Dave's World

When Dave's column about Shel's childhood is picked by the head of Paragon Pictures to be a feature film, Beth urges Dave to take Shel on as a writing partner for the screenplay. Dave has never been able to ""work or play well with others"" since kindergarten and he's never had a writing partner. Beth gently reminds him of his speech to Tommy and Willie about brothers sharing and that he's always said he and Shel are like brothers. Meanwhile, Mia wants Eric to learn to swim so they can honeymoon in Hawaii and Kenny volunteers to be Eric's swimming coach. However, Mia discovers that the pool pep squad is a bevy of beautiful girl bent on ogling Eric. Guest Brandon Tartikoff formerly served as President of NBC Entertainment, Chairman of NBC Entertainment Group and Chairman of Paramount Pictures.

With Beth and the boys away for the weekend, Dave savors the time alone to do as he pleases -- if only he can get his friends to stop trying to keep him company. Dave's weekend is filled with all the things dearest to his heart: naps, television, beer, pretzels and not bathing. However, Mia and Eric want his expertise on where they should honeymoon, while Shel and Kenny are certain that all this time alone isn't good for Dave. Meanwhile, Beth learns that she is the last to know that Tommy has discovered girls in the form of the beautiful Angela when she chaperones his class on a field trip to see a space shuttle launch.

""Is it me, or did people used to be nicer to each other?"" Dave wonders, after Beth's insulted on the road and Shel has several run-ins with an obnoxious waiter who's out to get him.

Dave grounds Tommy for a prank the child insists he didn't commit. Then Eric's father, Eric Jr., invites the gang to the Coconut Strip Club for Eric's bachelor party, where they wind up in a brawl and get a taste of injustice themselves before a judge who hates celebrities, especially colunists. Meanwhile, Eric begs the guys to convince Mia he was forced to accompany them to the club.

When Dave, Shel and Kenny are sentenced to do community service at the beach as a result of the fight at Eric's bachelor party, a Cuban refugee drags himself out of the water and the boys must decide what to do with him. Dave takes the refugee, Juan, home with him and tries to introduce him to the Dave Barry version of what it means to be an American: lots of naps, snacks and television. Juan's desire to work hard and become a citizen gets Dave thinking about his grandparents and what life was like for them when they came to the United States from Ireland. Meanwhile, Eric isn't sure he wants to give Juan a job, especially in light of Mia's enthusiastic reaction to the refugee's good looks.

When Dave's home town of Pewauketucket, Ohio, honors him with the key to the city, Dave and Beth begin to think that it might be a better place to live than crime-ridden Miami. With Dave mourning the theft of his prize Mustang from right in front of their Miami home, he and Beth begin to look at Pewauketucket, with its safe streets, clear air and good schools, as a possible new home. However, Shel is more interested in the antiques he can buy cheaply from the locals, who he thinks won't know their real value, and Kenny is worrying that his prom night romance years ago may have produced the young hotel bartender who looks a lot like him. Meanwhile, Mia and Eric are babysitting for Tommy and Willie at home and Eric gets his own taste of what it might be like to be a father.

The Barrys and their friends get caught up in the past as they try to relive their best childhood Halloween memories. Dave, determined that his boys will be able to pick a jack-o-lantern from a real pumpkin patch, the way he did when he was growing up in the Midwest, hovers over his pumpkin patch like a mother hen over an egg. Meanwhile, Mia tricks Kenny into helping her bake by convincing him that kneading dough is the ultimate sensual experience. And, when an elderly neighbor says she will give Shel a dilapidated player piano, his memories of a Halloween long ago make him determined to restore the instrument no matter what the cost.

When Dave meets an attractive female fan who invites him back to her apartment to ""talk about writing,"" Shel and Kenny are certain that Dave will be seduced if he goes. While Dave, Shel and Kenny are out of town visiting friends, Dave sees the beautiful Lisa reading his book. After introducing himself, he is overwhelmed by her enthusiastic praise and her excitement at meeting him. Before he knows it, she has given him her address and they have a date to meet at her home that night. Even though he later thinks better of it, Dave doesn't want to stand her up, as Kenny and Shel advise. Meanwhile, Beth is home dealing with a house badly in need of repair and a determination to show Dave that she is just as capable of dealing with contractors as he is.

Beth's decision to use the repair job on the kitchen and master bedroom as a reason to completely redecorate the house puts a major strain on the Barrys' marriage. Ever since structural damage plunged their bedroom into the kitchen, Dave and Beth have been camping out in the living room, which has put a definite crimp in their love life and stress on their marriage. Now with Eric and Eric Jr. practically living with them, blundering through the repairs, things go from bad to worse. But, when Beth goes against Dave's wishes and hires a decorator to redo the entire house, the fighting really escalates. Meanwhile, when Mia and Eric step in to help, they discover that it is really they who are the incompatible ones and split up.

Dave sees a way to meet his favorite '60s British rock star, Peter Noone, when Eric begins repairs on the man's Florida mansion. After Eric leaves Dave's bathroom sink still spouting water like Old Faithful in favor of a repair job at a rock star's house, Dave is furious until he discovers just who that rock star is. Then all he can think about is getting inside the mansion to walk in the footsteps of his idol. With Beth and the boys in tow, he cons Eric into letting him inside, and all goes well until Dave finds himself stuck in an embarrassing predicament. Meanwhile, Mia and Eric continue to try the ""friends"" thing now that they have discovered they are incompatible.

When Willie leaves Earnest, the family bloodhound, at the park by accident, all the Barrys and their friends come together for ""Operation Find Earnest."" The kids are heartbroken over the loss of the dog, and Dave and friends go to great lengths to find him. Kenny and Shel help to draw the missing dog flyers and Mia uses her psychic abilities only to discover that Kenny is about to meet the girl of his dreams. But when Earnest is finally found, new problems surface that may keep the Barrys from their family pet forever.

Dave writes a scathing column criticizing Tommy's teacher for staging a drastically rewritten politically correct version of Moby Dick; Shel and Kenny are dubious about taking Eric to an exclusive nightclub.

After Shel displays the new edition of Playboy in which the centerfold confesses that one of her lifelong ambitions is to meet Dave, the meeting is arranged but doesn't turn out exactly the way Dave and the guys envisioned it. Entertainment Tonight reporter Mark Steines guest stars as himself, covering the meeting between the Playmate and Dave. Dave's growing-by-the-minute ego is deflated, however, when, upon meeting the Playmate, he realizes that she is passionate about his writing not about him and that she views him as a father figure. Meanwhile, Shel, Kenny and Eric trip all over themselves trying to impress her.