The BEST episodes of Ned and Stacey
Every episode of Ned and Stacey ever, ranked from best to worst by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The best episodes of Ned and Stacey!
Ned and Stacey get married one week after they meet. He marries her to get a promotion. She marries him because she can't find a place to live and likes his apartment. She hates his self-righteous attitude. He doesn't like her re-decorating his living room. Will their marriage actually result in love? Will Ned finally figure out that those people he talked to at their wedding are Stacey's parents?
#1 - Sleepless in Manhattan
Season 1 - Episode 11 - Aired 12/4/1995
Stacey somehow convinces Ned to come shopping with her for a new bed, a task that takes them all over the city with no purchase in sight. Finally Stacey sees the perfect bed--but the store manager tells her it's already been sold. Eager to end the shopping trip, Ned bribes the manager into selling it to her. Back home, Stacey is ecstatic with her new purchase, but Eric lets it slip how Ned made the deal. Stacey spends a sleepless night worrying about the poor soul who may have been cheated out of this wonderful bed. When they try to return it the next day, the manager tells them all sales are final--until Ned bribes him again. When Stacey hears about this arrangement, she won't accept it, provoking a frenzied outburst from Ned and a huge fight in the middle of the department store.
#2 - Threesome
Season 1 - Episode 12 - Aired 12/11/1995
At a restaurant Amanda runs into an old acquaintance, Sam, who she introduces to Ned and Stacey. The couple hits it off with Sam and both make dates with him. Stacey is romantically interested in Sam, but Ned still desires his companionship and they wage a battle for Sam's mind and heart.
#3 - Sex, Lies and Commercials
Season 2 - Episode 12 - Aired 9/26/2017
Diana Huntley, the creative director of competing ad agency Klein Abernathy, comes into the muffin shop to place an order, belittling Eric behind the counter in the process. Ned sees an opportunity for some corporate espionage and assumes a ridiculous Scottish accent, telling her he'll deliver the muffins personally. When he gets to her office he pumps her for information about an account. Based on that, Ned pitches her idea to a client, who finds it grossly offensive. Having fooled Ned, she comes by his office to gloat, but recognizing a kindred spirit, she suggests a relationship. They begin one, but even so Diana steals away Ned's creative team. Ned has fooled her, though, as she has actually hired three incompetents from the muffin shop. They have a violent arguement following this, ending in a torrid embrace and passionate kisses.
#4 - Thanksgiving Day Massacre
Season 1 - Episode 10 - Aired 11/20/1995
For once, things seem to be going well during a Colbert holiday gathering. Ned is cooking Thanksgiving dinner and is determined to have everything just perfect. But it all begins to fall apart soon enough. When Ned sends Stacey and Eric out in search of cranberry sauce, a series of events ensue that sees Eric and Stacey stuck in Manhattan unable to get back to her parents' house, Saul and Ellen going to see her long-estranged sister to attempt a reconciliation, and Ned and Amanda stuck in his car in the snow, where they almost have a ""moment."" Back at the Colbert's house, only Aunt Ceil remains with the Moyers' son Howard, who is stuck listening to her old show-biz stories.
#5 - No Retreat, No Surrender
Season 2 - Episode 16 - Aired 9/26/2017
Ned's agency is going on a retreat to a ski resort. Ned doesn't want to take Stacey but she corners Pat Kirkland and convinces him that this is just what she and Ned need to help save their marriage. Ned has amorous plans for the office manager Ms. Willoughby, but the presence of his wife makes it hard for him to convince the young woman to go along with them. Amanda also wants to spend some quality romantic time with her husband Eric, but he is in seminar heaven and is ignoring his wife's wishes. At the couples seminar, Ned and Stacey find out that there's really not that much they despise about each other anymore. Back in their room, it appears that the fake marriage may be finally moving toward a consummation, but Ms. Willoughby shows up. Now the prospect of both love and office supplies appears dim for Ned.
