S1 • E1
Set in Hoboken, New Jersey, the working-class DeBeau family run a refrigeration maintenance business. When the owner Pete suffers a stroke, he asks his middle son Denis to take over the family business while he recuperates, which draws ire from Denis' older brother Harry. Youngest son, Eric, is an irresponsible teenage youth who frolics with delinquent activities and has the most trouble dealing with his father's condition. Meanwhile, Denis' best friend Joey is the son of local Mafia under-boss Anthony Coltrera who wants to know the family business, but finds his loyalty to his family and his friendship with Joey in uncertainty when he is forced to collect "protection money" from the DeBeau company. Joey proposes marriage to his girlfriend Joni, despite she coming from a Jewish background knowing that her family will not approve of the engagement. Elsewhere, Denis meets and becomes smitten with Marianne McKinley, an elementary school teacher who does not really find him that interesting. Also, when a burglary happens at the DeBeau warehouse, suspicion falls upon Denis' ex-convict friend Reuben. But the real culprit is Harry who is attempting to feed his gambling habit.
S1 • E2
Denis gets to know Marianne a little more when she invites him to her house for dinner where he gets to meet her widowed mother and learns she has a seven-year-old son from a previous marriage. Meanwhile Harry's ex-wife returns to the scene to cause more family tension. Also, Joey and Joni continue to plan their wedding, but she does not want him to meet her tradition-minded parents.
S1 • E3
S1 • E4
S1 • E5
S1 • E6
Joey and Joni's wedding day has arrived. Denis decides to throw a pre-wedding bachelor party for Joey with all of the guys in attendance.
Denis DeBeau
Harry DeBeau
Eric DeBeau
Pete DeBeau
Joey Coltrera
Joni Goldstein
Marianne McKinney
Anthony Coltrera
Lillian DeBeau
Joann