Welcome Back, Kotter

'Welcome Back, Kotter' is one of those shows you stay home on the weekends for. I know I do. From the puberty-neglected voice of Arnold Horseshack to the feathered and Jew-froed hair of Vinnie Barbarino, Juan Epstein, and Gabe Kotter, everything about this show is classic. At first glance it might just seem like some kitschy little retro sitcom, but make no mistake, it is awesome. By the last season the show slowed down and became a shadow of it's former self, but if you can ignore that then you will see that this show is one of the best ever.

I really enjoyed Welcome Back, Kotter. It was a very funny show with an outstanding ensemble cast anchored by Gabe Kaplan, who brought lots of humor to the class of unteachable sweathogs with jokes and impressions. I always got a kick out of his uncle jokes in the opening and closing of each episode, including the ones when he was telling a joke to a turkey and to a computer used as an electronic teaching device.

As for the sweathogs, they were a riot. John Travolta catapulted his way to success as the macho, monosyllabic ("What? Where?") Vinnie Barbarino, Robert Hegyes portrayed TV's first Puerto Rican Jew Juan (Little Juan) Epstein and Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs made me crack up every time he said "Hi there!" But my favorite of the sweathogs was Arnold Horshack. Ron Pallilo's portrayal of one of TV's funniest nerds was so outstanding, from his nasal voice to his inimitable laugh. His laugh was the funniest on TV prior to Steve Urkel.

Gabe constantly got grief from vice principal (later principal) Mr. Woodman, who kept barging into his class with the same frequency Frank & Marie Barone did to their son years later on Everybody Loves Raymond. Let's not forget Marcia Strassman as Gabe's wife Julie, who didn't have much to do in most of the show until the fourth season.

As for the fourth season, the least that can be said, the better. it was horrible without Kaplan and Travolta on the show full-time and Stephen Shortridge as Beau. It was like watching the Sanford and Son episodes a couple of years earlier without Redd Foxx.

I'll wrap this up by mentioning the theme song by John Sebastian that made it to No. 1 on the pop charts and resurrected his career. it was one of the best 70s TV theme songs. Welcome back. Welcome back. Welcome back.

"Welcome Back, Kotter" was one of the funniest serials I have ever seen. It starred Gabe Kaplan as Mr. Kotter, who taught a remedial class of "Sweathogs" which featured Arnold Horshack, Juan Epstein, Freddie "Boom-Boom" Washington, and Vinnie Barbarino as four of his students. Between the hilarious plots and the identifiable high school situations, the show was a hit. What student in a diverse environment can't identify with "Roses are red, violets are blue, my mom wants me to date a Puerto Rican Jew"? My favourite episode focused upon the Sweathogs cleaning for a pregnant Mrs. Kotter, only to destroy her apartment. Reruns have been off the air in Canada for quite some time, so I suggest that if networks want to improve ratings, that they welcome back Kotter!

Though it only lasted for four seasons and the last one was pretty lame, Welcome Back Kotter left its mark especially one particular career. John Travolta got his first big break here and this series led to him starring in Saturday Night Fever while this show was still running. Unfortunately the show didn't outlast his leaving it.

The premise was an interesting one, a nice one about a mans who wanted to give something back to where he came from. And where he came from was a class of underachievers from this same Brooklyn high school where he is now teaching. He's assigned to teach the dregs of the school, those for whom fate has decreed they've got a lifetime of changing tires or flipping burgers. Fate decreed that for Gabe Kotter, but he believed in cheating fate and is now trying to impart that same lesson to the sweathogs of a new generation.

Sweathogs is the name of the group in his class and they were all New York types to the max. Robert Heyges, Laurence Hilton-Jacobs, Ron Palillo, and John Travolta were four of his students with whom he bonded with. Interestingly enough the four all very different backgrounds bonded with each other, the education system's neglect of them made them kindred spirits.