#6 - Portrait of a Marriage
Season 1 - Episode 2 - Aired 9/18/1995
The morning after their first night ""together,"" Stacey is up before Ned waiting for him to arise, anxious to make sure they ""communicate"" even if their marriage is a sham. But Ned doesn't see the need for it. He informs Stacey that he's having a cocktail party for some clients the next night and will need her to perform her role as his loving spouse. At work, Eric is admiring Ned's huge new office, but is scared when Les MacDowell, the guy beat out for the promotion, drops by. Ned and Les do a little verbal sparring, with Les agreeing to come to Ned's party the next night. Stacey comes home happy after selling an article, but is dismayed to find Ned has thrown out all the redecorating work she did. The party is to begin shortly, as Stacey is reducing to asking the serving staff if they've seen her husband--he didn't come home last night. Ned casually strolls in and hands Stacey a synopsis of their supposed history together, teling her to bone up on it right away. Stacey says it's ""the
#7 - Take My Wife, Please
Season 1 - Episode 3 - Aired 9/25/1995
Amanda and Eric enter their regular restaurant, folowed by Ned and Stacey, arguing as usual. Stacey bumps into an Englishman and is charmed by him immediately. At the table, Ned encourages Stacey to approach the man, and the others agree that a new relationship might help Stacey's disposition out. She introduces herself to the guy, Nigel Davies, and makes a date with him. Later, before their date, Stacey is almost too nervous to go, but Ned re-dresses and re-accessorizes her and sends her on her way. The date goes well, we surmise, because the next thing we see is Stacey and Nigel in bed. Stacey tells him she's married, but before she can explain about her and Ned's true relationship, he tells her it's all right, they can manage, and in fact he makes a clandestine love affair sound so romantic that she doesn't tell him the truth about her ""fake marriage."" Two weeks later, as Ned and Stacey are about to leave for her parents' home, she is still walking on air. When they get there, Saul
#8 - Cover Story
Season 1 - Episode 4 - Aired 10/2/1995
Ned is angry at Stacey for coming home late and she's fuming too--her hard-hitting expose piece for the Soho news didn't make the cover and was edited down to one sentence! Ned pushes her to get ready for a function with a client: ice-cream mogul Marshall Balaban is presenting a large donation to the environmental organization Green Planet. At the presentation Eric brings in the giant oversized check, whacking one or two people in the head on the way. While making conversation, Les MacDowell's wife Bernadette intimates to Stacey that Balaban has some sordid secrets about his business dealings. Stacey goes to work on Les, using her charms to pump him for information. Les spills the story about Balaban's illegal dumping, use of hormones in his cows, etc. At the restaurant later after the function, Stacey tells Ned about what she's learned. Ned doesn't seem to mind at all that she will submit an article about it. Stacey drops by Eric's cubicle ad the ad agency, gets a couple of company ro
#9 - Model Husband
Season 1 - Episode 5 - Aired 10/9/1995
Ned and Stacey are having dinner at the Moyer's house. Ned has tickets to see the Knicks, but Amanda tells Eric he can't go, that he has to watch their son Howard that night. Ned argues with Amanda but she's adamant, making it seem like Eric is just a little bit henpecked. At work the next day, Ned is going over a storyboard with supermodel Alexa Miroslav, who he has hired to appear in a commercial the agency is doing for a client's sport truck. Eric comes into the office and nervoulsy meets Alexa. While alone with her for a time, his fumbling manner charms her. In the limo on the way to the client's party, Stacey is talking on the phone, eating caviar, and generally acting like a rube. Ned makes a stop to pick up Eric, who is still being nagged by Amanda. In the few minutes Ned is inside, Stacey strikes up a conversation with Alexa, who has very simple lines in the commercial: ""Hey, stranger. What took you so long?"" But Stacey, veteran of two acting classes in college, fills Alexa ful
#10 - Accountus Interruptus
Season 1 - Episode 13 - Aired 12/18/1995
Ned pitches ideas to sexy CEO Jordan Haswell, who makes it clear after the meeting that sex will seal the deal, a prospect which Ned finds to his liking. Later at a party at Ned's, Jordan openly flirts with him in front of Stacey, who is outraged since Jordan doesn't know about her and Ned's arrangement. Stacey tells Ned that by acceding to Jordan's demands for sex, he's no better than her ""punk."" Later in Jordan's room, Ned is troubled by Stacey's words and has an uncharacteristic attack of morality, refusing to sleep with Jordan even if it means losing the account.
