1978
  February   Bruce & Harriet's first child, Ozzie Bruce, is born on the 18th. On the 26th the band
  embark on what will be a fateful tour of New Zealand & Australia
  March   during the Australian leg of the tour, the extent of the problems besetting the band
  become evident: Dennis is rapidly spiraling out of control, Carl is in the grip of a
  substantial drug and alcohol habit (to the extent that he keels over onstage in Perth on
  the 14th), and Brian is once more regressing since the departure of  Landy. On their
  return from the tour, the band decides to fire Steve Love - again. Tom Hulett takes over.
  April   "Almost Summer/Lookin' Good", from the soundtrack of the Almost Summer movie is
  released on MCA, and peaks at #28. The single (A side a Wilson/Love/Jardine
  composition) is credited to Celebration featuring Mike Love, a splinter band of BB
  touring musicians and allegedly features an uncredited appearance from Brian. To
  promote the 45, Celebration record up to two dozen 'custom' versions of the A side for
  local radio stations across the USA. Meanwhile, Dennis is working on his second solo
  project, Bambu and is arrested in Tucson, AZ, after being found in a hotel room with
  a sixteen year-old girl. On the 28th, Celebration make their live debut at USC, with
  special guests Jan & Dean and Brian & Carl Wilson.
  May   soundtrack album Almost Summer, featuring the single and two further Mike Love
  vocals, is released but fails to chart.
  June   Sometime after the 25th Brian vanishes from the Bellagio Road house: following a
  tipoff to CBS, he's discovered several days later comatose in Balboa Park, San Diego
  where he'd been living rough under a tree in the park and playing songs for drinks in
  local bars. He's taken to Alvarado Hospital to be treated for alcoholic poinoning and
  Marilyn, with Steve & Stan Love, flies to San Diego to fetch him, but decides to let
  him be treated in hospital for a few days more. In the event he misses all the July dates
  for the band and half of August, returning on the 25th. Dennis & Karen re-marry on
  the 28th in Las Vegas.
  July   Carl & Annie Wilson separate on Independence Day. Brian & Marilyn follow suit on the
  15th while on the 12th, after two weeks of remarriage, Dennis files for divorce again.
  August   the final Warners' 45 "Peggy Sue/Hey Little Tomboy", is released, and stalls at #59. The
  band heads to Florida's Criteria Studios to record their Caribou debut, but it rapidly
  becomes evident that Brian, fresh from his San Diego experience, cannot - or will not -
  function as their producer. A phone call is made to Bruce  Johnston...
  fall   Brian is hospitalised for several months in the Brotman Memorial Hospital. Brother
  studio is sold to jazz musician Tom Scott.
  October   much revised and overdubbed, and including newly recorded material, the tapes from
  Iowa are finally released as M.I.U. Album, the final album required by the Warners'
  contract. In an eerie echo of the first Warner's album over eight years earlier, the statistics
  exactly mirror those of Sunflower - four weeks on the chart, peaking at #151.
  Meanwhile, the band are finishing up their Caribou debut, which it has been announced
  will feature a disco remake of a track from Wild Honey. Dennis offers tracks from
  Bambu, a move that effectively seals that albums' fate.
  December   Dennis begins a two-year relationship with Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac.