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13 Episodes 2000 - 2000
Episode 1
60 mins
Max and the boys are excited as Honey is well enough to accept visitors and they plan to visit her at the sanatorium in Gravenhurst. Newly independent Toppy, who has just bought a house, is attracting the attention of Archie. Although she supports her soon to be ex-daughter-in-law, May can only publicly support Toppy so much because of her blood ties to Bob. And Grace is also showing some independence in spending a week alone at the cabin at Bass Lake. Jim and Pritchard coincidentally are also spending the week at the lake, about which Grace is quietly excited. Even though she knows she and Jim have nothing in common, she is attracted to him, but she receives more attention from her crush, the junior Flett, Pritchard. The threesome's time at the lake faces some challenges because of the difference between Jim and Grace, but also because of two escaped convicts, including Mr. Sainsbury, who has a personal vendetta against the Baileys. Jim and Grace come to a new quiet understanding and respect for each other after their time at the lake.
Episode 2
60 mins
Now that Toppy has moved out of the Bailey house, she has to find something to do with her life. On Archie and Grace's urging - especially since Grace needs acts for her radio talent show which Callie threatens to cancel - Toppy decides to open a school for the performing arts. The first hurdle is that Toppy needs Bob to co-sign the bank loan, which she refuses to even ask Bob to do. Grace thus decides to become Toppy's business partner, financing half the school. May doesn't think it a good idea since she sees neither Grace or Toppy being business minded. However an argument over the matter results in May throwing Grace out of the house, Grace who ends up rooming with Toppy. The school gets no business until Althea Bridgeman, an old friend of Toppy's who has just returned to New Bedford from Toronto, gets her daughter Laura to teach a ballet class at the school and uses her networking among the town's woman's club to have all the daughters enrolled. Laura catches the eye of Hub, the two of who bond over swing music and swing dancing, which is taking New Bedford by storm. Overprotective and prudish Althea doesn't approve of swing or - after an incident between Hub and Laura - Toppy, who, as a divorcée, she sees as an inappropriate role model for her daughter. Althea uses her influence in the town to get all the students to pull out of the school. Not only concerned for her business but her standing in the community, Toppy, with moral support from May, sympathetically confronts the women of New Bedford. Although Toppy is able to open their eyes, she closes the New Bedford Academy, but it's not the end of business life for the now independent Toppy.
Episode 3
60 mins
As Ollie helps Grace find a car, she unwittingly becomes a wedge between Ollie and Marjorie. But Ollie confesses to Marjorie that what looks like doting on Grace is just doing some activities that are enjoyable to him regardless of the person. Alice returns to New Bedford to live with her impoverished mother, Lorna, and drunkard father, Eugene. Alice has been telling everyone that she left her cousin's farm on her own accord, but she confides to Hub that she was kicked out because she's pregnant. Hub will do whatever he can to help her out, even offering to marry her. But Alice, under the guise of needing money to take the train to live with an aunt in Buffalo, decides the best thing to do is to get an illegal abortion. Not knowing what to do, Hub finally confides to Grace, who in turn confronts Alice for using Hub. Alice in turn accuses Grace of not ever taking any responsibility in her own life, which Grace admits to herself is the truth. This accusation helps in both mending her relationship with Ollie and Marjorie as a couple, and in helping Alice's situation in a meaningful way. Grace realizes the best thing she can offer Alice is moral support as Alice tells her mother the truth. Meanwhile, Fat, who feels he is destined to be short for the rest of his life, turns to gypsy Roolie for help to solve his problem.
Episode 4
60 mins
Novelist Hugh Frampton comes to New Bedford to do research for his new book. He is a drinker, a womanizer and gruff. Everyone in New Bedford however is in awe of his celebrity, especially Max, the aspiring writer. The only person not in awe is Toppy, who stands up to Frampton after he paws over Grace, who was hoping to do an interview with him for her radio show. After sobering up, Frampton realizes that it is Toppy who is the love of his life. After seeing a more compassionate Frampton, Toppy too begins to have feelings for Frampton. The two start courting in front of a jealous Archie. Meanwhile, tales of an undiscovered lode of silver in the old abandoned mine owned by May brings out the curiosity and adventure in Fat and Pritchard. Despite warnings from Maisey and Hub, Fat and Pritchard go into the mine and get trapped. Max in particular feels guilty about the boys' precarious situation since he has been ignoring the kids to pursue his writing. The town comes together to mount a rescue effort. At the mine, Grace, testing her journalistic mettle, does an on-site radio report, which includes a pointed interview with May, the owner of the mine, about her responsibility in the boys' situation. Beyond all the tensions built up at the mine, Grace ultimately comes up with the solution to at least locate the boys in the mine shaft. The plan works and the boys are saved. Frampton's research is complete, and it's time for him to leave New Bedford, and he wants Toppy to go with him. But living life as the companion of a constantly on-the-go author is not one for Toppy, who stays in New Bedford.
