Welcome Back, Kotter: Epstein's MadonnaABC
December 8, 1977
Sitcom
DVD
B
This Eric Cohen teleplay (based on a story by Earle Dond, who doesn't seem to have written anything else) has Epstein, who'd previously done a risque drawing for the Art class taught by Paula Holtzgang (Denis Galik), here doing an entire painted "muriel," with Julie Kotter's face and Dolores Del Vecchio (sp?)'s body. (We've never seen Dolores, but she's mentioned fairly often, usually as dating and fooling around with Vinnie.) The painting conveniently goes around the corner, so we don't see the Dolores part. The guys are impressed and Woodman is outraged. Kotter is supportive, until Epstein tells him who the face model was. (Presumably he did this from memory or a photograph, since Julie is surprised and flattered later.) This being the '70s, it's OK to have the painting up in the school yard for a week, the controversy not a problem. Note that this is one of the episodes where Juan is friends with (also never seen) Principal "Jack" Lazarus. It's an unlikely friendship and I wish there'd been a whole episode about it.
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