Sneak Previews: Skeletons in Their Closets

Sneak Previews: Skeletons in Their Closets

Medved

PBS

1989

Movie Review

VHS

C+

By this point, Jeffrey Lyons and Michael Medved had been on Siskel and Ebert's old public television show for about four years.  But Medved was still best known for his Golden Turkey books, which he understandably references here, as he and Lyons look at embarrassing roles from the '40s to the 80s.  Most of the clips aren't that funny, nor are the reviewers' remarks.  Travolta is tagged for Moment by Moment, Stallone for Rhinestone.

Welcome Back, Kotter: Barbarino's Baby

Paintings in the elevator?  Um, OK.

Welcome Back, Kotter: Barbarino's Baby
ABC
February 3, 1979
Sitcom
DVD
B-

This Morris & Rauseo episode marks the last appearance of Travolta and it's not a bad note to end on.  Vinnie tries to impress Nurse Bonney (Jane Dulo again) but she just keeps giving him mop duty.  Then he, his friends, and Sidney and Myrna Fishbein (Henry Corden, best known as the voice of Fred Flintsone, and Mary Jo Catlett, who keeps popping up more than I expected), a couple who are about to have their eighth child, are trapped in an elevator.  The outcome is somewhat predictable but the energy level is higher than lately and the writing a little sharper, like Epstein's "Otis" joke.  Far from a classic episode, but good for the final season.  And it does have Mr. Woodman disco-dancing as he sings "Macho Man."

Welcome Back, Kotter: Bride and Gloom

Welcome Back, Kotter: Bride and Gloom
ABC
January 13, 1979
Sitcom
DVD
C

This Barret & Bloom story doesn't make much sense, from the way the news of Vinnie getting married, to Juan's cousin in need of a Green Card, is handled, to the fact that she tells Vinnie she wants dental work, even though she doesn't speak much English and he speaks no Spanish.  Also, the energy feels low.  I was going to go with a C-, but I like Juan dancing to "Hava Nagila" on marimba, as well Mr. Woodman's tale of being jilted by an aviatrix.

Linda McCullough makes her last appearance as Vinnie's girlfriend Sally.

Welcome Back, Kotter: A Winter Coat's Tale

Different episode, same era

Welcome Back, Kotter: A Winter Coat's Tale
ABC
December 16, 1978
Sitcom
DVD
C+

In this Barret & Bloom story, Vinnie buys himself an expensive coat for Christmas, but of course learns the "true meaning" bla bla bla.  Mostly notable for one, Mrs. Kotter filling in as a teacher even though she admits she's not licensed, and two, for Epstein eating spaghetti off Vinnie's tree.

Of the two Hollander brothers who play the "Punks," Adam would die less than six years later, hit by a car while riding a bicycle.  Note that Shortridge's name is finally in the credits.  (They really rushed things with Melonie Haller.)

Welcome Back, Kotter: Washington's Clone

Welcome Back, Kotter: Washington's Clone
ABC
November 11, 1978
Sitcom
DVD
C

The title character is a straight-A student who idolizes Washington, to the point that he lets his grades slip and starts committing crimes!  Well, we find out that the watches he's stolen are actually from his father's shop.  I was going to go with a C+ on this, since it feels odd that Washington is more annoyed at the beginning, before Arthur dresses and talks like him.  Then there was another unfunny slapstick sequence with Vinnie's patient, so I took it down to a C.  Then I was going to give it a C- because the Sweathogs trying to act like a real gang was painful, until some comparatively funny moments happened.  So, yes, back to a C.

Note that of all the lines in the fourth season, the only one that really stayed with me was Julie's "Up your average," because at ten years old I didn't get why the studio audience thought it was outrageous.

Welcome Back, Kotter: The Barbarino Blues

McCullough on a different episode

Welcome Back, Kotter: The Barbarino Blues
ABC
November 3, 1978
Sitcom
DVD
C

This Morris & Rauseo episode is a bit of a mess, with scenarios causing mood whiplash without enough reason for the shifts.  Vinnie wants to break up with his girlfriend Sally (Linda McCullough), so he has the guys standing by in case she cries, faints, or attempts suicide.  Instead, she dumps him.  His friends are amused, except for surprisingly Beau, who's sympathetic.  He has Vinnie call a bunch of girls, but they all reject him.  Vinnie goes into a depression that includes missing work and school, and yet he doesn't get fired or suspended or anything.  His friends come over and find him "drunk" on root beer.  They try to cheer him up.  (OK, Arnold using a sock puppet to sing "Rubber Tree Plant" is cute.)  And then they tear off his clothes, redress him, and make him go to the local soda shop!  Sally shows up and Juan makes Vinnie talk to her.  She apologizes but doesn't explain what's going on with her and her new boyfriend.  She wants to date Vinnie again, so he says he wanted to dump her.  Then they make up and he "treats" her with her money.

The adults aren't in this one much and of course Gabe is absent.  Note that IMDB lists this episode as airing on a Saturday, although the next weekend it's on a Sunday.  I'm guessing either this is an error or ABC was understandably losing faith in the show and was shifting it all over the week.

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: The Sweatmobile

An increasingly rare sight.

Welcome Back, Kotter: The Sweatmobile
ABC
October 9, 1978
Sitcom
DVD
B-

I'd give a B to this Hawkins & Sage story if one, it didn't have the Carvelli & Murray frame around a perfectly fine narrative about the four basic Sweathogs buying a car from Vinnie's shady Uncle Lou, who promptly gets into a car accident, and two, if it had Kaplan, or at least a less pathetic device of Julie being the office secretary and Gabe off at an all-day conference upstate.  OK, I did think "Burger Czar where the burgers are" was clever, but not enough to be repeated a couple times.  As far as where we are in this season's scrambled chronology, we're somewhere after C & M transfer to Buchanan but before Beau does.

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.