Retro Television Review: Welcome Back, Kotter 4.19 “The Gang Show”

Posted on March 8, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

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.

Gabe and Julie are gone but life continues at Buchanan High.

Episode 4.19 “The Gang Show”

(Dir by Norman Abbott, originally aired on March 17th, 1979)

It’s time for the annual Buchanan High talent show and this year, Epstein and Washington are totally convinced that their lame mid-reading act is going to win. They’ve lost every year that they’ve entered and, considering that both Epstein and Washington appears to be pushing 40, that’s a lot of failure! Horshack and Beau talk about how their friends came in dead last during the previous show. How does Beau know? Beau’s the new kid. Beau was in Louisiana or wherever he’s supposed to be from when the last talent show was held.

Epstein and Washington think that they’ve got this contest in the bag. The judges are Horshack, Beau, and their classmate, Wilbur (Bob Harcum). Their dedicated teacher, Jean Tremaine (Della Reese), is a bit concerned that the judges won’t be mature enough to set aside their friendships and truly honor the best act. Maybe Mr. Kotter should talk to them….

Oh wait, Gabe isn’t in this episode.

Maybe Julie needs to cross her arms and tell the judges, “This is not funny….”

Oh wait, Julie’s not here either.

That’s right, this is another Welcome Back Kotter episode that doesn’t feature or even mention a single Kotter. Woodman is there, making odd comments and carrying two hardboiled eggs. (Woodman’s so cool.) But the Kotters are gone and, for some reason, everyone’s acting like Ms. Treamaine has always been their teacher.

As for the talent show, Epstein and Washington’s act sucks. Far more impressive is Carvelli (Charles Fleischer), who sings a blues song about peanut butter and jelly and show that there’s more to him than just being a bully. Remember when Carvelli and Wilbur first appeared on the show and they were members of a rival gang and the implication was that both Carvelli and Wilbur had killed multiple people? Now, suddenly, Carvelli is the king of the talent show and Wilbur is one of the judges. It’s amazing how things change. All they really had to do was get rid of Julie and suddenly, Carvelli is revealing himself to be a sensitive soul.

Horshack and Beau do the right thing. They vote for Carvelli. Wilbur votes for Washington and Epstein because he genuinely liked their dumb act. Apparently, there were no other acts. What a lame talent show! Tremiane is proud of Horshack and Beau for doing the right thing. She encourages Washington and Epstein to try again next year …. NEXT YEAR!? Epstein’s going gray and Washington has laugh lines. If they’re still in school next year, Buchanan needs to be shut down!

This was a weird episode. I used to make fun of Gabe’s corny jokes but they would have been useful in this episode. Seriously, this whole fourth season just feels wrong. Kotter without Kotter just doesn’t work.

Retro Television Review: Welcome Back Kotter 4.15 “Barbarino’s Baby”

Posted on January 25, 2025 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, a longtime Sweathog makes his final appearance.

Episode 4.15 “Barbarino’s Baby”

(Dir by Norman Abbott, originally aired on February 3rd, 1979)

This episode was John Travolta’s final appearance as Vinnie Barbarino. That means no more visits to his ugly apartment, no more confusion as to whether or not Barbarino is actually still enrolled in high school, and no more of John Travolta trying his best to give a good performance while the rest of the cast sleep walk through their roles. Seriously, you have to admire that Travolta was still trying to give a good performance even under the weird circumstances of the fourth season. The studio audience was going to cheer no matter what Travolta did. Travolta could have just shrugged off the entire show and character. I’m sure the temptation to do so was there. Instead, he did his best.

His final episode really isn’t worth the effort, though, Barbarino wants to get promoted from scrubbing the floors of the hospital to working in the emergency room. The head nurse says that there’s no way someone as dumb as Barbarino could be trusted in the ER. Barbarino asks Mr. Woodman to write a letter. Julie takes it upon herself to call the hospital and put in a good word for him. As for Gabe …. he’s not in this episode. Gabe does nothing!

Maybe Barbarino would get promoted if his idiot friends weren’t always hanging out at the hospital. Seriously, does that group have nothing better to do than hang out in the world’s ugliest medical facility? Couldn’t they go hang out on Christopher Street with Horshack or something? Remember when the Sweathogs were an actual gang who committed crimes? Epstein was once voted most likely to kill someone. Freddie used to get accused of stealing every other week. Beau showed up and they all got wimpy.

