The Ellen Show

An Internet entrepreneur returns to live in her hometown after her new business venture suddenly collapses.

Now that Ellen has decided to stay in Clark, she has to think what she'll do with her life. Mr. Munn offers her a position as counselor at the school, but she doesn't think it's the right job for her. So she goes to a pond and tries to read the book "Walden", but it's way too boring for her. Later she runs into a suspended student and the two start to throw fruits at Clark's statue and get arrested. While waiting downtown, Ellen talks to the kid, and realizes she might be better in counseling than she thought. Ellen takes the job and becomes the new counselor at the school.

When Ellen finds out that a P.J. Knockers is opening in Clark, she tries to start a petition to stop Clark from being invaded by all the chain stores and lose its small town aspect. But everybody seems blinded by the wonder they think a new restaurant will be. To make things even worse, Catherine quits her job and becomes a waitress at P.J. Knockers, and it takes Dot to convince Ellen to support her sister and ease off on the protest. Meanwhile, the new home economics teacher, Pam, takes over Ellen's office and turns it into a mini bakery room.

Vanity Fair decides to do an interview with Ellen about former dot-commers who went out of business. After everyone tells her to do something about her hair, she finally decides to fix it with Pam and bond with her a little, since they haven't started with the right foot. Ellen's new old-fashioned look doesn't please her as much as she hoped so decides to get another cut. She mistakes the pet shop stylist for the magazine hairdresser and ends up with a dog-style haircut. All that ends up serving as an example for Tina, a young girl who's having personality problems at school.

Catherine feels threatened when she sees how close Ellen and Dot have gotten now that Ellen has moved back home. When Ellen's furnishings arrive from L.A., Dot is so impressed with all of her fancy gadgets and high-style décor, that Catherine is left to wonder what place she will have in her mother's heart -- and her home -- now that Ellen has become the "number one" daughter. So, Catherine makes up a situation that she knows will attract their attention.

Faced with what could be raccoons digging up their front lawn, Ellen calls a raccoon guy to get rid of the problem. Dot, on the other hand, thinks she can take care of the problem herself by scaring the raccoons away with her high-pitched singing. The raccoon guy decides to camp in the lawn, and Ellen discovers Rusty making the holes. Turns out he was just trying to find the time capsule he buried so the raccoon guy wouldn't find it. He made the capsule as a love proof to Ellen, his old high school crush, and just dug it out to show Ellen that he too can do crazy things for love, just like Tug, one of the students who fell for Ellen. But Ellen assures Rusty that they're nothing more than just good friends.