Step by Step

To become closer to a new boyfriend, Dana auditions for - and wins - the role of Juliet in a local production of "Romeo and Juliet." However, her bid at stardom is placed in jeopardy when she learns her co-star is the very man she detests the most: Cody.

A nearby family is going out of town and they want Dana to ""house-sit."" Carol is extremely uncomfortable with Dana leaving, but Frank talks her into it so when she goes to college, Carol will be ready. Everyone has trouble adjusting. Cody gives his plant, Gordo, to Dana so she will have someone to talk to. JT complains that the remaining Fosters (Karen and Mark) do not slam him good enough. Frank discovers he misses Dana as if she were his own. Most of all, though, Dana discovers after catching herself talking to Gordo repeatedly,that she does not like being alone.

While at church with the Fosters (and NOT the Lamberts), Carol invites the pastor and his wife over for Sunday lunch. The Lambert's notice that he is a normal guy, and Frank promises that the Lamberts will be there next week. Cody and his friends, Slasher and Death, come too because the Pastor is into bikes. The only problem is that a big televised Packer's game is on that week. While at church, JT sneaks away to watch the game, Frank follows him up and falls through the ceiling. Frank agrees to fix the roof and go to church from now on. The very next week he observes Cody, Slasher, and Death singing, ""Pharaoh, Pharaoh""-- a ballad of the Israelites to the tune of ""Louie, Louie.""

J.T. and Rich have to write a report for their English class. They decide to break into Mark's computer to steal the papers and sell them to the football players. Dana finds out and tells Mark and then she decides to get revenge on them and changes the papers to make them sound bad.

Is it easier being a teen-ager or a parent? That's the question Frank and Carol hope to resolve with J.T. and Dana when they agree to "switch places" for a weekend. The exercise comes after J.T. and Dana refuse to do their share of the housework and complain that Frank and Carol seem to do nothing themselves.

When Mark frets over getting his first "A" (instead of the A-pluses he has been so accustomed to), Frank decides the best way to relieve the tension is to play video games. However, Mark quickly becomes a video game addict, forcing Carol to take drastic steps to break her son out of his new addiction. Meanwhile, Cody drives Dana nuts with his ways of trying to cure the common cold, with mind power.

JT discovers that although Cody is the best motorcycle repairman in town, he charges everyone $9. JT convinces him to start his own business with a bigger shop. Cody has trouble getting a loan until Slasher ""convinces"" the banker by threatening to move his multi-million dollar account elsewhere. Cody, however, does not like the new business because he does not get to work on the bikes himself. Frank and Carol are celebrating an anniversary and again are fighting over presents. This time they agree to buy a present, but to limit it to $25. Both exceed the limit and end up struggling to buy a more expensive present than the other one. Brendan makes them an anniversary card, because he did not have the money to buy one. This ends the struggle.

Cody moves into the house while his van/house is in the shop for repairs, and drives everyone crazy. Meanwhile, Karen decides to volunteer at the local homeless shelter so she can meet a cute guy.

Through the "find a friend" section in a biker magazine, Cody meets a young woman who is raising an 8-year-old boy alone. Cody and the boy hit it off, and it isn't long before the woman decides that Cody is the man she is looking for.

Dana and Karen team up to teach the Lambert step-siblings a lesson in secretly tape-recording others' telephone conversations.

Frank and Carol are arrested by a know-it-all Barney Fife-type deputy on Christmas Eve when they are accused of being burglars.

Carol has just bought a book named ""Ten Minutes Per Day to a Better Marriage."" The book advised to tell each other a big secret. Carol tells him about a secret bank account with a lot of money in it. Frank feels betrayed and goes to his office to spend the night. Upon seeking support from Cody, Frank discovers that he was unsure in other areas (he had not thrown away his little black book). They realize that in the end they are better off for having told each other. Karen just passed her drivers license exam, creating three drivers (Dana, JT, and Karen) and no car. They decide it is time to buy their own car, but they can only come up with $400. JT manages to find an old Volkswagen Bug for $400. The car is a disaster and although Cody works on it, it is barely driveable. Cody and JT sell it for parts and get $425, and they keep the 8 track player with a Sonny and Cher 8 track.

When she has trouble making (and keeping) friends, Al decides to start hanging out with a group of bad girls. When Dana alerts Frank about Al's new friends, he prohibits her from seeing them again, leading to a huge argument. Eventually, Al realizes her friends are no good when they let her take the fall for stealing Cody's electric guitar.

Cody takes a speed-reading class and becomes a replacement storyteller at the library, where he learns that one of Brendan's friends has a reading problem and tries to help him.

It's Mark's 13th birthday.While frank introduces him to the fine art of shaving,and Carol arranges a real party for him with music and girls.One of the girls is a lovely girl named Marissa,with who Mark falls in love with.But he's soon brokenhearted as he finds out her feelings for him are not quite the same as what he thought. J.T. passes his mechanics exam.But Dana feels if he can do it so can she.So she challenges him to a bet,that she can do it.

Cody annoys the family - especially Dana - with his weird dreams. He winds up ruining her college visit, but then saves her from being sexually assaulted at a bus station.

Karen's coveted modeling opportunity falls by the wayside when Al is chosen for a new jeans advertisement. Meanwhile, Cody struggles with a good luck streak.

Frank decides to take Carol for a little week-end get away. But he unwittingly brings her to a place that he took one of his exes.

Dana assesses Cody's mental state for a psychology class assignment. Forced to make a decision between college and work, J.T. chooses work, much to Carol's chagrin.

Carol begins to feel insecure about her appearance and aging beauty as her 40th birthday approaches, so she orders some diet pills that make matters even worse. Meanwhile, Cody consults with a psychic to meet Abraham Lincoln (the topic of Al's term paper). Al decides to do the research herself as the unorthodox Cody claims he is having a normal(?) conversation with the 16th president.

Cody is writing a 40's style mystery for his creative writing class. He gets an idea when Karen proclaims her diary is missing. His pun-filled story is played out by the Lambert/Foster family. Kitty Meow (Karen), who sings in the famous trio the Andrews step-sisters, lost her diary. The suspects are as follows: the other two Andrew's step-sisters (Dana and Al), the establishment's piano player (Brendan), comic (JT), and other singing act, Miss Honey Dew (Carol). With the help of the lab technician (Mark), Sam Spud (Cody) discovers it was Honey Dew. In real life, Al turns out to be the one who misplaced Karen's diary.

Cody looks forward to his birthday: his father, Frank's brother, will visit. He offers to make Cody the senior vice-president of his real-estate company, but Cody doesn't quite fit the corporate image. Meanwhile, Carol sets up Dana and Karen with the dates from hell; they get back at her, but she manages to have the last laugh, heh-heh-heh.

On prom night, JT is set up with a 13-year-old girl (as a joke). Meanwhile, Dana's date doesn't go much better when her boyfriend decided to get back with his ex-girlfriend. The two are left to comfort each other and wind up sharing a few dances, as well as gaining a new grudging respect for each other.