All Melvyn Rosenbloom wants is to go back to the days when things were simpler and people were kinder -- the good old days. Deciding to renounce women altogether, he finds a house in his old neighbourhood and persuades his elderly crotchety father Harvey to move in with him. Harvey is something of a comic and, as Mel rediscovers, none too easy to live with. To add to the friction, there's the landlady, Jackie. From Mel's point of view as an aspiring celibate, she's all wrong: far too intelligent, attractive and unconventional. But, strangely enough, Jackie becomes the focus of the Rosenblooms' refashioned lives.