Stark Raving Mad

A doorman by day, fortune teller by night gives a psychic reading for Maddie (who will soon rekindle with a long-lost love) and Jake (who will make it in the music biz). Maddie and Jake excitedly share their so-called good news with Henry, Ian and Tess, but while Ian and Tess want to get their fortunes read next, Henry doesn't. Perhaps that's because when Henry finally gives in, he's the only one of the gang whose future ain't so bright...

Henry throws a surprise birthday party for Tess and invites her sister, Brittany -- unaware that Tess can't stand her. At the party, Henry soon discovers why after Ian and Brittany strike up a relationship that threatens to put a wedge between his and Tess'.

Ian's first novel, Below Ground, finds its way onto the reading list in Maddie's contemporary literature class. Maddie is thrilled since she's already read it and it will save her time. Ian helps write Maddie's book report for her, but then is furious when her professor only gives her a ""B,"" claiming that she doesn't understand the author's intentions! Ian goes down to talk to the guy, Professor Tuttle, and get the grade changed to an ""A,"" but when Ian blasts the crooked, thick-headed teacher with the declaration that he wrote Below Ground -- as well as Maddie's paper -- Professor Tuttle does indeed change Maddie's grade. To an ""F."" When Ian tells Maddie that Tuttle flunked her, she becomes as enraged as he was when he saw the ""B."" To fix things, Ian comes up with the plan to have Henry meet with Tuttle and claim to be the real Ian Stark, so Tuttle will think Ian was an imposter. Meanwhile, when Jake's girlfriend, Kit, gives him a ""man necklace"" as a gift, which is so ugly and bulky he

When Ian plots a story featuring a couples counselor, he and Henry schedule an appointment with one to get the lowdown on how they operate. The couples counselor, Anne, gives Ian and Henry her analysis of them as a couple, and then speaks with Ian alone. When Henry asks Ian what Anne said to him, Ian says she thinks Henry is paranoid -- thus making Henry more paranoid. But when Henry learns that Ian was lying to him and Anne actually asked him out on a date, Henry plots his revenge. Meanwhile, Maddie tricks the new bartender, Scott, into believing she owns the bar -- and uses her powers for evil, not good.

Henry, Ian and Tess get mugged. Henry does what you might expect, but Ian head-butts the mugger and saves the day -- as well as Tess' purse. Henry soon feels sexually inadequate when he learns that Ian's heroics caused Tess to have an erotic dream about Ian. When Henry won't stop whining, Ian sets up an incident that's designed to make Henry look like a hero in Tess' eyes. Meanwhile, Maddie uses Jake as a decoy boyfriend to avoid being chatted up by bar patrons, but Jake winds up a better decoy than even she wanted.

It's Christmastime, and there's a need to be afraid. Jake plans to fulfill his New Year's resolution to call his father who deserted him when he was ten, while Maddie prepares for a blind date with one Dr. Eric Woolf that her father set up. Tess tries to get her friends together for a Christmas party, but they've all got plans. So instead she latches onto Ian's party -- even though he doesn't want her there. Once Tess arrives and sees what Ian calls a Christmas party, she isn't sure she wants to be there either. But at least she's in good company with Ian's eccentric collection of friends: Vince from the looney bin, who has a habit of introducing himself as the last name said in his presence; Phyllis, the maintenance transvestite; Goldy, the midget newsstand guy; and Lois Bickford, the washed-up stage actress who did Ed Sullivan several times -- and still couldn't get on his show. Since Ian's gang are too busy watching a Knicks game to bother having any Christmas spirit, Tess decides t

Tess (who narrates the tale) attempts to fix up Ian and Maddie after becoming jealous that Ian and Henry are hanging around each other too much. But it's a match made in hell after Maddie tries to teach Ian how to dance for their first date.

Henry's and Tess' declaration that they are ""engaged to be engaged"" leads Ian to play yet another prank on Henry -- this time by setting it up to look like Henry did it with Maddie.

During Halloween, Ian helps Henry pay back his pregnant cousin Lori for a prank she pulled on him a long time ago, while Maddie's date -- who's dressed up as Igor -- may or may not be a humpback for real.

Henry doesn't understand why Ian changed the name of a character in his manuscript from Lily to Renska, nor does he understand why Ian's favorite coffee shop is thirty blocks away. Wanting to understand Ian better, Henry pays a visit to Ian's coffee house of choice, where he discovers that Renska, the owners' daughter, is a waitress there -- whom Ian never talks to. Ian denies to Henry that he has a thing for Renska, but Henry doesn't believe him. Thanks to Henry's big mouth, Renska's over-protective parents thrust Ian into a date with their timid daughter the next time he stops by. Furious, Ian blows up at Henry because his morning routine of fritters and long walks has been ruined -- but Henry's attempt to correct the matter destroys Ian's routine even more. Meanwhile, Maddie has to fend off the unwanted advances of her pompous professor, Forrest St. James, when she sends Jake to her psychology class to take notes for her, and he ends up penning an overly flattering teacher evaluatio

Henry McNeely's boss, Audrey, gives him a promotion he doesn't want: that of editor for flavor-of-the-month horror novelist Ian Stark -- who keeps editors like Henry keeps his backbone. Ian's eccentricities and penchant for practical jokes and spontaneous daredevil stunts -- at the expense of not actually writing a follow-up book -- threaten Henry's anal-retentive, obsessive-compulsive and fraidy-cat ways. Can two single men share a job without driving each other crazy?