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.

We’re nearly done.

Episode 4.22 “I’m Okay, But You’re Not”

(Dir by Norman Abbott, originally aired on June 1st, 1979)

The next-to-last episode of Welcome Back, Kotter centers on Beau, the Southern transfer who was introduced as a replacement for Barbarino.  This is only the second episode to focus on Beau and it aired right as the show was about to end.  Judging from some of the comments made in the episode and the fact that no mentions that Horshack is now married, I’m going to guess that this episode was probably originally meant to air earlier in the season.

Anyway, the Sweathogs read their student evaluations when Julie, for some reason, leaves Arnold in charge of the office while she goes to another classroom to get a skirt that’s been hemmed for her by the Home Economics teacher.  Why Julie couldn’t have just gotten the skirt after the students had left for the day isn’t really clear.  The Sweathogs are not happy to discover that Woodman hates all of them except for Beau.  Beau, looking to prove that he’s not Woodman’s favorite, steals Woodman’s pants (Woodman is asleep at his desk) and runs them up a flagpole.  He also rings the fire alarm.  Woodman is forced to put on Julie’s skirt before leaving his office.

(What about Gabe?  Gabe is nowhere to be seen.  Gabe became assistant principal and then stopped hanging out at the school.)

Beau confesses that he was behind the prank.  Woodman says that it’s honorable for Beau to take the blame but he knows that Epstein, Washington, and Horshack are to blame.  Woodman gives the three “bad” Sweathogs detention.  There’s something inherently weird about watching three actors in their 30s complain about getting detention.  So, Beau again says that he was solely responsible and then insults Woodman until Woodman snaps, gives Beau three weeks detention, and promises that he’ll be keeping on eye on everything Beau does.

Good luck with that, Woodman.  The show’s nearly over!

Poor Stephen Shortridge.  He wasn’t a bad actor but the character of Beau was never that clearly defined and, even worse, Shortridge was brought in to replace Travolta’s Barbarino.  The show never figured out what to do with Beau and he ended up as something of a footnote in the show’s history.

This episode was just dumb.  It’s the type of episode that the show did well when it first started, back when the Sweathogs were still plausible as being high school students and when Travolta and Gabe Kaplan were still willing to appear on the show.  But, by the time the fourth season rolled around, the cast was too old to be playing high school pranks and neither Barbarino nor Gabe were around anymore.

Next week, the show finally ends!