#11 - Skippy's Revenge
Season 2 - Episode 21 - Aired 9/26/2017
At work, Pat Kirkland's son Skip is second-guessing Ned's ideas and generally undermining his position in the company. Ned confronts him, and Skip tells Ned how he was responsible for his being sent to military school 14 years before (in a story told in flashback). Ned delivers an ultimatum to the elder Kirkland: it's either Skippy or him, and he's ready to take clients with him if he goes. Kirkland shows him the door. Ned takes Eric with him, sure that Kirkland is bluffing, but he's not. At the muffin shop, Amanda delivers the joyous news that she's finally pregnant, but the occasion is dampened by Eric's new state of unemployment. Ned manages to steal an account from the agency, and he fortuitously meets Lloyd Bridges, who Stacey is interviewing for a magazine. Bridges agrees to endorse the client's product and makes a commercial. Ned and Eric are exulting in their success when the news breaks that an out-of-control Bridges has been arrested for shoplifting.
#12 - All That Chazz
Season 2 - Episode 20 - Aired 9/26/2017
Stacey and Ned are working on the final paperwork for the divorce and they're having a good time, playing silly physical games with each other just like lovers would. To delay the final signing, Ned tells Stacey he has an important date the next day. At the muffin shop, the dimwit Chazz asks Stacey to go out. She accepts. After a trip to the IMAX theatre where Chazz indulges in his usual moronics like falling out of his seat, Stacey is ready to call it a night. She grants him a goodnight kiss, though, and finds out that she likes it very much. In fact, the next day at the muffin shop, a breathless Stacey is telling an incredulous Amanda that Chazz is the greatest lover she could ever imagine. Ned confides to Eric that he's troubled by the feelings he now has for Stacey. Back home, Ned tries to recreate their good time of a couple of days before to stop Stacey from going back out with Chazz. It doesn't work, and Ned ridicules Chazz, asking if he's really the man she wants to spend her l
#13 - Please Don't Squeeze the Eric
Season 2 - Episode 19 - Aired 9/26/2017
Eric is delighted when his superior at work, Stephanie, asks him to help with the annual fiscal review. But he's not so happy when she begins to make a move on him. Stephanie, however, tells Eric he's imagining things. But later at a dinner party at Ned's she leaves no doubt--she wants Eric! Amanda, unaware of the situation, thinks it's a great idea for Eric to accompany Stephanie on a trip to a conference in Boston and pressures him to go. Eric tells Ned about his dilemma. Ned's idea is to draw Stephanie's attention to himself, but his effort is so heavy-handed that he gets hit with a sexual harrassment charge from her. Stephanie now realizes how she made Eric feel and apologizes to him. Ned meanwhile attempts to fight the charge by clumsily editing a surveillance videotape. Meanwhile Stacey must contend with an aching tooth despite her fear of dentists.
#14 - I Like Your Moxie
Season 2 - Episode 18 - Aired 9/26/2017
It's nervous times at the agency with a new board of directors installed, and they want Ned to prove his worth by creating a catchy campaign for a client's product--sponges. A fire at work forces Ned and his creative team to work at his apartment. Eric and Amanda are at a hotel continuing with their task of trying to get her pregnant, while Stacey babysits Howard at their apartment. The couple returns home, though, after Eric refuses to cross a picket line at the hotel. Stacey's slobbish ways have resulted in a cockroach invasion, so she returns to her apartment with the Moyers in tow. Amanda and Eric immediately commandeer a bedroom and get back to work. But it's hard for Ned and the team to get any work done, especially with Jeannie admiring Eric's heroic efforts in the bedroom. The next day at the meeting with the client Ned still has nothing. The clients are about to leave dissatisfied, but some tossed-off remarks by Ned result in some slogans he likes for some of their other produ
#15 - The Errand Girl
Season 2 - Episode 15 - Aired 9/26/2017
It won't be long before the divorce is final, and Stacey is in her usual financial straits as she looks for an apartment. Diana offers her a high-paying job as her personal assistant and Stacey jumps at it. When Ned tries to ease some of the demanding tasks Diana has given Stacey, Diana accuses Ned of having feelings for his soon-to-be ex-wife. To prove he doesn't, Ned stands by quietly as Diana cruelly exploits Stacey to greater and greater degrees. When Stacey is made to don a ridiculous bookworm outfit at a reception for an author she admires, Ned can take it no longer and breaks off his relationship with Diana.
