Welcome Back, Kotter

St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture, Jan 29, 2002 by Karen Lurie

A popular ABC-TV sitcom from 1975 to 1979, Welcome Back, Kotter featured Gabriel Kaplan in the title role of Gabriel Kotter, a teacher who returns to his alma mater, Brooklyn's fictional James Buchanan High School, to instruct a bunch of remedial students known as the Sweathogs. Kaplan, who created the show with Alan Sacks, based Welcome Back, Kotter on his own real-life experiences in the Bensonhurst section of Brooklyn, where he had himself been branded an "unteachable" student until inspired by a teacher named Miss Shepherd. Comedienne Janeane Garofalo once expressed relief that Welcome Back, Kotter was the fashion arbiter in her youth instead of Beverly Hills 90210 with its designer duds, because it was easier to live up to Kotter's image of frizzy-haired students dressed in flared jeans and army jackets.

The Sweathogs were tough and streetwise, although their worst insult amounted to "Up your nose with a rubber hose!" Kotter was hip to all of their tricks, having pulled them all himself a decade earlier. Yet, he was also still a rebel, flouting conventions and using humor in order to get his struggling students to learn something. Kaplan, a standup comedian with a bushy mustache and a perpetual smirk, incorporated some of his material, sometimes awkwardly, into the beginning and end of the episodes, but seemed a little less at ease as an actor carrying a sitcom. Luckily the Sweathogs picked up the slack.

The four main Sweathogs were Freddie "Boom Boom" Washington (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs), a smooth African American who called his teacher "Mr. Kot-TAIR"; Juan Epstein (Robert Hegyes), a Puerto Rican Jew who was always bringing in fake excuse notes from home and signing them "Epstein's mother," and whose delivery resembled that of Chico Marx; Arnold Horshack (Ron Palillo), a braying geek who screamed "Oh! Oh Oh!" when he raised his hand and snorted when he laughed; and Vinnie Barbarino (John Travolta), the hunky dim-witted leader of the group. Other regulars included Kotter's wife Julie (Marcia Strassman), who had twins Robin and Rachel in 1977, and Kotter's nemesis, snotty vice-principal Mr. Woodman (John Sylvester White).

A typical plot from early in the series: Washington, whose signature phrase was an ultra-slick "Hi there," makes the varsity basketball team and decides he doesn't need to study anymore. Mr. Kotter confronts the class and the basketball coach, and threatens to fail Washington. In the end, Kotter teaches everyone about the importance of balancing education and sports.

Vinnie Barbarino proved the breakout role for Travolta, who soon launched his film career with Saturday Night Fever, in 1977 and Grease in 1978. By that year, he was rarely seen on Kotter, and was billed as a "special guest star." The year 1979 marked the final season for Welcome Back, Kotter. That year, Kaplan chose to sit out many of the episodes due to creative differences with ABC, and he was rarely seen on television after that. The fact that Travolta was also making fewer appearances prompted the network to move the show around to less desirable time slots, and to promote the show less vigorously. A slick southerner, Beau De Labarre, played by Stephen Shortridge, was brought in to replace the hunk void left by Travolta. Other character changes included the arrival--and quick departure--of Angie, the first female Sweathog, and the promotion of Kotter to vice principal and Woodman to principal.

Welcome Back, Kotter was used as a launching pad for other performers besides Travolta, though he is the only one for whom it really worked. A spinoff was attempted for the Horshack character and his family, but was soon aborted. There was also the short-lived Mr. T. & Tina, based on another original Kotter character, which starred Pat Morita as a madcap Japanese inventor who moves his family from Tokyo to Chicago.

The show's hit theme song, "Welcome Back," was composed and performed by John Sebastian, late performer of the Lovin' Spoonful. An FM radio staple in the 1970s, the song was later used to sell cold cuts and fast food. Welcome Back, Kotter enjoyed a revival on Nick at Nite in the mid-1990s.