Dave's World

When a giant sinkhole threatens to destroy the Barry house, the entire family evacuates to Shel's. Forced to flee on a moment's notice, Dave and Beth must choose what is most important to them. Meanwhile, Shel the consummate bachelor tries to make his pad more family friendly.

After Eric accidentally sells Beth's wedding dress during their garage sale, Dave thinks Beth is upset for sentimental reasons, but the truth is she had $300 hidden in the dress. No matter how Beth tries to explain, Dave still doesn't understand why his wife has a secret slush fund. Meanwhile, Dave confesses to Mia that her high school idol, erotic romance novelist Letitia DeVore, is actually a pseudonym -- for Dave Barry.

Kenny auditions for a job as a weatherman. Meanwhile, Shel's investments bring him a substantial windfall; then he learns the truth about his shady accountant.

A call from an old college classmate whom Dave despised reveals a long-hidden truth about Dave and Beth's dating history. When Dave, Beth, Kenny and Shel engage in their usual game of poker, the art of bluffing becomes more personal than usual. During the course of the poker game, Dave discovers that Beth, Kenny and Shel have been sharing a secret since their college days about a past fling Beth had with an old college flame. Feeling slightly betrayed, Dave ends up pulling off the ultimate bluff.

Mel, Dave's aggressive new agent, has the Barry household spinning both physically and mentally when she sends Dave into New York for a PR tour and lands Willie a television commercial much to Beth's chagrin. Bea Arthur plays Mel Bloom, the new agent, in the second of three guest-starring appearances. Talk show host Roy Firestone appears as himself, as does singer Pat Boone, who has recently released a new heavy metal CD, In a Metal Mood: No More Mr. Nice Guy. In the green room prior to his appearance on the Roy Firestone talk show, Dave is anxious and nervous and decides to try joke material out on fellow guest Pat Boone. The situation becomes even more nerve-racking when Pat, who goes on the air first, then aces Dave by using the jokes. Meanwhile, Beth, who was reluctant to have Willie do the commercial, becomes angry with Mel when it backfires.

Kenny encourages Shel to be more spontaneous -and Shel foolishly takes his advice. Meanwhile, Dave and Beth's hanky-panky in the car sends them straight to traffic school. Trying to embrace the ability to live impulsively, Kenny convinces Shel to go on a last minute cruise and Shel ends up married by the time the boat docks. Arriving back from the cruise married, Shel is distraught when he hears from his new wife's attorney, fearing that she may take him to the cleaners. Meanwhile, Dave and Beth end up at a very strict traffic school, where they are cited for a ""moving violation"" of an intimate nature in their car.

Dave writes a scathing column criticizing Tommy's teacher for staging a drastically rewritten politically correct version of Moby Dick; Shel and Kenny are dubious about taking Eric to an exclusive nightclub.

Dave sees a way to meet his favorite '60s British rock star, Peter Noone, when Eric begins repairs on the man's Florida mansion. After Eric leaves Dave's bathroom sink still spouting water like Old Faithful in favor of a repair job at a rock star's house, Dave is furious until he discovers just who that rock star is. Then all he can think about is getting inside the mansion to walk in the footsteps of his idol. With Beth and the boys in tow, he cons Eric into letting him inside, and all goes well until Dave finds himself stuck in an embarrassing predicament. Meanwhile, Mia and Eric continue to try the ""friends"" thing now that they have discovered they are incompatible.

When Dave meets an attractive female fan who invites him back to her apartment to ""talk about writing,"" Shel and Kenny are certain that Dave will be seduced if he goes. While Dave, Shel and Kenny are out of town visiting friends, Dave sees the beautiful Lisa reading his book. After introducing himself, he is overwhelmed by her enthusiastic praise and her excitement at meeting him. Before he knows it, she has given him her address and they have a date to meet at her home that night. Even though he later thinks better of it, Dave doesn't want to stand her up, as Kenny and Shel advise. Meanwhile, Beth is home dealing with a house badly in need of repair and a determination to show Dave that she is just as capable of dealing with contractors as he is.

When Dave's home town of Pewauketucket, Ohio, honors him with the key to the city, Dave and Beth begin to think that it might be a better place to live than crime-ridden Miami. With Dave mourning the theft of his prize Mustang from right in front of their Miami home, he and Beth begin to look at Pewauketucket, with its safe streets, clear air and good schools, as a possible new home. However, Shel is more interested in the antiques he can buy cheaply from the locals, who he thinks won't know their real value, and Kenny is worrying that his prom night romance years ago may have produced the young hotel bartender who looks a lot like him. Meanwhile, Mia and Eric are babysitting for Tommy and Willie at home and Eric gets his own taste of what it might be like to be a father.

Dave grounds Tommy for a prank the child insists he didn't commit. Then Eric's father, Eric Jr., invites the gang to the Coconut Strip Club for Eric's bachelor party, where they wind up in a brawl and get a taste of injustice themselves before a judge who hates celebrities, especially colunists. Meanwhile, Eric begs the guys to convince Mia he was forced to accompany them to the club.

With Beth and the boys away for the weekend, Dave savors the time alone to do as he pleases -- if only he can get his friends to stop trying to keep him company. Dave's weekend is filled with all the things dearest to his heart: naps, television, beer, pretzels and not bathing. However, Mia and Eric want his expertise on where they should honeymoon, while Shel and Kenny are certain that all this time alone isn't good for Dave. Meanwhile, Beth learns that she is the last to know that Tommy has discovered girls in the form of the beautiful Angela when she chaperones his class on a field trip to see a space shuttle launch.