Martin Speer

Reuben comes up with the idea for a contest - the Booper Beat Magazine Contest - in which the winner would spend a week with the Partridge Family. Keith is hoping the winner would be young and beautiful. Reuben comes up with Gloria Neugast, the winner of the contest...a 60-year-old Jewish mother. In no time at all, Mrs. Neugahst is cleaning the house, mowing the lawn, helping the kids with their homework and teaching Laurie how to knit. She even talks Keith into taking her to Muldoon's Point where he takes his girlfriends - and his friends drive up and tease him mercilessly. When Mrs. Neugast brings home a nice single Jewish doctor for Shirley...the family decides to that they can't take any more of it. But they don't want to hurt her feelings. During a recording session, Mrs. Neugast interrupts each time the Partridges are about to begin. She tells Keith his hair is out of place...then stops the session again to tell Shirley the sheet music is blocking her face. They finally finish, but after 73 takes! On the day she is to leave, Mrs. Neugast feigns illness, and Shirley decides to let her stay a few more days. Reuben comes up with the perfect solution - he finds her a job with a child daycare center so that she can worry about many people. She is delighted and leaves immediately. A week later, a letter arrives from Mrs. Neugast...and the Partridge family realizes she is not out of their lives. She tells Tracy to stop biting her nails, Keith to dress nicely...and she tells Shirley she has arranged another date for her with the nice Jewish doctor.

Danny comes up with an idea for crashing in on the ecology movement...the Partridges should get a whale to be their lead singer. He had just played Laurie's new record, "Song of the Humpback Whale." Laurie explains that whales are becoming extinct and she doesn't want to profit from their plight, but Danny doesn't understand. He puts an ad in the paper for a singing whale, and loads of people show up with their animals - a dancing bear, singing dog, chimp - but no whale. The Partridges go to Marineland and talk to Dr. Whelander, who agrees that they should make a record to allow people to become aware of the plight of the whales so that maybe they'll do something to stop them from being slaughtered. He said that any profits Marineland receives will go to the New York Zoological Society, where they are working to save whales. Shirley says that her family will devote her profits to the whale too. At the recording session, E.J. Flicker walks in and claims the whale belongs to him since he was the one who alerted Marineland four years ago to get the whale out of his inlet. He wants 50 percent. Shirley gets an idea - they will cut the record at Marineland and invite the press and Mr. Flicker. She sets everything up with Mr. Blanchard of ABC News, who shames Flicker in front of thousands of people into donating his 50 percent to the Zoological Society.

With 67 cents worth of backing from Chris and Tracy, plus his own savings, Danny's newest investment is hamsters. Shirley reluctantly agrees, seeing the hamsters as a good experience in responsibility for Chris, Tracy, and Danny. In a matter of weeks the house is full of hamsters. Danny, of course, is overjoyed at the prosperous results of his investment. When the family departs for a tour, no one can be found to "hamster sit," so they are packed into the bus. After a series of mishaps - due entirely to Danny's "investment" - Shirley decides the hamsters must go. She finally convinces the kids that it's not fair to the hamsters, as it is impossible to love that many pets. They see the wisdom in her decision and Danny (with Shirley's help) tries to find homes for the constantly growing number of hamsters. Much to Shirley's dismay no one wants to relieve the Partridge family of their private population explosion. Finally, Danny comes up with a great idea - a free hamster with every purchase of a Partridge Family Album! The family spends an afternoon at the neighborhood department store handing out hamsters, and the problem is solved.

The Partridge Family attend a lecture by Mike Rezo, a famous mystery writer. After the lecture, they meet him, and the discussion leads to the fact that everyone but Rezo feels that his stories are more fantasy than true to life. Rezo believes that, using human nature and logic, anything is possible. In order to prove his point, Rezo offers the Partridges a deal they can't refuse. He will give them a two-hour head start and then begin looking for them; if he can't locate them within 24 hours, he will donate $25,000 to their favorite charity. The next morning the chase begins. No matter where they go, Rezo and his agent, Lazaar Hannibal, seem to turn up. The family pretends to leave their house and drive around for an hour before returning to the house -- thinking that's the last place he'd look. When they get out of the car Rezo is waiting. They try getting lost in a crowd, hiding in the apartment of a friend of Reuben's, even the local "lovers' lane," always to find Rezo waiting. Shirley leaves the younger children, Chris and Tracy, at Mrs. Monihan's because the chase will be too much for them. Trying to figure out how Rezo always finds them, Keith searches the car and finds a "bug." The Partridges use the bug to lead Rezo on a wild goose chase out to Cronos Caverns, 100 miles away. Thinking they are home free, the Partridges are surprised when Rezo walks in. He explains that the farther he got from town the weaker the signal from the bug became, and the closer he got to the Partridge home the stronger it became. Shirley says he has still lost the bet since he hasn't found all the Partridges -- where are Chris and Tracy? At the show where Rezo turns the check for $25,000 over to the charity, Shirley learns from the younger children that Mr. Rezo had visited them at Mrs. Monihan's right after they arrived there. He had known all along, but donated the money anyway.

After a news reporter captures film footage of Steve using his bionic powers, her boss plans to kidnap Steve and send him to a foreign power. Farrah Fawcett guest stars.