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Step by Step Season 5 Episodes
Season 5 Episode Guide
24 Episodes 1995 - 1996
Episode 1
Lil Sister Dontcha
Fri, Sep 22, 199530 mins
J.T. and his pal Rich Halke plan to make out with their girlfriends at the drive-in theater, but when J.T. realizes that Rich's girlfriend is Al, he determines to keep them apart.
Episode 2
Three Girls and a Baby
Fri, Sep 29, 199530 mins
Cody believes his own obituary, especially when the money machine does the same. Meanwhile, Frank and Carol desperately need quality time together and ask the girls to babysit Lilly. The parents book a romantic dinner--in a restaurant where the striking staff expect solidarity; the movie theater is full of chatter and sneezing; and a bear invades their cozy makeout spot. At home, the girls wrestle with diapers and Dana's feminist-nightmare versions of fairy tales, then lock themselves out of the nursery and only make it worse trying to use tools, but Dana would still rather refuse male help from the fire department Karen summons.
Episode 3
Party Animal
Fri, Oct 13, 199530 mins
Dana moves out at 19 to a college dorm- well, Frank and the other kids move it up, anything to get her out! Carol is heartbroken her 'baby' is gone, so infant baby Lilly stays in the parental bedroom, nearly four months longer then agreed with Frank, who fears he's heading for a sexless year. When Carol finally gives in, she is too neurotic for sex even with the baby monitor on, and moves into Lilly's nursery. When Karen and Al visit Dana, they find the A-student transformed into a vicious party-animal beyond sisterly help. The next morning the whole dorm is a total dump, and Dana the worst looking item in it, when ma arrives... Cody is sure the new neighbor, Tom Flynn, is the jewel thief he saw on America's Most wanted, and sets a trap with J.T. and Mark, based on the package from New York Flynn asks them to sign for...
Episode 4
Midnight Caller
Fri, Oct 20, 199530 mins
J.T. and Dana help a friend man a crisis hotline as part of a class project. While the two are alone, a call comes in from a suicidal subject named Todd, whose living situation is much like the Fosters and Lamberts. Dana and J.T., who have never handled an actual crisis, realize they must put aside their grievances with each other to talk Todd out of making a mistake that would cause his family even more pain and suffering. Meanwhile, Carol frets about being unable to make baby daughter Lily fall asleep in her arms - so she becomes envious when Cody seems to have the magic touch.
Episode 5
Maid to Order
Fri, Oct 27, 199530 mins
Now the Lamberts are auditioning for a housekeeper, J.T. chooses Carrie Clark without qualifications for first-sight-obvious reasons; they get 24 hours, and it looks like she couldn't learn in 24 years, even with excessive help from the horny teenager... To Mark's surprise, Cody gives dance-lessons to rest-home ladies. Al has a shot at becoming Wildcats head cheerleader, which pushy ma Carol still furiously regrets having missed out on in her day, so never mind algebra, practice till you drop, yet Karen Covington gets the job...
Episode 6
Don't Ask
Fri, Nov 3, 199530 mins
Fed up with the kids' endless petty demands, Frank and Carol tell them they can do it all themselves. They dare not ask for help, even when Brendan needs a signed permission slip to go on the soccer-club trip to a Green Bay Packers game.
Episode 7
Hello, Mister Chips
Fri, Nov 10, 199530 mins
Being fired at her last job, Al must work at a chain's local new cookie-place where the corporate mascot chimp Mr. Chips is madly venerated. When the trainer can't pick Mr. Chips up, manager Sloan makes Al take him home or she's sacked again. The other girls agree to help hide him in their room, but he soon escapes... Carol couldn't get Frank to play Tarzan and Jane in a kissing sketch with her now she may host a benefit, till he jealously sees his hunky replacement Troy Hartman... When Cody shows nerd Mark pool is a matter of physics and trigonometry, he creams J.T. and his equally dumb mate Rich Halke, so they bet $1,000 on him against giant hustler Big Jim, but learning the high stakes gives him the gibbers and Cody...
