3rd Season
2000-2001
#1 Norm vs. the Sacrifice
#2 Secret Crush
#3 Taylor Leaves
#4 The Norm Law
#5 Norm vs. Halloween
#6 Norm and the Hopeless Cause
#7 Norm vs. Youth 1
#8 Norm vs. Youth 2
 		#9 Norm vs. Tennis
#10 Norm vs. the Kid
#11 Norm vs. Schoolin'
#12 Norm vs. Freud
#13 Norm vs. Dad
#14 Denby Quits
#15 Norm Lets Go
#16 Norm vs. Danny and Shelly
 		#17 Norm and Weiner Dog vs. Fatherhood
#18 Norm vs. Homelessness
#19 Norm is Fat
#20 Norm vs. Deception
#21 Norm vs. Cuba
#22 Norm's Free
#23 Norm Comes Back
#24 Norm vs. Shelly's Old Flame
Other Seasons
1 | 2 | 3

#1 Norm vs. the Sacrifice: Aired Wednesday, October 4, 2000

Denby's job is in danger when Norm tricks him into hiring Wiener Dog. Denby blackmails Norm into being nice to him and supporting him in front of the other employees by threatening to make his co-workers' lives miserable if he doesn't. Norm manages to keep up his end of the deal, to the wonderment of his co-workers who are in dark, until Denby lashes out at Danny and Norm can't take it anymore and lashes back. Luckily, Norm has a scandalous picture of Denby that Danny got from the boss's ex-wife, and blackmails Denby into leaving his co-workers alone. Denby despairs about his miserable life, and Norm takes pity on him and show's him how to torture his own boss. Laurie is dating a soap opera star who is just as over-dramatic in real life as he is on TV. She finally talks to him about his behavior, and he breaks down in tears when he admits that his facade is just to cover-up his lack of self-confidence.

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#2 Secret Crush: Aired Friday, October 6, 2000

Mr. Denby's office is getting asbestos removed, so he has to sit out with everyone else at work. Shelly moves back to town. Artie gets a job bartending. Taylor's secret crush on Norm becomes known to everyone in the office except Danny when she accidentally prints out her personal journal. Norm knows that Danny is planning on proposing to Taylor, and with help from Laurie decides to tell Danny what's going on, but he's too late. Danny proposes to Taylor and Taylor can't bring herself to say no.

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#3 Taylor Leaves: Aired Friday, October 13, 2000

To save Taylor and Danny's relationship, Norm makes a lame effort at making Taylor hate him. Taylor sees right through him, realizes that he's read her journal, and takes off, leaving Danny a note that she's leaving because she has feelings for someone else. Danny interprets the note as Taylor was cheating on him and pictures her lying in bed with her lover laughing at him. To make Danny feel better, Norm admits that he was the guy Taylor had feelings for, and there was definitely no cheating. Danny hates Norm, and never wants to be friends with him again, but Norm convinces him that they can still hang out and tell each other important stuff, like friends would do, even if Danny doesn't forgive him. Norm's landlady tries to kick him out of his apartment because Wiener Dog barks all day.

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#4 The Norm Law: Aired Friday, October 20, 2000

Shelly asks Laurie and Danny to help out at the girls' juvenile detention center on Saturday, and Norm insists on joining them. To impress Shelly, Norm takes charge of a rap session, and ends up causing a prison riot. Denby thinks this is an opportunity to send Norm back to jail and gets a hearing called on Norm's performance. Of course, Shelly's judgment is under suspicion too since she was the one who put Norm in the position to cause so much harm. Norm freaks out when he realizes that Shelly's career is on the line, and manages to convince the hearing committee that it was only through lack of training that he caused such a disaster. The committee makes a Norm Law that requires training for social workers, and they not only send Norm but Denby as well.

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#5 Norm vs. Halloween: Aired Friday, October 27, 2000

Norm takes some kids from a bad neighborhood trick-or-treating in a rich building, but when the residents won't give candy to outside kids, they resort to breaking and entering to get their dues. Norm dresses up like a fireman for the probation officers' beer bash because he knows that's what Shelly likes, and he almost has her won over when real fireman show up to take care of the first Mr. Denby starts in the bathroom trying to act like Gene Simmons (his costume). Danny misses Taylor and dresses up his date for Halloween to look like her. Danny admits what he did when he sees that his date's ex-boyfriend looks exactly like him.

