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 can be purchased on Prime.

This week, it’s Welcome Back Barbarino!

Episode 4.14 “Bride and Gloom”

(Dir by Norman Abbott, originally aired on January 13th, 1979)

Epstein needs a favor from Barbarino.  Remember the time I saved your life? Epstein asks.  No, Barbarino replies.  Well, no matter!  Epstein is still intent on getting to Barbarino to pay him back marrying Epstein’s Guatemalan cousin, Angelina (Rachel Levario).   Angelina needs her citizenship so Vinnie just needs to stay married to her from three days and then they’ll get a divorce and Vinnie can continue to date Nurse Sally (Linda McCullough).  (“What you’re doing is so noble!” Sally tells Barbarino.  I am not sure I would have the same reaction to my boyfriend announcing he was marrying someone else.)

Julie and Woodman tell Barbarino that he’s too young to get married and it’s somewhat jarring to remember that Barbarino and the rest of the Sweathogs are still just supposed to be high school kids.  (John Travolta was the youngest member of the cast but, by the time the fourth season rolled around, even he looked too old to be hanging out at Buchanan High.)  Gabe is not around to provide any advice and I don’t think this episode even bothered to come up with an excuse to explain his absence.

Angelina does not speak a word of English so Epstein serves as the translator while she and Barbarino fight about the wedding.  Angelina wants a nice wedding.  Barbarino just wants to get it over with.  They compromise by holding the ceremony in Barbarino’s ugly apartment.  (If the show couldn’t even spend the money to convince Gabe Kaplan to appear in the show that he was starring on, there was no way they were going to splurge for an extra set.)  The guests are the Sweathogs and Julie and, for some reason, Mr. Woodman.  Babarino and Epstein both have huge families but none of them show up for the wedding.  I guess hiring extras would have cost money.  The show did hire an actor to play the priest so that was good of them.

Does Vinnie Barbarino get married?  No.  Angelina changes her mind and marries a musician instead.  Barbarino can go back to dating Sally and I guess Gabe will just hear about it later at dinner.

“I’m so confused!” Barbarino says at one point and the audience goes wild.  Even though Travolta spent this episode looking like he was pretty much over the whole thing, the studio audience was happy to see him.  The show’s greatest strength, at this point, was Travolta but this episode also shows the limits of the show’s format.  Barbarino had to be both a high school student and a green card groom.  It felt odd and kind of unpleasant.

Finally, why is Barbarino’s apartment is always so filthy?  I get that he’s supposed to be poor and living in New York but seriously, couldn’t they have swept the set occasionally?  The sight of that apartment always depresses me.

This episode features the cast going through the motions and, as was often the case with season 4, it’s obvious that no one really wants to be there.  I certainly didn’t want to be there!  Next week features Barbarino’s final appearance on the show.  Soon, Vinnie will be free.