The school season starts again and each one of the children faces it with different emotions. Cliff and Clair, however, are enthusiastic at getting the house back to themselves during the daytime.
Cliff warns Rudy not to play with his new juicer, but the machine's fancy gadgetry eventually proves to be too much of a temptation for Rudy and her friend, Peter. Cliff finds out and suspects that Rudy is responsible. After Clair prods Rudy's conscience, she admits the truth and is assigned to help Vanessa - punished for not keeping an eye on Rudy, as she had been told to - clean the resulting mess.
It's Russell and Anna Huxtable's 49th anniversary, and the Huxtables observe the occasion with a classic impression of Ray Charles' "Night Time is the Right Time."
Sondra and Elvin break up, again, and Cliff and Clair tell Sondra to consider calling a boy that her friends say would be a good boyfriend to her. When the boy comes to the house, Cliff interviews him and falls in love with the guy.
Denise's friend Susanne comes over to write a report on what a large family deals with, but Theo uses the occasion to try and impress her but ends up making a fool of himself.
Cliff and Clair challenge each other to a "smooth" contest to see who'll be the best-dressed for a function. Clair has to find how to win when she breaks one of her toes.
A friend of Denise's comes to see Cliff about a personal problem she's had for a month and hasn't told her parents about. Cliff and Clair test the kids to find out if they would come to their parents if they had a problem.
Clair discovers that a painting by her late great-uncle is going to be auctioned off. She decides to bid on it and make it the family's again at all costs.
Vanessa tries to hide the fact that she got a D on her report card from her parents. Denise and Vanessa get into a battle royale because Vanessa took one of Denise's sweaters.
Theo and his friend Walter decide to listen to a recording of "Macbeth" instead of reading the actual play. Cliff picks a snowball fight with some neighborhood children.
Peter has a toothache but is afraid to go to the dentist so Rudy goes with him. Meanwhile, Cliff tries to hide the newspaper from Clair because she won't let him sleep when she reads it in bed.
After an example of not so great trombone playing at a Jazz club gig, Russell needs to get it together quick because the next time is his career finale.
Theo's math teacher goes into labor early, causing an important Math test to be postponed, much to the delight of Theo and "Cockroach". Rudy learns to ride a bike.
Theo's confident when he's 18 and moves out on his own, he'll be able to get a job as a model and make a lot of money; the family puts him to a test to see how well he'd make it in the real world.
Cliff's Pinochle partner cancels on him, so Cliff asks former Hillman professor to sit in and help finally beat his father and his buddy who cheat. Meanwhile, Theo buys his girl a ring.
Cliff's invited by a former college rival "Tail-Wind Turner" to be on his team at the Penn Relays for charity. Cliff accepts, but is in for a surprise at the event.
