Raising Hope - Best Episodes

When Jimmy "teaches" Hope to crawl, the family must baby-proof the house and find new places to store their belongings. It's soon revealed that Virginia is a hoarder and has been saving junk in the storage shed, which becomes Hope's favorite new hiding place. This leads Virginia to realize that she may have to change her ways. Meanwhile, Jimmy makes frequent unnecessary trips to the grocery store to see Sabrina.

After it becomes painfully clear that Hope starts imitating her canine companions in the day care center, Jimmy decides it's his duty to get her into a prestigious kindergarten, which is way beyond the Chances' means, so their only hope is the single scholarship for the underprivileged, for which competition is murderous. It's utterly impossible as long as the 'blue dot' on their home isn't taken off the sex offenders website. It refers to Burt's teenage arrest for clumsy sex with willing but underage Virginia. They appeal to crazy TV lawyer Wally Phipps. Alas, dealing with the court and costs results in fresh convictions for both utterly unladylike 'ladies'. Jimmy is reduced to shameless lies, but can't go trough with fraud at even poorer kids' expense.

Jimmy wants Hope's first Thanksgiving to be an all-American traditional family dinner, not the Chances' mere pizza. Jimmy even insists to invites the maternal grandparents, Dr. Dale and his wife Margine, who went crazy out of grief over their daughter's crime and execution. Jimmy painstakingly makes his family accommodate Dale's weird 'therapy' for Margine, only to be rewarded by Hope being kidnapped, gets her back and still extends a second invitation. Meanwhile lonely Barney from the supermarket offers to come cook a traditional feast for the all, instead of having to eat his all alone.

Jimmy refuses to let Burt sell the last of the stock of hottest toy he arranges each Christmas, demanding it for Hope, remembering how hard it was to sit by the pile himself. Burt's promise is as worthless as ever, and when he finally agrees, the only childless client, supermarket executive Barney, proves a hard nut. Jimmy ultimately allows Virginia to sign up Hope, and thus all the Chances, for the annual live church nativity crib, despite his trauma having been dragged to every performance just so she could get on stage, as a way to fight the stigma of serial killer's child. However they didn't count on the Asian new parishioners.

When Virginia and Sabrina discover secrets about each other, Sabrina blackmails Virginia into keeping her mouth shut. Meanwhile, Jimmy takes Burt to get a vasectomy after a family vote.

Jimmy is envious of Sabrina's smart-phone, yet anxious to sabotage a message on it from 'rival' Wyatt. To Jimmy's surprise, Virginia 'welcomes' pony-tailed hippie Jack by knocking him unconscious with a portable TV as Burt's kidnapper twenty years ago, but Burt protests and confesses that the kidnapping was a scam; he set it up to spend some careless time traveling without 'chain and bolt'. Also surprising Burt, Virginia confesses that she gradually enjoyed protection and 'comfort' from measly cop Ross enough to consider a proposal from him just when Burt's return (after a 'non-'gay kiss from Jack) made her snap back. Surprising everyone, Maw Maw adds a last layer of devious scheming to the past plot.

Tired of losing family possession to the pawn shop, Burt is tempted to resume gambling. Unlike his officially addicted period, he's on a winning streak. Virginia sees that as a handicap in curing him, but Jimmy and she end up playing and winning too, so the bookies want to cut them off. However the pivotal moment comes when Sabrina accuses them of missing Hope's first school play.

The Thanksgiving radish harvest festival sparks a town war.

Virginia is convinced the world is going to end.

When Burt (Garret Dillahunt) and Virginia (Martha Plimpton) discover that their storage locker is up for auction, they also realize they have misplaced a personal and incriminating home video that has fallen into the hands of another couple (guest stars Mike O?Malley and Liza Snyder). Meanwhile, Sabrina tries to get to the bottom of Jimmy?s epic sleepwalking habit.

Virginia is thrilled when the doctor prescribes new glasses, until her new crystal-clear vision allows her to see every tiny imperfection around the house.

Burt and Virginia go undercover to expose a corporate scandal that is killing all the bees in Natesville.

Virginia thinks that Burt is getting her an expensive gift for their 25th anniversary. So she decides to take him to a dude ranch that is run by a crazy cowboy. But Burt isn't able to enjoy himself, because of a secret he is keeping from Virginia.