Welcome Back, Kotter: The Bread Winners

Welcome Back, Kotter: The Bread Winners
ABC
June 8, 1979
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Epstein hopes to get a job through Woodman's niece Kelly (Georganne LaPiere again).  However, Washington unknowingly wins over the owner of the antique store, Mrs. Gladstone Trevors-Smythe (Priscilla Morrill, who among other things played Chrissy Snow's mother).  And of course that's where the job is.  Mr. Kotter shows up to try to make peace between the two fighting friends, but they end up leaving the Horshacks' dinner party to go settle things at the gym.  Again, this episode, written by Morris & Rauseo, is better than I expected.  I really didn't think the season would end on a relatively good streak.

Welcome Back, Kotter in its final season ranges from C- to B-, averaging out to the C+/B- border, so I can't say it totally jumps the shark, although there are definitely lows it never hit before.  I think it could've actually gone to a fifth season, if, one, Kaplan had become a real part of things again (and the backstage drama had died down), and two, there hadn't been yet another year in high school.  The characters were edging into adulthood and it would've been interesting to follow up on that.  On the other hand, the energy and joy of the first season or two, like the dance below, were long gone.  This isn't a perfect moment to end it, but it'll do.

Welcome Back, Kotter: Oo-Oo, I Do, Part 2

Welcome Back, Kotter: Oo-Oo, I Do, Part 2
ABC
May 25, 1979
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Perret & Richmond also wrote this part (or like I said, it might've all aired as a one-hour special) and, despite an unfunny section where Arnold's friends go looking for him after they scare him about being unable to support Mary, it's on the same level as Part One.  It's good to see Mr. Kotter back (Kaplan in his Fast Break beard) and good to see Juan in drag at the bachelor party held at Vinnie's.  (Vinnie is working late at the hospital.  Travolta wasn't coming back.)  Note that Mary's Uncle (according to the credits) gives her away, and we have no idea how any of their parents feel about the wedding.  But Gabe is avuncular as always, even giving his wedding ring for the ceremony.



Dick Winslow, who plays the one-man band/minister, had a couple roles on The Brady Bunch.  Kenneth White, who plays the Marine Recruiter, was Corporal Denning on M*A*S*H and would be Officer Bellows on Three's Company.

This is the 500th B- I've given on this blog, with many more to come.

Welcome Back, Kotter: Oo-Oo, I Do, Part 1

Welcome Back, Kotter: Oo-Oo, I Do, Part 1
ABC
May 25, 1979
Sitcom
DVD
B-

In this Perret & Richmond episode, Arnold's mother gets married offscreen to an Atlantic City blackjack dealer.  (There apparently was another stepfather after Mr. O'Hara, that one a circus performer.)  Meanwhile, he has a job working for Mary Johnson's unseen uncle, and he and Mary are falling in love.  He doesn't want to move with his family (the brother and sisters are mentioned but also unseen) and ends up proposing to Mary.  There are some sweet moments between them and, if we can ignore that whole "drunk Arnold" lapse, they have a good relationship, so it doesn't feel too rushed that they're getting married, not that I cared when I was eleven of course.  (Janet getting married on Three's Company in '84 was a betrayal though, for reasons I'll go into then.)

I'm tagging Kaplan because he's seen in the "next episode" montage.  Part 2 actually aired right after, so who knows if that was even there originally, but I go by what's on the programs in the condition and format I have them.

Welcome Back, Kotter: A Little Fright Music

Welcome Back, Kotter: A Little Fright Music
ABC
December 2, 1978
Sitcom
DVD
B-

This Barret & Bloom story has Freddie rewriting the school song and then getting an offer from recording artist J. Bubba-Hampton (Sip Culler, who was Mr. Johnson on What's Happening!! and who would be Steve on Roseanne).  However, Freddie used Mr. Woodman's original melody.  Mr. Kotter is back and is the voice of reason in the episode.  Unfortunately, both Vinnie and (inexplicably) Arnold are gone, so I would've gone with a C+, but I had to bump up the grade for Washington and Woodman's flashy outfits.

