Even Stevens

Ruby and Monique are reluctant to sign up for the mother-daughter bowling night that Ren is organizing; they're afraid their moms will embarrass them. However it turns out those girls have fun with their mothers while it's Ren who is embarrassed by her mother Eileen's awful bowling. Ren is glad that the one-time bowling night is over, but Mom brings home a surprise: she had so much fun that she enrolled herself and Ren in a mother-daughter league. Meanwhile, Louis has used the $500 he won in a radio station's stinky feet contest to hire a butler, Chives. His servant waits on him hand and foot, at home and at school, even serving detention for Louis. Beans is hanging out at the Stevens house, being his usual annoying self and Louis orders Chives to toss him out. Ren comes to see Louis to tell her about her problem with their mom and the way she's embarrassing her, but Louis has her thrown out of his room too. Although, Chives the butler steps out of her servant's role and scolds Louis for turning away his sister when she needed his help. At the bowling alley Ren tries to get her mom to take the bowling seriously but Eileen is as bad as ever and still having fun. Louis and Chives put on maintenance uniforms so they can sneak in behind the pins and replace Eileen's ball with a magnetic one, plus they put a metallic bowling pin in as well. The result is strike after strike for Eileen. Louis and Chives are found out and are chased around the bowling alley. Ren tells her mom that she was embarrassed by her terrible bowling but she was also puzzled that her mother wasn't concerned about how bad she was. Eileen says that she just looked at it as a fun way to relax from more important things, like her job. At home, Chives returns with the bad check that Louis gave him. To pay him back, Louis must now wait hand and foot on Chives and Beans too, as Louis serves up some bacon for the pair.

Donnie is going to be inducted into the Lawrence Jr. High Wombat Hall of Fame and Louis is getting a little perturbed at his brother because of all the things he gets away with simply because he's an athletic star. His dad ignores his complaints, so Louis plans his own stunt to get even. At the Hall of Fame induction ceremony, a choked-up Coach Tugnut introduces Donnie and tells him that the Texas State University football coach Specs Richardson is on his way to Sacramento right now with plans to offer Donnie a full athletic scholarship. Donnie is set to demonstrate his title-winning gymnastics routine on the pommel horse. Louis has tampered with the horse, though, and when Donnie gets on, it bucks like a mechanical bull. Donnie is thrown high in the air and lands hard on the ground, as Louis and Twitty look on in shock. Meanwhile, Ren is fed up with Beans (who seems to be at the Stevens house all the time) and his practical jokes and uncivilized behavior. But she soon gets frustrated

Louis and Twitty are playing a game of stinky sockball. Tom is there, too, but he doesn't care to join in. He is excited, though, when Mr. Stevens brings home a carve-your-own-leprechaun kit. Louis suggest his dad start without him and use Tom to help instead. Soon, though, Louis is surprised and dismayed when Tom gets on a first-name basis with his dad and begins spending more and more time with him. Louis confesses to Tawny that he fears Tom is taking the role of his dad's son away from him. Tawny suggests he find a shared interest with his dad. Steve Stevens is surprised one afternoon at the golf course when Louis shows up, ready to play. But Tom is already there too. The threesome plays, with Louis doing badly while Tom earns compliments from Steve. Louis finally makes a tough shot, but Steve and Tom aren't paying attention. Louis' frustration boils over and he tells Tom he can take his place as Steve's son. Both Tom and Mr. Stevens are stunned--they didn't realize Louis felt this

Ren gets on the cheerleading squad (it'll look good on her record), but head cheerleader Monique tells he that she needs to work on being more perky and peppy. Meanwhile Louis takes one look at Ms. Morgan, the cheerleaders' new faculty advisor, and falls head over heels in love with the beautiful woman. When Ren messes up a routine and a pyramid of girls falls on the team mascot, a new mascot is needed to replace the injured one. Louis jumps at the chance, solely so he can be near Ms. Morgan. Tawny is shocked at what Louis is doing, but he's serious enough to go to a mascot boot camp, where he impresses the crusty instructor so much that he give Louis a jet pack that he himself used as a mascot long ago. Ren's attempts to be the peppy, perky, perfect cheerleader, and soon she is leading cheers even when she's answering algebra questions! Steve and Eileen Stevens are beginning to worry about their daughter's new obsession. Meanwhile Tawny is hurt by the way Louis has been ignoring her.

