Oct 1, 199330 mins
While a friend of hers is away for three months, Dana can have her apartment. Carol is against, but Frank convinces her this is the best way to let her try out living alone close by before she goes to college next year. Carol gives in, but is obsessed with 'her baby' to the point Al feels neglected. Even J.T. discovers he misses one thing about Barky: a sparring partner at trading verbal abuse. At first Dana felt hounded by ma, but once she's really alone feels miserable enough to start talking to Gordon, the pot plant Cody gave her as company. She's ready to return to the comfortable nest, but now Carol has changed her tune, so she calls the men for fake repairs in the apartment... Meanwhile Frank has accepted a construction client's payment in kind: the TV of his choice, to put in the parents' bedroom, but Carol makes him promise to throw it out as soon as watching sports gets in the way of their love life given his addiction to sports airings...
Episode 3
Never on Sunday
Fri, Oct 8, 199330 mins
A hip young preacher has taken over the pastoral duties at Carol's church. Carol and her children are faithful members, but somehow, Frank and the Lamberts seldom, if ever, attend - that is, except for Cody, who along with his biker buddies are devout Christians. Carol aims to change that and tries to convince Frank, J.T., Al and Brendan to come. While she is somewhat successful with the children, Frank stubbornly (and childishly) refuses to come to church - mainly, because it will interfere with a Sunday full of watching sports on TV. The pastor convinces Frank that his church is very accommodating, which is enough for Frank. Or is it? He comes to church the next Sunday, but only to sneak off to the attic (above the sanctuary), where he has hidden a TV. All is well ... until the attic floor breaks under his weight!
Episode 4
The Paper Chase
Fri, Oct 15, 199330 mins
J.T. and Rich have to write a report for their English class. They decide to break into Mark's computer to steal the papers and sell them to the football players. Dana finds out and tells Mark and then she decides to get revenge on them and changes the papers to make them sound bad.
Episode 5
Trading Places
Fri, Oct 22, 199330 mins
Is it easier being a teen-ager or a parent? That's the question Frank and Carol hope to resolve with J.T. and Dana when they agree to "switch places" for a weekend. The exercise comes after J.T. and Dana refuse to do their share of the housework and complain that Frank and Carol seem to do nothing themselves.
Episode 6
Video-Mania
Fri, Oct 29, 199330 mins
When Mark frets over getting his first "A" (instead of the A-pluses he has been so accustomed to), Frank decides the best way to relieve the tension is to play video games. However, Mark quickly becomes a video game addict, forcing Carol to take drastic steps to break her son out of his new addiction. Meanwhile, Cody drives Dana nuts with his ways of trying to cure the common cold ... with mind power.
Episode 7
Hog Wild
Fri, Nov 5, 199330 mins
Frank and Carol search like crazy for anniversary presents.
Episode 8
Down and Out in Port Washington
Fri, Nov 12, 199330 mins
Cody's van, Lucille (which is both his home and main mode of transportation) is in the shop for repairs, and he agrees to stay in the house. Naturally, he drives everyone crazy with his oddball antics, such as his ant farm, hanging laundry in the living room and interrupting private moments between Frank and Carol. Later, he gets a call saying that the van is beyond repair (it "died on the grease rack," as the mechanic puts it), meaning he may be staying permanently. Carol is frustrated enough to threaten to move out, but Cody then realizes it is the rest of the family that is driving him nuts and decides to take back Lucille and, after parking it on the lawn (as a stationary vehicle), move back in. Meanwhile, Dana is volunteering at a homeless shelter and brings over a young man to help her organize a donation drive. Karen is smitten and wants to ask him out, so she decides to volunteer at the shelter to get at him. Dana advises against it, but when Karen won't listen to reason, Dana lets her go ... where Karen finds out the guy already has a girlfriend. Karen is very upset, thinking her day had been wasted, but then Carol sets her vain daughter straight. Karen realizes she has more than most of the people the shelter is helping and decides to donate the refunds from three expensive cashmere sweaters she had just bought to the shelter.
Episode 9
The Marrying Dude
Fri, Nov 19, 199330 mins
Through the "find a friend" section in a biker magazine, Cody meets a young woman who is raising an 8-year-old boy alone. Cody and the boy hit it off, and it isn't long before the woman decides that Cody is the man she is looking for.
Episode 10
Sister Act
Fri, Nov 26, 199330 mins
Karen asks Dana to help her break the ice with a cute guy named Michael, but the man asks Dana out instead. Later, Dana is talking with one of the Foster sisters' mutual friends, and Dana re-enforces the idea that Karen and Michael are not dating. Unknown to Dana, J.T. is tape-recording the private telephone conversation. Later, J.T. plays back the tape to Karen, who then realizes that Dana has snared the guy that she had her eye on; J.T. hopes that, by sharing his ill-gotten knowledge, Dana and Karen will get into such a violent fight both of them will kill each other. Karen is upset and calls Michael up, telling him that Dana is 14 years old. Michael breaks off the relationship, informing her that her "older" sister revealed the information. Dana goes home to confront Karen, but cooler heads prevail - Karen admits she is jealous of Dana, whose biggest asset is her brains. Dana reassures Karen that she is smart, funny and beautiful and all is well. In the end, not only does J.T.'s plan never come to pass, he (and Al and Brendan as well) all get taught a hard lesson about listening in on private phone conversations. In the subplot, Frank's anxiety over dancing at various receptions he and Carol are guests at is the result of his inability to dance. Cody helps Frank get over his problem.
