Fired Up

Gwen's intimidating, emotionally distant mother Rita comes to the door, and she finds herself in a situation similar to Gwen's. The most recent of her old, rich husbands has died and left her practically nothing. Now she is more ill-prepared to face the world without money than Gwen was. Despite Terry's disdain for her mother, Gwen tries to show her what she's learned in the past several months about living practically, including an attempt to cook a chicken. But it looks like Rita may have found another suitably rich suitor. Also, Guy is feeling pressure from other area bars and he turns his place into a Western-themed saloon to try and compete, much to Danny's chagrin.

Gwen and Terry are hoping to land a big account, Roberta York Cosmetics. But when they meets with Roberta, there's a problem. It seems that at her previous job, Gwen blamed Terry for her being late for a meeting with Roberta. Gwen doesn't remember what she said, but whatever it was makes Roberta very reluctant to work with Terry in the present. Later at the loft, a perturbed Terry jogs Gwen's memory: she told Roberta that she had to bail her assistant out of jail after a smash-and-grab jewelry store robbery! Terry and Gwen tell Roberta the truth about what happened. Roberta is willing to forgive a troubled youth's past action, but she won't forgive Gwen's lying about it. So the women reverse their stoiries once again. But Gwen also forgot that she also told Roberta that Terry was mentally ill and needed medication. Terry's actions now convince Roberta that she's off that medication. Fnally Gwen talks Roberta into letting them work for her by pointing out the whole cosmetics industry is

Unscrupulous rival Jack Goodman is trying to steal the partners' best client, the Texas millionaire Tom Whitman. Gwen hatches a plan for Terry to get a job with his company and do some corporate espionage, but Terry unexpectedly finds herself liking her new place of employment. Meanwhile, Danny's agent Scott tries to find work for a bar patron who believes himself to be Benjamin Franklin.

Gone from the unemployment bureau, Mrs. Francis hopes to make a deal with Guy to make appetizers for his bar. The food is wonderful, but a sticking point arises when she insists her eggrolls be billed only as ""Mrs. Francis' eggrolls."" Also, Danny learns some tough lessons about artistic compromise when his grim, hard-hitting play about drug addiction will only be considered for production by a children's theatre.

Gwen calls to complain about the newspaper delivery. She gets a wrong number, but hits it off well with the man she reaches. With Terry's encouragement, she calls him back using the phone's re-dial feature, but in the meantime Danny had called his and Terry's father. The result is that the siblings are soon horrified to find that Gwen is dating their dad.

Gwen is being driven crazy by the noises made by the broken tower clock in their building and wants to complain to the landlord Mr. Lux, despite the direst of warnings from Terry, Danny and Guy. Despite their pleas, Gwen thinks she can reason with this oddball with a penchant for predatory birds. Lux agreees to fix the clock, which then strikes so loud every hour that it's deafening everybody in the building.

Terry is overjoyed to see her old friend from the neighborhood, Debbie. Gwen is a little put off, though, by Debbie's memory of the way Terry characterized her when she was Terry's boss. Terry wants to get the old gang together and hit the town one night, but Debbie will have to find a babysitter for her children. Hoping to rehabilitate her image, Gwen volunteers to do the job. Out at one of the girls' favorite old hangouts, Terry finds that the nightlife is not quite the way she remembered it. Meanwhile, Gwen is proving unsuited to the task of handling the kids and the oldest one, Molly, locks herself in the bathroom and won't come out. Gwen calls for help, but finally proves she has some ""people skills"" with younger folks, too, as she talks Molly out of the bathroom by sympathetically comparing both of their situations.

Guy has found himself a new girlfriend who he proudly shows off to Gwen and Terry. Gwen is relieved that now she won't be the constant target of Guy's aspirations, but surprisingly she misses the attention he gave her and she becomes jealous of the new woman in his life. Also, Danny can't believe his good luck when he hooks up with a songwriter for a project he's working on. Unfortunately, he finds out the man was literally a song writer--he wrote one big hit years ago and hasn't come up with anything else since.

Gwen ambitiously wants to cook a Thankgiving dinner for everyone, but her plans are hampered by her lack of culinary skills and Danny's forgetting to buy a turkey. While an attempt is made to locate a bird on Thanksgiving Day, Gwen's mom Rita shows up unexpectedly, not knowing that her ex-lawyer Gordon, who once stood her up at the altar, was invited.