Ren and Monique are organizing a Sadie Hawkins Day dance, but due to all the hard work and a recent breakup with Bobby Deaver, Ren may be dateless for the dance. Meanwhile Twitty is swamped with invitations from girls while Louis and Tom, not surprisingly, can't get themselves arrested. Twitty assures Louis that Tawny will ask him to the dance, and she appears to be on the verge of doing so, but when Louis brags about the number of girls after him, Tawny declines to ask Louis out. Ren asks several boys to the dance, but the fact that she's babysitting a live pig cramps her style and she gets nowhere. Louis and Tom both try the ""bad boy"" approach to attract dates, but it only works for Tom. Finally, at the last second, Louis begs Monique to ask him out, and she agrees. At the dance Tawny arrives with a popular boy, Tad. She and Louis eye each other all evening, each trying to impress the other. Ren admits to her pig, now named Timmy, that since her breakup with Bobby she really hasn't w

Louis arrives late in class to find a huge new transfer student named Lenny sitting in his seat. Louis is scared of the big guy but loans him a pencil when he needs one. The class watches the ""Wombat Report"" featuring Ren's expose on dodge ball. She has film of Coach Tugnut and his sadistic practices plus a medical report from Nelson about the injury risks. Lenny follows a nervous Louis to the cafeteria, but he's not going to hurt him; rather, he's grateful that Louis was nice to him. Louis asks Lenny to have lunch with him and Twitty, then he boldly goes and sits at the 8th grade table. Normally this would get the 7th graders a pounding, but with Lenny by their side, Louis and Twitty are soon able to order guys like Larry Beale around like they were little kids. Meanwhile Ren meets with an angry Coach Tugnut. There is going to be a referendum on whether or not to keep dodge ball and the Coach promises to fight Ren all the way, enlisting Larry to campaign for him. Louis and Twitty are

Ren and Bobby are at the Stevens house doing homework. They are about to kiss when her dad comes in and interrupts them. Steve Stevens seems determined not to leave the couple alone. He has some ""good"" news--he's giving a guest lecture on birds in Ms. Lovelson's Life Science class. The next day at school Ruby tells Ren that Mandy ""Always Gets Her Man"" Sanchez has a crush on Bobby. After giving a thoroughly embarrassing presentation, Mr. Stevens invite the students along for a birdwatching trip to Devil Mountain. Bobby volunteers to go, followed quickly by Mandy and Ren, plus Ruby and Nelson. Meanwhile Louis and Twitty are enjoying the delicious pizza that Tom makes in his pizza oven. But when a heating coil breaks, the pair quickly leaves. The next day at school Louis is telling a joke to a crowd when Tom arrives and spoils the punch line. When Louis and Twitty berate him, Tom says his oven may never get fixed. Later the boys walk by Tom's house and find that he's making pizza, but non

The Lawrence Jr. High baseball team is blowing a big lead and is about to lose the game. Things get so bad Coach Tugnut puts in Twitty, who hasn't pitched all year. Surprisingly, he strikes out the rest of the side and saves the day. At school the next day, Twitty is congratulated by everyone, but Louis talks about him being the star player every one depends on so much that it begins to make him nervous. Now with his confidence shaken, Twitty pitches terribly in the next game while Artie Ryan broadcasts to everyone how he blew it. After the game, Twitty blames Louis and all his talk for his pitching problems. Twiity is sitting at home depressed when Tawny and Louis come over to help snap him out of it. Tawny suggests ""behavior modification,"" giving Twitty a reward for having good thoughts and giving him a whiff of Louis' old socks for bad ones! It doesn't work, so Tawny asks Louis to bring his brother Donnie over to help. Donnie tells about when he had similar problems and says a trip

