Step by Step

- Season 3

(1993)

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.

While a friend of hers is away for three months, Dana can have her apartment. Carol is against, but Frank convinces her this is the best way to let her try out living alone close by before she goes to college next year. Carol gives in, but is obsessed with 'her baby' to the point Al feels neglected. Even J.T. discovers he misses one thing about Barky: a sparring partner at trading verbal abuse. At first Dana felt hounded by ma, but once she's really alone feels miserable enough to start talking to Gordon, the pot plant Cody gave her as company. She's ready to return ...

Carol finds convincing Frank and the other Lamberts to begin attending church to be a tall order.

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.

Frank and Carol search like crazy for anniversary presents.

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.

Frank feels hesitant when Carol buys a marriage-improvement book.

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.

Mark develops a crush on a pretty classmate on his thirteenth birthday.

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 uses the loss of Karen's diary as the basis for a writing class project.

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.