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- After Tom becomes frustrated with the rest of the family monopolizing the phone, his family pressures him to get a second phone for the house. Guest stars: Howard Smith, Bruce MacFarlane, Tony Michaels, and Sam Hearn. (en)
- John Emery plays Tom's footloose, gregarious, and carefree old college buddy, Jack Hunter, who invites Tom and Fran to a wild Hollywood party — and then makes a play for Fran. Former "Miss Iceland" Sirry Steffen and character actor Fay Roope also appear as party guests. (en)
- Tom frantically tries to dissuade Carol and her boyfriend from making marital plans. Whit Bissell and Ray Stricklyn guest-star. (en)
- Tom cuts his wife and daughters off from credit cards and the family checking account in order to teach them a lesson about finances. Guest stars: Jan Arvan, Raymond Bailey, Madge Blake, Jimmy Cross, Joe Forte, Ray Kellogg, and Monty Margetts. (en)
- After Tom vows that he would never get caught on a hidden-camera television program and writes to a hidden-camera show to tell them they would never be able to trick him, the show′s producers decide to find him and create a situation in which they can trick him. After Tom is subjected to various situations, he realizes that the show could be filming him surreptitoiusly and walks away. The episode switches from between camera shots and movements typical of a situation comedy to those used in a hidden-camera show, with the camera is filming the event from a distance using a zoom lens and panning to follow Tom as he participates in the scene. George Fenneman appears as Randy Rambo, Jean Carson as a girl named Diane, and Grace Albertson as Sally Gallagher. It is not clear whether Sally's husband Al Gallagher was portrayed by Frank Albertson or Jack Albertson . (en)
- Grandma isn't satisfied with her life and believes she has become a nuisance around the house — and the Potter family takes drastic action when she decides to accept a dreary proposal of marriage from a man who is a bore. (en)
- Tom has trouble remembering anything and needs to pass his real estate exam, so he hires a memory expert to help him study for the test. Guest stars: Don Beddoe and Ralph Bell. (en)
- Tom devises a scheme to show that he has the political aptitude to be elected to the city council by bringing the actor Dick Powell into town and making an important real estate deal — and it leads to a donnybrook all over City Park. Dick Powell guest-stars as himself in this episode, in which the actual Four Star Productions lot is used as part of the story. Other guest stars: Parley Baer, William Woodson, Russ Conway, Tyler McVey, Marjorie Bennett, Dick Bernie, Dick Ryan, David Alpert, David Halper, and Robin Warga. (en)
- Tom's eccentric, madcap sister Polly, who has odd hobbies, enjoys poached curry for breakfast, and believes that she is involved with the cosmos and that everything that happens to her must, therefore, happen to Tom, comes for a visit and imposes her own odd notion of togetherness on the household, inflicting domestic disaster on the Potter family. Alice Ghostley returns in a different role, as Polly, (en)
- Tom, upset at always being the family chauffeur, tries to teach Fran how to drive a car. Junius Matthews guest-stars as an elderly man. Ray Montgomery and James H. Drake also guest-star. (en)
- While trying to sell the home of a debt-ridden spinster, Tom discovers that he has great artistic talent. Alice Ghostley plays eccentric painter Lavinia Barrington, and Robert Emhardt plays villainous Orville Bostwick. (en)
- Tom defies reason when he tries to arrange a family vacation and his family can't agree on a vacation site. (en)
- Tom finds part-time jobs for his daughters, who rebel against the idea. Billy Mumy guest-stars as a young boy. Cheerio Meredith also guest-stars. (en)
- After Tom insists that Debbie do something to bring culture into her life, she starts taking tuba lessons so that she can join the school orchestra — and her constant practicing annoys the entire family. (en)
- Tom befriends a baseball player — and unintentionally undermines the pitching staff of the Los Angeles Dodgers. (en)
- Tom's pending real-estate deal may leave three elderly ladies homeless. (en)
- Tom and Fran's daughters behave badly and try to hide the results — and when Tom takes up handwriting analysis, he gets a new slant on his business deals. Guest stars: David Lewis, Andrea King, Fay McKenzie, Adrianne Ellis, Jack McCall, and Patti Chapman. (en)
- Concerned that money is being handled too freely around the Potter household, Tom tries to be a shrewd businessman — and ends up alienating almost every tradesman in town. John Dehner and Herbie Faye guest-star. (en)
- Tom falls asleep at the airport and misses his flight to Montreal, imperiling a big business deal. (en)
- Tom and Fran plan a brief, peaceful vacation by a lake without the children — but their getaway turns out to be anything but carefree when they try to call home and no one answers the phone. Robert Hastings guest-stars. (en)
- Tom invites Carol's teenage boyfriend to go to a Los Angeles Rams football game with him, much to Carol's displeasure. Alan Reed Jr. guest-stars as Carol′s boyfriend. (en)
- Incensed by his family telling him what to wear and feeling that it undermines his status as head of the household, Tom goes shopping for clothes by himself to show that he does not need their advice, buys a suit he hates, and insists on wearing it anyway out of pride — and ends up having to explain how he ended up buying something he did not want in the first place. (en)
- Balking at the cost estimate of a professional handyman, Tom lays a new kitchen floor himself — but when the Potters′ water heater breaks, the handyman refuses to help. (en)
- Tom decides to buy Fran a dress for a dance, shopping first in a bargain-basement store and then in a fancy salon. He decides that to be a big spender he needs to have the earnings to match, so he set the real estate world on fire — and when a gullible insurance client finances his splurges, he buys the best, and ends up with an ironic reward for his efforts. Eleanor Audley plays Madame Defarge. (en)
- Grandma buys Tom's convertible against Fran's advice, and the car stops running almost as soon as the deal is completed. (en)
- Tom takes in an orphan for Big Brother Week. Child-actor Pat Close guest-stars as the orphan. (en)
- The pilot episode for the series. Fran gets appendicitis, and Tom has to take over the housework. (en)
- Debbie is upset that she is not treated the same as her younger sister or her older sister. (en)
- Tom decides to branch out from real estate into the insurance business. Shortly after getting his insurance license, he sells a homeowners liability policy to the Steckels, a kindly elderly couple, and thinks he's made a great deal — but the Steckels are crafty as well as kindly, and they give him a run for his money when their house begins to fall apart almost as soon as the policy he sold them goes into effect. Ernest Truex and Mildred Dunnock guest-star as Mr. and Mrs. Steckel. (en)
- When Debbie competes in a spelling bee, Tom dreams about how it would be to have three sons instead of three daughters. Howard Petrie, Darryl Richard, Don Edmonds, Thomas B. Henry, Vernon W. Rich, Bert Holland, and William K. Hummer. (en)
- Tom and the girls learn a lesson in sales when he sets out to teach a young man "realestatesmanship." (en)
- After Tom hires a girl Friday to clean up the office, she does — and Tom discovers that too much efficiency is a dangerous thing. (en)
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