A blackout in the city finds Jack enduring a miserable birthday, Delia bonding with her usually hostile neighbor, and Sasha and Meg stuck on an elevator with a gorgeous construction worker.
After Jack writes a column wishing for the death of a noisy robin, the bird chirps its last chirp—prompting the neighbors to wish Jack tarred and feathered.
Jack ""Madman"" Buckner is an egocentric magazine columnist whose new young publisher also happens to be his daughter Meg. In the opener, father and daughter lock horns when Meg decides to fire Jack's best friend.