Episode 5
60 mins
Leo McGinty passes away, leaving Maisey all alone in the world. May is the executor of Leo's will and he appoints May to be Maisey's guardian and leaves all possessions, including the pawn shop and the building, to Maisey. As such, Maisey is to move in with May and May suggests closing the pawn shop until Maisey becomes of age. Maisey has other ideas - she wants to run the pawn shop and continue to live there on her own. Maisey and May continue their battle of wills as Maisey does move in with May. However, Maisey is certain that drifter ex-con Eddy Jackson is her biological father. She runs a classified ad in the Toronto newspaper hoping that Eddy will read it and come for her. He indeed is her father and does come to New Bedford, with his wife Lucille in tow, to collect Maisey. Eddy seems to have got his life in order, however May won't absolve her responsibility toward Maisey that easily and allow Eddy and Lucille to take all that was left to Maisey. After Fat and Pritchard catch Lucille rifling through May's personal possessions, they suspect that she is just a gold-digger, so they end up hatching a plan to expose her. The plan works as she is caught red handed stealing what she thinks are Leo's gold nuggets. That's when the truth comes out: Eddy did come for Maisey, but only brought along his fake wife Lucille to look more respectable. Instead of pressing charges, May decides the best thing is to kick Eddy and Lucille out of New Bedford for good. But when Maisey wants her father present when they scatter Leo's ashes, May sees the concern Eddy does have for his daughter. May decides the best thing for Maisey is for her and her father to stay in New Bedford, Eddy who will run the pawn shop until Maisey becomes of age.
Episode 6
60 mins
Toppy accompanies Grace to Lillian Day's traveling gospel revival show. Lillian is an evangelist and faith healer, and Grace is there to interview her for her radio show. Before Grace can get her interview, Lillian runs off. Lillian had just had a major breakdown in faith when she saw her manager, Hiram Beecher, pay someone who she thought she had just healed. Lillian manages to make her way to New Bedford, where, obviously distraught, she runs into Fat, who out of compassion offers to put her up. But she doesn't tell him who she is, and as such, Fat believes she has amnesia. As she can't stay at the hotel due to the Cramp's strict policy, Max decides that Toppy and Grace's house would be the most appropriate place for the mysterious stranger. When Lillian arrives at the house, Grace and Toppy don't recognize her since she is out of costume. However, once a major news release is issued regarding a reward for the return of Lillian Day, Grace knows who her new house-guest is. Lillian confesses and tells the group her story. They know they have to protect Lillian from Hiram until Lillian decides what she needs to do. However, Callie also puts two and two together and drawn to the reward money, turns Lillian over to Hiram. Hiram threatens Lillian: if she dissolves their business arrangement, he will expose her as a fraud with a plethora of paid "healed" people to support his story. But Grace has a plan to let Lillian tell her story to the world, let Hiram take the fall, and still allow Lillian to devote her life in a meaningful way to her faith. Meanwhile, Grace and May have an argument over who is best to handle Grace's financial affairs.
Episode 7
60 mins
Remembrance Day 1935 is approaching and the Nazi uprising in Europe is taking place. For the Remembrance Day service in New Bedford, a new cenotaph will be unveiled. As usual, Alden, the supposed war hero, adamantly refuses to partake in any of the formal rituals of the day, Callie not even knowing why. Despite he not having died in the war, Old Roolie wants the name of her son, Karl, placed on the cenotaph; she accuses everyone in the town, but especially May, as being the cause of his death. Roolie later tells the kids that Karl was a conscientious objector, who because of his beliefs, was ostracized from the town and beaten to death. They learn from Alden that Karl is actually still alive and living in a nearby town. Grace is livid that Karl has not taken responsibility for his mother, who is now at a stage in her life where she needs someone to look after her. After initially denying that he is Roolie's son, Karl comes to see his mother for the first time in twenty years. He also confronts his then enemy, Alden, who was one of the instigators of his ostracizing and beating. Although they have come to an understanding of each other's position, they recognize that the war had a profound negative effect on each of their personal lives in different ways. It isn't until Daisy Whitney, the town's war mother - she lost all three of her sons in the war - speaks to Alden, that he admits the nature of his Remembrance Day sorrows: he may have saved three of the thirty men in his company in a battle, but the other twenty-seven perished, a fact he does not want to remember or celebrate.