#16 - Scenes From a Muffin Shop
Season 2 - Episode 13 - Aired 9/26/2017
At the shop, Ned putters around in a good mood, having just passed his one-month anniversary with Diana, who drops by to say she has to cancel their dinner date that night because of business. At the restaurant that evening Amanda and Eric see Diana kissing another man. Stacey and Amanda are against telling Ned, but Eric feels he should. Diana shows up at Eric's cubicle and icily warns him not to say anything to Ned. Despite his fear of Diana, Eric tells what he saw to his friend. When confronted, Diana acts like it's normal behavior for people like her and Ned. He tries to play along, pretending he has other women on the side. A date with a beautiful set of triplets fails to make Diana suitably jealous, so Ned goes on an arduous dating spree, going after bigger and better targets. Stacey finally confronts Ned about his behavior and true feelings, sounding very much like she really cares about her fake husband. Ned admits that Diana's actions bother him. Ned goes to see Diana ready to
#17 - Saul and Ellen and Ned and Stacey
Season 1 - Episode 6 - Aired 10/16/1995
The Dorseys and the Colberts are on their way to see Stacey and Amanda's parents, something the women are not looking forward to. They wonder just who arranged this outing anyway, and it turns out to be Ned. At the Colbert house Ned fawns shamelessly over Ellen and Saul. Back at home, Stacey tells Ned he shouldn't get too close to her parents, since once their sham marriage is over and she's involved in a real one, she won't want him in her life anymore. Ned says he enjoys the parental attention he never got as a kid, but Stacey lays down the law: no more seeing her parents unless she OK's it. A few days later Stacey is going out on a date with new acquaintance Neil, who is informed about the ""fake marriage"" arrangement, but before the couple leaves she catches Ned talking on the phone to her mother. In fact, her parents are dropping by before going to the theatre, which means Stacey will have to stay home until they arrive and depart. Later, Stacey and Neil are out while Ned has his l
#18 - Halloween Story
Season 1 - Episode 8 - Aired 10/30/1995
A depressed Stacey would rather play couch potato than go to the Halloween party, as she grudgingly gives out produce and toiletry items to trick-or-treaters while stuffing herself full of sweets. At the party in his Zorro costume, Ned meets an attractive redhead, Rhonda, who is dressed as a bumblebee. Eric, in his female nurse's uniform, spends the evening fending off advances from a man dressed as a doctor. Amanda runs into Scott, Stacey's old boyfriend, who is also in a Zorro outfit. Amanda rushes to Stacey's apartment to tell her about Scott's presence. Stacey immediately puts on her bumblebee costume and rushes to the party, where she is reunited with Scott. Both Ned and Stacey make plans to rendezvous with their new lovers in a dark hallway. They both arrive at the same time and begin to make out passionately, until they recognize each others' voices, sending them both into a panic. A confused and distrught Stacey tells Amanda about the awful mistake, and that--horror of horrors-
#19 - Here's to You, Mrs. Binder
Season 1 - Episode 7 - Aired 10/23/1995
At a birthday party for Stacey and Amanda's father, Ned meets the recently widowed Lucy Binder, the best friend of the girls' mother. The sisters aren't too crazy about Mrs. Binder but Ned finds they share an interest in hoticulture and they begin to click right away. They go to her greenhouse to check out her flowers. Ned invited her to the upcoming Renaissance Fair. She accepts, then demurs--then they both fly into each others arms and kiss. Some days later Stacey and Amanda are at the apartment when Ned comes in walking on air and being nice to everyone, including his combative sister-in-law. Stacey knows the cause of Ned's good humor is whoever he's dating, but Ned won't identify her. Later Stacey and Amanda go out shopping with her mother and Mrs. Binder. When Ellen goes to the bathroom, Lucy guiltily and tearfully tells Stacey she's having an affair with Ned. When Stacey gets home she lays into Ned (who is in full Renaissance garb) for toying with this woman, the best friend of h
#20 - The Muffins Take Manhattan
Season 2 - Episode 3 - Aired 12/1/1996
Stacey and Ned are back together again in the apartment while waiting for divorce. Stacey insists she wants their lives and finances entirely separate during this time, an arrangement Ned then extends to cover the contents of the refrigerator. Amanda and Ned go to check out the last tenant of the property they bought, a muffin shop on the ground level. The old lady who runs the shop was under the impression that the shop would continue in operation and her dismay causes Amanda some discomfort. Ned has a run-in with one of the shop's elderly patrons, Nate. After playing a childish prank on Stacey, she angrily tells Ned he's so selfish that he couldn't even imagine being anyone other than himself for even a second. That night he has a dream and sees himself as various characters from the muffin shop. The next day when the building sale is to be finalized, Ned does an about face and decides to keep the shop and run it--or rather, have Amanda run it. Amanda is wary of the idea but Eric wa
