The first season of HBO's Family Tree featured the familiar mockumentary style of co-creator Christopher Guest (director of movies Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show and A Mighty Wind, all in a similar style) as it followed the efforts of Tom Chadwick (Chris O'Dowd) to explore his family's roots. Over the course of the season, Tom travels from the United Kingdom to the United States, encountering a variety of eccentric relatives.

Read on for the Family Tree season one episode guide.

Episode 1
Title: “The Box”
Original Airdate: May 12, 2013

Tom and his sister Bea (who has a monkey puppet as her constant companion) visit their father Keith (Michael McKean) and discover that their great-aunt Victoria has died and left them something in her will. Tom receives a box of assorted items, including a photo of a military officer that Keith says is his great-grandfather. He consults an expert and learns that the photo is not his ancestor Harry Chadwick, and that Harry is actually the man who took the photo. Another photo seems to reveal that Harry is a small Asian man.

Episode 2
Title: “Treading the Boards”
Original Airdate: May 19, 2013

Tom learns that the picture seeming to depict his great-grandfather Harry as an Asian man actually shows Harry, who was an actor, playing a role in the Mikado. Tom and his best friend Pete travel to the town where Harry lived and visit the theater where he worked as half of an act in a horse costume.

The theater manager tells Tom that Harry and his partner had a falling-out after Harry’s partner stole Harry’s wife. Tom buys Harry’s old horse costume, and he and Pete use it to participate in a race for costumed horses, which they lose.

Episode 3
Title: “The Austerity Games”
Original Airdate: June 2, 2013

Tom visits with his great-aunt Victoria’s “companion” Mildred (obviously her lesbian partner) to whom she left her apartment, and he learns that his grandfather William was a noted boxer who competed in the 1948 Olympics in London, although he didn’t win a medal. Tom also learns about Victoria’s shot put prowess and about the existence of a great-uncle, Brian, that his father never talked about. When he tracks down the birth certificate of his great-great-grandfather, he learns that his family actually came from Maryland. Bea attempts to perform with her monkey at a wedding, with disastrous results.

Episode 4
Title: “Country Life”
Original Airdate: June 9, 2013

Tom, Bea, Keith and Keith’s wife Luba travel to rural Derbyshire to meet their cousins on Uncle Brian’s side of the family, who live on a farm. Tom discovers that farm life is not for him, and his cousin reveals that the falling-out between Brian and William (Tom’s grandfather) came because William told Brian that Brian was the illegitimate son of Harry’s partner in the horse-costume act. Tom also reaches his distant cousin Al (Ed Begley Jr.) in California and plans for a visit. At the zoo where he works, Pete attempts to extract semen from an alpaca for an artificial-insemination procedure.

Episode 5
Title: “Welcome to America”
Original Airdate: June 16, 2013

Tom travels to Southern California to stay with his distant cousin Al Chadwick and Al’s wife Kitty. There he also meets fellow Southern California relatives Rick and Julie (who live in Redondo Beach), as well as another distant cousin, Dave Chadwick (Christopher Guest), who’s driven his RV all the way from North Carolina. Al and Kitty throw a barbecue for Tom, and he enjoys relaxing in their hot tub, at least until their obnoxious neighbor (Fred Willard) shows up. Bea contacts Tom via Skype (speaking only through her monkey) to let him know that she’s lost her job at the bank.

Episode 6
Title: “Civil War”
Original Airdate: June 23, 2013

Tom discovers that his great-great-grandfather Charles Chadwick seems to have fought on both sides of the Civil War. He goes with Rick to a Civil War re-enactment in Redondo Beach, and meets a Civil War expert who tracks down some documents related to Charles’ service. It turns out that Charles, who lived in Washington, D.C., was in love with a woman in Virginia, and wore the uniforms of both armies so that he could move back and forth to see her. Pete and Bea make plans to come visit Tom in California. Tom witnesses a minor car accident and offers to serve as a witness for the victim.

Episode 7
Title: “Indians”
Original Airdate: June 30, 2013

Tom rents a flashy classic car to go on a date with Ally (Amy Seimetz), the woman whose car accident he witnessed. Bea and Pete arrive in California from England, and they accompany Tom to the Mojave Desert town of Barstow, where he attempts to find out more about his great-great-grandmother Rebecca, whom he believes was Native American. After meeting with some local tribal elders and checking the town records office, Tom meets local businessman Marty Schmelff (Kevin Pollak) and discovers that Rebecca was actually Jewish, not Native American.

Episode 8
Title: “Cowboys”
Original Airdate: July 7, 2013

Ally accompanies Tom to meet his cousin Melvin Schmelff (Bob Balaban), who tells Tom about his ancestor Ezra Schmelff, a 1920s Western movie star. While Pete and Bea are sightseeing in Venice Beach, Bea loses her monkey puppet and goes into a panic. Tom, Ally and Melvin all show up to help her find the puppet. Later, they gather at Al and Kitty’s house for a family get-together. Tom discovers Al’s room full of conspiracy-theory research. Although he’s about to leave for England, Tom sleeps with Ally, and then at the airport he’s reluctant to leave (and might actually end up staying behind).