Mrs. Francis is involved in a school charity auction, and Gwen convinces Tery and Danny to participate, despite their better judgment. Danny warms to the idea, though, when he meets one of the women who might be bidding on a date with him. But he's sold to his mother Tina, who's mad about him missing his lunch dates with her. Danny's agent Scott lowers the bidding on Terry by spreading rumors about her health and mob connections, then buys her for himself. Guy shows up prepared to spend big money to at last get a date with Gwen, but a former classmate of hers puts up $25,000 to create the fantasy prom he never had with her. Gwen also gets reacquainted that night with Steve, another former high-school classmate whose ego has fallen on some hard times since graduation.

Danny and Terry invite their old friend Mickey, now a firefighter, over for dinner and he and Gwen are instantly attracted to each other. Neither one will admit it, however, and they both go to elaborate lengths to prove their indiference while still running into each other. Danny has an idea for his new newspaper column, using overheard snatches of conversations to provide a colorful, intriguing pastiche. He soon decides, however, that the bar's patrons are the dullest people in the world, so he makes up cocktail napkins with conversation starters on them. His ploy works too well.

Gwen wants to give down-and-out Steve a break and let him have a job with their small business. Terry agrees because it will give her an opportunity to show Gwen what a good boss should be like. But Steve would try the patience of Job as he mangles up the most simple tasks assigned him and is costing them a lot of money. Meanwhile Danny is trying to write a profile of Guy, but he can't penetrate the wall of secrecy surrounding Guy's past, and the clues he does come up with suggest all sorts of exotic and unbelievable things.

Terry should be in dating heaven as her moribund love life has been resurrected by three cute guys pursuing her. The problem? They're all studying for the priesthood. In the meantime, Gwen is an unenthusiastic volunteer at the church rummage sale until she finds designer clothes at incredible bargain prices. She recruits Guy to help her corral the most desirable items, but his worst fear is realized when the ruse is discovered by Sister Mary Grace.

In a cough-medicine-induced stupor, an ill Terry mistakenly sends off the rent check written on the business account. Gwen is terrified that Mr. Lux will terminate their lease for running a business out of the loft. That night, Terry dreams of a scheme straight out of ""Mission: Impossible"" to try and get the rent check back.

It loooks like Gwen's sacred ""no sex before the fifth date"" rule may cause some real trouble, because the spontaneous route may be the only way Mickey will be able to participate--before or after date no. 5. Guy decides to hold a literary competion to help nuture a Bohemian atmosphere at the bar, but the main result is a pair of competing, revealing memoirs written by Terry and Danny.

Terry tries hard to make sure that there won't be any physical or emotional relationship between her old friend Debbie and her brother Danny.

Hapless, jobless Steve Summer is infatuated with Terry, who for some reason has always had a tough time breaking up with guys, and Steve is no exception. She implores Gwen to talk to Steve, her old high school boyfriend and let him down easy. But Steve doesn't comprehend Gwen's message and thinks he can win Terry's heart a different way: by learning to dance. Also, Danny and Guy find a thousand dollars in cash in the bar. When an owner doesn't claim it in two weeks, they figure by rights the money is theirs. They spend in on scaplped Knicks tickets, but when they try to buy another pair, they come up short of cash so they throw in a watch from the lost-and-found box to pay off the scalper. Promptly after doing this a minister arrives looking for his heirloom watch and a old woman shows up looking for her thousand dollars.

The girls conceive of and promote a special broadcast of the MTV show ""Loveline"" to be broadcast from the bar.

Gwen and Terry are trying to get insured, but the agent tells them they are not qualified. When he mentions that same-sex domestic partners are eligible for his company's insurance, Gwen says that's exactly what she and Terry are, and surprises Terry with a demonstation of her affection. The agent is not entirely convinced about this, so he plans to make a visit to them at home to check out their living arrangement, leaving the two women to try and set up a convincing domestic household in time. Also, Guy is challenged for the title of ""Mr. New York,"" the businessman who best knows where to go and how to get things done in the city.

The partners think Mrs. Francis' cooking is good enough to sell, and they help her open a diner/take-out restaurant. But they are having a hard time overcoming the brusque manner she displays towards customers, a leftover from her years spent at the unemployment bureau. Meanwhile, Danny gets surprisingly well-acquainted with a famous lesbian singer.