#21 - Dorsey vs. Dorsey
Season 2 - Episode 2 - Aired 11/24/1996
Stacey is at the restaurant with Alex and her cutesy-pie-lovers act is getting a little old for Eric--and one suspects for Alex, too. Ned comes in and sees them and he and Stacey begin sniping at each other. In an effort to eradicate traces of Stacey from the apartment, Ned turns her old room into a rec room. He also agrees to invest $65,000 in a piece of real estate Amanda wants badly. Stacey arrives at Ned's with her lawyer and the two women gang up on him, informing him that he breached his pre-nuptial agreement and that Stacey can legally keep her room in his apartment. At a racquetball game with Alex, Ned slams him in the crotch with a serve. Amanda comes to Ned's to get a check from him, followed by Stacey, who accuses him of assaulting Alex on purpose. Stacey's lawyer emerges from the bedroom wearing lingerie. Stacey leaves in a furor, followed by her sister Amanda--who makes sure to return for the check. Back at his apartment, Alex tells Stacey that he's tired of the war betwee
#22 - Best of Luck on Future Projects
Season 2 - Episode 22 - Aired 9/26/2017
Ned is working out of the muffin shop (with little success), he's being sued by his former employer for stealing a client, and now Stacey is ready to move out of the apartment. He flashes back to the beginning of his relationship with her. Ned meets an old client who's started a promising new business, and he sees an opportunity for himself. He pleads with Stacey to help him out one last time in her role as ""business wife,"" and she relents. The meeting with his client goes well, until the couple gets another invitation out. Ned tells Stacey she needs to continue in her role, because she's proven that she doesn't have the maturity to live life on her own. Hurt and insulted, Stacey storms out. A few days later, the divorce is finally granted. Ned has sublet his apartment and is living out of the muffin shop, where his early morning routine is not doing much to ensure repeat business from the customers. He shows up one day at Stacey's studio apartment, telling her how he's been on the roa
#23 - The Truth Shall Set You Back
Season 2 - Episode 17 - Aired 9/26/2017
With the finalization of the divorce approaching, Stacey is going to have to deal with telling her parents. Ned meanwhile doesn't want to give up his relationship with his in-laws and is making plans to be Saul's first mate at a boating regatta. Eric feels left out as a son-in-law compared to Ned. Stacey gets Ned to agree to her plan to break the news to her parents, but when she does, Ned acts as if he's hearing about it for the first time. Eventually Stacey gets Ned on the same page with her, but Saul and Ellen are shaken. When Ellen tells Amanda that she and Saul won't be moving to Florida because they should stay near Stacey at this critical time, Amanda blurts out that the marriage was a sham all along. The Colberts are devastated by this news and feel betrayed by their daughter Stacey. She tries to pull her mother out of her funk by telling her that Amanda is pregnant--which she isn't. Eric now gets his much-hoped-for opportunity to be Saul's first mate at the regatta. Both of th
#24 - A Tender Trap
Season 1 - Episode 16 - Aired 1/15/1996
Stacey engineers an ""accidental"" meeting with Megan Foster, whose contacts in the publishing world could help get Stacey a staff job at a magazine. But Megan turns out to be much more interested in Ned. Stacey pleads with Ned not to treat this woman like one of his one-night stands. Trying to help Stacey, Ned acceeds to all of Megan's sexual demands, which are exhausting him. Meanwhile Eric can commiserate with Ned--he and Amanda are trying to have another child, and during her ovulation, she's putting him through his paces like a ""drill sergeant!""
#25 - The Skyward's the Limit
Season 2 - Episode 14 - Aired 9/26/2017
Stacey is proud of her latest article for Skyward magazine, ""The Secret Rivers of the Northwest."" But her boss Mr. Pace cuts out all the parts about toxic waste dumping, and does it rather condescendingly as well. Furious, Stacey talks to the other writers about a work stoppage against Pace. They heartily agree--until the moment he steps out of his office. Pace demands a rewrite and an apology, both due the next day. Driving Stacey to work the next day, Ned is in a great mood, having decided to fly out to L.A. to see Diana. Stacey ruins that mood when she breaks down crying about her failure as a writer. Ned tries to gloss over things, but after he reads the article Stacey left behind in the car, he goes to confront Stacey's boss. But in the meantime, Stacey has been grovelling at Pace's feet in front of the rest of the staff. Ned bursts in and with his usual bombast lambastes Pace, praising Stacey's article, even though he read only the sanitized version. He tells Pace that Stacey wil