Episode 8
60 mins
Del returns to New Bedford. His stay is uncertain as he left his assembly line job in Windsor, which he hated, with possible thoughts of going west to Vancouver. The two people in New Bedford closest to him, Max and Grace, have mixed feelings about his return. Max wishes that he could get settled and be stable in his life, but after an initial brush-off, decides to let his brother stay with him. Grace, not having heard from Del since he left over a year ago, says that she has moved on with her life, but she obviously still has feelings for him as he does for her. She admits to Toppy that those feeling are primarily of a sexual nature, to which Toppy responds that that can only get one so far in a relationship. One other relationship Del strengthens is with Fat, who he sees a lot like himself at that age: the underdog. Del mentors Fat in boxing, with Del's emphasis on "fighting", while Max dotes on the star boxer, Hub. Based on Del's coaching, Fat's style is more street boxing which gets him disqualified in the regional boxing finals. Angry at what he sees as his unfair treatment and the special treatment given to Hub, Fat needs to take his anger out on his brother. With Del and Grace, Del sees that Grace and Jim have a mutual attraction and shows his jealousy. Del ultimately tells Grace that he loves her, but she knows, and convinces him, that it is not love but going back to what feels comfortable in his life, especially at this time of uncertainty. The "sirens" she felt for him are no longer there, and Del decides to leave New Bedford. Meanwhile, Hub is facing his own relationship triangle. He likes Laura, but feels guilty about abandoning Alice - his friend and one of the few real friendships she has - in her time of need.
Episode 9
60 mins
It was a dark and stormy night as the first storm of the season passes through New Bedford. The storm has knocked out the power in town and the telephone lines at the hotel are malfunctioning. Along with this, the latest police serial magazine has hit the newsstands. Strapped for money, Max thinks he can write a story for the magazine, which is offering $100 for accepted stories. But he only has until the end of the weekend in which to complete a story from scratch to meet the magazine's deadline. To make things easier, he decides to set the story on a stormy night in a small town hotel much like the New Bedford Hotel, with a cast of characters that loosely resemble townsfolk. The only difference between reality and fiction is that in the story there is a killer loose in their midst, the murder victim being someone resembling Callie Cramp. Potboilers not being his usual writing genre, Max accepts suggestions from anyone he can, and everyone has a suggestion to offer, all in the vein of enlarging the role of the character that most closely resembles oneself. Meanwhile, Fat and Pritchard are looking after Callie, who is bedridden with a cold and who is without Alden, stranded out of town by the storm. The three think they overhear a murder plot, the intended victim they believe is Callie herself. Is fiction mirroring reality? They do whatever they can to determine who the murderer is. After one mishap after another, they finally find out who they think is the murderer. However the entire story ends being not quite what they originally thought. By the end of the weekend, the storm has subsided, the power has returned and Max has finished his story. 'Wait until you read it in the next edition' is his answer when everyone queries him on who he made the killer.
Episode 10
60 mins
Grace is chairing her 20th class reunion committee, with Marjorie being her chief volunteer "slave". The reunion is a time for her class to reflect on their lives. Marjorie is happy with her life with Ollie, but is concerned about continually not being able to make ends meet. She also wants to start a family, which Ollie does not want to do until they are financially solvent. Ollie, on the other hand, is unhappy with the path he chose for his professional life, stating that if he had to do it all over again he would choose to be a pilot. This unhappiness spills over into his personal life which in turn concerns and affects Marjorie. As Grace complains that no one in New Bedford from their class has made anything important of their lives that would be inspirational enough to be the keynote address for the reunion, Fred Wales, an old classmate and renowned pilot, makes an emergency landing in New Bedford with his business partner, Warner Shank. Fred's arrival stirs up the 'what I should have done with my life' amongst his old classmates, especially Ollie, who is quietly envious of Fred. His arrival also stirs up ideas amongst the younger generation of what they can do with their lives, especially Fat and Maisey who both want to be pilots when they grow up. Fred is the obvious choice for the reunion's keynote address. Warner is an opportunistic businessman who will seize any opportunity to make a dollar, and on this trip he is using Fred as his glitzy front man - this glitz which hides a poor business plan - to start a new airline serving Northern Ontario. The glitz does not work on May, who Warner wants as a major investor; May sees that Warner is on to a good idea, but that he is not the one to execute it and she decides not to invest. So Warner moves onto the next person from who he can make some money, namely Ollie. He encourages Ollie to build a plane that he has designed, promising him wealth and fame if he does. Ollie, excited that he may be able to break out of his rut, works on his plane with fervor with help from Fat and Maisey, but on its showing to the press, the plane malfunctions badly. Ollie is humiliated, that is until Warner encourages him some more, telling him to make a few modifications to the design which they can ultimately patent. Fred, whose worldly and famous façade masks some deep seated loneliness and unhappiness of its own, wakes Ollie up to the fact that Warner is just using him. Marjorie, seeing how destructive this series of events has had on her husband, seeks help from the only person who can get Ollie out of his funk, that person being Grace.