Welcome Back, Kotter Barbarino's Boo-Boo

Welcome Back, Kotter Barbarino's Boo-Boo
ABC
October 21, 1978
Sitcom
DVD
C

The show switched over to Saturdays at 8, nudging Carter Country (then in its second and last season) to 8:30.  I followed WBK over, since I wasn't watching Rhoda or CHiPs, and I still felt somewhat invested in the cast.  This episode though, despite the presence of both Kotter and Barbarino, isn't exactly the kind of thing that would've won me over as a new viewer.  It starts out OK, with Vinnie dealing with both disapproving Nurse Bonney (Dulo) and bunion surgery patient Woodman.  Even Vinnie misplacing Woodman is all right, but it leads to some unfunny slapstick, including against random patients.  This is the first of four WBK stories by Linda Morris and Vic Rauseo, so I guess in a way it's their boo-boo.

Welcome Back, Kotter: Don't Come Up and See Me Sometime

Welcome Back, Kotter: Don't Come Up and See Me Sometime
ABC
September 25, 1978
Sitcom
DVD
C+

This is the first of six WBK stories co-written by Rick Hawkins and Liz Sage and it has some solo work by Travolta, when Vinnie thinks he wants privacy in his first apartment (not unlike Roger Thomas on What's Happening!!), but soon misses his friends when he kicks them out.  I might've given this a B-, but it has two flaws.  One, due to the airdates, this seems to be the first of nineteen appearances of twenty-six-year-old Stephen Shortridge, the poor man's Ted McGinley, as Beau DeLabarre, but he won't be "introduced" for another three weeks.  And it feels off to have him as one of the guys intruding on Vinnie when they just met.  Secondly, I don't buy Woodman bringing over a case of grape Nehi (also the favorite drink of Radar O'Reilly among others), when Barbarino is arguably his least favorite Sweathog.  Everyone gathering together in Vinnie's apartment feels forced, although ironically the joke Mr. Kotter tells is funnier than usual.

Linda McCullough makes her first of three appearances as Vinnie's girlfriend Sally the nurse.

Welcome Back, Kotter: The Drop-Ins, Part 2

Welcome Back, Kotter: The Drop-Ins, Part 2
ABC
September 11, 1978
Sitcom
DVD
B-

This aired the same night as Part 1, and maybe they were once a one-hour special, but they're split into two now (including at IMDB).  Perret & Richmond wrote this part, too, and it is an improvement, partly because there are some actually funny moments, like when Epstein, Washington, and Horshack fill out hospital job applications.  (Freddie's middle name is Percy, after his grandfather.)  Vinnie turns out to be an orderly, and he and the others drop back into school after briefly dropping out.  Note that Mr. Kotter is still teaching a few classes, including still the Sweathogs' History class.

Marian Collier, who was Sally Combs on Gidget, is Nurse Baker here.  Strassman is absent from this part.

Welcome Back, Kotter: The Drop-Ins, Part 1

Welcome Back, Kotter: The Drop-Ins, Part 1
ABC
September 11, 1978
Sitcom
DVD
C+

"...And Special Guest Star John Travolta" is one of the signs we are in a new season.  There are other changes, from Woodman replacing the retiring Principal Lazarus and Kotter getting the Vice Principal's job, to Julie's decidedly un-hippie new look.  Vinnie shows up almost literally at the last minute, claiming he's quit school and has a wonderful job in the hospital.  Oh, and Carvelli and Murray have transferred to Buchanan.  And someone at ABC got a new toy that summer, producing some visual effects in the opening credits and the scene transitions.  None of this in itself means shark-bait, but it doesn't bode too well either.

Note that WBK was moved from its Thursday slot to Mondays at 8 p.m., opposite among other things WKRP and Little House on the Prairie.  I think I did disloyally watch the opposition sometimes, although I mostly hung in with what till this point had been my favorite TV show.  Of course, Mork & Mindy showing up Thursdays on ABC would soon change that opinion.

This is the first of five episodes Bill Richmond and Gene Perret co-wrote.  Norman Abbott, who directed the "locket" episode of The Brady Bunch, would direct all of this last season for WBK.

Welcome Back, Kotter: Close Encounters of the Carvelli Kind

Welcome Back, Kotter: Close Encounters of the Carvelli Kind
ABC
May 18, 1978
Sitcom
DVD
C

This Bloom & Bloomberg story has a few strikes against it: it includes Carvelli & Murray but no Epstein (Hegyes directs though), it makes it quite clear that it's all Kotter's daydream (with cuts to Kaplan looking out the window between scenes), and it's chintzier on its space aliens than The Brady Bunch was four years earlier.  (We don't even get a cardboard spaceship!)  On top of that, some of the jokes fall flat.  It's not fourth-season terrible-- the twist with Julie is cute-- but it's definitely one of the weaker season finales I've seen.