Episode 11
Christmas Story
Fri, Dec 10, 199330 mins
On Christmas Eve Frank and Carol have been too busy to buy gifts, and the kids insist on getting gifts. So Frank decides to get them at a store where he had been working and lets himself and Carol in with the key. A deputy sees them there and arrests them for burglary. He locks them up and can't let them out until the judge returns from his holiday, which means they'll be in jail for Christmas.
Episode 12
Close Encounters of the Marital Kind
Fri, Dec 17, 199330 mins
Frank feels hesitant when Carol buys a marriage-improvement book.
Episode 13
Bad Girls
Fri, Jan 7, 199430 mins
When she has trouble making (and keeping) friends, Al decides to start hanging out with a group of bad girls. When Dana alerts Frank about Al's new friends, he prohibits her from seeing them again, leading to a huge argument. Eventually, Al realizes her friends are no good when they let her take the fall for stealing Cody's electric guitar.
Episode 14
Read All About It
Fri, Jan 14, 199430 mins
Cody takes a speed-reading class and becomes a replacement storyteller at the library, where he learns that one of Brendan's friends has a reading problem and tries to help him.
Episode 15
Thirteen with a Bullet
Fri, Jan 28, 199430 mins
Mark develops a crush on a pretty classmate on his thirteenth birthday.
Episode 16
My Bodyguard
Fri, Feb 4, 199430 mins
Cody annoys the family - especially Dana - with his weird dreams. He winds up ruining her college visit, but then saves her from being sexually assaulted at a bus station.
Episode 17
Pretty Woman
Fri, Feb 18, 199430 mins
Karen comes home giddy with excitement over the modeling opportunity of a lifetime: A noted photographer is at the mall looking for a cover girl for a new jeans advertisement. On the day of the model selection, Al accompanies Karen and Carol to the mall (so she can shop for new hockey equipment). The photographer passes over Karen and the others, seeing nothing unique about them. However, Al - dressed in a hat and her trademark tomboyish clothes - turns out to be exactly the girl the photographer is after. Karen is outraged and insults her step-sister in front of Carol, telling her that being a model is more difficult than it looks; she even goes so far as to say that she still doesn't consider Al part of the family and never will. Carol is hurt, and Al's usual self-assuredness takes a deep hit. However, on the day of the photo shoot, when Al tries to back out of her opportunity, Karen - who had gone to the mall incognito to see her step-sister fall flat on her face - realizes she needs to give Al a big boost of encouragement and apologize for her earlier comments. Al goes on to have the time of her life, and shows the poise and confidence she always had. The subplot deals with Cody believing he is cursed with what many would consider a blessing - a "good luck" streak. Cody, who complains about winning big during a recent casino trip, is called in as a substitute during Frank's poker night. Cody immediately wins the first hand (he has four of a kind) and worries that he'll forget how to lose. It is up to Frank to help his nephew see the good side to winning.
Episode 18
Nightmare Weekend
Fri, Feb 25, 199430 mins
Frank decides to take Carol for a little week-end get away. But he unwittingly brings her to a place that he took one of his exes.
Episode 19
Birth of a Salesman
Fri, Mar 11, 199430 mins
Dana needs a volunteer for her psychology class but Cody is the only willing participant. The grade is based on Dana's assessment of Cody's mental state and she thinks it's an easy 'A'. J.T. is being forced to make a decision - college or work. He chooses work and gets an after-school job cleaning cars. He ends up a successful salesman, much to Carol's annoyance.
Episode 20
Feeling Forty
Fri, Mar 25, 199430 mins
Carol begins to feel insecure about her appearance and aging beauty as her 40th birthday approaches, so she orders some diet pills that make matters even worse. Meanwhile, Cody consults with a psychic to meet Abraham Lincoln (the topic of Al's term paper). Al decides to do the research herself as the unorthodox Cody claims he is having a normal(?) conversation with the 16th president.
Episode 21
The Case of the Missing Diary
Fri, Apr 29, 199430 mins
Cody uses the loss of Karen's diary as the basis for a writing class project.
Episode 22
Great Expectations
Fri, May 6, 199430 mins
Cody looks forward to his birthday: his father, Frank's brother, will visit. He offers to make Cody the senior vice-president of his real-estate company, but Cody doesn't quite fit the corporate image. Meanwhile, Carol sets up Dana and Karen with the dates from hell; they get back at her, but she manages to have the last laugh, heh-heh-heh.
Episode 23
Prom Night
Fri, May 20, 199430 mins
On prom night, JT is set up with a 13-year-old girl (as a joke). Meanwhile, Dana's date doesn't go much better when her boyfriend decided to get back with his ex-girlfriend. The two are left to comfort each other and wind up sharing a few dances, as well as gaining a new grudging respect for each other.