Episode 8
Roadie
Fri, Nov 17, 199530 mins
Cody proudly announces he got a back-breaking 'dream job', as 'stagehound' (roadie) for Mark's idol, rock band singer Christi Rose and Petal to the Metal, and gets the geeky kid to meet her backstage. Impressed with kind, cool Cody's way to handle fans, Christi asks him as her personal body-guard. Meanwhile, the four eldest kids' constant begging and fighting for the family car convinces Carol and Frank to buy another car for them. The kids' enthusiasm over Frank's car choice, a Mustang convertible, cools when it seems to be his baby, rather too precious to be left in their hands... Fleeing a horde of pushy fans in Cody's arms and on his Harley, Christy stays the night as his guest in the Lambert house and asks him to come along on her six months tour...
Episode 9
The Wall
Fri, Nov 24, 199530 mins
To Dana's surprise, both other members of her aggressive-paranoid feminist club accept Cody as first-ever male member and de facto prime interest; anyhow, everybody on campus prefers the fun-only toga party to their 'politically correct' meeting... Carol uses a 'part two' promise to make Frank join her for a free spa treatment, actually rather a mud and German massage nightmare... Mark attends the spring dance, obviously on the loser wall, but when football captain Chuck's girlfriend Tawny sees him flirt, she makes a point by dancing with Mark, whose crazy moves are a hit. Chuck is held back by the public...
Episode 10
Baby Come Back
Fri, Dec 1, 199530 mins
Dana was eager to see 'the Amazing Codini' perform, but realizes too late he takes her into the magic box, hasn't fixed the necessary link to get out again and has no back-up plan, even knocks it over- they are trapped indefinitely, to her absolute horror, while he enjoys the closeness; yet salvation is within reach all the time... Meanwhile Carol dragged Frank to a beauty convention (a fake temperature doesn't fool experienced parents), then told him to entertain himself as she couldn't interest him in the least, only to finds Frank enjoying a female participator's manual hair-care too much... Reading about a cash price for the baby chosen at a Yum-Yum baby-food commercial audition, Lilly's babysitters J.T. and Al dashed off thereto but are too excited. When their parents return, Lilly has been switched with a baby-boy...
Episode 11
The Fight Before Christmas
Fri, Dec 15, 199530 mins
Cody has got himself electrocuted with high voltage on his van's Christmas lighting for a local contest. J.T. proves himself a gifted salesman eager to pay for a ski trip, but Cody's friend George, who never saved a cent after 42 years in an ice cream cart because he even gave cones away just to see the kids' happy faces, sabotages every attempt to sell a beautiful Christmas tree he promised to Jimmy, a boy who could never afford one and may accept no charity, so George gave the kid a 'job' after an exam ('name?'). Frank invited Mitch Crawford's Californian family, who knew the Lamberts years ago, for the family's Christmas dinner instead of the lousy local motel. Both fathers arranged for hunky son Matt Crawford to 'date' tomcat Al, Carol got them shamefully sissy ballet tickets. The unwilling teenagers meet at tender-hooks, but discover to be rather alike, give the tickets away, go to ice-hockey instead- and are caught tongue-kissing in the car by Frank, who looses it at Matt till the Crawfords move out insulted: far beneath Carols's hospitality standard, especially for Christmas...
Episode 12
What's Wrong with This Picture?
Fri, Jan 5, 199630 mins
Despite Al's assurance Casey Maxwell isn't his type, J.T. can't resist dating a fox with a limo driver when she calls him cute. Alas the spoiled crime princess of a Chicago mob killer his terrifying expectations and ways to enforce them... Frank refuses to let Carol call an exterminator since a rat couldn't be a match for his manly hunter's nature- well, this one certainly is and he gets wrecked far worse by the traps then the rodent... Dana is proud to be asked as model for her college's resident artist, even more arrogant-feminist abstract painter Jayne McNeal, but nearly has a fit when she hears at the auction it's Jayne's first photographic realistic portrait, and the thought of it being bought gets mother Carol even more berserk...