Ren is all set to watch her favorite newscaster and role model, Cynthia Mills, but she's bothered by Louis and Twitty, who are big fans of the station's clownish weatherman, Zippy Winds. Ren mentions that she is entering a newscasting contest for students with a prize that includes meeting Ms. Mills. This excites the boys, who see it as a chance to meet their idol Zippy. But when Ren interviews Tawny the next day at school for an audition tape, Louis is sure that her subject will be too dull to win. He uses the annoying neighbor Beans as part of his plan for a more exciting entry. Using a earpiece, the guys feed Beans information that makes him look like an incredible genius. Ren hears him spouting off all his ""knowledge"" and decides to use him in her audition tape. Meanwhile, Donnie secretly watches a videotape called Look Smart, Be Smart."" It gives him all sorts of superficial advice to make him appear more intelligent. He tries out his new image on Ren and his parents, but they just

Louis and Twitty are desperate to find the new ultra-cool ""Quasi"" sneakers, but they are sold out everywhere. Tom puts them in contact with his underground source, though, and they set up a meeting with ""Scabbie"" at South Creek Mall. Meanwhile, Ren is leading (naturally) a fund-raising meeting for the school paper. Ruby proposes a fashion show at the Mall, an idea everyone likes better than Ren's, including, surprisingly, Ren's devoted disciples Carla and Marla. Soon everyone is neglecting work on the paper and working on the fashion show. Ren gets upset and Ruby accuses her of being mad because the show wasn't her idea, which seems to be true. Ren angrily insists she'll put out the paper by herself. Louis and Twitty take a scary trip through the mall basement and meet up with the even scarier character of Scabbie. He takes their money and goes to his ""secret stash"" of Quasis. When the boys realize that he didn't get their shoes sizes, they quickly determine he's not coming back. Meanw

Ren is ecstatic when she finds out that her braces will come off in the morning before her 8th grade school picture will be taken. When the dentist removes them, he says she has a slight infection and gives her some oral medication which has ""mild side effects."" Ren looks great and rushes to school to get her picture taken. The disinterested photographer doesn't tell her that her cheeks are now grossly swollen. In the halls everyone stares and laughs at Ren. Louis shows his sister a mirror; Ren is horrified. She chases down the departing photographer, Mr. Krapezi, but he says there will be no reshoot unless the principal authorizes payment. Ren is sure Principal Wexler will do it for her, but by the time she sees him, the swelling has gone down and he won't consider it. At home, Louis brings in the horrible yearbook photo that's arrived in the mail. Ren's mom tells her how she led a protest for women's studies in college and suggests Ren could do the same. Ren organizes a demonstration

Ren and Louis are at the carnival on a Ferris wheel when the ride gets stuck with them at the top. As the two argue, a repairwoman comes climbing up to their bucket and serves as a moderator for their argument. In flashback we see Louis' first days at junior high and how he embarrasses Ren. We also see the early rivalry between Ren and Larry Beale plus Louis' first flirtations with Tawny.

Ren and Louis are both looking forward to Zack Estrada's party with anticipation and nervousness. Ren has told her friend Ruby that she's planning to make her move on Bobby Deaver at the party. Louis decides to go when Tawny and Twitty say they're going, but he's afraid because he can't dance. He goes to Betty London's dance studio but all she teaches him are the rhumba, cha-cha, etc.—dances that he doesn't think will impress Tawny. Ren is mortified when she hears Louis will be at the same party as her and Bobby. She stipulates all sorts of no-contact rules for Louis to follow. At the party, Louis is too shy to ask Tawny to dance. Ren's attempts to hook up with Bobby meet with disaster. First her hair gets caught in a houseplant, then her foot gets stuck in the toilet. Louis is amused with his sister's plight at first, but he senses that Bobby is as important to her as Tawny is to him. To help her out, he creates a distraction by doing the tango with Mrs. Estrada, which impresses Tawn

