The WORST episodes of Ned and Stacey
Every episode of Ned and Stacey ever, ranked from worst to best by thousands of votes from fans of the show. The worst 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 - 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.
#2 - New Year's Eve
Season 1 - Episode 14 - Aired 1/1/1996
Ned and Stacey are particularly irritated with each other this New Year's Eve, so Stacey is happy to accept a last-minute date from one of a pair of brothers she once met on vacation. Unfortunately, she can't remember whether this one was the rich, interesting one or the dud. Ned doesn't put up much of a fight, even though it means Stacey won't be available for ""wife duty"" at his party that night. It isn't long into the date before Stacey finds out that Don is not the brother she was hoping for. Meanwhile Ned has to fend off questions about Stacey's whereabouts and the best he comes up with on the spot is that she's at the hospital with her brother who is suffering from scurvey. His guests insist he go spend the holiday evening with her. Eric and Amanda return to their home in an amorous mood which is broken when they find Ned killing time in their bedroom, and they evict him. Don senses Stacey's disappointment and lets her cut the evening short. She returns to the apartment to find gu
#3 - Paranoia on the 47th Floor
Season 1 - Episode 15 - Aired 1/8/1996
Ned is worried about a hotshot young executive the company has hired, especially when Clay reminds Pat Kirkland about the company's manadatory vacation policy, which Ned hasn't been following. Kirkland insists Ned take two weeks off, during which time Ned is sure that Clay will solidify his position in the company at Ned's expense. His paranoia turns to mania as he can't quit obsessing about what Clay is doing, even when he's at a tropical resort. Returning home, Ned is a beaten man who is ready to give up, but Stacey reminds him of his old ""immoral, inscrupulous"" self, and encourages him to go fight and retake his position in the company.
#4 - 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!""
#5 - Promotional Rescue
Season 1 - Episode 17 - Aired 1/22/1996
When a department head's job becomes open at the ad agency, Amanda encourages Eric to pursue it aggressively, but Eric has his usual laissez-faire attitude. Amanda asks Ned to put in a good word for Eric with their boss Kirkland. Eric gets the promotion, but at the first big budget meeting he attends on he won't sign off on Ned's extravagent presentation for a major account. This causes hard feelings between Ned and Eric, and during an argument Ned lets it slip that Eric only got the promotion through his intercession. Eric is angered by this, but feeling helpless he agrees to back up Ned's budget proposal. Ned presents a horrible bloody ""morphing"" commercial to the client, who promptly walks out. Eric's career as a department head also ends swiftly.
#6 - Friends and Lovers
Season 1 - Episode 18 - Aired 2/12/1996
Stacey and Amanda bump into Janine, an old schoolmate of Stacey's who she still resents for stealing her boyfriend and the lead in the school production of West Side Story. Right away it's obvious that Janine is still into one-upsmanship as she brags about her husband (the old boyfriend), their jobs and their lives. Amanda agrees to be her realtor in a search for a New York residence and Janine comes over to Ned's one night while everyone is there. Stacey tries to make her life sound wonderful to make Janine jealous. She sits in Ned's lap telling the (fictional) story of how he proposed to her. Ned, who's been on a sexual losing streak, gets aroused, to everyone's acute discomfort. Later Janine and Ned share a cab. Janine comes on to Ned, who resists briefly, then succumbs. When Stacey finds this out she's truly hurt by it, as she sees Janine taking something from her again. In order to make it up to Stacey, Ned brings Janine to the apartment and tells Stacey they had an affair, but he
#7 - The Gay Caballeros
Season 1 - Episode 19 - Aired 2/19/1996
Ned enjoys a good relationship with his client, gay fashion designer Brent Barrow, who invites the Dorseys and the Moyers to his restaurant and takes Stacey and Amanda shopping at his warehouse. While helping Stacey put away her new clothes, he notices that she and Ned sleep in separate bedrooms. Stacey tells them that they have an arrangement. Brent says he understands but wrongly assumes she means Ned is gay. Later Eric and Ned arrive at Brent's Mardi Gras party before their wives and notice that only men are in attendance. Ned is eager to correct any misunderstanding with Brent and he tells him that he's straight. Brent assumes Ned is in denial about his sexuality and is ready to quit doing business with him, so Ned now tries to tell him that he is gay after all and in love with Eric. By the time Stacey and Amanda arrive at the party, Ned and Eric have done such a bad job of acting gay that Brent is sure that Ned is truly straight.
#8 - Gut Feeling
Season 1 - Episode 20 - Aired 2/26/1996
Ned keeps ignoring chest pains despite everyone's warnings. Even when he finally sees a doctor, he totally rejects the idea that he needs surgery on his gall bladder. While perfoming as Leonard the rodeo clown at Howard's birthday party, he suffers an acute pain attack and is hospitalized. It's obvious he also has a fear of hospitals and is terrified that he may die in surgery. While on the operating table, his vital signs flatten out and he appears to be having a near-death experience. He runs toward a voice and a bright light, until he sees that it's Stacey calling him. The patient makes a miraculous recovery.
