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: I'm Okay, But You're Not

Welcome Back, Kotter: I'm Okay, But You're Not
ABC
June 1, 1979
Sitcom
DVD
B-

This Hawkins & Sage episode is much better than I expected, although it feels like it should've come much earlier in the season.  Beau has been buttering up Mr. Woodman to the point that his own student evaluation is great but those of his friends are very negative.  They blame Beau, who, after a heart-to-heart talk with Mrs. Kotter (who turns out to have seen through his stories from Day One), decides to deliberately get in trouble with Mr. W.  For the record, I think JS White looks good in a kilt.

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: The Sweat Smell of Success

Welcome Back, Kotter: The Sweat Smell of Success
ABC
March 3, 1979
Sitcom
DVD
C+

This Barret & Bloom has Juan unable to run a projector, although he managed fine on the "adult film" episode, and working on the school paper, with no mention of his previous stint.  It is nice to see Mary Johnson get a little more character development, as editor of the paper.  Gabe and Vinnie remain absent.  This is the 1200th program I've reviewed and we're not even out of the '70s.

Welcome Back, Kotter: The Goodbye Guy

LaPiere and her famous sister

Welcome Back, Kotter: The Goodbye Guy
ABC
February 10, 1979
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Susanne Gayle Harris, who has only one other credit, came up with the story and co-wrote the teleplay with Hawkins & Sage.  Perhaps that combination of inexperience and too many cooks is why, despite potential to be really good, maybe even a B+, this episode feels a little muddled.  Woodman's niece Kelly (Georganne LaPiere, who would return in the role) babysits the twins, and she and Juan fall for each other.  Woodman of course isn't happy, especially when Juan and Kelly decide to move in together.  But they learn that they don't have much in common.  LaPiere gives a nice performance, and Hegyes does well with the more serious material, but the episode doesn't quite work, too unfocusued and tonally uneven.

Corey Fischer, who was Capt. Phil Cardoza on M*A*S*H, plays the Waiter.

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: 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: Frog Day Afternoon

Welcome Back, Kotter: Frog Day Afternoon
ABC
November 25, 1978
Sitcom
DVD
B-

This Barret & Bloom story has a bit of in-joky casting, Dena Dietrich as Ilona Garland the Biology teacher.  In addition to her roles as the sisters of Helen Roper and Dorothy Petrillo, she's probably most recognizable as Mother Nature in a series of Chiffon butter commercials.  (And the slogan "It's not nice to fool Mother Nature" pops up on various sitcoms of the day, including What's Happening!!)

Ms. Garland threatens to flunk Arnold if he won't dissect a frog.  He manages to convince everyone that it's braver to stand up for his beliefs than to kill an animal.  I feel like Epstein is getting a bit Flanderized at this point (his "excuse note" for the frogs that Arnold wants to free falls flat), but this is still one of the better episodes of the last season.  Note that Mr. Woodman, who was fleeing Miss Fishbeck a couple seasons ago, seems quite taken with Ms. Garland.

John Travolta is absent (along with Kaplan, Shortridge, Fleischer, and Harcum) but sister Ellen shows up in her last appearance as Horshack's mother.

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: X-Rated Education

Welcome Back, Kotter: X-Rated Education
ABC
October 28, 1978
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Even though this has Carvelli, Murray, and Beau, with no Kotter or Barbarino, this is pretty good.  Yes, it's predictable (you can hear the studio audience reacting to the "twist" a scene or two before it happens), but I do like how Julie and Juan handle the situation and how the emphasis is on their friendship, so that she's not just Mrs. Kotter but has a bond with the Sweathogs besides through her husband.  Plus, Horshack's reactions to the movie are cute.

Jenna McMahon, who wrote one Bob Newhart Show episode and appeared in a different one, here plays Mrs. Zugler.

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: Beau's Jest

Bull, Mario, and not-McGinley

Welcome Back, Kotter: Beau's Jest
ABC
October 16, 1978
Sitcom
DVD
C+

This is the first of six WBK stories by Earl Barret, who'd done one for The Bob Newhart Show, while co-writer George Arthur Bloom had been writing for the show since the previous season.  There's again an awkward frame to the story, probably because Beau's introduction should've aired weeks ago.  I do find Beau irritating, especially with his "There are three things..." thing, and him setting Juan up with a woman who has a jealous boyfriend (35-year-old Richard Moll in unconvincing sideburns), doesn't help, even when he takes the punch.  Kaplan is supposed to be in this episode (although Travolta isn't), but Mr. Kotter is missing on my copy and there's just Julie's one-sided phone conversation where he's apparently sick in bed.

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: Once Upon a Ledge

Welcome Back, Kotter: Once Upon a Ledge
ABC
October 2, 1978
Sitcom
DVD
B-

This Hawkins & Sage story is better than you'd expect, considering it has neither Gabe nor Vinnie and does have Beau.  It introduces the character of Mary Johnson, played by 27-year-old Irene Arranga who actually looks like a teenager.  (In fact, she'd play a teen mom on Alice three years later.)  Arranga does a good job as the kind of girl that is easily overlooked.  When she threatens suicide, Arnold is the only one able to talk her out of it.  The two have a sweet chemistry, and their romance in later episodes is plausible.  I just don't feel like the rest of the cast is at the top of their game, although it is fun to see Hegyes do Baretta.

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 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.