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Premise
In this spinoff from the popular sitcom The Cosby Show, Denise Huxtable enters her sophomore year at Hillman College, alma mater of her parents and grandfather, where she moves into Gilbert Hall and shares a dorm room with 26-year-old Jaleesa Vinson and talkative new roommate Maggie Lauten. Also included in the first season cast were obnoxious and extremely wealthy dormmate Whitley Gilbert, ladies' man Dwayne Wayne and dorm director Stevie Rallen. Lettie Bostic later replaced Stevie as the new dorm director. At the end of the first season, Denise would return home (and to The Cosby Show) after dropping out of college.

In the fall of 1988, new students Freddie Brooks and Kim Reese entered Hillman College. Freddie was a "hippie-child" who developed a crush on Dwayne; and Kim, an aspiring med student, became Whitley's new roommate. Giving Dwayne a hard time was his math professor, Col. Bradford Taylor. Also, Ron Johnson and Walter Oakes became regulars in the second season after appearing occasionally during the first season. Vernon Gaines, chef at the campus hangout, The Pit, became a regular in the third season. Whitley and Dwayne began an on-again off-again relationship before they became married at the end of the fifth season.

Stories dealt mainly with college-themed issues such as racism, fraternity pledging and on-campus romances.