The Kids Are Alright
The Clearys are a traditional Irish-Catholic family, with eight boisterous boys, navigating the 1970s.
- Metascore71
- 2018-2019
- 1 season
- ABC
- Comedy
- TV-PG
The Clearys are a traditional Irish-Catholic family, with eight boisterous boys, navigating the 1970s.
Season 1 Episode Guide
23 Episodes 2018 - 2019
Episode 1
Pilot
Tue, Oct 16, 2018 21 mins
Blue collar worker Mike Cleary's pride and joy is his first-born Lawrence, first in family studying on, per paternal promise to god in seminary, but gathering his courage to tell he's dropping out for lack of vocation. That's butch less bright second son Eddie's nightmare, as it would fall on him to join orders instead, but telltale goody two shoes brother Frank blabs as usual and Larry goes public in parish bingo. When mother vetoes throwing him out, father proposes lay college instead. Timmy is forbidden to spend any money on a city youth theater musical audition, but showbiz being his life dream takes advise from slick middle brother Joey, with surprising success when kid brother William accompanies him on the piano.
Episode 2
Timmy's Poem
Tue, Oct 23, 2018 21 mins
Timmy's dear ventriloquist dummy was suspiciously damaged, so he enters a local poetry contest to pay for repairs and wins, having entered an One to a tree he 'borrowed' from ma, who finds out and starts a shaming war, which Joey cleverly counsels Timmy for. Mike bought cheap green food to appease Lawrence, who refuses to eat it because the growers are on strike, Eddie ends up emptying the regimental size bowl of Walldorf salad it ends up as while principles are confronted. The poetry stakes are up as Frank finds out the poem was published by a serious dead poet and stand a change at a national contest but ma bluffs too.
Episode 3
Microwave
Tue, Oct 30, 2018 20 mins
After Mike proudly introduces a new microwave to the Cleary household, Peggy immediately rejects it. Meanwhile, eager to see "everything" exposed for the first time, Joey and Timmy go to extremes to see Barbara Eden's wardrobe malfunction on a Bob Hope TV special. Elsewhere, Lawrence attempts to apply lessons from a psych class at school to psychoanalyze Mike and Peggy.
Episode 4
Peggy's Day Out
Tue, Nov 13, 2018 21 mins
In parental absence, Eddie sneaked in his latest girlfriend Wendi and a bottle of bubbly, but that's accidentally dropped. To avoid the pieces and stains being discovered, they volunteer to take over house work from ma 'so she can spoil herself for once'. In fact she sneakily overheard them and insists Wendi comes along to the beauty parlor, as a test of loyalty and cunning, Eddie desperately needing a reliable partner to make of for him numskull. Edie mobilize the other big brothers to help clean up, while the kids play outside, with William acting as SciFi-reading guard for eternal telltale Frank, who is rope-tied to the laundry rack. Dad could catch them as the scrooge drops buy every noon for his home-lade sandwich before they're ready, but Joey fixes that persuasively.
Episode 5
Boxing
Tue, Nov 20, 2018 21 mins
Frank took up boxing just to get attention from p as coach, but is bluntly dumped as untalented when jealous Timmy proves a talent and finds it a pleasant substitute for his properly-theatrical ambitions. yet Timmy stubbornly persists as never-fielded understudy for the lead in Don Quichote, suffering endless abuse from the mean protagonist, until a punch surprisingly gets him a stage performance, with proud parental blessing despite it means forfeiting a crucial match in the parish gym. Eddie is flattered that college boy Larry consults him on his one success, dating, yet doubts his methods, and Wendi isn't amused either by their 'practice dating'.
Episode 6
Behind the Counter
Tue, Nov 27, 2018 21 mins
Mike promises his wife to lecture firstborn Eddie against sexual activity, but actually gives him implicit condom advice. Joey is furious when senior neighbor Strausser drops by to ask him for gardening at the usual lucrative tariff but pious Frank insists to do it for free, so Joey teams up with his subcontracting kid brothers to sabotage Frank, but finds he and William actually enjoy fresh air charity.
Episode 7
Little Cyst
Tue, Dec 4, 2018 21 mins
Mike and Peggy's secretive fight leads the kids to speculate they may head for divorce, so tiny pat is hidden in the car to listen as they head for the doctor, but mistakes her cyst for 'a sister', so the brothers assume another mouth to feed. The catholic couple decides against asking an ovary removal, lacking a nod from the confessional, but a church choir friend suggest a Catholic doctor inclined to convenient diagnosis. BY the time everything is cleared up, despite Joey's detective kid failing to deliver, Peg has made her choice.
Episode 8
Christmas 1972
Tue, Dec 11, 2018 21 mins
The Cleary Christmas tree presents are eagerly raided by the boys, but the harvest is largely disappointing, as usual. All the more reason to welcome richer kin baring gifts, like great-aunt Marge and -uncle Walter who handout banknotes, two of them being $100 instead of the usual lower tariff, a matter of conscience for honest Tommy, while Eddie grabs the Godsent as he didn't plan a gift for Wendi, who gave him one. Mike grumpily plays down the genuine generosity of the couple's driver, Peg's rich brother Tom, who has a cool gift for each boy and a spectacular one for the whole family: a splendid TV set, but Mike stubbornly expect peg to stick to their old wreck, while the kids systematically sneak out to the 'superfluous' one in the garage, next to Mike's pride and joy, a sewing machine he even named.
