Sun, Sep 14, 1975
The day has come that Mike and Gloria are moving into their new home and Archie is practically pushing them out the door. Archie is being so obnoxious that Mike finally reaches a boiling point until he declares his independence and calls Archie a fathead. He and Gloria spend the night in their new home without electricity, plumbing or heat. Archie is overjoyed that the meathead is suffering but Edith's motherly instinct force her to intercede, she walks out and intends to suffer right along with the kids. Archie is all to happy to take care of himself but while making a mess in the kitchen, he runs across Gloria's bowl from when she was a baby and it melts his heart. He goes next door with a half-hearted apology and tells Mike and Gloria that they can stay at his house until the heat gets turned on.
Sun, Oct 26, 1975
When Gloria gets her paycheck in the mail, it is good news and bad news. The good news is that the check is more than she expected. The bad news is that the check also comes enclosed with a pink slip. Determined to find out why she has been fired, she and Mike pay a visit to the boss Mr. Crenshaw. Mike becomes angry and demands to know why Gloria was let go. Crenshaw secretly records the parts of their conversation that makes Mike look like he is threatening him, but turns it off to confesses that he fired Gloria because she is pregnant, stating that she looks like Alfred Hitchcock in drag. The smug little man assures Mike that he and Gloria can sue him but that they have no evidence. Gloria organizes a protest outside the store that is interrupted by the cops - one of whom is pregnant and joins the protest. The store, with its back to the wall, gives Gloria her job back.
Sun, Nov 16, 1975
Gloria, now in her seventh month, is feeling unattractive. Added to that is the fact that Mike is tutoring an attractive young woman in Economics and suspects that something else might be going on. That night, when Mike goes to tutor the woman, they both become mutually attracted to one another leading to a kiss. Meanwhile, Archie gets an idea to trap Mike in a confession. Knowing that he can't hold his wine, Archie decides to try and liquor him up as a truth drug. They both get drunk and right before Mike confesses, Archie passes out, missing the part where he confesses that he simply got up and left the woman's apartment.
Sun, Dec 14, 1975
Archie is a nervous wreck because he wants to back out of the annual minstrel show at the lodge, which he has successfully avoided for several years. Lodge brothers Barney Hefner and Ed Bradley blackmail him by asserting that if Archie doesn't go on with the show, he will be kicked out of the lodge and lose all the benefits therein. Meanwhile, Mike and Gloria try to have a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant to take their minds off the fact that she is a week overdue. When Gloria admits that she is having contractions, which she didn't want to admit because she didn't want to spoil the evening, Mike panics and tries to get her to the hospital. Trying to call the lodge to tell her mother and father that she is in labor, she becomes stuck in the phone booth. Meanwhile, Archie and Edith get the message and have to leave the lodge to get to the hospital. Barney and Ed think that it is just one more excuse to get out of going onstage, and they take the cold cream, forcing Archie to have to show up at the hospital in black face.
Sun, Dec 21, 1975
Archie is forced to show up at the hospital for the birth of his grandchild in black face, When his lodge brothers refused to give him their cold cream because he left, He and Edith are surprised to discover that Mike and Gloria haven't arrived - first they that Gloria was stuck in a phone booth at the restaurant and then they found themselves stuck in traffic. All is well, they get to the hospital, Gloria has the baby and Archie manages to borrow cold cream from a terrified elderly woman. The lodge brothers show up and tell him that they understand and that it would be heartless to throw him out of the lodge at the birth of his first grandchild, whom Mike and Gloria name Joseph Michael Stivic.
Sun, Jan 4, 1976
In the wake of the birth of little Joey, Gloria and Michael are at odds with one another over communication issues. Gloria is upset because Michael keeps making big and little decisions without consulting her despite the fact that their marriage is suppose to be an equal partnership. The crux of their argument is over plans for their friends who are getting married before the year ends. Problems with the arrangements cause them to lose their original location and so it is suggested that they have it in the Stivic's living room. Mike comes to understand why Gloria is upset when she re-writes the speech he was suppose to make as best man.