Louis tries to butter up his father so he'll buy him a used Sludgee machine from the convenience store, but Mr. Stevens has three words for him: get a job. Ren is a volunteer career counselor at school and she gets Louis three different jobs, including one in ""journalism"" (a paper route), but he blows all three. Finally Louis comes up with his own brainstorm, a dogsitting service. Louis fills the house with canines who run wild and drive Ren to distraction, but when he comes up one dog short at the end of the day, she rescues him by finding ""Poopsie."" Also, Donnie and Mr. Stevens get out the big old birdhouse they never finished. But when they start working together, they realize why they left it incomplete. Father and son don't get back on good terms until they take a couple of hammers to the project.

Ren is surprised by Louis, who she finds in her closet looking for Hanukkah presents. In the process he messes up her room and breaks Donnie's trophy's trying to run away from her. Keeping up his search, Louis finds the presents in the basement. Upstairs, Ren asks her mom to tell the Hanukkah story again (Eileen's side of the family is Jewish.) Louis hears his dad coming upstairs to get him, so he hastily wraps the presents in a blanket and dangles them outside his window. The presents all go crashing to the driveway. When the family sees what happens, Louis is in trouble with them all. Feeling sorry for himself later, Louis wishes out loud that he hadn't been born into this family where he doesn't fit in. Suddenly in great flashes of light an old woman appears to Louis. It's the spirit of his great-great-great-great grandmother Bubbie Rose. She's heard Louis complaining and is ready to take him on a trip to see what would have happened if he hadn't been born. They travel to the Steven

Louis makes Ren late for school on the Friday when she's supposed to set up her display for Lawrence Junior High's 75th anniversary. She assures Principal Wexler she'll have it done in time for Monday. While Wexler is going out of town, Coach Tugnut, about number 6 in line, is put in charge of the school. In gym class a girl Ren hardly knows named Chloe spends too much time talking to her and Coach gives both of them detention! Ren feals uneasy in the strange world of detention, run by a sleeping teacher and full of the school's misfits. The king of detention turns out to be none other than her brother Louis, who runs a gambling operation featuring racing hamsters. Tugnut shows up. Everything is hidden from him but he questions Ren. She doesn't rat out Louis, which gains her some respect in his eyes. Ren needs to work on her display before Monday but doesn't know how she could possibly do that. Louis offers to help her by breaking into the school after hours. When they arrive there Ren

Mrs. Stevens wants Ren to take an internship with a city councilman. Ren's schedule is already overloaded, but she says yes to please her mother. Louis finds clues that lead him to believe that Ren is up to something secret. When he finds out another girl got the internship that Ren told their mother she'd gotten, he begins spying on her. He follows her to Tokyo Rick's restaurant, where he's surprised to see Ren singing onstage under the name ""Isis."" Louis torments Ren by doing things like putting up posters all over school advertising her appearance at the restaurant. He also persuades his parents to go to Tokyo Rick's. Ren gets mad at him and calls him a ""nothing boy."" She apologizes and confesses that she's been singing to release some of the pressure from all her other duties. Louis now wants to stop his parents from going to the restaurant, but they've already left. He catches them there and tries to distract them, but they see Ren. After some explaining, the four of them end up o