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#6 Norm and the Hopeless Cause: Aired Friday, November 3, 2000

Norm meets Laurie's lesbian friend, Rebecca, and they start hanging out together and a having a great time. Norm decides to try to seduce her, and she goes along with it for a little while, but when Laurie stops by to talk-up Norm to her friend, Rebecca ends up hitting on Laurie. Rebecca finally gets Norm to lay-off by making him consider having sex with a man so that he'll understand how she feels. Danny seeks solace in cleaning to deal with Taylor dumping him.

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#7 Norm vs. Youth 1: Aired Friday, November 10, 2000

Norm is feeling old, and when Laurie starts dating a younger man it just makes him feel worse. Norm picks up a young blonde cutie at a club and nearly kills himself trying to go out partying with her every night. Finally, he tries to sit down and have a conversation with her, and she's so incredibly dumb that he can't stand it and breaks up with her. Danny starts feuding with Mr. Denby, who decides to go with the whole cowboy chic look. To get back at Mr. Denby for yelling at him, Danny creates a cartoon about Mr. Denby, the gassy gunslinger, and puts it on the internet.

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#8 Norm vs. Youth 2: Aired Friday, November 24, 2000

Norm changes his childish views on Laurie's younger man (Johnny Galecki) after he falls for an older lady (JoBeth Williams) with a disturbing link to the lad. Meanwhile, Danny's shaken when he goes rooting into his own family tree and unearths a relative he'd rather prune off the list. Edward: Harper Roisman.

Rating: 4.7/8

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#9 Norm vs. Tennis: Aired Friday, December 1, 2000

Norm whups Shelly's butt in tennis and then can't figure out why she doesn't want to play with him again. Laurie accuses Norm of being the kind of person who gets turned on by winning, and advises him to be more gentlemanly winner when playing Shelly. Norm notices that the next time they play and Shelly wins a point off of him, she gloats and slap his butt. He realizes that Shelly is a person who gets turned on by winning, so he starts losing on purpose. His ploy is working, and Shelly is cuddling up to him on the couch, but her incessant gloating, name-calling and condescending advice about his tennis skills finally takes its toll and Norm cracks and admits that he let her win. Artie, having lost yet another girl because he's overweight, turns to Laurie for help with his possible eating disorder.

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#10 Norm vs. the Kid: Aired Friday, December 8, 2000

Five siblings lose their place in a foster home because of the eldest, a troublesome boy named Billy. Danny, Laurie, Shelly, Mr. Denby, and Norm each take in one of the children until another home can be found for them, and of course Norm ends up with the troublesome Billy. Norm convinces Billy to act like a good kid for the next interview with foster parents, but due to Billy's police record his four siblings get adopted without him. Norm, against his better judgment, agrees to keep Billy for awhile.

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#11 Norm vs. Schoolin': Aired Friday, December 15, 2000

Norm and Mr. Denby are in social work school together, and Mr. Denby gets A's while Norm is getting mainly D's. Norm rips off Laurie's old paper and hands it in as his own, but has to admit his deception when Laurie tells him that that paper was published and the teacher of the class will recognize it. Then Norm steals a copy of the final test, but Laurie takes it away from him and helps him study instead. Norm realizes that his memory gets better the more he drinks, so he shows up at the final test sloshed and ends up helping Mr. Denby with the test. Mr. Denby and Norm are busted cheating and thrown out of the class. Sparks fly between Danny and Shelly when the pretend to be a kid's old foster parents in order to help him get adopted. When Norm is drunk he remembers an old phone message for Artie from the tenth grade. Miriam called to tell Artie her parents were going out of town and she was ready to go all the way. Norm even remembers her phone number, so Artie calls it and speaks to Miriam... she goes by Mimi ("Drew Carey") now.

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#12 Norm vs. Freud: Aired Friday, January 5, 2001

Shelly bribes Norm into going to therapy by offering him a date. The therapist convinces Norm and Denby that the problem with their relationship is that they're treating each other as father and son. Norm and Denby attempt to become friends, but soon realize that they actually hate each other for who they truly are. Meanwhile, Laurie brings Norm's father back into his life in order to help him face his father issues. Danny and Artie bank on an electric fat-loss system to make them rich, only to find that the gimmick is making them twitch.

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#13 Norm vs. Dad: Aired Friday, January 12, 2001

Dealing with their father, Norm and Artie pick up old childhood habits. Norm gets a stutter and Artie starts stuffing down donuts like they're going out of style. Norm finally stands up to his father when he finds out that he only came to town to borrow money, and his father has a heart attack. When Norm's grandfather comes to visit his son in the hospital, Norm realizes that his father gets a stutter when he deals with his own even harsher and less loving father. Danny has a crush on Shelly. Shelly has to dump Denby when she goes out on a couple of friendly dates with him and he assumes that they're romantically involved.

