Martha is napping on the living room chair, and is awakened by the Lorraines, who are celebrating the anniversary of her adoption, similar to a birthday. They give her steak, a trip to the "doggie spa", and a dog bed to replace the armchair she usually sleeps on, but she doesn't like the bed. However, she pretends to like it to spare the Lorraines' feelings.
That night, Martha has trouble sleeping, and she's lethargic the next morning but tries to deny it. She asks if the garage door is open, wondering if the chair is in there. Helen guesses that that's why she wanted to know, so they enter the garage, but the Lorraines have donated the chair to the thrift store.
They go there, but the chair has been sold to Mrs. Demson. They go to her house, but Mrs. Demson refuses to sell the chair back, since she plans to give it to her niece as a wedding gift. That night, Martha tries to acclimate to her bed, but can't.
The next day at the park, a sleepy Martha complains to Helen, Alice, and T.D. that she doesn't want the chair cleaned. T.D. has an idea, and the three kids come up, claiming to want to clean the upholstery. They pretend to clean it, then claim that they weren't able to. Thus, Mrs. Demson allows them to have it, until she sees on Antiques Roadshow that it's worth a hundred thousand dollars.
The kids and Martha go to the Lorraine house and wonder what to do now, while Martha lets Skits have her bed. Then, Danny comes in and reveals that Mrs. Demson is now on Antiques Roadshow with the chair. It's revealed that the chair isn't actually valuable; it just has the design of the valuable type of chair, so it's actually only worth ten dollars.
The Lorraines come to visit Mrs. Demson and she lets them buy the chair back. Helen asks Martha if she wants to celebrate, but Martha just falls asleep instead.
This episode provides examples of
- Accessory-Wearing Cartoon Animal: Invoked when Helen puts a party hat on Martha to celebrate her adoption anniversary/"birthday".
- Answer Cut: The Lorraines wonder who bought the chair, and it's subsequently revealed that the buyer was Mrs. Demson.
- Birthday Episode: Subverted. The episode starts with the Lorraines wishing Martha a happy birthday, but it turns out that it's not really her birthday because they don't know her birthday, so they're celebrating the next best thing — the anniversary of her adoption.
- Comically Missing the Point: When the thrift store owner says, "Donated a chair?" in an attempt to remember it, Martha thinks he doesn't know what "donated" means, despite him owning a thrift store.
- Compressed Vice: This is the only time Martha has ever had trouble sleeping in places that aren't the armchair.
- Copycat Mockery: Alice rudely mimics T.D.'s "What about our penny?" line when blaming him for delaying them and allowing Mrs. Demson to change her mind about the chair.
- Exhausted Eye Bags: Martha has eye bags after her sleepless night.
- Faceplanting into Food: Due to not having had enough sleep the night before, Martha falls asleep in her alphabet soup.
- Filthy Fun: Martha gets a mud bath at the "doggie spa".
- Go-to-Sleep Ending: The episode ends on Martha falling asleep on the chair.
- Greed: Mrs. Demson wants to give Alice, T.D., and Helen only one penny between the three of them, then she wants to hang onto the chair in order to earn a hundred thousand dollars.
- Happy Dance: Mrs. Demson dances at the idea of getting rich.
- Mirthless Laughter: Martha chuckles awkwardly when lying about liking the bed, then again when the Lorraines catch her rooting around in the attic.
- My New Gift Is Lame: Martha hates her new doggie bed and can't sleep on it.
- No Animals Allowed: Mrs. Demson still has her "no pets" signs in her yard, and she shoos Martha off her porch.
- Obviously Not Fine: Martha claims she slept well despite looking obviously tired.
- Sentimental Shabbiness: Martha actually enjoys how her chair has her drool and fur on it, and claims it would never be the same if it was cleaned.
- Shout-Out: Mrs. Demson watches Antiques Roadshow.
- Sleep Deprivation: Martha ends up very tired after failing to fall asleep on the doggie bed.
- Speak in Unison:
- The Lorraines (except Jake) say, "Happy birthday!" in unison.
- When the thrift store owner reveals he sold the chair, the Lorraines and Martha say, "Sold it?!" at once.
- Waking Non Sequitur: Martha yells, "Spaghetti sauce!" when shaking herself awake.