Anyway, Barbarino and the Sweathogs get on an elevator with a pregnant woman. The elevator stops between floors. The woman goes into labor. Time for Barbarino and the Sweathogs to deliver a baby …. *sigh*. Seriously, there is nothing more stress-inducing than the idea of a bunch of 30 year-old high school students delivering a baby. The important thing is that the head nurse is able to talk Barbarino through the delivery and Barbarino gets his promotion! Barbarino is going to the ER! That’s good news for Horshack because there’s no way he’s not going to end up getting his stomach pumped in the ER eventually.

And that’s John Travolta’s final episode of Welcome Back, Kotter. It’s a bit of a let down, considering how important the character of Vinnie Barbarino was to the success of the show. Imagine if The Office finale only allowed Michael Scott to appear for two minutes and only gave him one line of dialogue? THAT WOULD BE INSANE!

I can only wonder what the rest of this show is going to be like without Kotter and Barbarino. My fear is that it’s going to involve a lot of Horshack, We’ll find out. There’s only a few episodes left!

Retro Television Review: Welcome Back, Kotter 4.11 “Frog Day Afternoon”

Posted on December 14, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Horshack takes center stage. You’ve been warned.

Episode 4.11 “Frog Day Afternoon”

(Dir by Norman Abbott, originally aired on November 25th, 1978)

This week’s episode of Welcome Back, Kotter does not feature Mr. Kotter.

It does not feature Vinne Barbarino.

It doesn’t even feature Beau, the new Sweathog.

It does feature a lot of the show’s two most annoying characters, Arnold Horshack and Julie Kotter.

Horshack doesn’t want to dissect a frog because he’ll be required to kill the frog before cutting it open. Did they really used to require students to personally kill their own frog in biology class? That’s a little extreme. I always assumed that everyone just got frogs that were already dead.

Julie, of course, support Horshack’s right to not open up a frog and argues with Woodman about it. I’m not really sure what Julie actually does at the school. Sometimes, she appears to be a guidance counselor. Other times, she appears to be a receptionist. She’s been called Woodman’s “secretary” a few times but we don’t ever actually see her doing any sort of secretarial work. I guess that, when Gabe Kaplan announced he wouldn’t be appearing in the majority of the 4th season episodes, they had to put Julie in the school so that there would still be a Kotter in Welcome Back, Kotter. But Julie’s originally from Nebraska so it’s not like she’s the one being welcomed back to Brooklyn.

Anyway, Horshack argues that frogs don’t get a say in whether or not they want to die and he refuses to kill them. His teacher (Dena Dietrich) says that she’ll have to give Horshack an F. Washington says, “You better lay one of those F’s on me too.” Epstein also decides to take the F. The entire class is so moved by Horshack’s stand that they all ask for an F as well!

Normally, this would be very moving but since every student at the school appears to be in their 30s, it’s pretty obvious that none of them are that worried about their grades. When you’ve already been held back twelve times, it’s not like another F is going to make a difference.

This episode …. yech. I mean, to be honest, I had sympathy for Horshack’s position. I certainly wouldn’t want to kill a frog or any other animal and I agree that students who object should be given an alternative assignment. I mean, unless you’re planning on actually going into the medical field, I don’t really see what the point is in dissecting things in school. But Horshack has become such an annoying character that it didn’t matter that I agreed with him. I just wanted him to stop talking!

During the first season, Ron Pallilo actually did a pretty good job playing Horshack. Horshack was strange but he wasn’t a cartoon. But that changed somewhere around the middle of the second season and, with each episode since then, Horshack has progressively become more and more annoying. He’s not a proper replacement for Barbarino.

Anyway. bless the frogs. They’re nice creatures if you don’t bother them.

This is my final Welcome Back, Kotter review of 2024. These reviews will resume after the holidays, on January 4th.

Retro Television Review: Welcome Back, Kotter 4.10 “Washington’s Clone”

Posted on December 7, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Washington gets an admirer.

Episode 4.10 “Washington’s Clone”

(Dir by Norman Abbott, originally aired on November 11th, 1978)

Arthur (Ron Dennis) is a nerdy student who worships Freddie and desperately wants to be a Sweathog. When Freddie tells Arthur that he’s too smart and clean-cut to be a Sweathog, Arthur reacts by dressing like Washington and trying to act just like Washington. At first, the Sweathogs are amused and Washington is slightly flattered. But then Washington discovers that Arthur is stealing watches and selling them in the school courtyard. Washington tells Arthur that Sweathogs don’t commit crimes, which is certainly a change from the first season of the show.