Episode 9
The Love List
Tue, Jan 8, 2019 21 mins
Mike enjoys his boys' hopeless efforts to build some kind of rocket, yet sides blindly with peg when she vows to find out who damaged a lamp inside. When Larry points out the modern pedagogical views on the benefits of expressing parental love, a doting couple's baby-sat little prince from William's class is no inspiration to the stern Catholics. Peg reluctantly makes a mysteriously numbered list of her beloved kids, actually a ruse to get them to row about priority so the culprit be ratted. Dad even 'bribes' an unpopular colleague to play a sleuth and finds out 'scientifically' what exactly happened, a magical word even Joey can't wave.
Episode 10
Show Boat
Tue, Jan 15, 2019 21 mins
Timmy is happy with his relatively serious part in the school's Steamboat musical, but the measly budget in the effort to raise money for the penniless girls sports team make sit look tacky. Frank volunteers his engineering gifts to fix that by designing and cheaply building a crafty river boat scenery, William enthusiastically mans it, both thrive in their first theatrical stardom, but Timmy feels out-staged in his passionate field of expertise. The ultimate prize is parental attention, preferably attendance, and having this denied with disdain breaks Frank's unconditionally devoted bind with Peggy, who starts to realize she should make more efforts to earn loyalty. Ever-clever Joey having used his skills to provide cheap props for the show earns him suspicious paternal attention, Mike even invades the tree-house to inspect the knaves band's treasures and cheat them out of 'ill-gotten' earnings.
Episode 11
Mailbox
Tue, Jan 22, 2019 21 mins
Nice numskull Eddie's pride and joy to be given a summer job as garbage man collapses as his Wendi dumps him for lack of ambition as he dodges pointless efforts to study for college like her. Dad drags him from the tear-stained bed to work anyway, having pulled strings to get the gig and hoping it distracts he broken heart. Joey meanly stirs Frank to 'seize his chance' by sending Wendi a love letter spelling out his alternative qualities. Once it's sent, Joey eagerly ridicules hi credulous brother. The younger ones try helping him retrieve the letter, but instead of getting past the stickler mailman, smallest Pat gets locked in the mailbox, so they must cover up him being missing 'camping in the garden'. Peggy grudgingly cancels her friendship with Wendy, but Frank manages to grab it from her mailbox and makes her reconsider Edie's non-ambitious qualities.
Episode 12
Vietnam
Tue, Feb 5, 2019 21 mins
Timmy seizes a rare opportunity to perform his magic act as the family gathers for the televised Vietnam draft show condemning one birth year cohort to war duty. Gentle giant Eddie's year is shockingly drawn, so he mans up to follow WW II veteran father's patriotic example. Lawrence's suggestion to dodge by friends in Canada is dismissed, until he gets a letter stating his own deferment due to seminar studies was squashed, so he too is dragged into the next contingent. While Peggy's doubled objections to risking a dead son for a war she can't understand overtakes Mike's patriot pride, the drafted boys .let off steam playing basketball and decide to serve, hopefully together. Frank is hell-bound on proving Timmy's milk disappearance trick a fake, so pays Joey, who fails to overcome party shop owner Great Pepe's magician's oath of secrecy.
Episode 13
Valentine's Day
Tue, Feb 12, 2019 21 mins
Timmy eagerly practices for the parish's annual talent hunt, but his puberal glands just kicked in and even Frank and Eddie's hosing efforts painfully fail to shower him enough. Peggy twists Mike's suggestion to wait until he's girl-hungry by fake Valentine card so he'll believe having a secret girl admirer, which messes him up into dorky efforts to 'play cool' like Joey and Davey, Mike even fears his theatrical talents may be going to waste. While Larry checks on Pat's secret, Timmy's Thespian side wins.
Episode 14
Happy Cecil
Tue, Feb 19, 2019 21 mins
The Cleary trust in the Catholic clergy suddenly wavers. Mike was proud to be curate Dunne's closest friend, but feels he should break up as the reverend announces considering to leave the ministry for a widow's love and acts upon it explicitly invoking Mike's -misunderstood- advice. yet when Peggy's false insinuations make widow Loretta cancel their wedding pan, Mike lends his mate the couch and his ear until the couple makes up. Peggy meanwhile reconsiders her enmity to the promoted colored parish priest Abdi, who proves her kind of opportunistic schemer, shamelessly manipulating gullible Frank's devotion to the church, while Joey plans stealing the church keys entrusted to Frank for profane purposes. Eddie's overprotective efforts to 'save' unwilling Wendi from a flasher get her fired as movie theater ticket sales clerk, but she schemes back in and they make up.