Episode 13
Beautiful Ladies of Wrestling
Fri, Jan 12, 199630 mins
Cody figures his camping trip is ideal to test his latest invention: edible food, so he doesn't have to carry provisions, but grizzly bears love eating more... J.T. convinces Frank to accept Dave's Sports bar's annual dare 'I'll Do Anything For Superbowl tickets'- they must turn up cross-dressing as cheerleaders waving pompoms, to be told they can get the tickets, only - after surviving ten rounds with two wrestling harpies, ominously called Assault and Battery, while the boys are black and blue in one... Proud high-school teacher Mrs. Whitney gets to settle a grudge since his graduation against J.T. when she drops by with Carol to arrange enthusiastic model pupil Mark's transfer to an elitist academy for advanced learning in the city, but getting a 'mere' C makes him too determined to get his grade up to spend a single second on anything else 24 hours a day, not even his favorite dinner, so his average ex-classmates Roland and Ben devour his share and much, much more...
Episode 14
Torn Between Two Mothers
Fri, Jan 26, 199630 mins
Frank is caught in the middle of a dispute between Carol and his well-meaning but overbearing mother, Helen, over the rearing of baby Lily. He wants to stay out of the argument, but realizes his marriage is more important when Helen announces plans to move to Port Washington to be Lily's nanny.
Episode 15
Snow Bunnies
Fri, Feb 2, 199630 mins
Cody has the hiccups badly, scaring him doesn't work; Mark hypnotizes him, again no luck. Reading a murder story 'Die, Mommy, Die' in bed makes Carol frighteningly itchy, so Frank is sent down and catches Matt kissing Al, yet Carol reads on and gets terrible nightmares (literally painfully for hubby)... Frank declines allowing Al to join a ski trip with Matt because teenagers are as horny as bunnies. When J.T. guesses what teen-boys doubtlessly do in a ski-lodge with girls and Karen reports Al's place was taken by reputedly 'easy' Stephanie 'Loveboat' Leifer, Al is as worried as J.T. is eager to drive her there. Spying in a tree, Al sees Matt faithfully resists the vamp in the hot-tub, but falls in herself, forgetting about J.T. ...
Episode 16
Secret Admirer
Fri, Feb 9, 199630 mins
Valentine's Day approaches, but Dana hates men more than ever after catching a date cheating on her. Cody encourages her to take an interest in a romantic secret admirer who clearly does a good job--it's the Codemeister incognito; however, she thinks it's gorgeous Danny, an English major who is also a server in campus coffee-shop Bear's Lair. Meanwhile, Frank buys Carol a fake Rolex, and even J.T. senses that the "white lie" he calls "deeper, spiritual truth" will turn on him. Indeed, when she goes to return it, knowing that they can't afford such luxury items, she gets arrested.
Episode 17
Forever Young
Fri, Feb 16, 199630 mins
Cody invents greeting cards- for weird occasions, and on 'appropriate' objects instead of cards. When Karen is furious a girl-friend stole her date, J.T. and his mate Rich Halke sneer boys wouldn't risk a friend for a mere chick, so the girls get foxy Brandi Hartman to prove rivaling boys back-stab mates too, but they catch on and decide to get even by exaggerating scarily until... Frank and Carol are repeatedly mistaken for baby-daughter Lilly's grandparents, so Carol accepts an invitation by a couple they met there to a grunge party, but the violent dance style is too much- especially for Frank's back...
Episode 18
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?
Fri, Feb 23, 199630 mins
When Cody wears his cheese-head, he guesses the lotto numbers without fault, but never plays because he only enjoys winning, not the 'burden' of fortune; when Mark and Karen find out, he accepts to give them the numbers, but his generosity goes further then they bargained for... When Dana presents her brilliant boyfriend, psychology student Fleming Adler, and says they may get serious, Frank is ecstatic he might get rid of one of his seven in-living children, despite Karen's warning Fleming is an insufferable prick, but his theory that complete honesty is always best antagonizes both parents in a matter of minutes, and Dana isn't exempted... J.T. lets Laura believe he is baby-sister Lily's dad so the girl will date him, but Frank is home; when J.T. confesses the truth...