Gabe Kaplan starred as Kotter and he created the show as well and drew from his own background. It's probably what gave the show its success. But when Kaplan wanted out after three seasons, the producers tried to keep it going, but the heart of the show was gone. Also by that time John Travolta was a major film star and he wanted out as well. They brought Marcia Strassman to the school and she had played Kaplan's wife and Mrs. Kotter was hired as a guidance counselor. It just didn't work and the show was mercifully canceled.

There was one other very important element in Welcome Back Kotter. John Sylvester White played the Assistant Principal Mr. Woodman is a self serving bureaucrat who was in the school administration when Kotter was himself a sweathog. He can't believe the guy who was marked for failure could now be teaching in his school. White is frustrated every week when episode after episode Kotter gets through another crisis and doesn't quit in frustration. White is sitting around waiting to collect his pension and idealists he doesn't get if he ever was one in the first place, if he was ever young in the first place. He was a great antagonist for Kaplan as Kaplan shot zinger after zinger over this man's forehead. He never got a clue, but White created a great character. He never got enough credit for the show's success.

Welcome Back Kotter was a beacon of New York urban culture, seventies style. Don't miss it when TV Land runs the episodes.

This show ranks highly among the other 1970's shows which we remember: "All in the Family", "Maude", "Sanford and Son", "One Day at a Time", and "The Jeffersons". These shows dealt with issues such as racism, divorce, abortion, and being poor. These shows had writing that was great, and characters that were even greater. The characters, which had flaws (Archie Bunker, Fred Sanford, and George Jefferson, etc.) which we all, whether we were conservative, or liberal, or moderate, could relate to.

"Welcome Back, Kotter" was about a dedicated teacher who wanted to return to his alma mater to try to deal with a bunch of remedial, misfit high school students in inner city NYC when no one else wanted to deal with them. These types of teenagers were not tackled on TV before. The casting was perfect for the NYC setting: from the nerd in Horshack, to the cool maverick in Barbarino, to the Latino in Epstein, to the Black male, of course, in Washington. There is also the Principal in Mr. Woodman. The writing was great. The timing was awesome. The theme song by John Sebastian is breathtaking. The show was purely magical in its first few seasons.

There were problems, as life deals us sometimes. One was Marcia Straussman. She was very unhappy that her involvement in storylines was limited. It was unfortunate because the show primarily dealt with life at the school. Because she played the wife of the teacher, and she was primarily at home, there was not room for her. The act of making her a character on the show was not a good one. The Mrs. Kotter character would have been more appropriate on recurring basis. Another problem was differences between Gabe Kaplan and the other producers and writers. This explains why we never saw him much during the later run of the series.

Gabe Kaplan's lack of involvement in the show's fourth and final season was just one of the many problems which doomed the show. The writing in that final season was sloppy, unrealistic, unfunny, and was so amateurish. As a teenager watching the show in reruns, I saw that something was amiss. The actors on the show complained that the scripts were trash. A storyline about Horshack getting married was about as bad as the writing could get, and it was that. The E! Channel's "E! True Hollywood Story" about this show talks about that dismal fourth season. Another major problem with that show in the fourth season was that the actors who played the Sweathogs. The problem with actors playing teenagers is that they were older than teenagers when they began portraying those characters. To prepare to portray teens, they had to learn how to be teenagers again. It worked in the early days.

However, by the time the fourth season had arrived, the actors had matured and developed as adults where they were getting too old to portray teenagers anymore. They also did not look like teenagers, either. Let's not forget John Travolta and his blossoming as a movie star. These factors led to the demise of the series.

The series was about a concept so fresh, people in this modern era can relate to it even more now than they could back in the 70's. This concept is about misfit children. This is why it was so popular for awhile in syndication. However, it fizzled in syndication because when those fourth season episodes began airing, the viewing felt that the whole show was crap and stopped watching. USA Network had it. TV Land had it. They both stopped showing it.

Even though things did not end on a good note, true fans of the show can ignore that fourth season and remember the greater moments. It was a great show in general.