The Goldbergs (season 3)

When Adam wants to spend time as a couple with Dana by dressing up as Alien and Ellen Ripley on Halloween instead of his mother and her "couples costumes", Beverly decides to teach him a lesson by demonstrating trick or treating safety. She creates a visual aid to show him the dangers from getting candy with strangers without his mother by putting razor blades inside candy. But it's not needed when Barry and Erica talk Adam into taking Dana to a haunted house in town to feel more grown-up. Murray throws the razor blade candy away without telling his wife, and Beverly combs the neighborhood for it by taking kids' candy bags. Meanwhile, the haunted house is just way too scary for Adam and he even uses Dana as a human shield, causing her to lose her promise ring somewhere inside the house. Adam enlists Barry and Erica to go in and get the ring, but they're no help. Barry twists his ankle and Erica reunites with a fraternity guy who offers her some beer. Adam then needs his mom's help and it's "scary mom" as Predator to the rescue! Beverly goes to the haunted house, rescues Barry, and saves Erica from herself, and most importantly, Adam finds Dana's ring, realizing he and mom still make a great team. Adam returns the ring to Dana and apologizes, and their first "adult Halloween" ends like their adolescent ones always did, with him and Dana getting candy.

For this year's Thanksgiving, Beverly insists the entire family get together, including inviting Murray's estranged father Pop-Pop, who didn't like her cooking way back when they got married. The tension starts when Uncle Marvin shows up dressed in medical scrubs as he's almost a fully licensed chiropractor. In order to keep the family toasting tradition alive, Pops and asks Erica to take over as "toastmaster general", but a jealous Barry wants his fair shot and turns the holiday toast into a contest. When Adam shows Murray a music video he made with the father/son relationship song Cat's in the Cradle, which really speaks to him, but to his surprise it spoke to his dad even more. With that emotional impact, Adam subliminally uses lyrics from the song to manipulate Murray to pay for a pricey wide-angle lens to make more serious videos. Beverly sees this and instead of punishing Adam, she uses the song to get Murray to invite Pop-Pop so he could see what an amazing cook she is. However, tension continues to build when Barry actual beats Erica with his entertaining and dramatic toast, while Marvin tricks Pop-Pop into thinking he will pick him up for turkey dinner and never does. Murray now has to get his dad, arguments ensue over the mind-trick, and he throws his back out. In the end, Erica makes a rousing speech, arguments stop, Murray's back is aligned by Marvin, and even Pop-Pop devours Beverly's food even asking for second helpings; Turkey Day is saved!

Barry wants to be a badass fighter pilot straight out of Top Gun, so he enlists in ROTC at school. After Beverly forbids signing the permission form to start basic training, Murray secretly signs it, thinking it will toughen his son up. Unlike the glorious depiction displayed in the movie, it's not what he expected. There's no nicknames or call signs, boot camp is too hard, and Captain Wallace (Marlon Young) calls him a loser and worthless. This causes Beverly to wage war on Wallace and enlists to be his "wingmom" to help her son. Beverly then sees she helped Barry so much through the years that he became a quitter, and he decides to fly solo from now on. Meanwhile, when Adam hangs out with Pops at the mall, they check out a time share presentation in order to get free movie tickets. However, Pops actually gets sucked in by all the amenities and buys a condo in Florida, but Adam hates the idea that his best bud will be away from him for months out of the year. He then tries to bond with Pop-Pop to make Pops jealous, and sees Pops having fun hanging with Erica. In the end, Adam realizes that Pops is getting older and should have his own enjoyment elderly people his age needs, and makes his own presentation that shares their good times together, just like the friendship between Goose and Maverick.

After seeing Virginia Kremp's new kitchen, Beverly wants to remodel her own kitchen, but afraid of change and a creature of habit, Murray isn't willing to do the makeover. Getting inspiration from Bob Vila, Beverly devises a plan to do the work herself by destroying her old kitchen on purpose to force Murray into fixing it. But he sees through her manipulation and gets Bill to help him put back the kitchen exactly the way it was. In the end, Murray tries to accept change and compromises by putting in a lazy Susan spice rack and trying New Coke. Meanwhile, after making music videos of their favorite rappers, The Beastie Boys, Barry and Adam form a super-group called The Tasty Boys. They hold an audition to find their third member who turns out to be Geoff Schwartz, who only joins to impress Erica and winds up with stage fright. At school, the three create a hype train and get to perform at the pep rally in the gym. Musically-inclined Erica, who hides in her room writing chick songs that are not ready to perform, is now jealous of her brothers' attention. However, they spend way too much time on their fresh-style, appearance and getting an entourage, and no time writing songs and rehearsing. After Geoff leaves the group, Erica steps in to rescue her brothers. She joins Barry and Adam in lip-syncing the Beastie's "Shake Your Rump" in front of all their classmates, and it's a success.