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#14 Denby Quits: Aired Friday, January 26, 2001

When Mr. Denby busts Norm planting a video camera in his bathroom cabinet mirror and spying on him, he demands retribution. When Denby's boss laughs at the video tape and asks Norm for copies instead of firing him, Denby himself quits. Laurie ends up with Denby's job, and although she's initially excited about the promotion, she soon learns she wasn't cut out for management. Norm takes pity on Laurie and fetches Denby from his new job at a fast food restaurant. Danny finally tells Shelly how he fells about her and she responds to his romantic overture.

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#15 Norm Lets Go: Aired Friday, February 2, 2001

Mr. Denby is invited to a banquet with dancing to celebrate his 25 years of service, but he is terrified when he finds out that his arch-nemesis, a great dancer, will be escorting his ex-wife to the same party. In a great Dirty Dancing take-off, Laurie coaches Denby in dancing, and then Denby escorts her to the party. The twist is that when he wimps out of the big lift, she lifts him instead. Norm remembers that he had a good prank for Mr. Denby on his 25th anniversary, but can't remember what it was so he leaves a message on Taylor's message machine to see if she remembers. Danny and Shelly actually go out on a date and share a kiss. When Norm finds out about them he rejects them as friends and tries to find new friends. Taylor stops by to see why Norm left her a message, and when Norm mentions that Danny has found someone new she jumps him.

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#16 Norm vs. Danny and Shelly: Aired Friday, February 9, 2001

Norm sleeps with Taylor, and then she admits to him that she's still in love with Danny. Even though he promises not to tell Danny, Norm can't resist using the information to help break up Danny and Shelly. Armed with the information that two amazing beautiful women have feelings for him, Danny makes an ass of himself trying to get them to both date him at the same time. Norm is on the verge of getting Shelly to open up to him when Taylor lets it fly that she slept with Norm. Both Norm and Danny end up sad and alone. Mr. Denby is upset that his ex-wife is trying to squeeze more money out of him, and complains that men have a raw deal in life. He tries to get Laurie, as the union rep, to do something about the nasty nasty men's room, but she points that women go through a lot more crap in their lives, and she'd gladly trade bathrooms with him if she got all his male advantages.

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#17 Norm and Weiner Dog vs. Fatherhood: Aired Friday, February 16, 2001

Mr. Denby's Poodle Fifi gives birth to Doodles, half Poodle half Dachsund, and Mr. Denby realizes that Weiner Dog is the father and tells Norm that he wants nothing to do with the bastard puppies. Norm is taking care of them when Mr. Denby comes over and tries to get them back. Norm figures out that Denby found a newspaper ad in which a guy is willing to pay $2,000 per puppy for Doodles, and Norm gets excited because the money could help him pay his rent that was just raised. Norm and Mr. Denby go to court (actually, the Judge Mills Lane Show) to fight over the puppies, and Norm tricks Denby into admitting that he gave the puppies to Norm. When Norm goes to sell the puppies, Weiner Dog cries and Norm can't go through with it. Norm later figures out that Weiner Dog was just crying because one of his chew toys was stuck under the couch. So Norm ends up homeless with unwanted puppies. Danny tries to convince Shelly that he's not a horrible guy and attends all sorts of feminist meetings with her.

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#18 Norm vs. Homelessness: Aired Friday, February 23, 2001

Mr. Denby and Danny go up to a conference in Albany and try to pick up women by making up cool stuff about each other. Mr. Denby leaves his apartment keys with Laurie so she can feed his dog. Norm is living with Laurie since he lost his apartment. When Norm gets asked out by an old high school crush that he runs into he tricks the cute water guy into asking out Laurie for the same night so that he can have her apartment to himself. Unfortunately, Laurie brings the water guy home with her so Norm steals the keys to Denby's apartment and lies to his date, Kim, that it's his. Kim figures out that he's lying and gives him a kiss, telling him to be truthful. He blurts out the whole story about his getting busted for tax evasion and she takes off. Denby's dog barks during the date and building evicts him from his apartment because dogs aren't allowed.