Episode 15
Nine Birthdays
Tue, Feb 26, 2019 21 mins
The large Cleary family celebrates so many birthdays, Peggy can use the wax to make portrait candles to sell for good causes, but even when that raises money for the Nixon presidential campaign, Mike objects to such infringement on his sole breadwinner status.. Eddie meets Wendi at the cemetery as his birthday is also bitterly colored by the miscarriage of his twin sister, whose 'ghost' the girl seemed to Pat accompanying Peggy. The parental effort to give Timmy the 'next best thing' to partaking in silly TV talent show "Boxcar Billy's Hobo Jamboree" crosses his careful plan to circumvent the minimum age with Joey's document counterfeiter.
Episode 16
Wendi's House
Tue, Mar 19, 2019 21 mins
Mike and Peggy are sympathetic when Wendi's parents split up until Peggy realizes that Wendi's parents left her in the house alone, leaving her and Eddie unsupervised; Joey goes under cover.
Episode 17
Low Expectations
Tue, Mar 26, 2019 21 mins
Having heard the rumor Danny Partridge is about to be replaced, Timmy spares no effort to apply for an audition, getting no reply by mail even tries to pass the studio guard dressed up as if old enough, only to make a painful fall and learn at the end the only vacancy fits only William, but he won't consider sacrificing his anonymity. Mike and the boys rival who can make most fun of Peggy's absurd idea to take a driver's exam, women being naturally unfit to steer anything. Her self-righteous first attempt is a disaster, so she enlist church rival Helen Portillo to take the exam posing as Peggy, which yields a license, only can't convince any cop, unlike Joey's fake at a fictitious doctor's name.
Episode 18
Peggy Drives Away
Tue, Apr 9, 2019 21 mins
Mike agrees with the bank there's no reason to give Peggy her own bank card, women being notoriously unreliable impulse spenders. When she storms out, feeling insulted and sabotaged in efforts to scrape pennies from the groceries bill, albeit at the cashier's expense, the boys expect one of them to be unfairly blamed while she takes the station car. She's unaware Eddie is hiding naked on the back seat to avoid being caught having sex with Wendi, who counsels both spouses. Initially having expected her to return, Mike decides to seek her at the ridiculously expensive hotel bar they can't afford, finding her in feminist company of Wendi and rallying against the rude barman as common enemy.
Episode 19
Mass for Shut-Ins
Tue, Apr 16, 2019 21 mins
Worried about William's interest in Sci-fi 'religion' and open doubts about the Catholic teaching, the parents make him join the church choir, which benefits greatly from his musical talent and muting tone deaf Frank. However the incompetent nun director is easily talked over by Timmy's 'Hollywoodian' modern show alternative when the parish gets its turn to be televised. Peggy stops at nothing to sabotage Timmy so William can take over, but a surprise mishap works out cruelly for him too. Led Zeppelin fans Eddie and Joey are hell-bent to win free tickets from the radio, but Mike claims the telephone must remain free for 'defense emergencies' and happens to be on the line when the station finally calls. He semi-accidentally says the winning catch phrase and needs lots of begging from Eddie and nudging from Joey to hand the tickets to the boys, only to share in Joey's secret scalping scheme.
Episode 20
Timmy's New Hobby
Tue, Apr 30, 2019 21 mins
Timmy swears William to secrecy about his puppet theater for little kids at the library. His parents jump to conclusions about the glue messes on his sheets and disagree on whether to forbid what they think it is, as Peggy demands, or let nature take its course, as Mike counters, but liberal big brother Lawrence finds out separately and stumbles upon the innocent truth by preaching candor. Frank is duly suspicious when opportunistic Joey out-stages him as seniors'-home volunteer, obviously just a ploy to befriend actually-dedicated future nurse Angela, who stuns Frank by offering to reward him by kisses as she sees through it, but requires manly decisiveness.
Episode 21
Mike's Award
Tue, May 7, 2019 21 mins
Peggy's competitive side kicks in and she decides to get Mike into the limelight; Joey acts as Timmy's manager to make sure he performs his magic act at the Pioneer Day Carnival; Eddie is determined to prove that the carnival games aren't all rigged.
Episode 22
Whales
Tue, May 14, 2019 21 mins
The Clearys grudgingly take in terminally sick, dementing aunt Tess, as the Catholic rest home she was in seems financially doomed. Whatever Peggy and the other volunteers try to resume the lucrative fund-raising methods of former father Cecil Dunne, who even volunteers to return in person, his successor curate Abdi refuses to 'stoop' to soul hail blackmail, although lusting for a new car, yet Wendi wins it as grand prize in a carnival casino tournament. The junior boys moan their invaded room, yet Mike points out Peggy is only so grumpy because Tess used to be her surrogate mother. Providence steps in.
Episode 23
Irish Goodbye
Tue, May 21, 2019 21 mins
Timmy is not amused to find that Knuckles, his missing ventriloquist dummy, was used by Joey as girl-magnet and accidentally switched with another, but has mixed feelings when it turns out the alternate belongs to TV star Willie Tyler, who inspired Timmy to aspire that theatrical genre. Larry duly hesitates to present his girl friend to his parents as their joy over the firstborn moving out and returning to college wavers hearing they are a 'sinful' couple.