Not counting the three episodes I'm missing, Season Three of Welcome Back, Kotter ranges from C to B, with a B- average.  Although the show isn't as fresh and lively as it was in the first couple seasons, it still has its moments, especially where character development and humor come through.  It is possible that I'm remembering Season Four as worse than it was, but we won't have long to wait to find out, since WBK has the earliest season debut of the seven regular series I'll examine for '78-'79....

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: The Kiss

Sally Hightower

Welcome Back, Kotter: The Kiss
ABC
March 9, 1978
Sitcom
DVD
C+

Laura Stevens (Sally Hightower in her last appearance in the role) faints so Mr. Kotter tries to revive her with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.  Mr. Woodman walks in and of course jumps to the wrong conclusion.  I might've gone with a B-, but it's a borderline tasteless episode, as with Julie jokingly calling Gabe a "molester" and Judy Borden (Lembeck's last appearance in the role) expecting Mr. Kotter to treat her like a "sex object."  Peter Meyerson wrote this one with Max Goldenson, who didn't really write anything else.

Ernest Harada makes his last appearance, too, as "Mr. Jan from the School Board" (as he's almost invariably referred to).

Welcome Back, Kotter: Horshack and Madame X

Welcome Back, Kotter: Horshack and Madame X
ABC
February 23, 1978
Sitcom
DVD
B-

This Barrie & Meyerson episode doesn't quite live up to its farcical potential, I think partly because I can't buy that Arnold, who looks up to Mr. Kotter, would want Mrs. Kotter to toss him aside, no matter how much Arnold thinks he's in love with her.  Still, it is nice to see Strassman have more to work with than usual.  And, yes, she was only a year older than Palillo in real life.  Note, Angie's reaction to the idea of dating Arnold seems especially cruel considering he was the first to befriend her.

Sally Hightower returns as Laura Stevens.  Al Schwartz, yes, Sherwood's brother, does one of his rare directing gigs.

Welcome Back, Kotter: Goodbye, Mr. Kripps

Welcome Back, Kotter: Goodbye, Mr. Kripps
ABC
February 16, 1978
Sitcom
DVD
B-

This story by Garry Ferrier and Audrey Tadman has Vinnie feeling guilty when the Shop teacher, Mr. Leonard Kripps (Jack Fletcher, who was Harry McCann on Gidget), drops dead of a heart attack while yelling at him.  My favorite moment was of course when Epstein hands Mr. Kotter a wooden musical note for being late.

Bryan O'Byrne, who was Mr. Doheny on The Bob Newhart Show, is the Desk Sergeant here.  Sally Hightower makes her first of three appearances as Laura Stevens, I'm guessing the blonde girl who speaks up in class and isn't Angie.

Welcome Back, Kotter: What Goes Up

Welcome Back, Kotter: What Goes Up
ABC
February 9, 1978
Sitcom
DVD
B-

This was written by four writers-- Neil Rosen and George Tricker (who co-wrote two earlier episodes), George Arthur Bloom (this is his fifth), and producer Nick Arnold (this is his last WBK script)-- and it's definitely a Very Special Episode.  Not that that's a bad thing, and I do appreciate the underused Hilton-Jacobs getting to show his acting chops, but it does illustrate the perils of the sitcom format.  Problems are solved in twenty minutes or less (subtracting commercials and credits), but drug addiction isn't something that can be solved that quickly.  Note that this is a rare non-Christmas show which features snow.  I see it as symbolic, not of cocaine (Freddie's on pills) but of freezing out friends.

Welcome Back, Kotter: There's No Business, Part 2

Welcome Back, Kotter: There's No Business, Part 2
ABC
February 2, 1978
Sitcom
DVD
C+

In some ways, this teleplay by Bloom & Bloomberg, based on Kaplan's story, is better than Part 1, but it's also more frustrating.  There are a whole bunch of scenes, including Gabe deliberately bombing so he can go back to teaching, that are told rather than shown.  It's as if they didn't want to have to make this into a three-parter.  Still, it's cool to see the guys dressed up when they wish Mr. Kotter luck.

(Angie has almost nothing to do in this episode.  I can't even remember if she has a line, yet her name is still in the opening credits.  I really think they should've thought this "female Sweathog" thing through more, especially since Strassman was unhappy about having little to do compared to the predominantly male cast.)

