Episode #516 "Dick Solomon's Day Off"

When Nina announces she's sick and won't be in the next day, Mary has to explain the concept of "sick days" to Dick. Don accidentally leaves his police scanner at the Solomons'. They tune in, and, when one signal comes in particularly clearly, they begin listening as if it were a soap opera. It's such a beautiful day that Dick, already dressed for work, decides to call in sick. Don comes looking for his scanner, but the aliens deny ever having seen it. When they learn that Andrea, the woman they've been listening to on the scanner, is going to the drycleaner and they realize that it's their drycleaner too, they rush off to get a look at her. Dick's just arrived home from his day off and he can't stop raving about his great day. Mary shows up with some soup for Dick, and she can't believe he faked being sick, but he quickly persuades her to join him the next day for another sick day. At the drycleaner Harry, who knows from the scanner that Andrea just broke up with her boyfriend, can't resist approaching her. He strikes up a conversation, and Sally and Tommy are as dazzled as if he were talking to a movie star. Mary and Dick are go-carting and run into Strudwick who, they learn, is also taking a phony sick day. When Dick realizes he can't rat out Strudwick without ratting himself out, he relaxes and the three have a fabulous time. They agree to go hot-air ballooning the next day. Tommy and Sally are on the scanner and hear Andrea tell her mother about this great new guy she met who she's going to call. It's Harry, and Tommy and Sally couldn't be more excited. Dick sneaks into the office looking for his binoculars and encounters the Chancellor. He's stuck and will have to stay at school, so he calls Mary and demands that she call off the balloon trip with Strudwick, but she refuses. Harry and Andrea are getting along great, but Sally and Tommy are bored because there's nothing exciting to listen to on the scanner. Dick takes another day off and arrives at Mary's in hopes of another great day, but she says she can't miss another day. She has to go to the Chancellor's crab leg lunch. Harry and Andrea are talking, and Harry mentions Steve, Andrea's ex-boyfriend who Andrea has never talked about. Soon Harry confesses that he and his family have been listening in on her private conversations, and Andrea storms off. And Dick shows up at the crab leg lunch and tries to bust Strudwick for taking phony sick days, but everyone thinks he has Asiatic flu and the fever is making him say weird things, and he's urged by the Chancellor to go home. Forgetting that he's not really sick, he kisses Strudwick on the mouth in hopes of infecting him and is awarded a few mental health days from the Chancellor.