After Julie tells Washington that Arthur’s grades are slipping and he’s throwing away his future, Washington goes to Barbarino for advice. The audience goes crazy for Babarino’s cameo but I have to admit that I cringed the whole time. I don’t like the idea of Barbarino working in the hospital. Every time Barbarino makes an appearance, he’s making life difficult for a patient. In this case, he spends so much time thinking about Washington’s problem that he doesn’t realize he’s spilling food all over a hungry man in a hospital bed. It was nerve-wracking to watch and not particularly funny.

(Again, in all fairness, it’s hard for me to see any scene set in a hospital room without thinking about my Dad. So, your mileage may vary as far as Barbarino’s cameo is concerned. For me, it still hits too close to home.)

Eventually, Washington and the other Sweathogs dress up like members of a street gang (which, again, is what the Sweathogs were supposed to be during the first two seasons of the show) and they tell Arthur that he’s going to have to help them attack Mr. Woodman in order to become a Sweathog. (Uhmm …. this seems like a bad idea.) Arthur says he has no problem with that but, in the end, he defends Woodman when the Sweathogs pretend to attack him. Arthur goes back to being himself and somehow the Sweathogs are not expelled. Julie tells them that she “can’t believe I’m saying this,” but she’s mildly impressed with how they handled Arthur. Julie is even bitchier without Gabe around than when he was forcing her to listen to his jokes.

Indeed, Gabe does not appear in this episode and there’s no reference made to where he might be. You would think that, being vice-principal, he would be the one who would be talking to Arthur about his grades. Gabe Kaplan, of course, was not on the show because he was upset that the network and their refusal to allow the Sweathogs to graduate high school. In-universe, one can only guess that Gabe Kotter just doesn’t like to come out of his office.

For a fourth season episode, Washington’s Clone wasn’t bad. Ron Dennis’s performance as Arthur made me smile. The fact that he was dramatically shorter than Washington made his attempts to imitate Washington a lot more humorous than they would have been otherwise. Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs gave a good performance as Washington, even if his sudden concern about following the law went against everything that the show had previously established about the character. This episode was amusing (with the exception of Barbarino’s cameo) and Horshack didn’t say much. You can’t complain about that.

Retro Television Review: Welcome Back Kotter 4.9 “The Barbarino Blues”

Posted on November 23, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Well, they tease him a lot …. even though he’s not longer on the spot….

Episode 4.9 “The Barbarino Blues”

(Dir by November 3rd, 1978, directed by Norman Abbott)

Gabe Kaplan is not in this episode but John Travolta is. The audience goes wild when they see John Travolta stepped onto the soundstage. Maybe they were worried they were going to get stuck watching one of the episodes in which Barbarino doesn’t appear.

Well, no worries for them! This episode is all about Barbarino and the Sweathogs. Unfortunately, the majority of it takes place in Barbarino’s incredibly ugly and dirty-looking apartment. I don’t know why but every 70s sitcom appeared to take place in the filthiest locations possible. I saw an episode of All In The Family recently and I found myself cringing at the thought of all the bugs and weevils that were probably buried in Archie Bunker’s chair. Welcome Back Kotter takes thing even further by having Vinnie live in what appears to be the drug room in an abandoned building. Joe Buck and Ratso lived in a nicer place.

Anyway, Barbarino is depressed. He was going to break up with his girlfriend but she dumped him first. “I’m so depressed!” Travolta says, in his high-pitched Barbarino voice. The other Sweathogs try to help Barbarino conquer the blues. This means that a good deal of the episode is taken up with Beau giving advice to Barbarino. The whole thing is set up as a changing of the guard sort of thing. It’s as if the show is saying, “You think John Travolta’s cool? Well, check out Stephen Shortridge!”

It’s a dumb episode. At one point, the Sweathogs point out that Barbarino hasn’t come to school in three days and it was a bit jarring to be reminded that the middle-aged-looking men were all supposed to be high school students. Usually, whenever this show had a bad episode, John Travolta would serve as Welcome Back Kotter‘s saving grace. But, with this episode, Travolta appears to be as bored as just about everyone else. Travolta had movie stardom to focus on. By the time this episode aired, he had been nominated for an Oscar. It’s probably safe to say that being a Sweathog was the last thing on Travolta’s mind.

