Susan is a "somewhat sheltered" magazine writer who has dumped her rich fiance at the altar and must now cope with being suddenly single - complicated by the fact that her boss at hip San Francisco magazine The Gate is her ex's brother Jack. He has promoted her from copy editor to writer of a column on being single in the '90s, thus irritating her co-workers: caustic lifestyle columnist Vicki, Cuban playboy. Susan's main support is her loving grandmother Nana. In highly publicized trouble before it ever aired, Suddenly Susan had to switch formats from a bookstore to a magazine workplace setting - sort of Mary Richards going to work for Lou Grant at the Trib.
Susan's conflict with Maddy begins to invade her dreams, so she turns to a therapy group for help; Pete's partner thinks Pete and Jack are an item.
Even though Susan leaves her fiancé, Kip, at the altar, her ties to his family aren't severed---her boss is Kip's brother.
To cover a story, Susan spends time with an assertiveness-training guru---who sends her chutzpah level soaring off the charts.
When Susan's dull love life becomes the topic of discussion at ""The Gate,"" she sets out to explore her options---including office romance.
When her utilities are cut off, Susan jumps through hoops to get them restored. But trouble ensues when she writes an exposé on the incident.
To get out of dinner with her parents, Susan tells her mom a little white lie---and gets caught in it.
At Susan's prodding, Jack hires a sweet senior citizen---who proceeds to wreak havoc around the office.
Susan falls for a nihilistic rocker, and the attraction is mutual - despite a severe conflict of life styles and values.
Susan reluctantly does a favor for Jack by attending a charity function with Jack, his wife Margo, and her incredibly obnoxious brother. When Susan finally tells the creep off, Margo and her brother storm out, leaving Susan alone to deal with an inebriated Jack, who winds up spending the night on her sofa. But the next day Margo is not quite willing to believe that's all that happened.
Susan accompanies Jack to his grandfather's funeral, hoping her tacky sympathy card to the family will go unnoticed.
While filling in as baby sitter for Adam's kids, Susan unexpectedly meets his ex. Meanwhile, Jack sets up his bachelor pad.
Susan makes a decision about moving in with Adam; Jack rebounds into a new relationship; Todd receives threats after writing a scathing review of Menudo.
Susan's plans for a picture-perfect anniversary party for her parents come screeching to a halt when she spies her dad having lunch with another woman, and kissing her in an extremely friendly fashion. Trying to duck her mother's questions about her father's unusual behavior, Susan is horrified when Liz inadvertently reveals that she is having an affair. Meanwhile, Jack's intimidating German squeeze, Kate, wants to hang out with Vicki - much to Vicki's dismay, since she's convinced Kate's appetite for danger will ultimately kill Jack, and perhaps some innocent bystanders as well.
Family conflict rises to the top of the agenda at the funeral of Susan's grandfather, since Liz wants a traditional funeral while Nana wants a party to celebrate her spouse's wonderful life, and Susan is too busy organizing a tribute to her grandfather to deal with her own grief. Meanwhile Vicky, Todd and Luis go to the wrong funeral home and find themselves comforting the wrong widow; and Jack becomes the reluctant owner of a very, very ugly dog.
Susan, overcome with that Thanksgiving spirit, decides to spend time with an elderly resident of a nearby retirement home.
Susan is appalled when she misses a deadline but discovers that Nana covered for her by submitting an article in her stead - which Jack and her fans think is the best thing she's ever written. Desperate to find an idea for an even better column, Susan ultimately does the obvious: writes a confession about the previous column. Meanwhile, there's a big change in Vicky's life when she finds a wallet and falls for its handsome owner, only to discover that he's a rabbi.
Susan fixes Nana up with a charming businessman---who's not exactly how he appears; Vicki arrives in Israel and tries to adapt to life on a kibbutz.
Todd and the gang attend a Shawn Colvin performance, but the singer recalls Todd from his scathing review a year earlier. Meanwhile, Susan's apartment gets robbed, so she decides to get a gun.
Hospitalized, Jack puts Susan in charge of the magazine---much to the chagrin of Maddy, whose father, an esteemed journalist, is visiting.
Edie may not make it to Vicki's wedding ceremony.
In a desperate attempt to keep her romance with Jack a secret from the office grapevine, Susan tells bloodhound Vicki that she's dating her dentist, Mort Gerken -- only to have Vicki decide that Mort is cheating on Susan. Meanwhile, Todd challenges Maddy to an IQ test, staking his prime-parking place in the office garage on the outcome; and Luis celebrates his fifth anniversary at the Gate.
After a tremor shakes things up at the Gate, the staff rescue from the stalled elevator a shaken Lily, a nonagenarian survivor of the 1906 earthquake who shares her off-the-wall story (told via flashbacks featuring the cast) about Lily's mother, an aspiring singer (Susan); a lovesick busboy (Jack); a fortuneteller (Nana); two cough-drop moguls (Todd and Luis); and Enrico Caruso. This is the kind of lame fantasy episode that usually spells the demise of a sitcom, but it does have a fairly terrific dance sequence.
When Jack and Susan head off on their first weekend together, they're sidetracked by a visit to Jack's lowlife cousin Wallace and bamboozled into baby-sitting his kids, who are a handful. Meanwhile, Luis (and everybody else) hangs out at Susan's place, awaiting delivery of her new mattress.