Susan Neher

The Partridge house just doesn't seem big enough -- they need more bathrooms and just more room in general! Reuben takes Shirley to look at a new, larger house. The Partridge house is home to her, so Shirley doesn't really want to move, but all the kids are very anxious too. They put their house up for sale, with Reuben acting as real estate agent. After a week without even one "looker," Reuben and Danny cook up a scheme for "open house" with the Partridge Family. The open house is like a carnival -- hundreds of people show up. As the family overhears various disparaging remarks about their home from the visitors, they begin to realize just how much the house means to them. Just as the kids tell Shirley that they don't want to move either, Reuben arrives with the news that he's sold the house. When the buyers, Mr. & Mrs. Sharp, come to look the house over, the kids sabotage the plumbing, the doors and the windows to make it seem like the house is falling apart. They confess that they did it because they don't want to move, but the Sharps still want the house and they've signed the papers. With two weeks to move, they learn that someone else bought the new house, so if Reuben can't manage to get it, they have nowhere to go. The Sharps arrive with the news that they don't want the house -- everyone sees through their reasons and realizes that they'd feel bad if the kids had to move against their will. Reuben ruins the happy moment with the news that he has managed to buy the other house. He makes a deal with the owner to release them from the contract if the Partridge family will entertain at his son's birthday party; so, the Partridges get to keep their home after all.

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.