Speaking of the Sweathogs, I have defended Ron Pallilo’s performance as Horshack in the past. Yes, Horshack is annoying but Pallilo occasionally managed to capture the character’s sweet and innocent nature. But I have to admit that I’ve spent most of the fourth season hoping that someone will finally toss Horshack off the Brooklyn Bridge. Everyone turned into a caricature during the fourth season and, since Horshack was already a caricature, that just made his character even more annoying. There’s also the fact that Ron Pallilo was 30 years old during the fourth season and he looked older. Whenever he did Horshack’s signature laugh, the wrinkles on his face would suddenly appear and make him look like a map of the interstate highway system.

I guess my point is that this is another episode that left little doubt that it was time for everyone to move on. I mean, when even Kotter isn’t around to be welcomed back, it’s time to graduate and start a new life as a featured player Off-Broadway. To quote the Chambers Brothers: “TIME!”

Retro Television Review: Welcome Back, Kotter 4.8 “X-Rated Education”

Posted on November 16, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Gabe Kaplan is missing.

Episode 4.8 “X-Rated Education”

(Dir by Norman Abbott, originally aired on October 28th, 1978)

Epstein, because he’s apparently the only student who works in the audio-visual department, is setting up the projector in the classroom so that it can be used to show a sex education film. Carvelli and Wilbur enter the room and announce that they have a pornographic film that they want to watch. Horshack and Washington then show up and decide that they want to watch the movie as well, even though Horshack doesn’t seem to be quite sure what an adult film actually is.

(Horshack also now appears to now be about 50 years old. The Sweathogs are aging …. fast!)

Epstein says that they can use a different projector to watch the pornographic film. The Sweathogs and Carvelli head off to the storage closet while Julie takes the first projector to the office so that she can show the sex ed film to a bunch of parents who are not sure they want their children taking sex ed.

You can guess what happens, can’t you? The two films get mixed up. The Sweathogs end up watching the tame sex ed film. Horshack becomes obsessed with the butterfly that is featured in the film. The protesting parents watch the adult film and demand that both Julie and Woodman be fired. Can Julie talk Epstein into explaining what happened even though it’ll mean that Epstein will be running the risk of being expelled? Much like Horshack, Epstein appears to be 50 years old in this episode so maybe getting expelled would be good for him at this point.

This episode raises a simple question. Is it really an episode of Welcome Back, Kotter if Kotter isn’t around to be welcomed back? Gabe Kotter is not in this episode and his absence is neither mentioned nor explained. (Off-screen, Gabe Kaplan was not happy with the show’s direction and refused to appear in all but a handful of season four’s episodes.) It’s a shame because the plot of this episode does actually feel like a throw back to the type of first and second season episodes that Kaplan usually did quite well with. Instead of Kaplan’s understanding but firm Gabe Kotter, we get Julie telling Epstein to tell the truth and negotiating with the parents. Julie now works at the school but I’m not totally sure what her job is actually supposed to be. Sometimes, she appears to just be Woodman’s administrative assistant. Other times, she appears to be a guidance counselor. Sometimes, she’s a teacher. Julie usually gives good advice but she’s an outsider and it’s obvious that, unlike her husband, she would never consider herself to be a Sweathog. Whereas Gabe talks to the Sweathogs, Julie often seems to be talking down to them.

This episode also suffers due to the fact that Barbarino is not present, even though the idea of the Sweathogs watching a sex education film seems like a classic Barbarino plot. Robert Hegyes is the main Sweathog now. He was a good actor but he was also way too old, at this point, to be playing a high school student. Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs continues to be underused and Ron Pallilo performance as Horshack has grown more and more grating as the fourth season has progressed.

In the end, only John Sylvester White’s unhinged performance as Woodman remains a consistent source of laughs on this show. Woodman is not quite as antagonistic towards Julie as he is towards Gabe but his constant bitterness is still a lot of fun to watch. Maybe they should have renamed this show Welcome Back, Woodman.

Anyway, this was another fourth season episode that fell flat because the Sweathogs and Julie all seemed like they would rather be anywhere than appearing on Welcome Back, Kotter. Seriously …. let the Sweathogs graduate!

Retro Television Review: Welcome Back, Kotter 4.5 “The Sweatmobile”

Posted on October 26, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, the Sweathogs share a story about the time that they all tried to buy a car together.

