The year is 2002. Joel Larsen is thirty-four years old, but has never really done anything special with his life. His parents are divorced, and his sister is a drug addict. But when Cheryl, his sister, puts him through a freakish accident, he is sent back to 1981, and suddenly he gets the chance most people dream of: to be a teen all over again. He first freaks out when he realizes he has to go through the 80s one more time, where everybody he knows is young again, while everything he used to know is gone and replaced by old-fashioned things. But slowly he accepts his new-old reality and decides to make all the wrong things he did right again.

Joel picks a fight with a high school bully. This time around, he decides to stand up for himself.

Joel is tired of his parents always fighting about money, so he decides to take a job. He eventually chooses the one he has been stuck in for years in his alternative world - paper salesman. He gets the job, and does a wonderful job with it. But he discovers that it's got its price; he gets less time to spend with his family and friends, and is constantly tired. And as if this was not enough - Mr. Rudd overhears one of his phone conversations and thinks Joel is in the drug business. Joel's new job also annoys Pat, who wants to go to a Blues Brothers concert with him.

A new teacher by the name Ruben enters the school. But this is not what worries Joel the most - in the future, Ruben is his stepfather. So to avoid that his mother ever meets Ruben, he tries to encourage his parents to do something special on their anniversary. But his plan backfires, Ruben meets Karen six years before they are supposed to, and they immediately connect. Joel, who don't like Ruben very much, panics and tries to do everything that comes to mind to break them up. He even engages Cheryl to plot with him.

Joel and Pat are both trying to cheat their fates. Joel is to play in the state baseball championship, but remembers that he choked in the last throw and blew the team's victory, having everybody (including the ones he cares about) become disappointed in and laughing at him. Joel also tells Pat that on the same day he loses the championship, Pat breaks his wrist. Thereafter he tries everything to prevent that. Meanwhile, Isabelle is having a bad hair day.

Joel, Pat and Isabelle want to go to a concert, but Cheryl won't take them. They decide to drive there on their own. When they get there, both Joel and Isabelle experience new things. Meanwhile, Bill and Karen finds out that Joel fails almost every class and suspects him of taking drugs.

Joel is trying to rewrite the start of his dating history by going to a party with Holly Kent, with the goal to get the first kiss from her instead of a boring girl named Bonnie. He winds up kissing Isabelle in desperation, and becomes her fake boyfriend so Bonnie leaves him alone and to make Holly notice him. Meanwhile, Pat actually wants to get his first kiss from Bonnie, and Bill and Karen celebrates Halloween in their own way.

When Joel enters a Star Search-like competition using a hit song from the future, he reevaluates whether he should become an accomplished musician the honest way or by stealing someone else's material...

When Joel has the opportunity to change the events of the street block party where his family was ostracized by the neighbors, he tries to teach his father that winning isn't everything. Meanwhile, Joel also attempts to protect Isabelle from having her heart broken.

After butting heads with his father over his curfew, school trips and adult responsibilities, Joel decides to stand up for himself and moves into Pat's home where the rules are more liberal.

Joel decides he is not going to let turning 15 get in the way of celebrating what should be his 35th birthday, and cuts school with his friends Pat and Isabelle.

Joel is failing in Biology and his parents think he needs a tutor, who happens to be very attractive. Joel works hard to impress his tutor, Abby, so that he can ask her out on a date.

Joel Larsen competes in the science fair in order to not flunk the class. He tries to ride the coat-tails of Andrew Wages, a brainy science kid who supposedly invents the technology for satellite TV in the future and owns millions. The side-story is about the Larsen family coming together after Joel helps them steal cable TV from the Nachman's.

"It's all about timing", is Joel's motto as he uses his second chance in life to ask Holly Kent to the Valentine's Day dance.

Joel edges Bill to support Karen's business ideas, and Karen is really excited to present her ideas to the world. But then he hears the idea for her first pitch - chili mixed with spaghetti, which she calls Chilghetti. Joel completely shoots it down due to his future knowledge, to Karen's major disappointment. Meanwhile, Isabelle is planning on auditioning for the school's take on "Gone with the Wind", but Joel remembers that she completely screwed up the first time around and got teased for months, which was the worst time of her life. Joel and Pat must prevent it from happening again.