Episode 11
60 mins
The Sutton and Bailey families are getting an early Christmas present: Honey is well enough to come home, they hope for good, after spending a year at the sanatorium. Honey wants to resume her life in New Bedford just they way she left it, but it ends up not being as simple as that. With the hair dressing shop, all of her customers have gone elsewhere and the general consensus amongst the townsfolk is that Honey is still "contagious" from her tuberculosis. Her children are a year older, and Hub in particular is verging on manhood. Honey doesn't like the fact that Hub is showing so much attention to Alice, who Honey feels should be supported by the baby's biological father regardless of the suitability of him as a father or husband. Ultimately, Honey comes to the realization that she is treating Alice the way that the townsfolk are treating her. Meanwhile, Eddy has some grand plans for the pawn shop. Based in part by some comments by May and by Eddy himself, Maisey begins to have doubts about her father's sincerity of leading a straight life and feels that the pawn shop scheme may be a way to abscond with some of her money. And Toppy doesn't want to admit to herself or Archie in particular that she is going through "the change" in life - menopause - and as such decides to self-medicate herself rather than follow doctor's orders.
Episode 12
60 mins
Doris, Toppy's daughter, comes back to New Bedford during a break from school in Toronto. Spoiled Doris acts as if the world has dealt her a rotten hand in life, especially that the disintegration of her parent's marriage has placed her in a lower social standing among the elite class in Toronto. She hasn't even been invited to the Winter Ball - the social event of the season in Toronto - she feels because of her parent's situation. Even Hub has been invited to the ball by the Bridgemans as their guest. Hub really likes Laura and really wants to go, but feels that he's a little out of his element. These issues may be immaterial as he doesn't have the proper attire and Max and Honey can't afford to buy it for him. His relatives do whatever they can for Hub, and May comes through buying his clothes saying that he will represent the Bailey family at the event. This irks Doris, who feels like the family will do anything for Hub but nothing for her. Doris also brings news from her father for Toppy, Bob who wants to speed up the divorce by providing evidence for her as to his adultery. As Toppy decides what to do, she learns about impropriety and hypocrisy as she learns what happened to best friend Althea the year she went away to school and why she is now so protective about Laura. As Laura and Althea wait for Hub at the train station to head to Toronto, Hub is delayed as he attends to a distressed Alice and may miss the train as he looks after his friend.
Episode 13
60 mins
Valentine's Day 1936 is approaching and Max is directing this year's edition of the Valentine's Follies. Against this backdrop, romantic relationships are formed and broken. Toppy is not feeling much in a romantic Valentine's mood as she has just returned from Toronto with her signed divorce papers in hand. Archie, however, has other ideas. He proposes to her that he, when appropriate, will ask her to marry him. Although she knew that he would eventually ask her, she was not prepared to actually hear the words. She is also not prepared for her encounter with Mother Attenborough, which not only threatens the unofficial proposal (to which Toppy did not really answer), but also Toppy and Archie's relationship altogether. Alice gives birth to a baby boy, who she names Jacob. She nor her family have the means to keep Jacob, and everyone, including Dr. Barlow and her mother, convinces her that she does need to give him away to a family that can take care of him. When that time comes, she refuses and does whatever she can to keep him. When all avenues are exhausted, she comes to some realizations including that she does need to give him away and needs to leave New Bedford to start a new life. With the former, she chooses a couple with whom she thinks she can trust. With the latter, Hub tells her his true feelings as she departs town. Female shy Jim is facing his sixth Valentine's Day without his deceased wife, Kathleen, but he does have Pritchard and unfortunately for him his in-laws, Louey and Rose Pritchard, who are coming for a visit to New Bedford from Niagara Falls. The reason for the Pritchard's visit is to take Pritchard back to Niagara Falls with them as they feel Jim is an unsuitable parent for their grandson. Pritchard does whatever he can to stay with his father including enlisting Grace in a ruse, the ruse which ultimately backfires. However, Rose, away from the arguments between Louey and Jim, confides to Jim about his father-in-law and convinces him that after six years without Kathleen he needs to get on with his life. Resulting from this talk between Rose and Jim, perhaps Grace will get her first ever Valentine's Day card from a real beau, and perhaps Jim and Grace can get beyond calling each other "Miss Bailey" and "Mr. Flett".