Sam Weisman (Peter Charnoff) and David Daniel (Male Student) return.

Welcome Back, Kotter: There's No Business, Part 1

Welcome Back, Kotter: There's No Business, Part 1
ABC
January 26, 1978
Sitcom
DVD
C+

Kaplan wrote the teleplay based on a story by a writer who didn't write much else (an episode each for three other sitcoms).  The irony here is that it's about Gabe becoming a stand-up comic, whose act bombs and then succeeds when he starts telling jokes about his students, and yet the episode itself isn't that funny.  (The line about Epstein's walk made me smile.)  Also, Haller's name is in the opening credits (something that never happened for Vernee Watson or Debralee Scott) and yet she seems like an afterthought in the scenes she appears in, as if she has no distinct personality in the way that the four male Sweathogs do.  There's a certain lethargy to Season Three, not consistent but recurring.  The final season is remembered as the sharkbait, but it does feel like things aren't as fresh as they once were.  (And, yes, we're not quite through obviously, but I'll be curious to see what Season Three averages out to.)

David Daniel plays a Male Student in this and Part 2, while Sam Weisman would return as Peter Charnoff.  (And Weisman would later become a director, including of Who's the Boss?)

This is the 700th program from the '70s, and the final couple years of the decade are going to be pretty busy.

Welcome Back, Kotter: Angie

Welcome Back, Kotter: Angie
ABC
January 12, 1978
Sitcom
DVD
B-

This episode-- written by George Arthur Bloom, Beverly Bloomberg, Paul Mason, and producer James Komack-- confused me as a child.  I'd been watching the show for two and a half seasons and suddenly I found out that girls couldn't be Sweathogs!  Not that I wanted to be one when I got older (I was more the Judy Borden type, though less boastful), but I'd always assumed that everyone in that History class was a Sweathog.  Sure, there were all those kids who sat there and said little or nothing, but didn't they count?  What about Vernajean and Rosalie?  Now, ironically when Mr. Kotter is about to lecture on the ERA, Angie Globagoski (Melonie Haller) transfers from the Bronx and stuns the four main boys with her aspirations to be a Sweathog.  She is accepted by them in the end (well, early on by less macho Arnold), and the character would return, but obviously she's not as well remembered as Arnold, Freddie, Vinnie, or Juan.  Or Rosalie or Vernajean for that matter.

Welcome Back, Kotter: Meet Your New Teacher, Batteries Not Included

Welcome Back, Kotter: Meet Your New Teacher, Batteries Not Included
ABC
January 5, 1978
Sitcom
DVD
C+

While it's not necessarily a bad thing to see a bunch of new names in the writing credits-- Garry Ferrier and Aubrey Tadman for the first of two times; Judy Skelton, who wrote three other episodes for Laverne & Shirley and The Love Boat; and Tony Schnurer who has absolutely no other credits, for acting or anything-- I did find myself going "Yeah, but" a lot this episode.  I realize that the basic premise requires some suspension of disbelief, as well as a knowledge of what computers were like (or at least what most people thought they were like) four decades ago.  But there were other things, like that Kotter doesn't actually use the computer as a tool, instead of keep saying that that's how it should be used.  Note that it seems like every time one of the twins appears (and it does seem to be just one after their earliest appearances), it's always "Robin Bobbin," while Rachel is napping.

Ernest Harada returns as Mr. Jan from the School Board.  Barbarino is absent again, although at least they continue to come up with explanations.  (Not a peep about what happened to Radar on M*A*S*H in contrast.)

Welcome Back, Kotter: Sweatwork

Other local schools on the board

Welcome Back, Kotter: Sweatwork
ABC
December 22, 1977
Sitcom
DVD
C+

This Eric Cohen story starts out in a promising way, with Woodman (speaking slang) recruiting Freddie to run a campus radio program, because of his experience with Wally the Wow.  Even it becoming about Arnold getting low ratings and Freddie having to "fire" him is fine, since the emphasis is on their friendship.  (They spent 2 1/2 years of fifth grade together.)  I was OK with Arnold doing the Network thing.  (There's a moment when you just know he's going to get people to yell out their windows.)  But then it turns into another "swelled head" episode, and I just can't believe Arnold would advocate for lower teachers' salaries, when he's seen Mr. Kotter struggle for "about three years."  The twins by the way are six months old, putting this presumably in the following March, since they were born at the beginning of the school year.  Barbarino is absent, not for the last time.

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.