The first season introduces the Belcher family—father Bob, mother Linda, daughters Louise and Tina Belcher, and their son Gene.
A health inspector's visit coincides with Bob's efforts to bring in customers.
A leaky roof causes Bob to get trapped in a wall while Linda's mother visits.
Bob takes to a film maker's cow.
Tina develops a crush on her martial arts instructor.
Linda and the kids stage a murder mystery that doesn't go as planned.
Tina is desperate to get her first kiss at her 13th birthday party. But after Louise breaks the deep fryer, Bob takes a second job as a late-night cab driver to pay for Tina’s party. Things keep getting worse for Bob when the parents of Tina’s crush refuse to let their son attend the party, and Bob has to do everything in his power to save his daughter’s big day.
Linda hosts a bed and breakfast, but her guests aren't as grateful as she would like. Things take a turn for the worse when Louise's room is rented to Teddy.
It's Bob vs. the city art council when Linda's sister displays her work at Bob's Burgers.
Bob and Gene bond over spaghetti western movies, which makes Louise jealous.
When Bob's eccentric landlord, Mr. Fischoeder, pays the family a visit, he informs Bob that his rival across the street, Jimmy Pesto of Jimmy Pesto's Pizzeria, wants to take over Bob's lease so that he can expand his gift shop. With little time and not enough money, the Belcher family must cook up some business or luck to save the restaurant.
Bob and his family are forced to spend the weekend at Mort the Mortician's while the restaurant is being de-molded. Linda and Bob double date with Mort and a female mortician he meets online while Tina babysits Gene and Louise in Mort’s crematorium.
After the town's annual Lobsterfest is cancelled by a storm, Bob defiantly opens his doors for a festive celebration. When he wakes the next morning, Bob finds the restaurant in disarray and that the town has spurned him, but Bob won't let that deter him from further involvement in the celebratory weekend.
Bob's hero, a washed-up baseball player named Torpedo Jones, starts pitching for the local minor league team. Torpedo befriends Bob, but the dark underbelly of minor league baseball threatens to corrupt the Belchers.