Episode 4.5 “The Sweatmobile”

(Dir by Norman Abbott, originally aired on October 9th, 1978)

Barbarino, Washington, Epstein, and Horshack sit outside of the classroom and look at the lunches that their mothers prepared for them. Epstein has a liver burrito. Barbarino has corn flakes and he’s happy about that because his mother is saint. Horshack has peanut butter and prunes and he’s not happy about that because he hates peanut butter.

(For those trying to keep track of the fourth season’s already confusing continuity, this episode features Barbarino as a student at the school, even though the previous two episodes insinuated that he was no longer attending classes. Even though Babarino now lives in an apartment by himself, his mother apparently still makes his lunch. As for the new Sweathog, Beau is neither mentioned nor seen in this episode, which leads me to suspect that this episode was originally meant to air even earlier in the season than it did.)

Carvelli and Murray walk up to the Sweathogs and Carvelli taunts them by revealing that he was able to drive to a fast food restaurant for his lunch. Seeing how desperate the Sweathogs are for real food, Carvelli offers to sell them his used car so that they too can actually get hamburgers. However, the Sweathogs tell him that they learned their lesson the last time they tried to buy a used car.

Flashback time!

The Sweathogs all pooled their money so that they could buy a used car from Vinnie’s uncle. Vinnie insisted that he would be the one who would drive the car, as he had the most experience in cars. Everyone warned the Sweathogs about the difficulty of multiple people owning and using one car. But the Sweathogs were determined to do it. They arranged to meet with Vinnie’s uncle at the hospital where Vinnie works as an orderly. However, once they arrived at the hospital, they watched as Vinnie’s uncle was wheeled in on a gurney after having wrecked the car that he was going to sell. Vinnie’s aunt mentioned that his uncle couldn’t wait to cheat whoever was dumb enough to buy a used car from him.

This was an odd episode. It was nice to see the original Sweathogs together again but the whole flashback structure felt strange. Usually, a flashback means that the audience is about to see something that happened long ago. But, in this episode, it appears that we’re watching a flashback to something that happened maybe a day or two ago. In the flashback, Barbarino is working at the hospital, Gabe is vice principal (and away at a teacher’s conference due to the fact that Gabe Kaplan was sick of doing the show), and Julie was already Woodman’s administrative assistant. As well, Julie has her terrible new haircut in the flashbacks. This is all stuff that didn’t happen until the start of the fourth season. Again, it’s hard not to feel that this was an episode that was meant to air much earlier in this season but, for some reason, it was held back and a flashback framing device was awkwardly added.

Fortunately, the original Sweathogs, despite being clearly too old to be even remedial high school students, still have the chemistry that made this show a hit during its first season. Given everything that I’ve read about just how difficult things got behind-the-scenes on this show, it was nice to see them having fun and obviously enjoying themselves. Though the episode’s structure was weird, this episode still presents viewers with one last chance to see the chemistry and comradery that made Welcome Back, Kotter a hit in the first place.

Retro Television Review: Welcome Back, Kotter 4.4 “Once Upon A Ledge”

Posted on October 19, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

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.

Retro Television Review: Welcome Back, Kotter 4.2 “The Drop-Ins Part 2”

Posted on October 5, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, the fourth season premiere concludes.

Episode 4.2 “The Drop-Ins Part 2”

(Dir by Norman Abbott, originally aired on September 11th, 1978)

When last we saw the Sweathogs, they were planning on dropping out of school and getting real jobs, just like Barbarino.

At the start of the second part of the fourth season premiere, we discover the details of Barbarino’s new job. He does indeed work at the hospital but, unlike what his classmates assumed, he’s not a doctor. He’s not a nurse. He’s not an X-ray technician. He’s an orderly. He mops the floor and he changes the sheets and he fluffs the pillows. As he puts it, “I make 68 dollars a week and ten of that goes to Uncle Sam.”

(Little does Barbarino know that only having to give ten dollars to Uncle Sam would sound pretty good to future viewers. I imagine by this point next year, we’ll be giving every cent to Uncle Sam and maybe we’ll be lucky to get some stale bread and Flint water in return. And, of course, everyone will pretend to love it.)

Gabe comes down to see Barbarino. He tells Barbarino that the Sweathogs look up to him and he asks Barbarino to talk to them about staying in school. Barbarino, who is mopping the floor, points out that he dropped out and he’s already got a job.

