Match Game PM

Match Game PM
CBS
November 16, 1980
Game Show
DVD
B

This episode is mainly notable for the flirtation between Debralee and the contestant named Earl, and of course everyone else's reaction, including Dolly Martin (Dick's wife) matchmaking them.  And Debralee mentions Richard Dawson at one point.  Jimmie "JJ" Walker is the other celebrity.

Welcome Back, Kotter: The Return of Hotsy Totsy

Welcome Back, Kotter: The Return of Hotsy Totsy
ABC
May 11, 1978
Sitcom
DVD
B

Kaplan wrote this story that brings back Rosalie Totsy, after "two years."  Scott actually been away two and a half years, since the seventh episode.  In the meantime, her role as the kid sister to Mary Hartman had come and gone and her role as the kid sister on Angie had not yet arrived.  I think her acting had improved, and she does well with both the comedic and dramatic moments.

The guys, with the IDs of Juan's older brothers (implying that Juan and his buddies still aren't 18), attend a strip club and find their old classmate onstage.  They disapprove, but the script calls them out on their hypocrisy.  Arnold, whose sweetness Rosalie brings out as she did in the old days, is the one exception of course, especially when he finds out that she's working at the club to support her baby.  (Her husband ran off.)  Julie is also accepting of Rosalie, recognizing as a mother that the girl had a difficult choice to make.  In the end, Woodman provides the happy ending, getting Rosalie a job as a receptionist at a community college where she can get free tuition as an employee.

Note that Arnold refers to Rosalie as a Sweathog, showing that the stuff about Angie as the first female Sweathog is indeed nonsense.

Welcome Back, Kotter: A Sweathog Christmas Special

Welcome Back, Kotter: A Sweathog Christmas Special
ABC
December 15, 1977
Sitcom
DVD
C

The main thing this clip show establishes is that the writing was often better in the first season, as in the "sit-in" episode and the one where Epstein was ashamed of losing a fight to Todd.

I'm tagging Watson and Scott but not Lembeck because she's not in my edited copy.  Charles Fleischer is in two clips as Carvelli, with his sidekick Bob Harcum as Murray in one.  There's no sign of the twins, although Gabe again tells a joke to Santa.  Mel Stuart (of Willy Wonka) co-wrote (with Eric Cohen), produced, and directed the new segments of this episode.

Match Game '77

Match Game '77
CBS
February 29, 1977 [sic]
Game Show
DVD
B

Obviously there was no Leap Day that year, and since this aired on a Friday, the date was more likely the 25th, but the DVD packaging says the 29th, so we'll go along with it.  And if that seems arbitrary, it's nothing compared to the infamous "school riot."  Judge (and producer) Ira Skutch decides that "college" matches "school," and so does "scuba diving school" but not "finishing school" or (arguably the best match) a frightened Patty's "night school.  Richard and Debralee are understandably upset, and the audience rebels, too.  After the commercial break, Brett and Charles make peace through humor, although there's still a bitter aftertaste.  (Luckily, just about everyone says "hooker" for the next question.)

Welcome Back, Kotter: Classroom Marriage

Welcome Back, Kotter: Classroom Marriage
ABC
October 21, 1975
Sitcom
DVD
B

This is the only WBK script written by Myles Wilder and William Raynor, who had collaborated on three Brady Bunch episodes, but it is the first where everything falls into place.  The characters and their interactions are recognizably what they would be for the next three years.  (Season Four is a different animal, of which more later.)  It's not just a matter of catchphrases but things like the Jewish wedding ceremony Epstein performs and how Freddie and Vernajean (21-year-old Vernee Watson in her first of thirteen WBK appearances) do little disco moves to it.  The cast is clearly having fun, as can be seen by Kaplan and Strassman trying not to break character too much when Horshack comes in wearing a gorilla mask.  Epstein's backwards disguise is I'm fairly certain a shout-out to Harpo's in Duck Soup, especially since Gabe goes into a Groucho impression.

