Tue, Feb 16, 1971
Tom uses the fact of Eddie going to camp to have a romantic weekend with his girlfriend, Brenda. Tom however does not anticipate the continual distractions. First, a work emergency occurs. Since it looks like it will take a long time to resolve, Brenda decides to go home and wait for Tom to finish. She's right as Tom needs to pull an all nighter. Once Tom finishes his work duties and gets some sleep, second, Mrs. Livingston decides to come in for the weekend to clean up the kitchen. As soon as Tom politely sends Mrs. Livingston home, third, Joey Kelly shows up on Tom's doorstep. Joey's father, Joe, and his girlfriend Sherry went to Las Vegas for the weekend and assumed that Joey would stay with the Corbetts during their absence. When Joey called Eddie earlier on to ask, she didn't ask Eddie since Eddie wasn't going to be around. But rather than stay with a sitter, Joey wanted to stay with Tom since she was upset about her father and Sherry probably going to elope without telling her. Since Joe and Sherry were driving to Vegas, Tom has no way of getting in touch with them, and thus Tom has no other choice than to keep Joey for the weekend. When Tom calls Brenda with this latest news, ever gracious Brenda is no longer gracious and hangs up on Tom. Later, Sherry comes by to pick up Joey - she and Joe decided that in Joey's fragile state of mind, it better to take her along. Just then, Brenda drops by in a mood of forgiveness, until she sees Sherry, who she assumes is a fling of Tom's. After clearing up the confusion, Tom finally has his romantic, albeit shortened weekend with Brenda. It ends up being even shorter when Eddie arrives home unexpectedly early.
Tue, Nov 4, 1969
Eddie is embarrassed by a knock-out punch he received from Joey Kelly, who Tom learns is smaller and younger than Eddie. Tom is concerned that Eddie is neither fighting back or defending himself against Joey. The last straw for Tom is when Joey knocks out Eddie's tooth. Tom understands Eddie's behavior when he finally meets Joey. Joey is a girl. It's even more clear when Tom learns of and sees Joey's home-life: she is raised by her single father, Joe, a rough and tumble guy's guys who doesn't know the finer details of raising a girl. A learned trait from her father, Joey continues to hit Eddie because she likes him. In an effort to expose Joey to other adult influences, Tom invites her over to the apartment where Mrs. Livingston teaches Joey the fine art of being a woman, Japanese style. It works in part, but old habits are hard to break, and Joey finally rebels once against Eddie. Eddie, in turn, based on advice from Joey's father, decides this time to punch Joey back. They come to a better understanding as Joey didn't like getting punched back. Eddie and Joey are going to become good friends after all.
Tue, Sep 16, 1969
On a movie studio tour, Eddie meets aspiring actress, Dolly Daly, who is recently arrived in Los Angeles and who Eddie sees as a potential mother. Eddie invites her home more as an act of generosity than anything. Dolly accepts, much to Tom's consternation especially since he can't fully explain to Eddie why what he did was wrong. Back at the apartment, Tom tries to explain to Dolly that she can't stay but in a losing battle, he ultimately let's her sleep on the couch. The next morning, Mrs. Livingston sees Dolly on the couch and is angry with Tom for what she sees as the bad example he is setting for Eddie by having one of his dates stay overnight. Mrs. Livingston storms out, Eddie and Tom thinking that she's gone forever. Just as Tom feels at the end of his rope, he comes up with an idea: he sends Dolly off to deal with Norman who has always wanted to do a story on young women new to Los Angeles hoping to make it into the movie business. In doing so, Tom solves most of his problems - Dolly is now out of his personal life and the story resolves some work problems Tom was having with Norman. The only unresolved issue is Mrs. Livingston's absence from the Corbett household. However Mrs. Livingston solves what was never a problem - she left the apartment solely to go to the market to get more eggs for breakfast.
