The Evans Family

Episode	15
Air Date	March 18, 2011
Location	Houston, Texas
Techniques	Naughty Spot, Potty Training, Good Eater
Season	7
Previous	The Federico Family
Next	The Braido Family

The Evans Family is the fifteenth and final episode of Season 7 of the American Supernanny show. It first aired on March 18th, 2011. It is the final episode of Supernanny’s original ABC Run.

Episode summary

In the Season 7 finale, Jo visits the Evans Family in Houston, Texas. After his wife Jennifer died from breast cancer, Gary (37) is left alone to raise his three rambunctious boys: 6-year-old Michael, 4-year-old Sean and 3-year-old Dylan. Jo empathizes with the family, given her own mother also passed to breast cancer.

Jennifer was a stay-at-home mom and the anchor of the family. After her death at only 33, Gary had to retire from his job because taking care of his sons, working, and grieving was just too much for him to handle. He can't bring himself to discipline his sons or enforce the rules. As a result of the death, the boys are confused, angry, and acting out. Can Jo help this mourning family?

Recap

Submission Reel

Jo arrives in Texas to help the Evans Family, consisting of father Gary (37) and his three boys: Michael (6), Sean (4) & Dylan (3). Gary is currently grieving the loss of his wife, Jennifer, who passed away due to breast cancer two years ago. The boys didn’t understand what was going on because how young they were, and now, they've begun acting out.

Gary is very stressed with dealing with the boys now that he's raising them by himself. Jennifer was the head of the house while he worked full time; as such, he never ended up seeing or setting a routine with the boys. These major changes resulted in Gary having to retire from his job earlier than he planned.

Fighting and screaming has become a lot more common. Gary has has tried practically everything he could think of to discipline the boys, all of which failed. The boys also don’t eat healthy, always preferring junk food over a more nutritious and balanced meal. Dylan's also not been potty-trained. When Jennifer was still alive, she was successfully able to potty train Michael and Sean. However, Gary doesn’t know how to teach him, given he was not involved in the older boys' training. Jo describes Dylan as a “big baby bringing [Gary] his wipes.”

Observation

Jo arrives to the Evans household and is greeted warmly by the entire family. As she looks around the house, she notices a note with words pinned to one of the doors, which turns out to be the house rules. Gary reveals that Jennifer was the one who had made them before she passed away. Nowadays, the rules have been entirely forgotten about, and the only one the boys still follow is to say "please" and "thank you", which they do only sometimes. Gary explains they did initially follow the rules at first, but as Jennifer's breast cancer worsened, they slowly became more lax with them. Now, the rules are virtually non-existent. Jo witnesses the boys fighting one another and yelling. Gary does his best to stop them, but the chaos is too much for him to handle. Jo finds it clear that Gary has made a lack of an attempt to discipline the boys since Jennifer's passing.

At lunch, Michael becomes upset from a struggle to decide what he wants for lunch. He ends up throwing a massive fit and retreats to his room, which Gary describes as having been the worst outburst that he had seen from Michael. Jo goes upstairs to console Michael, who is now hiding and sobbing under his bed. She sees a picture of a woman, who Sean reveals to be Jennifer. Michael tells Jo that their mother was really fun when she was alive, but losing her was like 'the end of the world'. When Michael eventually comes out from under his bed, Jo asks him what he remembers about Jennifer. However, Michael had lost all of his memories of her. Jo realizes that Michael was, in his own way, grieving his mother's death. Without an outlet to express his feelings, his emotions were bottled up and he was ready to explode at any moment.

After hearing what Michael had to say about his mother, Jo decides to talk with Gary about how he's felt on his grieving journey. He explains that while he feels as if he's moved on, he knows in a way, he never will because of how much of a positive impact Jennifer was on his life. He refers to her as 'The Ultimate Mom.' When Jo asks about the boys, Gary explains why they were so confused: they had only learned about Jennifer's breast cancer days before her death. They were too young to understand the concept of death and its permanence; Sean would, for a long time, ask when his mother would return. Gary breaks down into tears and admits that they didn't deserve what happened to them. Jo hugs him and admits that she also lost her mother to breast cancer.

Jo points out that Dylan should be potty-trained, but notes that she’s not sure if Gary had really tried to potty-train him. While he has tried a few times because Dylan had expressed interest, the latter wouldn't do anything once Gary puts him on the toilet. Jo worries that Gary could be delaying the process. She points out that if Jennifer had still be around, it is likely Dylan would be trained by now. Due to her death, Gary would have to do it.

