Frank Lloyd
To get Peg’s mother out of the house, Al has to convince Ephraim Wanker he is man enough to take her back, which somehow requires a bear hunt. Al and Bud return with a bear they think is dead. It is hibernating, and it wakes up in the living room.
Peg and Marcy drag their husbands to a Jeffersons stage reunion, so Al and Jefferson pay Bud and Kelly to sit in for them and sneak off to a new sports bar. Joe Namath is behind the counter. An argument about a beer commercial turns into a brawl.
Kelly’s birthday gets forgotten again, and when she cancels a date to spend the evening at the movies with her family, all five of them end up at the multiplex. The episode gives each Bundy an interior monologue over the same film. It is also David Boreanaz’s first credited screen role.
Peggy reads Seven a pirate story and the episode becomes it, with the cast recast into the book’s roles on the most elaborate set the series ever built. David Garrison returns as the villain, which gave him a chance to sing.
Nobody knows when Seven’s birthday is, so the Bundys pick one and take the party to the park, which a rich family has rented for their own son’s party. Meanwhile Bud, Kelly and Al agree that Seven has not suffered enough to deserve the family name. Al ends up in a fight with the boy’s father.
It is Bud’s eighteenth birthday and his family has booked a pony and a clown. Al decides to honor the real Bundy tradition instead and takes him to a strip club, where Bud gets his first bar fight. Both of them come home in pieces.
A sneaker company is casting former athletes for a commercial, and Al presents his 1966 championship record as credentials. He gets the job and finds himself on set with Steve Carlton, Ed Too Tall Jones and Sugar Ray Leonard. There is a boxing ring, and Al gets in it.
Al takes a night job cleaning a private investigator’s office and, when a client walks in, declines to correct her. The episode’s ending reveals that the entire opening stretch of season six was Al’s dream — the series’ largest single retcon.
Peggy is pregnant and the household has instituted formal baby meetings, which is where “Hail baby!” comes from. It is also the first appearance of Grandmaster B, and the last appearance of Al’s friend Norris after six seasons.
Al is dropped from his own softball team for the championship, by unanimous vote, with his wife and both children voting against him. A better player takes his place, gets injured, and Al goes in. It is the last appearance of the New Market Mallers and the last time the Bundys play together.