Time to Move

The man of the house decides to sell his family's home, but ends up meeting stiff resistance from the other members of his family. By the end of the episode, though, the move is cancelled.

This may or may not require the other family members, often the kids, faking household disasters or otherwise trying to sabotage attempts by Dad or a real estate agent showing the house to buyers.

"Real" moves invariably take place between seasons, so that the show's tech crew can build the new sets at a reasonable pace.

See The Moving Experience for when the move isn't cancelled.

Examples of Time to Move include:

• Hey Arnold!!, "Casa Paradiso", with Grandpa Phil's attempt to sell his boarding house and move himself along with Grandma Pookie and Arnold (one of those who are putting up stiff resistance) to the titular retirement home
• Rocket Power, "Shack Attack", with Ray Rocket's attempt to sell his diner in order to move to "Shoobietown" (that's what his kids are calling it, and they don't like the idea)
• Home Improvement, with Tim Taylor's plan to sell the Taylors' Detroit house and move to their summer home and the family doesn't like the idea
• The Brady Bunch "To Move or Not To Move," in which the Brady kids engage in a Scooby-Doo Hoax to frighten potential buyers.
• Fresh Prince of Bel-Air featured a slight inversion in that Phillip Banks wasn't initially looking to sell the house; a real estate agent had shown up offering to buy it from him, explaining that it was his client's childhood home. Initially the entire family is against it. However, the agent continues to raise the offered price, winning over the family one by one until only young Ashley is the only one who will resist. Sure enough, her pubescent natter is enough to convince the family to remain where they are. However, in a minor subversion, the agent's client (who turns out to be none other than Donald Trump himself) shows up to explain that the agent had the wrong address and withdraws the offer.
• Numb3rs: Dad wants to sell the house, at least in part so that Charlie will finally grow up and move out on his own. The house sells quickly—to Charlie, who promptly becomes his father's landlord.
• Clarissa Explains It All: Clarissa's father is going through a midlife crisis, and decides to move the family to a remote Pacific island. In the end, they just have to tell him what an incredibly bad idea it is.
• The Simpsons: Homer gets a new job under businessman (and part-time super-villain) Hank Scorpio. He loves it, but Bart is held back in school, Lisa is allergic to everything in the area, and Marge becomes incredibly bored due to a self-cleaning house. By the end of the episode, the Reset Button has been pushed and the family is back in Springfield. (And Scorpio has seized control of the entire U.S. East Coast.)
  • This happens a few other times, too:
    • In the movie, they move to Alaska after being chased away by an angry mob.
    • In an episode where some carnies take over their house, they're forced to move.
    • In an episode where Homer goes back to the old family farm, they move to the farm for a short time, where they grow "tomacco" plants (with a little help from nuclear material from the power plant.
    • In an episode where they go to spring break in Florida and end up running from the law, they end up living in a trailer.
    • In an episode where they go on a reality show, they move into a 19th century home.
• Ur-example from the movies: Meet Me in St. Louis, one of the biggest films of 1943. Features the 1904 worlds fair, Judy Garland singing "The Trolley Song" and "Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas," and, yes, the businessman father decides to stay in St. Louis for the sake of his family instead of taking a promotion to Chicago or New York.
• One of the worst episodes of Full House ever. There is a slight subversion in that out of the nine people living there, eight of them are completely in favor of it (and the move wouldn't take them out of San Francisco...just to a bigger house in a nearby or perhaps the same neighborhood). The only one against it was seven year old Michelle. So naturally, the family listened to the seven year old instead of doing what was best for everyone else, namely getting a house with MORE ROOM.
  • Also helped to avert the Discredited Trope of Character Development.
• Step by Step used the same plot as previous, and it was Lily who objected.
• In Kenan and Kel across two episodes Kenan's Dad moves the family away so he can fulfill his livelong forest ranger dream, leaving Kel friendless. They move back when they find out how bad their new house and Roger's new job actually are.
• The Kim Possible movie A Sitch in Time was about Ron's parents unexpectedly moving to Norway, a move Ron did not like, at all. Being eventually revealed to be a result of time traveling, the entire move got completely reset'd out of existence in the end.
• Dexter's Laboratory once had an episode titled "The Big Move" in which Dexter was afraid that the family was going to move, so he tried to make the house as nice as possible so they'd want to stay. In the end it turned out that the titular Big Move was just moving the furniture around- but once he mentioned the idea of actually moving...
• Bobby's World played with this in one episode, where they actually DID move, but to a house just across the street which was in every way identical to their old house except for having an extra bedroom for the new baby. This was lead into with an inversion of another trope: "Are we there yet?" "Yep!"
  • Cow and Chicken did the exact same thing, except it was because the old house was full of ants (which promptly moved right along with them).
• The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy: As Billy's dad has to move, Billy wants to bring Grim, but Mandy wants to keep him in Endsville. They go to court to see who gets custody of Grim. The judge rules that Billy's family be outlawed from moving. Or apparently from even leaving his house. Which sucks for them since Billy's Mom already broke a wall down.
• Averted with Friends when, in the final season, Chandler and Monica move out of their house despite their friends (mostly Joey's) laments.