Where Travolta found his "Saturday Night Fever" legs.
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Educably handicapped.
That was the term used in northern California in the '70s to describe children who had such severe behavioral problems that they were placed in a separate Special Ed class. They were slow learners, but also reluctant learners, and segregated like that they were a handful. I know, because I was a substitute teacher back then. One day when I was responding to a call, they were wheeling the teacher out on a gurney. "Heart attack?" I asked. "No," the paramedics said. "He made the mistake of turning his back on the class to write on the board and they clocked him on the head with a heavy book, knocked him unconscious."
Things like that happened all the time, so when the Sweathogs of James Buchanan High School throw wads of paper at Vice Principal Woodman (John Sylvester White) or paint the top of the teacher's desk, it's not exaggerated at all. These students had little respect for authority and little direction, unless they happened to connect with a single teacher who managed to get through to them. "Welcome Back, Kotter" was based on Gabe Kaplan's own experience attending a remedial class like that in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, and his recollection of one Miss Shepard who got through to him. She didn't think the students were unteachable, and she never gave up on them. That's the model that Kaplan brought to this series, adding his own brand of humor.
Like so many sitcom stars, Kaplan was a comedian and he brought his schtick to television by starting and ending each episode with a joke that he tells to his TV wife, Julie (Marcia Strassman). Listening not just patiently but eagerly to Kaplan's corn week after week is pretty much the definition of the quintessential long-suffering wife. Then again, having delinquent high school students climb through their apartment windows unannounced or turn up on their doorstep expecting to be taken in like stray kittens can add to the suffering. But she smiled bravely through it all, supporting her husband, a former Sweathog and brand-new credential holder who was hired to teach at his old school.
As a Sweathog, he took pride in insulting Vice Principal Woodman, and as a teacher he still gets a kick out of it. To get through to this bunch he uses unorthodox approaches and has more patience than anyone in history. Even Job would have quite after a week of spending time with this bunch: the cocky leader, Vinnie Barbarino (John Travolta); Juan Luis Pedro Phillipo de Huevos Epstein (Robert Hegyes), the mixed-race enforcer and toughest kid in school; lanky and slick basketball player Freddie "Boom Boom" Washington (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs); and class clown Arnold Horshack (Ron Palillo). Each of the characters developed catch-phrases over the first several seasons that became endearing traits. Barbarino had his "What? Where?" confusion and his "Ba-ba-ba, ba-ba-barino" dance (where Travolta found his "Saturday Night Fever" legs), while Epstein always had a note from "Epstein's Mother" excusing him from work, Washington had his radio-voice "Hi there," and Horshack his horse-like laugh, a raised hand an an "Oooo, ooooo!" and his default "Hellow, howah yuh," spoken with a heavy Brooklyn accent and nasally voice.
The first season, "Welcome Back, Kotter" finished at number 18 in the Nielsens, ahead of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show," "The Jeffersons," "Good Times," "Chico and the Man," and "The Bob Newhart Show." There was something likeable about this bunch and this show, which was hard to describe. On the one hand, it didn't feel as realistic as "Room 222," and yet it wasn't as saccharine, which made it even more believable. If it were a Norman Lear comedy instead of one by Kaplan and Alan Sacks, there would have been more social relevance embedded in each script, rather than the small problems faced by the students in school. It was, in fact, a high school comedy in the mold of some of the very first teacher comedies ("Our Miss Brooks") and those that would come after it ("Saved by the Bell"), and yet the Kotters' adult presence made it something more. There was a lesson to be learned every week, yet the show wasn't nearly as preachy as those Lear sitcoms. The scripts weren't as clever or funny as many of the sitcoms from the same decade, but the characters were engaging. And while it may not have been as socially relevant as the Lear comedies, it was just as politically incorrect. Sample exchange? Epstein tells how hard it was growing up a mixed-race Puerto Rican and Jew. "Half of my brothers were stealing pants, and the other half were altering them." That's typical of the Kaplan humor, as are the impersonations that surfaced week after week, or the Marx Brothers routines.
Twenty-two episodes are included on four single-sided discs and housed in two slim, clear plastic keep cases inside a heavy cardboard slip-case. Conveniently, the descriptions of each show, along with credits and air dates, are included on the outer jackets. The episodes are arranged in order of their broadcast, which means that the pilot is in the number three slot. "Welcome Back, Kotter" featured one of the most recognizable theme songs, and fans will be relieved that the theme by former Lovin' Spoonful front man John Sebastian is here to usher every episode in and out with his smooth "Do You Believe in Magic?" pop voice.
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