The 7th graders are terrorized by the approaching of ""Scrub Day,"" the day when the upperclassmen are supposedly allowed to do terrible things to them. Louis is desperate to find a way out of it, but Ren and Donnie offer him no help. Louis organizes the ""United Scrubs of America"" to stand up to Larry Beale, their chief tormenter. Larry thwarts them by saying that this year they will only concentrate on one scrub--Louis. Louis turns around to find that all his supporters have deserted him. On Scrub Day the patrol is out in full force seeking Louis, but he proves to be elusive for them. Finally they catch him, when who should show up but big brother Donnie. But instead of rescuing Louis, Donnie arrives dressed like Gandhi! (He's appearing in the Living History Pageant.) Donnie has taken Gandhi's philosophy to heart and advises Louis not to fight back, then he gets a page and leaves. Beale and company take their prisoner to the cafeteria where they dump him in a vat of sloppy joe. Remember

Louis wants badly to be on the TV-news magazine Ren is producing at the school, the ""Wombat Report."" Somehow he convinces her that he will do a serious piece, a profile of one of the cafeteria ladies. When the show airs live, Louis ambushes the woman and does a mocking interview with her that turns into a free-for-all with food flying everywhere. Ren is in a rage at Louis until she finds out how popular the segment was. The next day everyone is laughing at the cafeteria lady and calling her ""Foodzilla,"" the nickname Louis gave her. Embarrassed, she flees the cafeteria and quits her job. Back at home, Mrs. Stevens finds out what happens and tells Louis and Ren to go apologize. Arriving at the lady's home, they talk to her and find out she's an interesting woman named Elsa Schotz who emigrated to America and is a professional yodeler. They give her a makeover and promise to show another report about her at school. But by the time the second show airs, Ms. Schotz has run off to Las Vegas

Best friends Ren and Charlotte are having a great time decorating the gym for a dance, but things change when Charlotte's old friend Yvette shows up and Ren starts to feel left out as Charlotte seems to pick up right where she left off with Yvette. Even Ren's mom likes the new girl. The situation isn't helped when Yvette accidentally knocks Ren off a ladder while they are working in the gym, sending her flying through a huge hanging banner. Ren becomes so irritated that she breaks off her friendship with Charlotte. Mom tries to convince her, though, that it's possible to have more than one best friend, something Ren doesn't think is true. At the dance, Ren and Yvette run into each other in the bathroom, and to Ren's surprise, Yvette confesses that she has felt like the odd person out with Charlotte since she came to Sacremento. All three girls make their peace. Meanwhile, Louis tries to convince his mother that he is mature enough to babysit for Twitty's little brother, along with some

Louis wants to enter the school talent show and do his comedy routine but he waits too long and misses the entry deadline. He tries to get Ren to let him share her spot in the show with him, but she has no sympathy. At dinner Louis gets his parents to pressure Ren into doing an act with him, much to her annoyance. They do Louis' act in rehearsal and it gets a lot of laughs. Larry Beale sees this and doesn't like it. He tells Ren that she's just being her brother's flunky in the act and that he keeps all the good lines for himself. Falling into Larry's trap, Ren gets mad at Louis and quits the act. When the talent show comes around, Larry and his partner Ivan go onstage before Louis and steal his act. Louis is crushed now that he won't get to do the one thing he felt he was really good at. Ren takes pity on him and at the last minute they come up with a comic opera routine that wins the brother and sister first prize.

The Stevens are a middle-class family living in Sacramento, CA. Husband and father Steve is a successful attorney. Wife and mother Eileen is a state Senator. Their oldest child Donnie ia a high-school sports legend. Ren, an 8th-grader, is just about the perfect daughter. She makes the best grades, she's popular, she does volunteer work and other extracurricular tasks by the score. Her brother Louis, in the 7th grade, is her opposite. He likes to sleep late, he's messy, his grades are not good, he's frequently in detention and he seems to take nothing seriously. But he is serious about finding something of his own that he can do to put himself on a par with the rest of his overachieving family. Though he and Ren occasionally soften their attitudes toward each other, at any given moment the're likely to be fighting like mongoose and cobra. In this episode, Louis finds a valuable ""Roaring Drycon"" card for sale online. He asks the price and finds out that the seller wants a date with his s