Reuben Kincaid's nephew, Alan, comes to live with him to be his assistant. It's evident right from the start that Alan is eager to learn but he's always failed at everything. He suffers from shyness and a total lack of confidence. Keith and Laurie try to build him up and find out what he really would like to do. Alan confides that he wants to be a comedian but he's terrified of audiences. When he does some of his act for them, they discover he's really funny but he's too afraid to try. Alan gets a chance to show he's learned about managing when Reuben can't go with the family on a club date. Alan will manage the family all by himself for two days. Everything goes smoothly, until Alan loses his notebook with all the itinerary written in it. Then the date becomes a total disaster. Alan loses the costumes at the cleaners, fouls up their dinner reservations and then, in a grand finale, turns out the lights during the Partridges' performance. Alan confesses the loss of the notebook to the f (thetvdb.com)