Lucy Carter, a widow with two teen children, takes a job as a secretary for her stuffy brother-in-law.
Hoss takes the blame when a visiting actress kills her former boyfriend. The ex-boyfriend's father, a senator, sets out to destroy the Cartwrights and the Ponderosa as retaliation, for the killing of his son.
Publisher Granger is controlled by the Syndicate, killing reporters and protecting Syndicate-owned politicians in his state. The IMF must make sure the voters know what Granger is up to before the next elections. Appealing to Granger's interest in UFOs and his obsession with immortality, chauffeur Barney hits him with a paralysis drug delivered by bee sting and Jim and Casey mysteriously appear in a light show, ""cure"" him with futuristic equipment, and appear. Thanks to IMF-rigged reports of UFOs, Granger believes they are aliens! After another rigged death of Casey that Jim ""cures,"" Granger begs for immortality. Jim agrees if he publicly renounces his way. Granger exposes the Syndicate candidates and then is shot by his former aide and Syndicate man.
Mary, Rhoda and Lou go to a John Wayne movie, where they spot Lou's son-in-law with an unknown woman.
Archie lays off a Puerto Rican worker during a cut back at the dock; and his homeowner's policy is canceled when his neighborhood is redlined as a bad risk.
Danny sees his mother looking at a mink coat in a store window, and with Shirley's birthday coming up, Danny decides to buy it for her. To raise money, Danny starts selling Keith's personal belongings to the love-sick girls at school.
Greg wants to be on the football team, but Carol is against it, fearing that he's going to get hurt. Carol's fears come true when Greg fractures a rib. Meanwhile, Bobby gets a camera.
While out camping at Brett's family estate, Danny gets chained to a brief case which he can't get off that contains a bomb.
A string of deaths at a convalescence home leads the Chief to go undercover as a patient, whose two children (Fran Belding and Ed) hint that they wish he were "no longer their problem". It soon appears that violence and murder are considered due care by certain members of the staff.
A schoolteacher in a frontier town tries to reach a timid, hauntingly strange fourth grader. A distraught musician asks the police to help him find an elusive woman.
Ed is shot during a raid on a jewellery store, and his life is saved by a stranger who vanishes as soon as the authorities arrive on the scene. When it later transpires that the stranger is a soldier gone AWOL following the murder of a colleague, Ed is determined to prove him innocent of all charges.
Lucy Carter, a widow with two teen children, takes a job as a secretary for her stuffy brother-in-law.
A veteran blinded by the last battle of the Civil War, returns to Virginia City, to solve the mystery surrounding who killed his brother.
Stu Gorman is a music-industry figurehead for the Syndicate. He and his financial expert, Belker, are taking control of the music industry and the IMF have to stop him. The IMF know that Gorman killed a witness, Judy, to keep her from testifying, so Barney auditions for Gorman using a song called ""Judy's Gone Now"" and claiming Judy had taped Gorman when he killed her, and he has the tape. Barney gets Gorman to pay blackmail while Willy fake-rigs Belker's car to explode and claims he's working for Gorman when caught. Belker gets lead to Jim as a corrupt policeman with the recording, and he and Jim agree to blackmail Gorman instead. The IMF gives Belker a fake tape of the murder scene and when Belker confronts Gorman, Gorman knows its a fake and admits he killed Judy, then tries to kill Belker. But the police show up - the IMF have Gorman's confession on tape.
Mary gets a chain letter from Lou, and she is persuaded to send it on. To her surprise, one of the recipients comes for a visit, giving Mary a less than pleasant time dealing with him.