#9 - Pals
Season 1 - Episode 21 - Aired 3/4/1996
Ned is working with Bobby Van Lowe, a smart-aleck ""brat pack""-type actor (from the hit sitcom ""Pals"") who goofs his way though a series of public service announcements. Amanda jumps at the chance to sell a rich young actor some expensive real estate. While showing him a pricey co-op, Bobby takes a liking to Amanda and kisses her, which Ned accidentally sees. Amanda isn't interested in pursuing a realtionship with Bobby, but she does want his and his friends' business, so she stars spending more time with him and even talks about putting off having her next child for a while. (Stacey, meanwhile, is predictably starstruck by Bobby.) Eric is confused until he gets the news out of Ned that Bobby kissed his wife. Expecting the worst, Eric confronts his wife and Bobby, accusing her of having an affair. Later Ned finds himself in the unusual position of trying to comfort a drunk and distraught Amanda.
#10 - It Happened One Night
Season 1 - Episode 22 - Aired 3/11/1996
Feeling ill and irritated with her sister's complaining about her marriage to Ned, Amanda lashes out at Stacey, telling her she's responsible for her situation and that if she really wants her life to change, she should do something about it. Stacey abruptly decides to leave Ned and flees back to her parents' house. Her dad takes her to a coffee shop to talk, where Stacey tells him the marriage is a sham, but Saul doesn't grasp the true meaning. Ned arrives with Amanda at the Colberts and talks to Ellen. As Ellen attempts to counsel Ned, the younger ones both learn more than they want to know about the older couple. Amanda comes by the coffee shop to talk to Stacey. While there, the two of them see Stacey's old boyfriend Joey, who is now a pot-bellied father of six driving a bread truck. They flash back to the same coffee shop years earlier before their high school prom, where we see Stacey dressed in ""Flashdance"" gear, Amanda looking like Ally Sheedy in ""The Breakfast Club,"" Eric as a
#11 - You Bet Your Wife
Season 1 - Episode 23 - Aired 3/18/1996
Stacey is leaving for the movies as Peter is arriving for Ned's poker game and there is a spark of attraction during their brief meeting. At the poker table Ned and Peter are involved in a high-stakes bet which Ned can't cover. Peter won't let Ned renege on his own house rules, so Ned asks him if there is anything of his that he wants. Peter jokingly says a night with his wife. Holding four jacks, Ned agrees to take the bet, which he loses. After the game has broken up and Stacey has returned, Ned deceitfully offers to set Stacey up on a date with Peter, which she accepts. Peter comes around to collect his winnings, the unaware Stacey. Later, after twinges of his conscience (and a few choice words from Amanda, who found out about the unholy bet), Ned races over to Peter's place, hoping he's not too late.
#12 - The End? (1)
Season 1 - Episode 24 - Aired 4/1/1996
After yet another bad date, Stacey complains about the paucity of good men available for someone like her. Ned scoffs at this, saying she's the problem and that he could easily find a better man for her than she ever could herself. Stacey takes the challenge and tells Ned she can find him a better woman for him than he can find for her (a man, that is. Got it?) Stacey's blind date with Ned's friend Alex turns out to be very enjoyable; in fact, she thinks he's just about the perfect man. Ned's date Frances, however, turns out to be a neurotic, psychotic wreck. Three weeks later Stacey and Alex are still a hot item, but Ned is getting resentful. Stacey has been spending so much time with Alex that she's been neglecting her ""official"" wife duties. After she misses an important affair with a big client, Ned is particularly angry with her. She promises to be back from her ski trip with Alex in time to meet the client and his wife at the apartment. When Stacey and Alex arrive home from the s
#13 - 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.
#14 - 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
#15 - 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
#16 - 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.
#17 - 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.
#18 - 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
#19 - 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
#20 - 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.
#21 - 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
#22 - 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.
#23 - 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
#24 - 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.
#25 - Ned and Stacey
Season 1 - Episode 1 - Aired 9/11/1995
Stacey Colbert, a young freelance writer who has worked for the ""Village Voice,"" runs into Ned Dorsey by chance at a restaurant bar. Ned is a successful advertising account executive who is bombastic, pompous and definitely more than a little off-center. In the course of a brief conversation she is totally turned off by him. Stacey sees her sister Amanda, who hopefully will be able to introduce her to a nice guy, but she's horrified to find out that Ned is the unlikely best friend of Amanda's husband Eric, who works at the same ad agency as Ned. During the dinner conversation Stacey is outraged by Ned's amoral, ruthless attitude toward his work and life in general and she gives him a piece of her mind before stalking off, ending their blind date. At his job, Ned's boss Spencer tells him he can't award him a promotion because he's not married (their conservative clients like ""family men."") Ned lies to Spencer, saying his own wedding is planned for a short time later. Ned gets his promot