The McKeever Family

The McKeever Family is the twelfth episode of Season 4 of the American Supernanny show.

Episode summary
Jo meets the McKeever family, who live in Corona, California. Mom Lucy (44) and dad Corey (40) have two sons: Hunter (7) and River (6). River is hot tempered and the ring leader of this boy gang. He would act out very disrespectfully. He's extremely aggressive and hostile. He would hit, kick, spit, throw things, break things and throw explosive tantrums.

Hunter is also very disrespectful, has a potty mouth, would talk back, name call, swear and be aggressive. Both boys don't listen and do as they're told. Homework time is the biggest issue for the family because it's done with impatience.

And even Dad, Corey is also disrespectful. He's very lazy and selfish, refuses to help Mum Lucy take care of the boys and all he cares is his job and doing his own thing. He would lay on the couch and wouldn't do anything. He's also very loud, rude, and can be aggressive with the boys when he gets to discipline the boys. He would hold the boys down aggressively, shout at the boys, and name call. He is also rude to his wife by talking back.

Meanwhile, Mom gives empty threats to the boys and even yells at them.

Transcript
McKeever Family transcript

Submission Reel
Jo finds a new family in need: the McKeever family. The submission reel begins with Lucy and Corey sitting in a chair while their two boys, Hunter and River, ages 7 and 6, jump all over them. While the parents said "we're the McKeever family" Hunter screamed “NO, WE'RE THE BUTT FAMILY!" and laughed.

Jo is "shocked." The reel shows River hitting Corey and Lucy and Corey commenting on him throwing heavy things down the stairs and playing with wrought iron. Then the two talk about Hunter and some reel showing him yelling bad words at Corey and Hunter yelling to River about him being a whiny baby. Lucy breaks down into tears and tells Jo they need her help right away.

Observation
Later, Jo comes to the home and River greets her with hitting her in the privates and says hateful things about her. When Lucy tries to give Jo a tour, the two boys come upstairs and start throwing balls and swearing and say they are going to beat Jo up in her privates. Jo uses her effort to backfire the attacks from the boys. When Jo asks the boys about her presence, River gives a rude reply saying she has to "spit", which Jo herself knows is obviously false. When Jo attempts to offer River to shake her hand and greet her politely, River takes a swipe but misses and then escapes into the bathroom to hide from her. Lucy confronts her son for attempting to attack Jo once again, which River backtalks with profanity and then closes the door on the women. Lucy apologizes to Jo and breaks down says that her boys seem to have no respect for women, and admits to having lost control dealing with them. Then when it's time for homework, Lucy starts rushing the boys and criticizing their writing and complains how they have been doing homework for so long. When the boys insist on playing with toys, she refuses to let them have fun until they get done with the homework. Soon Corey comes home and meets Jo. He then asks how the boys have behaved and Lucy says negative things about their behavior and asks Corey to put River in time out. Then Corey picks up River to put him in the naughty room. But River tries to escape but to no avail and Corey says he's not going to put up with it. He picks River back up, only to be kicked in the groin by River and a long fight begins, which lasts for nearly an hour. Corey pins River aggressively to try to get him to stop but to no avail and River even scratches him on the neck and kicks him in the groin again. Things just got worse when River puts boogers on things and trashes the room, and when Corey asks River to clean it up, River refuses. Meanwhile, the parents are trying to get the boys to go to bed but they try their very best to escape. Jo has seen enough for the day and leaves.

Parent Meeting
Jo talks to the parents and tells them their boys behavior is disgusting and how discipline isn't effective. Her outrage really feels put on and it's awkward to watch. She also says homework is done with impatience (which Lucy admits is true), and tells Corey that he needs to be present.

Teaching
Jo returns and has an idea up her sleeve. She puts up a smiley board where if the boys behave, they get a privilege ball, but if they misbehave, they lose one: Hunter's privilege balls being green and River's being blue. Some rules are not doing as they're told, hitting, swearing, etc. The boys say they hate the house rules and say how Corey only cares about the computer. Corey stares at the boys blankly. Jo needs a serious talk with Corey. In another staged interaction, Jo tells Corey he's selfish and only cares about himself.

When Hunter was refused a snack, he had to go to the time-out room for seven minutes. He trashed the room and then has to clean it up. Hunter says he hates time-out and fills the air with the painful sounds of angry crying. Jo ignores him and sets a timer for seven minutes. Hunter even loses a ball in the process – which leads to him throwing a fit over discipline and cuddling with his stuffed monkey in the living room.

Jo puts up another board after thinking about the boys not having enough dad time again. So, the three go to the park to have fun together. Later, the boys must do homework. The boys hate homework time. Then, it's dinner time and River is angry because Corey sits next to him. Jo tries to get River to sit back next to him but River ignores and says Jo isn't the boss of him and throws a fork. Corey shouts but Jo gives in. River starts throwing things. Later, Lucy and Hunter play on the computer. River wants to join the fun but isn't calm and isn't allowed in the computer room, but insists that Jo get out, and then Jo and the parents restrain him during the altercation. River is told he isn't allowed in the room unless he calms down. So he does. River realizes Corey and Lucy won't put up with it. Then Jo leaves for a few days.

DVD Meeting
Jo comes back for the DVD meeting showing what happened over the few days Jo was gone. Jo isn't impressed with what she sees. Lucy gave the boys 50 warnings instead of disciplining them. Then homework time is shown on the DVD: the first one with homework, Lucy is praising the boys for doing their homework and the hard work they've been doing, and the second one with homework Corey is involved but is raising his voice and making the boys more frustrated and River is playing with his fish bowl with his privilege balls and then Corey walks out and sits on the sofa and eats a snack so he leaves the job to his wife to help the boys with their homework. When Jo asks Corey about his behavior in the footage, he admits it was negative but then lies saying that he only sat in the living room for just "one second". As a result, Jo is flat-out upset with Corey because he's acting like a 13-year-old and he's selfish, but he denies Jo's accusations to add insult to injury. They then watch a video of Corey's energy, which he is sorely lacking in. Jo tells him to work on it. Corey, then walks out of the DVD meeting and hides in the bathroom, embarrassed for himself. Fed up with Corey's excuses, Jo tries to get some sense into him during a serious talk.

Reinforcement
Corey finally steps up and takes off Hunter's training wheels on his bike. Corey pushes him down the hill and realizes he can get through anybody. Hunter makes an effort to ride his bike without the training wheels.

Jo decides her work here is done and says goodbye to the boys and leaves for good. The boys thank her when she leaves.

Epilogue and Credits
Corey knocks on the door where River is behind and pretends he's Supernanny. Jo laughs hard. The episode ends.

Behind The Scenes
This episode was filmed in November of 2007 as stated in the 100th Episode Special.

Trivia

 * This is considered one of the worst Supernanny Episodes due to Hunter and River’s Extremely Sexist behaviour towards Jo And Lucy with many asking how they even learned those words. It was also hated due to Corey’s somewhat Abusive Behaviour.
 * This is the second episode to have a parent walk out during the Parent Evaluation. The first was The Tafoya Family, a few episodes prior within the same season, where Holly walked out on Jo when she began explaining how bad Soap is as a discipline method. Unlike the previous episode with the same occurrence, Jo leaves as well to confront the parent who walked out while the other parent stays.

After the episode
Corey & Lucy divorced.