Episode
Cosby: Natural Born Debtors
Overview
Griffin is helping Hilton fix the bathroom door when Wendy arrives very upset and looking for Pauline, her godmother. Before she leaves Hilton has given her $45 to help pay her overdue phone bill. Later Pauline learns that Wendy is in debt for over $15,000, and she's determined to teach Wendy some fiscal responsibility, and she tells Hilton it will be a long time before he sees any of his money. Hilton goes to the bank and learns that not only has his bank has merged with another bank, but also that the computers are down and he can't withdraw any money. After a long, frustrating wait, Hilton uses the ATM machine outside the bank, and, instead of the $50 he requested, the machine gives him $11,000. Hilton is tempted to take the money and run. When Ruthie comes home, Hilton expects a compliment for fixing the door, but instead she discovers a huge scratch that Griffin has made in the wall. When Ruthie learns about Wendy and all her debts, she says she'll forgive the scratch in the wall
Details
- Series
- Cosby
- Season
- Season 1
- Episode
- Episode 7
- Air date
- 1996-10-28
- Runtime
- 30 min
Episode context
Natural Born Debtors is Episode 7 in Season 1 of Cosby. It aired on 1996-10-28. The runtime is 30 min.
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Episode 6: One Foot in Your Mouth
Deceit weaves a tangled web around Hilton, who tells ""one little lie"" and then, to keep up the ruse, finds that he must pretend he's someone else -- and not married to Ruth. In order to avoid attending a wedding, Hilton fibs about needing brain surgery -- and pays a high price. Hilton is always frustrated by everyday deceits, including truth in advertising. Nevertheless, he makes up the lie to avoid attending the Sunday wedding of the son of Ruth's friends, Elaine and Dave, which interferes with his watching sports on television. Pretty soon, he's ensnared in a tangled web of his own making..
Episode 8: The Two Mr. Lucases
Hilton's cousin Earl has secretly checked himself into the hospital for a colonoscopy procedure, not telling his wife Lillian because he doesn't want her to worry. Hilton is going to visit Earl, and he warns Ruth and Pauline to keep Earl's secret from Lillian, who's coming over to visit. Erica is sorting through some of her childhood possessions and finds her jacks, which leads to an impromptu jacks tournament among the women. At the hospital, Hilton tells Earl not to worry, Hilton won't leave his side. When Hilton accidentally spills coffee on himself and puts on a hospital robe while his clothes dry, he gets taken into the operating theater by mistake. When Pauline slips and reveals where Earl is, both Lillian and Ruth head for the hospital.
More episodes from this season
Episode 5: The Best Little Antique Shop in Astoria
Hilton is shocked to find out that an antique store where he has a new job is really a front for illegal activity: a brothel the police are planning to raid. When the cops want Hilton to help put the criminals out of business, he overeagerly accepts the challenge to do his duty as an American citizen and take part in their ""undercover sting operation."" Meanwhile, he is sworn to secrecy about his assignment and is therefore unable to stop Ruthie from spending the paycheck he knows he will never receive.
Episode 9: No Nudes is Good Nudes
Hilton has to keep a naked lady in his bathroom a secret. Hilton was too embarrassed even to look at Monica, the nude model in his art class. But when he tries to help her out by loaning her some of his clothes, he ends up hiding her rather than having to explain his good deed -- which just might be misinterpreted.
Episode 4: Happily Ever Hilton
The airline company that dismissed Hilton is now rehiring, and he's fired up to go back to work. But his impatience and confrontational attitude simply won't cut it. When the airline for which Hilton worked announces that it is hiring back thousands of laid-off employees, Hilton eagerly prepares for an interview, hoping to get his old job back. Wearing his best suit and armed with an album full of career highlights, Hilton is overjoyed at the prospect of working again. He spends the hours before his interview doing what he thinks are ordinary errands. However, he manages to get into a fight over fruit at the grocery, turn an eye exam at the HMO into a four ring circus, and witness a hit-and-run car accident -- that comes back to haunt him.
Episode 10: Basketball Story
When Hilton and Griffin attend a Nets/Magic professional basketball game, Hilton has the lucky ticket and gets the chance to win a million dollars if he can make a free-throw from half-court. As Hilton prepares for ""the shot of a lifetime,"" word spreads that he may become a millionaire and everyone wants a piece of the action. First, Griffin insists on his share, then some crazy cousins from Baltimore show up and try to con the Lucases into investing in their wacky hair replacement systems, and finally, the endorsements start rolling in. When the time comes to make the shot, Hilton gets additional last-minute advice -- from Orlando Magic player Penny Hardaway.
Episode 3: Neighborhood Watch
To wrest control of his block from lowlifes (like the burglars who targeted him), Hilton forms a neighborhood-watch program (of sorts). Now watch the watch commander lose control and cause crime instead of preventing it: he intimidates a man who has just been mugged, has an innocent woman's car towed away, and then must explain why a missing elderly woman is found unconscious in the Lucas dining room.
Episode 11: Guard Almighty
Although Hilton thinks he's going to fight crime in his new job as a security guard, he ends up as a glorified doorman who gets more than he bargained for. After Hilton graduates at the top of his class in security guard training school, he is assigned to his post at a fancy apartment building and is ready to be a crime fighter. Although he quickly learns that the job requires many things not taught in class -- like dealing with precocious young children who won't leave the lobby and walking the tenants' dogs, his professional training comes in handy when a robber breaks into the building on the night of the World Champion New York Yankees celebration party, which is attended by manager Joe Torre and pitcher David Cone (guest starring as themselves) -- only after they prove their identity to the overzealous Hilton!
Episode 2: It's My Party
Hilton feels cheated that his company laid him off without even a goodbye party, but Ruthie tells him he's being childish. Hilton lands a job interview on Long Island, but when he tries to pick up his car at the repair shop, he encounters severe language barriers and the news that the car is beyond help. He grudgingly takes a senior citizens shuttle van to the interview, but it breaks down and he's stranded for hours. Hilton, with Pauline as his assistant, works on a magic act for a children's charity event as he continues to obsess about the party he isn't going to get. Later, on his way to another rehearsal at the children's center, which Ruthie has urged him to attend, he begins imagining that a surprise party is about to happen, but it doesn't. And when his company sends him a tacky pocket calendar, that's the final blow, but Ruthie presents him with a watch inscribed to her husband, ""who worked like a dog for his family for thirty years"".
Episode 12: The Broken Reflection
Due to a hospital mix-up, Hilton gets the colonoscopy that was meant for his cousin. When Hilton's cousin, Earl Lucas, goes to the hospital for a colonoscopy, Hilton decides to be at his side for support. But when the nurses confuse the two men, Hilton ends up in a most uncompromising position in full view of medical students and an internet audience. Meanwhile, back at the Lucas house, Erica finds her childhood set of jacks in an old box and she, Ruth and Pauline keep Earl's wife, Lillian, busy with some rather fierce competition.
Episode 1: Pilot
Downsizing at the airport forces Hilton to retire.
Episode 13: Tempus Lucas
After Hilton realizes that his life insurance was affected when his company was downsized, he applies for a different policy -- which requires an intense physical examination. The stakes are high for Hilton's physical -- if he fails, he will have no policy at all -- so it's time to really get in shape. He overdoes it at the local gym and then tries some of Pauline's personal remedies for good health -- like garlic cloves and relaxation tapes. Meanwhile, his new friend, Singh, the local taxi driver, appears much more interested in entertaining Pauline than in helping him.