At dinner, Jo learns how much the boys love junk food like hot dogs, fish sticks and burgers. After eating his dinner, Dylan asks Gary for jellybeans. However, after he eats it, he demands that Gary give candy from a leftover Halloween basket. The latter refuses to do so, explaining that Dylan already had a dessert. Dylan throws a tantrum and escalates to hitting his dad, who stays calm and doesn't give in. While Jo gives Gary credit for his resolve, she was disappointed to see a lack of discipline. Once Dylan calms down, Jo leaves for the night to prepare for her meeting with Gary the next day.

Parent Meeting

Jo sympathizes with Gary because she has also lost her mother to breast cancer. She reiterated that she understands the problems that the whole family has, the first of which is discipline. Gary admitted that he became lax in following through because the boys were struggling to grieve. To him, some of the misbehavior felt like a "minor infraction" compared to the trauma they had experienced. Jo empathizes but reminds him that proper discipline will allow them to grow up to be productive young men.

She then turns the discussion to potty-training. It was clear that Dylan didn't want to be in diapers anymore, and Gary seemed to be delaying the process a bit. In terms of eating habits, all three boys need healthy meals. Finally, she knows that the entire family needs help with grieving, citing Michael's meltdown the previous day. Gary was ready to change.

Teaching

Jo's first task is to implement discipline. When she presents the new house rules, Sean refuses to listen to them, claiming he already knows everything around the house. Both Jo and Gary send him to the Naughty Spot, resulting in a massive tantrum complete with crying, screaming, and hitting the wall- but never once trying to escape timeout. Both adults interpret this development as a good sign: deep down inside, Sean knew that his behavior was wrong. He understood that there would be considerable change, but he wasn't quite ready to accept it.

By the time his four minutes were up, Sean turns to the wall and angrily apologizes, so Jo had him stay in timeout. Sean continues to cry and scream, refusing to apologize but not escaping. Michael, having become tired of the screaming, walks up to Sean and requests that he apologize. Jo responds by reminding Michael that he could talk to Sean once the latter's timeout was over. At one point, Sean declared that he would not apologize until he got a snack. Eventually, he gave in and finally apologized to Jo and his dad.

With Sean now settled down, Jo decides to start the new food plan. She teaches the boys about the different food groups and takes the family to the store to buy various healthy foods like coconuts and zucchinis. For dinner, she coaches Gary through cooking a rice dish with vegetables. At first, the boys are reluctant about the dish, but the older two boys eat their dinners. Because Dylan still refused to eat, Gary sends him to The Naughty Spot. Even though he did escape a couple of times, Dylan apologizes and returns to the dinner table, where he tries and enjoys the rice dish.

Jo's next task was to deal with Dylan's potty-training. She has him switch from diapers to underwear, which she describes as "big boy pants". While Dylan was really excited at first, he begins resisting as soon as Gary began putting them on him. Once they were finally on, Jo and Gary would occasionally check in on Dylan in case he needed to go relieve himself. He eventually stated that he did, but suddenly changed his mind when they arrived at the toilet. To avoid a traumatic experience in which Gary forces Dylan to relieve himself, she instructs Gary to leave Dylan on the toilet until the latter can the properly tell Jo and Gary where he has to relieve himself. After a period of time struggling, Dylan finally tells them he needs to do so in the potty and is allowed to leave.

With Dylan nearly potty-trained, Jo has Gary put together a slideshow for the boys to help bring back their memories of Jennifer. Before they could present the slideshow, Dylan announces that he had to go to the bathroom again, but he once again began resisting. Jo has Gary leave and at long last, Dylan is able to stay in the bathroom on his own, and successfully relieve himself which Gary and Jo are exceptionally proud of. Afterwards, Gary completes the slideshow and Jo gets the family together to watch it. Afterwards, Jo leaves so Gary can use the techniques on his own.

Parent Evaluation

Jo returns to see how Gary did with the techniques while she was gone.

Clip 1

Gary prepared another healthy meal consisting of stir-fried sausages and bell peppers, but Sean was reluctant about the peppers at first. Gary threatened Sean with confiscating his Nintendo DSi if he didn’t do what he was told. Sean immediately came around and laughed at himself, declaring “I was wrong again!” after he tried and enjoyed the peppers.

Jo praises Gary for telling Sean that there would be consequences for not eating his peppers. This was an indication that he was prepared to follow through with the discipline techniques that Jo taught him.