Tue, Mar 23, 1971
Tom gets Eddie a chemistry set as a gift. Mrs. Livingston wants Eddie only to play with it in the bathroom just in case he spills some chemicals on the carpet, this suggestion supported by Tom. Mrs. Livingston catches Eddie playing with it in his bedroom, at which she kindly reminds him to take things immediately into the bathroom. Not heeding the warning, Eddie immediately spills a dark blue tinted chemical onto his bedroom carpet. Eddie, trying to hide the accident, only makes things worse as the blue gets onto his shoes, tramped to other areas of the carpet, onto his shirt, onto a towel, and onto the bedspread. Eddie can't hide the visible manifestations of his accident from Mrs. Livingston. Ultimately, Tom reminds Eddie of the deal they made regarding responsibility, and the consequence of losing whatever the cause of failed responsibility. However, this one time, Tom decides to bend the deal, and lets Eddie keep the chemistry set. Although she doesn't say anything and supports Tom's parental decisions concerning Eddie, Mrs. Livingston is really as upset with Tom as she is with Eddie for Tom's leniency with Eddie in the situation. It isn't until Tom directly asks Mrs. Livingston of her thoughts regarding his decision with the chemistry set that Mrs. Livingston speaks her mind, albeit in her typically reserved Japanese way. For her, it is not a matter of a ruined carpet, but rather really of teaching Eddie what it means to be responsible and the role of discipline. Tom still thinks he made the right decision and attributes Mrs. Livingston's attitude partly to a woman's more emotional and sensitive nature. Both Tom and Eddie notice Mrs. Livingston's standoffish behavior following the incident and Eddie in particular tries to do whatever he can to make Mrs. Livingston "smile again". Another incident occurs later when Eddie hears a parade outside, and wanting to get a better look, climbs on top of the balcony railing. Seeing this, Mrs. Livingston grabs Eddie and sternly chastises him. Eddie, feeling physically hurt, runs to Tom, who just arrives home after the incident, for support against Mrs. Livingston's action toward him. This time, Tom supports Mrs. Livingston's actions, but only gives Eddie a stern warning without any real consequence. Tom figures Eddie has learned his lesson, however Mrs. Livingston, the witness to Eddie's action, doesn't think Tom really understands the severity of what Eddie did. It isn't until Tom later sees a similar incident - Eddie climbs over the balcony railing trying to retrieve his kite - that Tom takes more direct action: he grabs Eddie off the railing, gives him a quick spanking and a more concerned and hysterical talking to. Because of the spanking, Eddie says Tom is not only no longer his friend, but he doesn't love Tom anymore. Tom finally admits to Mrs. Livingston, who caught the tail end of Eddie's second time on the balcony railing, that he has never been as scared in his entire life, and that Eddie probably wouldn't have climbed onto the railing the second time if he was stricter with Eddie from the get go. The supportive Mrs. Livingston tells Tom that Eddie still loves him despite his words and despite Tom's discipline, which is indeed the case.
Tue, Feb 29, 1972
Tom hires Landon's Listen-In, a telephone answering service for home, their answer lady being Annie Dempsey. She's a Jill of all trades, and once Eddie and Mrs. Livingston simultaneously come down with a cold, Annie offers to sit for Eddie while Tom is at work and Mrs. Livingston recuperating at home. While at the Corbetts, Annie not only looks after Eddie, but she also does her answering service business, sits for another client's dog and cooks dinner for Tom and Eddie, the dinner for which Eddie invites Annie to stay. Annie ends up staying a little longer than expected, as first she passes out from drinking too much wine, then second suspects she is coming down with whatever bug Eddie and Mrs. Livingston have. But Annie has other work to do, namely catering a party, so Kathy and Jeff, two of her colleagues, descend on the Corbetts to find out what needs to be done. Also descending on the Corbetts is Mr. Landon, Annie's boss, who objects to Annie offering too much personalized service. In other words, he thinks Annie and Tom spent the night together. For Tom, this really is a little too much personalized service from Landon's Listen-In. To protect Annie, Tom tells Landon that he wants to a write an article about Annie and the business for the magazine. But he also decides to cancel the service for home as he needs his peace and quiet and privacy back.
Tue, Dec 30, 1969
Because Eddie's progress at reading is going slowly, Tom thinks a good solution is to get Eddie a library card. It does the trick as Eddie is enthralled both with his very own library card and by association the book he checked out with it. Tom tells Eddie that having a library card comes with some responsibility, which Eddie apparently forgets as the book becomes overdue. What's worse however is that he can't find the book. Eddie turns his room upside down to locate the book, but to no avail. Eddie's friend, Alice, tells Eddie that he's going to go to jail for losing the book. Since Tom is too busy when Eddie tries to tell him he lost the book, Eddie decides the right thing to do is to turn himself into the police. The news of this act obviously gets back to Tom, who has a heart to heart with Eddie about the lost book. But after all is said and done, Tom has two apologies to make to Eddie, first for not being available for Eddie during his time of need (when Eddie was trying to tell him about the missing book), and second because Tom actually was the one who mistakenly "lost" the book.
