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Private Notes
The pilot episode finds newlyweds Tom and Susan Wagner moving to her hometown in Kansas. Tom is overwhelmed by the closeness of Susan's family, the Kellys, and would rather spend a night alone with his wife but Susan has already agreed to join her family for dinner.
Tom hosts a barbecue in an attempt to fit in with the family but cannot assemble his new grill so he gets Susan to do it. In return Tom decides to make the dinner that the family is expecting Susan to prepare.
Tom meets a girl in a clothing store and decides to set her up with his socially awkward brother-in-law Lewis. The date seems to go well until Lewis reveals to Tom that he already has a girlfriend.
Tom tries to convince Chris that the family is taking advantage of his overly-helpful generousity and decides to loosen him up by taking him golfing. Eventually Tom's plan to make his brother-in-law less helpful and more laidback backfires when the family starts to rely on Tom to takeover all of Chris' chores.
When Tom meets fellow New Yorker Bob they instantly become best friends but the same can't be said when their wives meet. Susan tells Tom that Bob's wife was a girl that Mary and she hated back in high school. Meanwhile, Dave talks Chris into betting on a football game behind Mary's back.
Tom feels awkward around Bill because he thinks that they don't have anything in common. Meanwhile, Mary and Chris prepare to compete in an annual folk-dancing contest.
Sandy isn't happy when Tom and Susan buy a small car because it means that they're not thinking about starting a family any time soon.
Susan finds out that Tom is still renting their old New York apartment after Lewis decides to skip Thanksgiving dinner with the family so that he can take a trip to the Big Apple.
Tom becomes so preoccupied with getting Chris a great present for his birthday and trying to impress the family at the birthday party that he inadvertantly reveals something about Susan that she didn't want her family to know about.
Susan gets Tom to sleepover at the Kellys on Christmas Eve where the whole family is busy preparing for the hectic holiday. The family tries to keep busy with activities such as lights decorating, giftwrapping and pretzel-dunking but Sandy, facing her first Christmas since her mother passed away, can't seem to get into the spirit of it all.
Tom tells Susan that he is skipping dinner with her family so that he can concentrate on writing his book but she soon finds him out having beers and watching a game with the utility man instead. Tom thinks he knows the real reason Susan is upset but in reality he doesn't get it.
The rivalry between Tom and Mary heats up when he shows her up at her own award presentation and is invited to be a guest speaker at her university. Meanwhile, Lewis decides that it is time for a name change so he asks everyone to start calling him Lew.
Tom wants to turn a storage room into his own private sanctuary so he hires a contractor named Mike after meeting the man's parents, who are good friends of the Kellys, only to learn that his work is suffering due to his failed marriage. Meanwhile, Mary is feeling guilty because she never told Chris that she dated Mike in high school.
Tom notices that his new doctor, Jim Coglan, has an old portrait of Susan up in his office and discovers that the man was actually a childhood friend of Susan's who used to hang out on a tree outside of her window. Meanwhile, Bill tries to get his old lucky sweater back from Lewis who seems to have fallen in love with it.
Tom discovers that the family is throwing Lewis a childish birthday party in honor of his 21st birthday so he convinces Chris to treat the birthday boy to a night of guys-only partying. Meanwhile, Susan finds out that her new job as a restaurant hostess may cause her to miss her brother's birthday entirely.
Tom runs into his estranged friend, a newly single Bob, and the two quickly hit it off once again leaving Susan the odd one out. Susan convinces Tom that if she set up Bob with an old friend of hers then they would finally have the perfect couple to hang out with. So the two scheme to get their friends together at Mary's Oscar viewing party. Meanwhile, Lewis and Sandy find $200 in an old tuxedo and suspect that it may have been meant as a wedding gift for Mary and Chris years ago.
Mary moves in with Tom and Susan after she has a fight with Chris. Meanwhile, Lewis invites his girlfriend over for dinner.
Tom lands in hot water when he goes on a radio talk show to discuss his New Yorker article and the host misquotes him on some things he said about the Kellys and Kansas residents. Meanwhile, after watching ""Queer Eye for the Straight Guy"" Lewis decides to con Susan into redecorating his bedroom and buying him new clothes.
The Kellys aren't happy when their daughter Lisa decides to quit school so that she can head for Europe instead and they're even less thrilled when they find out that Tom is in favor of this decision. Meanwhile, Susan is jealous when she thinks that Lisa's roommate has a crush on Mary instead of her.
Tom and Susan worry about their financial plans after Chris loses his job. Meanwhile, Bill asks Lewis to start paying rent.
After Tom's attempt to get back onto the family's good side by lending Chris money for his new home remodeling business backfires, he tries think of another way to impress them. The perfect oppurtunity falls into Tom's lap when he's asked to ghostwrite a book about Tony Gonzalez, of the Kansas City Chiefs. Soon, Tom tries to arrange a meeting between Tony and the Kellys.
**Series Finale** Tom's parents come to Kansas and attend Bill and Sandy's anniversary celebration. Meanwhile, Chris finishes fixing up a house but has second thoughts about selling it.
Meredith Monroe originally played Tom's wife Susan in the original pilot presentation which finds Tom having his first family dinner with the Kellys.