Clip 2

Dylan hit Sean, leading to Sean chasing Dylan to another room and hitting him back. Once Gary intervened, he put Dylan in timeout first because Dylan had instigated the fight. Dylan remained in timeout while Sean ate raspberries. Once Dylan's timeout was over, Gary reminded Sean that the latter would have to fulfill his timeout for hitting Dylan back, which Sean accepted without a fuss.

Jo praises Gary for following through with the discipline. However, because both boys were shouting that one of them had done something to the other, she suggests that Gary should have brought them together, instructed both of them to tell him their version of the events, and put them both in timeout at once.

Clip 3

Dylan attempted to go to the bathroom, but couldn't bring himself to do so. He later wet his pants, which Gary cleaned up. Despite his frustration, he calmly explained that he was not happy with Dylan's actions. Later that night, Dylan went to the bathroom on his own, and Gary praised him for doing so.

Clip 4

Gary and the boys made banana bread. Not only does he make it, but he allows the boys to also help make it as well. In the end, the family all enjoys the food they make, with Michael deeming it "delicious!"

Jo praises Gary's efforts, and asks what motivated him to make banana bread. Gary gives his explanation. As he states, Jennifer used to make banana bread all the time when she was still alive.

Reinforcement

As Gary has been doing a fantastic job, Jo puts together a game: the boys pretend that they are astronauts that have crashed on an alien planet, and they must search around the house and garden to collect ten "energy rocks" that will help refuel their spaceship and escape said planet. Once finding all the rocks Gary leads the boys on a trip around the backyard.

Before Jo leaves, she wants to continue helping the boys through the loss of Jennifer. She gives all three of them photo albums, all of which contain pictures of the memories that they've had with Jennifer and of themselves. Gary comments that the books are a great idea, noting that if the boys ever feel upset, they can go through it and relieve memories. Confident that Gary will continue implementing the strategies that she has taught him, Jo leaves the Evans, successfully having helped her last family for the time being. As she leaves, Jo is heard saying that up high, Jennifer is watching down on her family, and is proud of how far they've come. The episode closes with Jo informing viewers about the American Cancer Society, an organisation who helps those dealing with the loss of a loved one to cancer.

Family Members

Due to a request from the family, all birthdays except for Jennifer's have been removed. Please do not add them back or you will be reported to admins.

Person	Age	Relation to Family
Gary Evans	37	Father
Michael	6	Son
Sean	4
Dylan	3
Jennifer M. Evans (née McHugh)	33 (almost 34 born December 29, 1975 died September 15, 2009)	Mother (Deceased)

Events Pre-Episode

• Jennifer M. Evans passed away on September 15, 2009 as a result of breast cancer.

Fan Reception

The Evans Family has received immense praise from fans, and is considered to be one of the best, and most emotional episodes in Supernanny. Many truly felt the connection Jo could make with the boys, seeing as how they all lost their mothers to breast cancer. Many also found several scenes in this episode to be heartwarming, such as the slideshow or picture books scenes, to emotional, primarily with Gary talking about Jennifer with Jo.

As for the family, they were all met with love, sympathy and praise from fans, with Gary being seen as one of the best parents to have appeared on the show. Fans acclaimed him for continuing to raise the boys in spite of his struggles and Jennifer's passing. Many also noted his nurturing attitude toward the boys and his receptiveness toward Jo's techniques. Perhaps the best indication of Gary's commitment to Jo's cause was simply how much he improved by the end of the episode. By far, Gary’s most liked aspect was the calm demeanour he presented throughout the episode. Despite the boys' misbehaving, he never once got angry or yelled at them. Instead, he calmly explained his frustrations.

Michael, Sean, and Dylan were also met with heavy positive reception. Michael was heavily sympathised with because of the way he was trying to cope with Jennifer’s death. Many noted that he was also the best behaved of the boys. Meanwhile, many of Dylan’s scenes were seen as comedic and enjoyable. Finally, whilst some fans disliked Sean due to his outburst during his first timeout, many felt that he was actually really accepting of Jo's changes; he never escaped his first timeout and didn't resist a second one later in the episode. Many agreed that their aggression stemmed from their confusion about Jennifer's death rather than acting out for the sake of it. They didn't know why or how their mother suddenly disappeared, and as a result, they began lashing out. By the end, the house rules were reinforced and they better coped with the loss of their mother. Ultimately, they were all good kids who simply needed structure and empathy.

