I wanted to but couldn't!

Wow! What a bizarre film! Unfortunately the few funny moments there were were quite overshadowed by it's completely weird and random vibe throughout.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

This could well be the worst TV series ever made, and that's a mouthful.Gabe Kaplan isn't at fault. It's poor writing. He is just a passenger in a wreck. He plays a teacher of some students. For some reason, only three or four students ever say anything. And they are stereotypes even for TV.None of them ever evoke any empathy or sympathy. They aren't identifiable, and if ever a show needed a laugh track, this one does, because it is supposed to be a comedy, but there is no way to know when you are supposed to laugh without a guide.One of th students is a little weak boy that all of the others can beat up on, and most of the show revolves around dehumanizing him. One wonders when they'll just send him to a concentration cam and be done with it.Just nothing at all to like about this garbage.

Though it only lasted for four seasons and the last one was pretty lame, Welcome Back Kotter left its mark especially one particular career. John Travolta got his first big break here and this series led to him starring in Saturday Night Fever while this show was still running. Unfortunately the show didn't outlast his leaving it.The premise was an interesting one, a nice one about a mans who wanted to give something back to where he came from. And where he came from was a class of underachievers from this same Brooklyn high school where he is now teaching. He's assigned to teach the dregs of the school, those for whom fate has decreed they've got a lifetime of changing tires or flipping burgers. Fate decreed that for Gabe Kotter, but he believed in cheating fate and is now trying to impart that same lesson to the sweathogs of a new generation.Sweathogs is the name of the group in his class and they were all New York types to the max. Robert Heyges, Laurence Hilton-Jacobs, Ron Palillo, and John Travolta were four of his students with whom he bonded with. Interestingly enough the four all very different backgrounds bonded with each other, the education system's neglect of them made them kindred spirits.Gabe Kaplan starred as Kotter and he created the show as well and drew from his own background. It's probably what gave the show its success. But when Kaplan wanted out after three seasons, the producers tried to keep it going, but the heart of the show was gone. Also by that time John Travolta was a major film star and he wanted out as well. They brought Marcia Strassman to the school and she had played Kaplan's wife and Mrs. Kotter was hired as a guidance counselor. It just didn't work and the show was mercifully canceled.There was one other very important element in Welcome Back Kotter. John Sylvester White played the Assistant Principal Mr. Woodman is a self serving bureaucrat who was in the school administration when Kotter was himself a sweathog. He can't believe the guy who was marked for failure could now be teaching in his school. White is frustrated every week when episode after episode Kotter gets through another crisis and doesn't quit in frustration. White is sitting around waiting to collect his pension and idealists he doesn't get if he ever was one in the first place, if he was ever young in the first place. He was a great antagonist for Kaplan as Kaplan shot zinger after zinger over this man's forehead. He never got a clue, but White created a great character. He never got enough credit for the show's success.Welcome Back Kotter was a beacon of New York urban culture, seventies style. Don't miss it when TV Land runs the episodes.

As an aspiring school teacher in an urban public school, my local Warner Brothers station affiliate WPIX Channel 11 airs Welcome Back, Kotter followed by other seventies' sitcoms, The Jeffersons, The Odd Couple, and Taxi (all shows set in New York City) but what a night to watch television --Saturdays from 8-10PM. After watching several episodes of Welcome Back, Kotter, I am exploring the possibility of using this show as an educational tool in the secondary classroom. Welcome Back, Kotter is about those disadvantaged students like me to show that they can succeed with a teacher who believes in them. Besides they have an excellent cast led by Gabriel Kaplan (whatever happened to him?), Marcia Strassman who plays his loving wife Julie, and the students or sweat hogs known as John Travolta playing Barbarino, Ron Palillo playing the lovable Horshach, and others like Juan Epstein (a Puerto Rican Jew) and others. The sweat hogs were not the high achieving students and looked down upon by other students. I can't wait for this show to come on DVD.

This was one of the most memorable shows of the 1970's. One thing that made it great was the interaction between Kotter and the Sweathogs. Gabe Kaplan really helped create a perfect balance between having a great comic show as well as dealing with some current topics such as drug abuse, teen pregnancy and gang violence. However, the show really went into sharp decline after suffering the double whammy of the departures of Kaplan and John Travolta. Also, it would have been interesting to see Vinnie, Freddie, Juan and Arnold graduate and see how they would have done in the real world as it was originally planned in the final season. Instead, we got a new Sweathog in Beau and the chemistry between the boys was forever ruined. This show should have ended on a higher note than it did.