“If this is all you want to do with your life,” Gabe says, looking at Barbarino’s mop and bucket, “you didn’t need to go to school.”

“Now you to tell me,” Barbarino replies.

As for the Sweathogs, they’ve already talked to Barbarino and applied for jobs at the hospital. But, looking over their applications, they realize that they have no job experience, no educational accomplishments, and no chance of getting a job.

When a patient nearly dies because Barbarino didn’t know how to push the emergency button or where to find the crash cart, he realizes that he needs to get more education. Soon, he and the Sweathogs are standing in the doorway of Mr. Kotter’s classroom, ready for a new schoolyear. Barbarino says he’s going to be a doctor but he knows he has to graduate high school first. As for the other Sweathogs — well, they’re 40 year-old high school students. What other choice do they have but to go to class?

Part Two of The Drop-Ins is a significant improvement on Part One, largely because the majority of the episode follows John Travolta’s Barbarino. None of the Sweathogs were bad actors but, when watching an episode like this one, it’s easy to see why Travolta’s the one who went on to become a movie star. As Barbarino, Travolta just has a natural charisma that can’t be faked. Of the main Sweathogs, Barbarino is the one who you really find yourself hoping will eventually graduate. He’s just such a nice guy, even if he is a little …. slow.

And so ends the fourth season premiere. The Sweathogs are back in class …. but for how long?

Retro Television Review: Welcome Back, Kotter 4.1 “The Drop-Ins: Part One”

Posted on September 28, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, we begin the fourth and final season of Welcome Back, Kotter.

Episode 4.1 “The Drop-Ins: Part One”

(Dir by Norman Abbott, originally aired on September 11th, 1978)

The fourth season of Welcome Back, Kotter opens with a few changes.

First off, there’s new opening credits.

Did you notice one very big change? That’s right. Sebastian Leone is no longer president of the borough. All hail Howard Golden.

Did you notice another big change? John Travolta is now a special guest star! That’s what happens when you star in two hits films in a row but you’re too nice to tell your former sitcom colleagues to go away.

However, there are even more changes waiting as the new school year begins. For one thing, there are new background students in Gabe’s classroom, joining Epstein, Washington, and Horshack. (Barbarino is not present as the school year begins.) Epstein has gotten a haircut and now looks like he’s 40.

Carvelli and Murray have moved into the district and are now students in Gabe’s class.

Principal Lazurus has retired and Woodman has finally achieved his dream of becoming principal.

Finally, Gabe is now Vice Principal! The Sweathogs are superexcited and tie up Carvelli and Murray to celebrate. Gabe is not amused and takes Epstein, Horshack, and Washington to his office. He gives them a week’s detention. The Sweathogs accuse Gabe of having sold out but Gabe tells them that it’s time for them to get serious about their lives and to start preparing for the world outside of high school. Eventually, the Sweathogs are able to convince Gabe to give them two days detention on the condition that they all get jobs around the school.

Horshack and Washington run the school store. Epstein runs the projector for the audio visual department. But when Horshack and Washington leave the store a mess and Epstein unrolls a film in the middle of the school hallway, Gabe is again forced to be the disciplinarian. Now, even Horshack thinks that he’s sold out.

Suddenly, Barbarino shows up! The audience goes crazy. Barbarino is wearing what passed for good clothes in the 70s. He tells the Sweathogs that he has dropped out of school and he has a job at the local hospital. The Sweathogs, seeing Barbarino’s success, decide that they should drop out as well. Gabe can only watch in stunned silence as the four Sweathogs walk out of the school….

And that’s the end of Part One!

This episode was kind of depressing to watch, to be honest. It’s not just that the Sweathogs themselves all appear to approaching middle-age, though that certainly didn’t help. It’s that no one seemed to be particularly enthusiastic about starting another season of this show. (From what I’ve read, due to all of the third season’s backstage drama and the open animosity between Gabe Kaplan and Marcia Strassman, just about everyone in the cast was ready to move on.) Even Gabe Kaplan appeared to be bored with the whole thing. The strength of this show was its cast. For the fourth season premiere, everyone is obviously just going through the motions and, compared to the earlier seasons of this show, it’s sad to see. There’s just no energy or joy to any of the performances.

Hopefully, things will improve with the second part! We’ll find out next week.