In conclusion, fans agree that The Evans Family is an amazing episode and a great way to end off Supernanny’s original ABC run.

Trivia

• The episode summary states that Jo put Sean on the Naughty Spot because he threw a tantrum over not getting any sugary stuff. While Sean does mention refusing to apologise unless he got a snack, he was actually sent there because he refused to listen to Jo.
• This was the final episode of Supernanny before Jo's 9-year hiatus and Season 8. During that time, the spin-offs, such as Jo Frost: Nanny On Tour and Jo Frost: Extreme Parental Guidance, were made.
• Sean is one of only a few children to have never escaped timeout. The others are Jadyn Bailey, Blake Ririe, Brandon and Zak Bixley, Leo Wilson-Knutson, and Selah Lewis. Two families are set to private due to family requests.
• When Jennifer died, Gary was 36, Michael was 5, Sean was 3, and Dylan was just about to turn 2.
• A clip uploaded to the Supernanny YouTube channel called "4-Year Old Punches Wall during Timeout", which features the start of the Teaching, shows a younger Michael playing with a younger Gary instead of Jo entering the house with the routine.
• In the submission reel, Dylan looks at a picture of an infant child who is most likely himself and asking "who is that?" For unknown reasons, his face on the photo is blurred out.
• This episode is one of the few in which the parent(s) executed a flawless Family Test Run.
  • Whilst Jo's suggestions during the second clip of the DVD Meeting could be considered to be corrections for a mistake that Gary made, this was not necessarily the case. Technically, he carried out Sean and Dylan's timeouts without any mistakes, and Jo was simply providing Gary with a different method of handling two timeouts simultaneously, something she did not teach or anticipate.
  • In addition, while Jo claims that both Dylan and Sean were screaming that the other did something, only Sean is ever heard doing so.
• This episode and The Terrill Family are the only families to have all-male family members.
• Despite the numerous opportunities to do so, Sean never once escapes his timeout, and it is unknown why. The most popular (and likely) reason simply theorises that he never thought of escaping. It is also speculated that Sean may've been waiting for everyone to leave the room to escape, which never happened.
  • Jo's reasoning for putting Sean in timeout is also impossible to hear. Sean's screaming was so loud, it completely muted what Jo was saying to him. Most likely, she was explaining that Sean was on the Naughty Spot for refusing to listen to what she had to say.
• This is the third episode in which Jo opens up about losing her mother after The Mihalik Family and The Newsome Family. However, this is the episode in which Jo reveals how she had passed; the previous episodes do not see her stating the cause of death.
• Gary is the only single father not to have been divorced, as he was a widower.
• For a long time on this wiki, there had been a rumour circulating that posited that after the family's time on Supernanny, Gary remarried to a widow named Cindy Jefferson. However, that has since been debunked.
• There're two things this episode is the last of:
  • It is the last episode to use the 2009 opening sequence from Season 6.
  • It is also the last episode to feature Jo wearing her signature light violet nanny suit. This was the first suit she wore in the series, coincidentally fitting with how this episode was the last of the original series by having Jo wear the suit that begun it.

Behind The Scenes

This episode was filmed in November 2010, four months before it's airing.

Pop Culture

• The Submission Reel shows the boys playing on different handheld consoles: Dylan uses a Game Boy Advance while Sean and Michael play with Nintendo DSes. Sean also has a DSi, which was mentioned by Gary. The games they were playing were unknown as they were all out of view.
• When Jo was showing the Food Chart, Dylan plays with Duplo blocks.
• The Sam Houston monument is shown occasionally in the episode.
• A plush of baby Simba from The Lion King is briefly seen when Michael goes under his bed.
• When Jo first meets Dylan, he ran in a way that mimics Wario's shoulder bash from the WarioLand game series.
• At the end of the scene at the store, when the whole family and Jo are out of frame, you can see a cutout of Jessie from Toy Story. The cutout itself is advertising Toy Story 3.
• When Dylan was getting a diaper, an original PlayStation 3 (non-PS2 supported) can be seen in the cabinet.

Transcript

The Evans Family/Transcript

Gallery

Jennifer

The boys are misbehaving

External Links

• Full Episode on YouTube
• Full Episode (Complete) on YouTube
• Full Episode (Complete) on archive.org
• Gary's YouTube Channel
• Episode clip - "Supernanny Helps Dad Potty Train Reluctant Toddler"
• Jennifer's obituary