The Cosby Show
Is There a Hamster in the House?
TV Flash files “Is There a Hamster in the House?” as hour 109 of 201 in the TV Flash guide — The Cosby Show (1984–1992) on NBC, season 5, episode 11, aired 1988-12-15, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S05E11: listed hour 109 of 201 in the The Cosby Show guide, hour 11 of 26 in season 5. It aired 1988-12-15 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “If the Dress Fits, Wear It” (S05E10). Next is “Truth or Consequences” (S05E12).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Rudy watches a hamster overnight for a friend but it dies. Feeling bad, Cliff and Rudy buy a replacement hamster. Rudy tells her friend what happened and is surprised how her friend takes the news.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Is There a Hamster in the House? sit in the The Cosby Show guide?
S05E11 is listed hour 109 of 201 — hour 11 of 26 in season 5, season 5 episode 11.
When did The Cosby Show S05E11 air?
Is There a Hamster in the House? aired 1988-12-15 and is listed at 30 minutes.
Should I watch The Cosby Show as comfort TV?
Watch it as craft and as history, not as a clean hug. The Huxtable household is peak 1980s multi-cam — and the star's later disgrace is public record that reframes every rerun.
In the series
Why this series still plays
For the craft of 1980s multi-cam family comedy at absolute peak dominance — ensemble timing, kid arcs, and a household that felt like a national hearth. Watch as television history, knowing the star's later disgrace is part of the public record.
Thursday was not a mood. It was a **timeslot that owned the chart**. NBC's The Cosby Show (1984–1992) made obstetrician Cliff and lawyer Clair Huxtable the appointment that yanked the sitcom out of a post-rural-purge slump and stacked Must See TV like inventory with a laugh track. Carsey-Werner multi-cam at commercial peak: 201 episodes, eight seasons, Nielsen topping through multiple mid-to-late-1980s seasons. Rex will toast the living room as civic hearth. The business was a Brooklyn brownstone treated as civic…
Filed against
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Phylicia Rashad made Clair Huxtable the household’s steel on The Cosby Show — 1980s multi-cam family comedy at peak dominance, ensemble timing, kid arcs, a living room that felt like a national hearth. Watch as television history, knowing…
- Malcolm-Jamal Warner as Theo Huxtable
Malcolm-Jamal Warner grew the brownstone as Theo Huxtable on The Cosby Show — 1980s multi-cam family comedy at peak dominance, ensemble timing, a son who made the national hearth look like a teenager lived there. Watch as television…
- Lisa Bonet as Denise Huxtable
Lisa Bonet made Denise Huxtable the coolest weather in The Cosby Show’s 1980s household — Brooklyn brownstone multi-cam at peak dominance, a daughter who dressed like an art-school dare inside a national hearth. Ensemble timing, then a…
- Tempestt Bledsoe as Vanessa Huxtable
Tempestt Bledsoe grew up on The Cosby Show as Vanessa Huxtable — 1980s multi-cam family comedy at peak dominance, ensemble timing, a household that felt like a national hearth. Watch it as television history, knowing the star's later…
- Keshia Knight Pulliam as Rudy Huxtable
Keshia Knight Pulliam's Rudy Huxtable was The Cosby Show's kid weather at 1980s multi-cam peak — ensemble timing, a household that felt like a national hearth, craft you watch now as television history with the star's later disgrace on…