Tue, Oct 27, 1970
Talk of the law and a book on law from Tom's bookcase gets Eddie thinking about preparing his will. He is so intent on it that he puts off his homework which he promised to do, completion of which is necessary for him to go to a Japanese fair with Mrs. Livingston the following day. When Tom tells Mrs. Livingston about Eddie probably not being able to go to the fair and the importance of discipline of children, Mrs. Livingston tells Tom how much she really does understand despite not having a traditional family of her own. She, for the first time ever, tells Tom about her deceased husband and son, both of who died in a car accident, her son who would have turned eight years old the following day. Unbeknownst to the adults, Eddie overhears the story. Tom and Eddie come to an understanding that Eddie can stay up past his bedtime to finish his homework to allow Eddie to go to the fair, which is as much for him as it is for Mrs. Livingston. Eddie finishes his homework but also finishes his will, which he leaves for Tom in a sealed envelope while he goes to the fair with Mrs. Livingston. Tom and Norman are dying to read what Eddie wrote in his will, and finally decide that as Eddie's parent, Tom should make a copy for safekeeping. Expecting to read who got the much coveted aquarium (Tom, Norman and Mrs. Livingston all individually mentioned to Eddie that they like it the most of all Eddie's possession, but Eddie wills it to the school so that the three of them won't fight over it), Tom reads that Eddie has willed Tom, Norman and Mrs. Livingston to each other so that they will always have someone to love. Tom has probably never been more proud of his son.
Tue, Dec 15, 1970
During the middle of the night, Mrs. Livingston swears that she saw a ghost in Eddie's room. Tom thinks she just had a bad dream, but does attribute his and her difference in opinion on their respective cultures. Mrs. Livingston tells Eddie of a mythical creature called Baku, which is an eater of dreams. Eddie draws one for her to eat her bad dream. Despite Baku, Mrs. Livingston sees the ghost again in Eddie's room the next time she stays overnight. Since Tom is convinced there is a logical explanation for what Mrs. Livingston saw, Norman suggests they have a ghost hunt. Tensions mount as they all await the arrival of Mrs. Livingston's ghost. Suddenly it appears, and Eddie, Tina and Mrs. Livingston in particular are scared. However it is just the moonlight reflecting through Eddie's aquarium fish. Although Mrs. Livingston is relieved, she secretly is still not totally convinced that there are no ghosts. But this experience teaches Eddie that the longer you take a look at something, including ghosts, the less scary it becomes.
Tue, Mar 10, 1970
Tom, Mrs. Livingston, Norman and Tina all receive an envelope in the mail, each containing ten, crisp, new $100 bills. None of them know who their secret benefactor is. Beyond each having a different reaction to the money and what to do with theirs, each does want to find out who sent them the money. The only clue is that the address on the envelope was typed on a toy typewriter, just like the one Eddie has. Later at home, Tom hears Eddie typing away behind closed doors in his bedroom. Tom walks in on Eddie typing an envelope. Tom also sees a wad of money in Eddie's desk drawer. Eddie, the secret benefactor, was just about to send some more money, this time to his friends. Apparently he found the money, which came in a bank bag, and didn't tell Tom about it since Tom taught him not to tell when doing a good deed in fear of people thinking ulterior motives for doing so. Although Eddie wants to continue to be a pseudo Robin Hood, he decides to return the $10,000 to the bank after a discussion with Tom and gets a $25 reward from the bank. The day after, Eddie is upset. The kids at school called him a goody-goody and called Tom a dummy for returning the money. Eddie thinks the kids hate him. What's just as bad is that some of Tom's friends have the exact same reaction to Tom as Eddie's friends. Tom surmises that their behavior is because those people feel uncomfortable with someone who did "the right thing" when they themselves know deep in their heart that they should also if given the opportunity but probably wouldn't. Tom ultimately convinces Eddie that he should take into consideration that he himself, Norman, Tina and Mrs. Livingston, the most important people in is life, think he did the right thing. And Eddie made his mother in heaven proud.