Episode 19
Do the Right Thing
Fri, Mar 8, 199630 mins
J.T.'s school sends an academic probation note for terrible grades, Frank says buckle up or get a job. He studies for a change, then his even dumber mate Rich offers him a bought cheat-sheet for the history test; he doesn't use it and earns his B, but Dana finds it falling out of Rich's textbook after hey got mixed up, Frank decides to pull him out off school for that, being lied to too often... Cody is suckered into buying cookies on Visa from vicious Buttercup girls. Al and a friend want a shaved head and tattoos, ma Carol refuses; the other girls must promise not to tell she sneaks out, Dana 'hints' till ma gets it...
Episode 20
The Bodyguard Formerly Known as Prince
Fri, Mar 15, 199630 mins
Since Rich Halke passed on 20 copies of a chain-letter, he has nothing but good luck, while the Lamberts who laughed at the nonsense, even his mate J.T., pile up misery; soon Brandon sends his copies on, with the desired effect... To get completely over her break-up with Brad, Karen takes Dana and Al along to a ski-lodge, hunting for hunks. They soon realize the trio they hook up with must be crown prince Philippe of the anchovies-exporting kingdom of Calderone, reported in the press to be visiting incognito, who senses they know and decides to pass himself off as just Phil, his hired, slow-witted beefy bodyguard Ralph as the prince, his secretary of protocol Charles as just Chuck...
Episode 21
Major Pain
Fri, Apr 26, 199630 mins
Given her varied interests, Dana takes a placement test at the Newton center to choose a major; J.T. and Rich join her as 'naked volleyball' is not accepted. The improbable career advices are prison guard, psychologist and M.D., so Dana returns and discovers the testing is a blatantly incompetent scam... Carole calls a marker and hires a young friend in Frank's construction firm: Jake 'Flash' Gordon, eager and kind but a bundle of adrenaline and equally dangerous inexperience, unable to get any instruction right, and yet...
Episode 22
We're Going to Disney World: Part 1
Fri, May 3, 199630 mins
Frank's widowed ma Helen Lambert makes the whole family an 'early inheritance' gift': a week with her in Disney world, so the couple can forget about a mountain weekend to celebrate their wedding anniversary. Rich has followed 800 miles by bus at J.T.'s invitation. Flash drove that far just to return Frank's hammer and decides when Mark reads the record of the Magic Kingdom's attractions, shops and eating places is currently held by a Russian, coached ruthlessly by master-organizer Mark, who actually gets permission to monitor him from the park headquarters, assisted by Brandon. Even Rich isn't dumb enough to believe J.T. is wise to spend all their hard-earned savings on crazy luxury for two girls they meet, but goes along- till they're broke, then even breaks up their old friendship... The girls decide to enter a Country and Western talent-contest with cowboy-focused Dana and Al as talented Karen's backing choir...
Episode 23
We're Going to Disney World: Part 2
Fri, May 10, 199630 mins
Flash continues his record attempt, even acting in the Indiana Jones show as the intrepid adventurer. The girls repeat Karen's Country and Western number for hours; when Dana and Al protest because the would-be-star won't even agree to lunch break, she decides to try it in the Neon Armadillo solo, but freezes choked by stage-fright; the other two offer to try again as a trio, which is an instant success. J.T. and Rich aren't even on speaking terms anymore, till Flash makes the big spender admit it's all his fault and realize he's throwing his best, even only good friendship away for pointless pride, Rich accepts J.T.'s offer to cash in his plane ticket, drive back and start over saving as friends. Mark discovers everything was open later when the Russian took the title, so Flash gets three extra hours. The parents realize only Lilly will remain with them long, grandma Helen gives them their actual anniversary night alone in her condo.
Episode 24
Men at Work
Fri, May 17, 199630 mins
When Flash intends to move to his aunt in Kansas City, commuting 8 hours twice a day, Carol invites him to the Lambert home. Frank has bough second-hand stuff to build a bachelor frat-style guys room in the basement, with a mechanical bull... Dana considers her feminist protest against scanty-dress waitresses in Mr. Packwood's diner Yabbos failed when they decide to hire male waiters in sexy shorts too, but the other girls 'get hungry' while J.T. and Rich decide to apply for the job to get close to the foxy colleagues; however the female customers actually prove as abusive pigs as Dana calls all men...
