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"A Matter of Life and Breath"
Season One, Episode #5
Number (#5) in series (136 episodes)
Air date February 11, 1972
Network NBC-TV
Production code 105
Written by: Aaron Ruben, based on "T.B. or Not T.B." by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson
Directed by: George Tyne
Episode guide
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"The Copper Caper" "We Were Robbed"

A Matter Of Life and Breath was the fifth episode of Sanford and Son. It premiered February 11, 1972. Based on "T.B. or Not T.B." by Ray Galton and Alan Simpson.

Plot[]

Concerned about his smokers' cough, Lamont takes Fred to a mobile clinic to get free x-rays. The results reveal that one of the Sanford men has TB, but the x-rays are mixed up and neither Fred nor Lamont knows which of them is the unlucky party. Naturally, Fred goes through one of his elaborate "I'm comin', Elizabeth!" death's-door routine, but things take an unexpected turn when the x-ray results, with Lamont thinking that he has T.B.; when the smoke clears, it's revealed that Lamont's results were botched because he was wearing a St. Christopher medal Fred once gave him, but it didn't stop Fred from getting rid of everything that was supposedly "contaminated" of Lamont's! After returning from the hospital breathmobile, and finding out that Fred burned his bed, sheets and linen, in the hilarious ending, Lamont chases him around the living room with Fred escaping his wrath, running upstairs!


Sanford and Son
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Sanford and Son: Season 1
Crossed Swords | Happy Birthday, Pop | Here Comes the Bride, There Goes the Bride | The Copper Caper | A Matter of Life and Breath | We Were Robbed | A Pad for Lamont | The Great Sanford Siege | Coffins for Sale | The Barracuda | TV or Not TV | The Suitcase Case | The Return of The Barracuda | The Piano Movers
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