Welcome Back, Kotter

Welcome Back, Kotter is an American sitcom starring Gabe Kaplan as a high-school teacher in charge of a racially and ethnically diverse remedial education class nicknamed the Sweathogs. Recorded in front of a live studio audience, the series aired on ABC from September 9, 1975, through May 17, 1979. It provided John Travolta with his breakthrough role.

Stand-up comedian and actor Gabriel "Gabe" Kaplan stars as the main character, Gabe Kotter, a wise-cracking teacher who returns to his alma mater - James Buchanan High School in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, New York City - ten years after graduating, to teach a remedial class of loafers known as the Sweathogs. The rigid vice principal, Michael Woodman (John Sylvester White), who was formerly Kotter's social studies teacher, dismisses the Sweathogs as witless hoodlums. Woodman only expects Kotter to contain them until they drop out or are expelled or arrested. Kotter had been a remedial student and a founding member of the original class of Sweathogs. He befriends the current class and stimulates their potential. Kotter forms a rapport with his students. They begin visiting his Bensonhurst apartment, sometimes via the fire escape window, often to the chagrin of his wife Julie (Marcia Strassman).

The fictional James Buchanan High is based on the Brooklyn high school that Kaplan attended in real life, New Utrecht High School, which is shown in the opening credits. Many of the show's characters were based on people Kaplan knew during his teen years as a remedial student, several of whom were described in one of Kaplan's stand-up comic routines "Holes and Mellow Rolls". The character Vinnie Barbarino was inspired by Eddie Lecarri and Ray Barbarino; the character Freddie 'Boom Boom' Washington was inspired by Freddie "Furdy" Peyton; the character Juan Epstein was partially inspired by Epstein "The Animal"; and the character Arnold Horshack was inspired by someone of the same name.^{[citation needed]}

Gabe Kotter is a flippant but empathetic teacher who returns to teach at the high school he attended as a student. He is assigned to a class of remedial students known as the Sweathogs. Kotter has a unique insight into the potential of these purportedly "unteachable" pupils, as well as the difficulties and scrutiny they encounter on a daily basis, as he was a "founder member" of the original Sweathogs.

Kotter is married to Julie throughout the series; they eventually have twin girls, Robin and Rachel. It is confirmed by Julie in the episode "Follow the Leader (part 1)" that Gabe is Jewish.

During season four, Gabe Kaplan had contract issues with the executive producer, which resulted in Kotter's character appearing in only a handful of episodes. In season four, the invisible principal John Lazarus retires, and Kotter becomes the vice-principal. Though he is said to maintain some social studies training duties, most of that season's shows are filmed outside his classroom or, if inside it, Mr. Woodman is teaching. To minimize Kotter's absence, scenes were shot in either the school's hallway, the schoolyard, or the principal's waiting area. Season four ended the series.

Julie Kotter is Gabe Kotter's wife and closest friend. Though she has a sense of humor, she often wishes Gabe would take matters more seriously. She is occasionally upset with the amount of time he devotes to his students (inside and outside of the school), and she is troubled that he allows them to visit their apartment regularly. In the two-part story "Follow the Leader", the Sweathogs' constant intrusions lead Julie to separate briefly from Gabe and even seriously consider divorce. Mrs. Kotter is originally from Nebraska and holds a college degree in anthropology. She eventually becomes a secretary at Buchanan High School, and later a substitute teacher after Gabe's promotion to vice-principal. She makes several references to her "world famous tuna casserole", a common meal at the Kotter dinner table, which Gabe and the Sweathogs deem inedible.

Michael Woodman is the curmudgeonly vice-principal (and later principal) of Buchanan High. He makes no secret of his dislike for the Sweathogs, whom he considers the bottom of the social stratum at his school. He refers to non-Sweathogs as "real" students. When Kotter was a student at Buchanan High, Woodman taught social studies, the same class Kotter returns to teach. The students regularly joke about Woodman's advanced age, and sometimes his diminutive height. Woodman opposes Kotter's unorthodox teaching methods. At one point he even puts Kotter in front of the school's review board in an unsuccessful attempt to have him fired. As the series progresses, Woodman begins to tolerate Kotter and the Sweathogs marginally. In a season one episode, Woodman is shown to be a gifted teacher, willing to wear historic costumes and role-play in front of the class during his lessons.