For different reasons, Barry and Erica both sign up to be part of the Hands Across America charity event in their town, which is being coordinated by Coach Meller. However, he is overwhelmed and Beverly takes over so she can get one photo in the newspaper of her and her kids looking happy together, but Barry and Erica decide to drop out of the event. To keep them interested, Beverly lies and says she got Scott Baio to ditch the Philadelphia event and come to Jenkintown. The kids then argue over which one will get to hold Scott Baio's hand. Elsewhere, Adam invites Emmy Mirsky to the Harvest Hop school dance after seeing how upset she is when a boy she liked shuns her. Adam is then shocked to see that Dana has come to town and expects him to take her to the dance. He enlists Pops' help, along with Dave Kim to develop an elaborate scheme where he can take both girls to the dance without either knowing, but Dana is staying with Emmy and they find out anyway, ending with both girls getting mad at both Adam and Dave Kim and refusing to speak to either of them, especially Adam after Dana looks at the scheme plot and says that is "disrespectful" and Emmy seeing that Adam made her the Hulk in his scheme. Adam later takes Murray's advice of "don't be a moron", and apologizes to both girls, saying he didn't want to upset either of them for different reasons. After the apology, Emmy and Dana both accompany Adam to the dance and he was able to do what some of his favorite television show characters couldn't — take two girls to the same dance.

Adam and Emmy Mirsky learn that their favorite game show, Double Dare, is coming to their school for auditions and quickly pick each other as partners. However, things go bad when Adam picks Pops as his partner behind Emmy's back. When Emmy finds out, she gets mad at Adam and in retaliation, she picks Adam's one-sided rival/enemy, "Handsome" Ben, as her partner: they land the spot, but Ben reveals to Adam that Emmy has been practicing with Ben two months prior, leaving Adam with no partner because Pops failed the messy obstacle course. This leads to Adam and Emmy constantly tormenting and fighting with one another until Handsome Ben ditches Emmy for their classmate "Regular" Amy. When Handsome Ben and Amy win the audition, Adam sees Emmy on the bleachers, crying, and they make up. Meanwhile, Murray and Barry are upset by the Eagles' losing streak until Barry is convinced that when Beverly is in the room, the Eagles score, so Beverly starts watching the games with the boys, leaving Murray annoyed because football is his time "away from his wife," and Bev is ruining that. Thus, Beverly asks Bill and Erica to teach her football, and she is able to learn quickly and watch the games. When Beverly finds out how Murray feels, she stops watching the games and, seeing how Beverly is trying to learn one of his hobbies, Murray tries scrapbooking, one of her Bev's hobbies, and it fails. When Beverly finds out, she helps Murray scrapbook, and they both agree that football and scrapbooking are times they need alone and start to give each other some space.

Note: The real Benjamin "Handsome Ben" Bauman and Amy "Regular Amy" Gross appeared on the episode as the producers for Double Dare.

When Dana comes to town, Adam wants to spend a romantic weekend together and starts with their "greatest hits" of their childhood toys and food. But when that doesn't go over well, he announces they're going to their first concert. But, thinking it's a rock concert, Dana loses interest when Adam gets tickets to his favorite "rock god", "Weird Al" Yankovic, who inspired him to write his own parody songs, including one about Barry in the tune of Wang Chung's "Everybody Have Fun Tonight". At the concert, Dana's lack of enthusiasm shows when Adam meets his "comedian muse" and picks him over her. After seeing Adam and Dana's relationship on the rocks, Beverly demands Al put on a private concert, but he offers advice instead, and she makes a photo slideshow of their memories. The couple realizes that not only did they grow apart, they grew up and don't get each other anymore. Dana says goodbye in the same way Adam won her over two years ago, with a boombox held head high, al la Say Anything..., only she plays Weird Al's "King of Suede". Meanwhile, Barry gets involved in school and signs up to be a peer counselor when Mr. Glascott tries to dissuade him. Barry thinks this means he is a licensed medical psychiatrist and he can advise anyone on anything and they have to listen to him. He starts with JTP's personal issues and gives such horrible advice that Erica steps in, helping them behind Barry's back. She becomes a peer counselor herself after Glascott bribes her with an A in gym. Barry then challenges her to a "counsel-off" and they notice signs of depression in Murray and in order to win, they must be the first one to fix him. In the end, they do make Murray smile and are even there for Adam after losing his first love.

Frustrated with Barry always wearing his beloved Philadelphia Flyers jersey (Big Orange), Beverly and Lainey mutually agree to "accidentally" ruin it in the washing machine. Barry sees the damage as a "shirt murder" and soon asks Adam and Erica to investigate. Lainey confesses to Erica and when Barry finds out, he breaks up with Lainey and becomes mad at Beverly. Lainey and Beverly, realizing they destroyed Barry's favorite thing and his trust, hold a funeral for Big Orange. Barry gets back together with Lainey and buys a new Big Orange. Meanwhile, Murray plans on tearing down the treehouse and Adam protests, recalling the good times he had in the structure with Erica playing "detective". In the end, the treehouse is torn down, but Adam and Erica eventually build a new one.

Adam and his incoming freshman friends worry about Freshman Fear Week, the last week of school where the seniors haze the incoming high schoolers. However, while his friends get hazed, Adam is approached by Barry and bodyslams his brother, gaining the respect of the seniors and leaving Barry humiliated. When Adam learns from Barry he wanted to be the one to pick on Adam because he didn't get picked on and was resented for it, Adam and Barry pull a prank at the 8th grade graduation ceremony that erases all memory of Barry being bodyslammed. Meanwhile, Geoff Schwartz schemes to get Erica to be his girlfriend. She keeps refusing until she and Beverly, trying to dig up a time capsule, get Geoff and Erica suspended for a day because a water pipe broke in the process. In the end, after hearing a mixtape Geoff made her, Erica realizes she likes Geoff and goes to tell him. However, Erica sees Geoff has finally moved on after her multiple rejections, and is dating Evelyn Silver, causing Erica to quietly walk away.