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#19 Norm is Fat: Aired Friday, March 2, 2001

When Shelly gets back from a six week training program she is horrified to see Norm has doubled in size and is finding comfort from donuts. Norm tells her how he and Mr. Denby were both living with Laurie, but Laurie asked him to move out because while Denby was cooking gourmet dinners, Norm was spilling stuff on her couch. Artie, who has lost weigh and gotten a promotion at work, moves into Norm's old apartment and Norm takes Artie hell-hole of an apartment across town. When Norm realizes that his old apartment is actually rent controlled, and his landlady had no right to double his rent, he asks Artie for his apartment back. Artie at first refuses until he realizes that he's been stealing Norm's life. Laurie, now living with just Mr. Denby, is horrified when she starts sleep walking and crawling into bed with Mr. Denby. She finally tells Mr. Denby he'll have to move out, but when he does she sleep walks across town to get into bed with him again.

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#20 Norm vs. Deception: Aired Friday, March 9, 2001

Norm and Laurie fake being a couple so Norm can get health insurance, but when they realize that they're making other people jealous, they continue the charade to get dates. Laurie "cheats" on Norm with a cute guy in the office named Lee, while Shelly finally admits that she still has feelings for Norm. Norm arranges for Shelly to bust Laurie "cheating" and Shelly then comforts Norm with a kiss. When Shelly yells at Laurie for being so awful to Norm, Laurie admits that the whole relationship was a scam. Shelly slaps Norm for his deception and admits to Laurie that she's still in love with him. Mr. Denby tries everything to avoid catching Danny's cold before leaving for a ski vacation.

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#21 Norm vs. Cuba: Aired Friday, March 16, 2001

Laurie cares for a refugee Cuban orphan named Hector. Laurie thinks that the only way she can get kids to like her is to buy them lots of candy. Norm and Artie try to sell Hector's story to a tabloid magazine, and plan to take him to Disney World for a photo shoot, but they find out that Hector is lying and his parents are alive and think he's away at baseball camp. Norm encourages Hector to lie until Hector takes it a step further and decides to tell everyone he has cancer so that he can skip the lines at Disney World. Norm realizes he's being a bad influence and insists that Hector tell Laurie the truth.

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#22 Norm's Free: Aired Friday, March 23, 2001

Norm starts sucking up to Mr. Denby when Denby gets promoted and now has the power to commute Norm's sentence. Mr. Denby figures out what Norm is doing and says that he'll never set Norm free. Norm starts a petition for his freedom, and is surprised when his good friend Laurie refuses to help him out by signing it. After Shelley points out to Laurie that Laurie just doesn't want to lose her fun friend at work, Laurie changes her mind and tells Mr. Denby that if he doesn't set Norm free, she'll quit. Denby is helpless with Laurie in the office, so he lets Norm out of his probation sentence. Artie gets a monkey to add entertainment to the bar, but the monkey is always depressed and just brings the bar clientele down. Danny recognizes the monkey from an old Spanish language TV show and decides to dress up like the monkey's old co-star to cheer it up. They put on a show for a children's hospital ward, and the monkey ends up in a much better mood after kicking Danny's ass.

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#23 Norm Comes Back: Aired Friday, March 30, 2001

Norm gets a job that supposed to be a celebrity endorsement for Rob's Appliances, but he ends up repossessing TVs instead. While on his first repossession, he meets up with an old social services client and realizes that benefits have been drastically cut by Mr. Denby's evil boss, Mr. Sweeney. Norm plots to get people's benefits back, and when he gets a job as Mr. Sweeney's assistant to do so, he finds out that Mr. Sweeney is a secret transvestite. He blackmails Mr. Sweeney into giving back people's benefits, and giving Norm a regular job as a social worker. A psychic tells Artie that he and Shelly are destined to be together, but it turns out that the psychic mistook Artie for Norm, and she actually sees a future of Shelly and Norm getting married.

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#24 Norm vs. Shelly's Old Flame: Aired Friday, April 6, 2001

Just when Shelly finally agrees to go out with Norm, a guy from her past in Colorado, Travis, shows up. Norm is jealous but tries to hide it from Shelly. When Norm gets an electric shock he gets the ability to read men's minds, and he realizes that he has every right to be jealous because Travis is plotting how to steal Shelly away. Norm displays his mind-reading ability to Travis and warns him away from Shelly. When Norm and Shelly finally have their date, Shelly realizes that Norm doesn't trust her due to her past, and she vows to regain his trust. Laurie and Denby perform together at the bar, and Denby is actually a decent piano player while Laurie sounds like she's killing the flute. Laurie doesn't believe Denby when he tells her she's terrible, and she's flattered when a rich woman invites her and Denby to perform at her home for a party. When they arrive and see the other acts performing, they realize that they've all been invited because they're terrible at what they do and the rich woman and her friends just want to laugh at them.

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Other Seasons
1 | 2 | 3