Walter Franklin has to cope with a bad case of nerves as he preens for his first date with widow Linda Jenkins in almost two years.
Walter finds that hiring a new clerk can be a trying experience. He interviews an odd-lot assortment of law-clerk applicants and surprise everyone with his final choice.
Walter becomes infatuated when he meets another Judge, Eleanor Hooper, and they try to find some privacy together by meeting in Atlantic City.
After delivering a well-received speech, Walter is inundated with public-speaking requests that send his ego sailing. He gets too big for his judicial robe when he accepts too many speaking engagements and starts believing his own publicity.
Walter finds out that his tone-faced, sharp-tongued secretary, Miss Reubner, has another side to her personality when he asks her to his home to celebrate her birthday with his family. Ashamed of getting tight at her birthday party, Miss Reubner resigns.
After Walter upholds a local theater's right to show a pornographic film, he forbids his eighteen-year-old daughter to see it.
When Jack's normally ultra-accurate court reports deteriorate, Walter investigates his friend's problem.
Walter gets more than he bargained for on the bench when he replaces another jurist and has to deal with an attorney notorious for his devious tactics. .
Walter loses his cool in the courtroom when a new law clerk keeps interrupting him, and the issue of his emotional sickness is taken up by the judicial review board.
Walter's family thinks his engagement to Judge Hooper is premature.
Believing there's no place like home for the holidays, Walter brings home a convicted criminal to spend the Christmas holidays with his family.
Walter is tempted by a friend's offer of a law partnership.
Walter's romance with Judge Hooper is threatened by the arrival of a college buddy who once dated her.
Walter's household rebels: Bobby wants an apartment, Brad refuses to change schools, and Mrs. McClellan buys a cat.
Walter's eagerness to help his loyal friend and court reporter Jack backfires when an overzealous city attorney Mario Lanza busts the judge on a marijuana charge.
To prevent deportation to her native England, Mrs. McClellan advertises for a husband and a motley crew of prospects show up.
After reprimanding Bobby for dating an older man, Walter finds himself attracted to a younger woman.
From a beach at Acapulco to a minimum security prison is quite a contrast for Walter, who sought the former for two weeks but has to settle for the latter instead. He got the assignment as part of a judicial investigation on the institution's conditions.
Oliver cuts school and learns a lesson when he comes to his father's courtroom to see his hero Wild Doug Mclntire, the toughest hockey player in the league to testify. Then the boy tries to emulate his hero's hockey style.
Walter's household rises up against him, Brad is not willing to change schools, Bobby expresses her liking to live in an apartment and Mrs. McClellan would love to have a cat.
Mario becomes Walter's self-appointed bodyguard after the escape of a vengeful convict Walter once sent to prison.
Walter runs for Superior Court judge against a former rival.