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!

This week, Arnold Horshack gets to be a hero!

Episode 4.4 “Once Upon A Ledge”

(Dir by Norman Abbott, originally aired on October 2nd, 1978)

Seriously, what is going on at Buchanan High?

Gabe is vice principal but he’s away at a teacher’s conference.  Horshack and Washington are once again running the student store.  Epstien is once again working for the audio visual department.  Barbarino is nowhere to be seen.  This new Sweathog, Beau, is apparently the most popular guy in school, even though this is only his second episode.  Perhaps the strangest development is that Julie is now working as Mr. Woodman’s administrative assistant.  When did this happen?  I can’t even remember what Julie’s previous profession was but I don’t think it had anything to do with education in general or Buchanan High in specific.

Mary Johnson (Irene Arranga) is a shy student who feels that she doesn’t have any sort of identity in the school.  She’s one of three Mary Johnsons at Buchanan High.  She’s not Mary Johnson the Jock.  She’s not Mary Johnson the Cheerleader.  She’s Mary Johnson, the one with the perfect teeth.  When she tells Woodman that she wants to transfer into the remedial classes so that she can be a Sweathog, Woodman tells her that her C-average makes her ineligible.  She can’t even succeed at being a bad student.

Feeling lost, Mary climbs out on a ledge and threatens to jump.  Woodman, Julie, and each of the Sweathogs tries to talk her in but it’s only Horshack who is able to get through to her.  Horshack actually walks out onto the ledge himself so that he can talk to Mary about what’s it’s like to feel like an outsider.  Horshack gets Mary to come in, though he nearly falls off the ledge himself.

While binging and reviewing this show, it’s occasionally been easy to criticize Ron Pallilo’s performance as Arnold Horshack, though I think the real culprits were the show’s writers, who tended to make Horshack into such a strange character that I don’t think anyone could play him without being annoying.  But, to give credit where credit is due, Pallilo gives a really good performance in this episode.  Indeed, in some ways, this episode feels like a throw back to season one, when the Sweathogs still had a bit of grit and angst to them.

This was a simple but effective episode, even if the absences of both Gabe Kaplan and John Travolta were definitely felt.  (Nothing against Stephen Shortridge — who I’ve seen give good performances on The Love Boat and Fantasy island — but Beau was no substitute for Vinnie Barbarino.)  Still, it was nice to see Pallilo get a chance to once again play Horshack as a human being as opposed to a walking punchline.  And, for once, Woodman got to show his nice side, as he tried to help Mary feel better about her place in the school.  This was a surprisingly well-done episode.