Down with Dad!

Like most 15 year-olds, LINCOLN assumes that dad DAVE’s been put on earth solely to embarrass him. There is something going on between them, “like an undeclared war”, and Dave decides it’s time to teach the boy a life lesson. Seems 25 years ago, Dave switched stickers on a Father’s Day gift for his own dad, and having just run across that gift, is haunted by the fact that once he did the wrong thing. Perfect, a chance to prove to the boy that, “When you do good things, good things happen.” With wife CINDY, a feisty, self-employed “beauty consultant,” and Lincoln in tow, Dave, Fillmore Springs “Man of the Year” 3 years running, returns to the scene of his youthful indiscretion, now a Big K-Mart, and confesses his sin to the Customer Service Girl, who promptly calls in a Code 11 -- a sticker switcher alert -- and the store’s manager, the hulking MR. O descends on the scene.

Mr. O informs Dave that company policy is to prosecute such dishonesty and drags him up to his office. What he really wants to show Dave is the security video he has on Lincoln, shoplifting a C-D. Dave is stunned. His own son, a shoplifter. Mr. O suggests that Dave have Lincoln return the item, and all will be forgotten. But Dave won’t have any part of “embarrassing the boy” and offers to do it himself.

Dave finds the stolen CD along with a trashy porn magazine and is convinced that he has passed on his character flaw “genetic, sticker-switching-kind-of-guy trait” and keeps this new info from Cindy, even though the gap between Lincoln and Dave is widening daily. Thing is, Dave’s not only a hardworking pharmacist, who really gets involved with his customers, making sure they do the right thing with their prescriptions, he’s also a Scoutmaster, a leader of boys... and his own boy is taking the wrong path.

A photo feature in the local newspaper about how a man did the right thing 25 years later, Dave becomes a local celeb and even gets invited to sit in with Mitch and Mike, the midday madmen on a local radio call-in/talk show. While fielding questions and calls, the madmen pick up a call from a “Rocky” who announces that Dave’s done some dastardly deeds. Suddenly, Dave’s world is flipped end for end. While other questionable moments from Dave's past come out of the woodwork from every quarter, Dave becomes the scourge of the neighborhood, loses his job, his newly rejuvenated relationship with his wife crashes and burns, as does Dave, who winds up in a collarbone cast.

While Dave’s life continues to unravel, Lincoln notices his own life has suddenly taken a turn for the better. His teachers go easier on him; the hottest girl in school can’t keep her hands off him, and the old man now totally ignores him. Mission accomplished? No. Problem is, Lincoln begins missing the little family things that no longer bug him. Cindy’s clients have all dried up, too. The money stops coming in. What hath Rocky wrought? With everyone trying to find the real “Rocky” to, as Mike the madman says, “Bring Dave down”, Lincoln’s birthday, usually a family milestone, arrives without a whisper. No cell phone, no car. Zip.

Lincoln finally does the right thing -- admits he caused the “Rocky” furor. But, by the time he decides to fess up, Dave’s literally blown town, and Cindy’s hopped on the crazy train for a little ride away from her new reality. Lincoln must fight his way through a real shitstorm to help mom and restore the old way of life to the McNabb homestead. After running the gauntlet of a neighbor kid’s BB gun, Lincoln finds Dave in trouble in a very bad part of town, and he defends the pater familias to the near death. When all is said and done, Lincoln winds up at the mercy of a judge, who happens to be a parent. But this sixteen year old did a good thing, after all, and he’s cool with the judge’s verdict… and whatever else comes his way.