As with Carol's sudden marriage on The Bob Newhart Show, it does feel abrupt for Washington to suddenly be in love with a character we've never seen before, but this bothered me less in syndication, when episodes wouldn't necessarily air in order.  Also, I like the chemistry Hilton-Jacobs and Watson have together; they're believable as a couple, whether kissing or quarreling or, at Kotter's prompting, being honest with each other.  I'm glad she became a semi-regular.

Welcome Back, Kotter: No More Mr. Nice Guy

Yes, Horshack wears belly shirts.

Welcome Back, Kotter: No More Mr. Nice Guy
ABC
October 14, 1975
Sitcom
DVD
B-

This is the first of seven WBK scripts written by George Yanok, who did one episode of The Bob Newhart Show.  It has Woodman and Kotter sort of switching personalities, their characters enough established by this point for that to mean something.  Nothing spectacular here, although the image of Woodman in Revolutionary War costumes, not to mention Travolta and friends "boogying" into class, are certainly memorable.  Note that Julie says Gabe's mother doesn't like her.  (I remember seeing Julie's parents later, but not Gabe's.)

This is the 300th program I've given my default grade, B-.

Welcome Back, Kotter: Whodunit?

Note that Vinnie and Rosalie match, which is symbolic.

Welcome Back, Kotter: Whodunit?
ABC
September 30, 1975
Sitcom
DVD
B

This is the first of eight WBK stories written by Jewel Jaffe, who played Kathy on Gidget, and Jerry Rannow.  The direction by LaHendro is still a little off, especially the timing, but this is the best episode so far.  Yes, Rosalie can be blamed for lying, and for involving the Kotters in her imaginary trouble, but she makes her point.  (And four decades later, the idea that sex makes girls sluts and boys studs hasn't exactly faded.)  This is the first episode where we see what a sweetie Arnold can be.  I think the Sweathogs are supposed to be about 16 at this point, since he borrows his father's cab.  Notice how very small the group is, with seven boys (Don Stark returns as a Sweathog extra) and maybe four girls.  And the time between the start of class and the bell always seems to be about five minutes, unless there's elapsed time, like for a test.

Welcome Back, Kotter: The Great Debate

Welcome Back, Kotter: The Great Debate
ABC
September 9. 1975
Sitcom
DVD
C+

Rick Mittleman, who did four That Girl scripts, wrote this inauspicious debut of a very different New York sitcom, although I have more of an issue with director Bob LaHendro (who would direct 37 more episodes), because the timing and characterization is off through most of the episode.  The only one who really seems to know what he's doing at this point is John Sylvester White, who has already nailed the grumpy Mr. Michael Woodman.  The opening and closing "joke scenes" with Kaplan and Strassman (who had spent time around Alan Alda's Groucho impressions and probably found Kaplan's an improvement) aren't bad.  The main problem is that there's not the resonance of later episodes.  This is a program that perhaps more than any other of its time (even Happy Days) thrived on catchphrases and audience anticipation of what the characters would do.  Did I watch this from Week One?  Maybe, but probably not.  I do know that at some point in the first season it became my favorite evening program.  And if I wasn't yet an ABC loyalist, I would be by the time this show left the air, four years later.

The Sweathogs, about whom more later:

• 24-year-old Robert Hegyes as Juan [many middle names omitted] Epstein
• 22-year-old Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs as Freddie "Boom-Boom" Washington
• 26-year-old Ron Palillo as Arnold Horshack
• 21-year-old John Travolta as Vinnie Barbarino
• and as the only female Sweathog with lines at the moment, 22-year-old Debralee Scott as Rosalie "Hotsy" Totsy.

Scott Ben-Yashar makes his first of four uncredited appearances as a Sweathog, while Bill Adler does his first of two.  Twenty-three-year-old Helaine Lembeck (daughter of Harvey, sister of Michael) understandably would return a dozen more times as Judy Borden, while Dennis Bowen would be back four more times as "whitebread" Todd Ludlow.  (It's not too surprising that he played Archie Andrews in live-action specials around that time.)