Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Saturdays, I will be reviewing Welcome Back Kotter, which ran on ABC  from 1975 to 1979.  The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi!

Julie’s pregnant and Freddie’s a star!

Episode 2.20 “The Littlest Sweathog”

(Dir by Bob LaHendro, originally aired on February 10th, 1977)

At the apartment, Julie sees that Gabe has a sketch pad and she demands to know what he’s drawing.

“A picture of you,” Gabe replies.  He explains that he’ll let her see the picture after he tells her a joke about a relative of his who lost a lot of money when he put $5 on horse number five and the horse came in fifth.  (It went over my heard but I’m not a gambler.)  Anyway, the picture isn’t very good and Julie tells him that Gabe’s attempt at art is “funnier than the joke.”

YIKES!

After the opening credits, we return to the apartment where Gabe is tutoring Barbarino.  The audiences screams so loudly when Barbarino shows up at the apartment that it’s hardly surprising that he’s having trouble concentrating in school.  I mean, that audience is really loud!

No sooner has the lesson begun with Gabe asking what Barbarino knows about D-day (“That’s the day I bring home my report card.”) then the phone rings.  Barbarino tells Gabe that it might be a girl calling for him but instead, it’s Julie’s doctor calling to tell her that she’s pregnant.

“Julie’s pregnant!” Gabe shouts.

Barbarino says, “Don’t look at me.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, Vinnie!  I know who the father is!”

“Who?”

Gabe is convinced that he’s the father, despite the fact that Vinnie does kind of have a point.  I mean, Julie really doesn’t seem to even like Gabe the majority of the time.  When Julie comes home, Gabe eventually convinces Vinnie to leave so that he can tell Julie the news.  Gabe is excited.  Julie is not excited at all, pointing out that she can’t even remember to water the plants half the time.  Gabe tells Julie that she’ll glow.  Julie responds that “Spending a half-hour trying to get out of a chair is not my idea of glowing.”

The next day, at school, the Sweathogs are debating what type of present they should get Gabe.  Freddie suggests a savings bond.  Horshack offers to donate 89 cents.  The Sweathogs are incredibly invested in the happiness of Gabe’s baby, which is quite a contrast to the way we viewed the teachers at my high school.  We didn’t know anything about their lives outside of school and we didn’t want to know.

After Horshack tells Woodman that Gabe is going to be a father, Woodman replies, “This time, you’ve gone too far, Kotter!  Who is it!?  What’s her name?”

Gabe assures Woodman that the only person who he’s gotten pregnant is his wife.  Woodman replies that Gabe is going to have to start holding up gas stations to have enough money to raise a child.  Gabe tells Woodman that Julie doesn’t seem to be to thrilled.  Woodman replies, “I wouldn’t be too thrilled about having your baby either,” before laughing maniacally.

Back at the apartment, Julie is feeling depressed because, as she says when she hears someone knocking at the door, “Somehow, I just don’t feel like I’m glowing!”  Julie answers the door and sighs in frustration as the Sweathogs enter the apartment.

“Oh!  The lady in waiting!” Horshack announces.  Meanwhile, Barbarino notices that Julie is reading a book by Dr. Spock.  “I’m a big Star Trek fan, too,” Barbarino says.

Gabe comes home and, somewhat oddly, is not shocked to find the Sweathogs in his apartment.  Gabe asks the Sweathogs to leave.  Barbarino and Freddie are happy to go because they want to watch TV.  “This bionic woman is getting bigger transistors tonight,” Barbarino says.  “Dyno-mite!” Freddie replies.

After the Sweathogs finally leave, Julie says that she realizes that, fears aside, she wants to have the baby.  Gabe is happy because he’ll have someone new to tell all of his jokes.

Later, Gabe buys a stuffed dog for the baby and then tells it about his uncle who owned a dog named Roscoe.

This episode was both sweet and a bit awkward to watch.  On the one hand, I appreciated the fact that the show tried to be realistic in its portrayal of Julie’s overwhelmed reaction to learning that she was pregnant.  On the other hand, this episode really drove him the fact that Gabe Kaplan and Marica Strassman didn’t exactly have a lot of chemistry.  By most accounts, Kaplan and Strassman couldn’t stand each other behind the scenes and that tension between the two of them was really noticeable in this episode.  (It’s hard not to notice that Gabe and Julie never seem to make much eye contact in this episode.)  Reportedly, Strassman often complained that she didn’t get enough to do as Julie.  This episode put Julie center-stage but she still had to share it with the Sweathogs and the whole thing just felt kind of weird.  I actually felt bad for Julie.  She can’t even relax in her own apartment without Gabe’s students coming by!

I’m starting to worry about the baby.  Let’s move on.

Episode 2.21 “Radio Free Freddie”

(Directed by Bob LaHendro, originally aired on February 17th, 1977)

At the apartment, Gabe tells Julie about his uncle who was a paratrooper and who apparently plunged to death when his super emergency parachute didn’t open.  That’s not a nice joke to tell a pregnant woman, Gabe!

At the school, Gabe is explaining to the Sweathogs that a famous radio DJ known as Wally the Wow is a former Sweathogs and Gabe has arranged for Epstein, Barbarino, Freddie, and Horshack to work as radio DJs for the week.  What?  How did that happen?  This seems more like a City Guys thing than a Welcome Back Kotter thing.  If you owned a radio station, would you turn programming over to four high school students?  Would you let Horshack on the radio?

Anyway, Wally the Wow is played by legendary comedian George Carlin and his producer, Andy, is played by The Love Boat‘s Fred Grandy.  When the Sweathogs take their turns on the radio, Wally is totally impressed by Freddie’s radio voice and, realizing that the rest of them don’t have Freddie’s talent, the other Sweathogs leave the station.  Freddie becomes a big hit but his friends think that he’s let the fame go to his head.  Wally tells Freddie that being a DJ can be a lonely job.  Freddie is prepared to give up his radio dreams but then the other Sweathogs drop by the station and apologize for being jealous.  Freddie agrees to stay on as a DJ.

Later, Gabe drops by the station and thanks Wally for taking care of the Sweathogs.  They reminisce about high school.  “I remember you used to tell all of those stupid jokes about your uncles,” Wally says, “I’m glad you outgrew that.”

This was a weird episode, largely because it really didn’t make any sense for Wally to put the Sweathogs on the radio in the first place.  It would not surprise me if this was yet another backdoor pilot, this time for a sitcom that would have followed the adventures of Wally the Wow and his goofy engineer, Andy.  Still, as strange as the episode was, it did give Freddie, the most underused of the Sweathogs, a chance to have a moment in the spotlight so that was a good thing.

Next week, the second season ends!