Left to right: John Travolta, Ron Palillo,
Gabe Kaplan, Robert Hegyes, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs
September 9, 1975: Welcome Back, Kotter premieres on ABC. It was supposed to be titled just Kotter, but when executives heard former Lovin' Spoonful leader John Sebastian's theme song, "Welcome Back," they changed it.
Teacher turned standup comic Gabe Kaplan starred, based on his own experience at New Utrecht High School in Brooklyn. (This may make him the first modern standup comic to get a sitcom based on his act.) While the real school was shown in the opening credits, it was named James Buchanan High School on the show. The same school would stand in for Millard Fillmore High School on the 1980s ABC sitcom Head of the Class. It's been suggested that the show was the first thing that made Brooklynites feel good about their home Borough since the Dodgers left a generation earlier.
(Although many NYC high schools are named for Presidents, from Washington to Kennedy, Fillmore and Buchanan are not so honored in real life. My grandmother went to John Adams in Queens, my grandfather to Theodore Roosevelt in The Bronx.)
Kaplan had been a member of a gang called the Sweathogs. So his character, Gabe Kotter, had been one as well. By the time Kotter got back to Buchanan as a teacher, the gang still existed, passed down to new kids as the older ones grew out. The ones he had to teach:
* Vinnie Barbarino, played by John Travolta. A dimwitted womanizer.
* Freddie "Boom-Boom" Washington, played by Lawrence Hilton Jacobs. (He was sometimes credited with his surname hyphenated: "Hilton-Jacobs.") A smooth-talking basketball freak.
* Juan Epstein -- in full, Juan Luis Pedro Felipo de Huevos Epstein -- played by Robert Hegyes. Half-Jewish, half-Puerto Rican, with a tremendous Afro -- or, like Kaplan himself, a "Jewfro."
* Arnold Horshack, played by Ron Palillo. The closest thing the Sweathogs had to a nerd. He had a high, nasal voice, and an obnoxious laugh that threatened to make him the show's breakout character, except that Travolta became a heartthrob.
As has usually been the case on TV shows set in high schools, the actors playing the students were way too old. Palillo was 26, although his high voice, 5-foot-7 height, and playing the character as very immature made him seem younger than that. Hegyes was 24, and while he was also 5-foot-7, he had a grownup face, so Epstein may have been held back a grade once or twice. Hilton Jacobs was 22, and Travolta was 21, and both of them were 6-foot-2. Kaplan was only 30, but the mustache made him look older.
There was never more than one female Sweathog at a time. Debralee Scott (22 at the time) played Rosalie "Hotsie" Totsie. After 1 season, she was cast as Cathy Shumway on Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman, and Rosalie was written out. In came Helaine Lembeck (also 22 when she joined the show, daughter of Harvey and sister of Michael) as Judy Borden. Although brilliant, she becomes a Sweathog by tutoring Barbarino -- and then dating him.
Kotter realized the Sweathogs weren't dumb (except for Barbarino), they just needed to be reached. One other person who thought they could be reached was another teacher, Julie (Marcia Strassman, only 27 when the show began), whom Kotter romances and marries. One person who didn't think could be reached was the vice-principal, Michael Woodman, played by John Sylvester White.
The show had several running gags. Horshack's laugh was one. His raising his hand to answer a question, and trying to attract attention by going, "Ooh! Ooh! Ooh!" was another. Another was Epstein tending to miss class, and come back the next day with a note: "Dear Mr. Kotter, please excuse Juan from class. Signed, Epstein's mother." Another was Gabe opening the show by telling Julie a B.S. story about one of his uncles or cousins. Another was Julie's tuna casserole: The one thing that Gabe and all the Sweathogs could agree on was that it was awful.
The New York accents of Barbarino and Horshack made the teacher's name "Mistah Kottah!" Washington called him "Mister Kot-tair!" as if it was French. While Kaplan was actually from Brooklyn; Hilton Jacobs was from Harlem; Travolta grew up in the nearby suburb of Englewood, New Jersey; Hegyes from another Jersey suburb, Metuchen; and Palillo from a suburb on the other side of the City, Cheshire, Connecticut;
But the show's catchphrase was a censor job. Mellow Rolls were a marshmallow-based candy, and, in real life, Kaplan's Sweathogs had a rhyming insult: "Up your hole with a Mellow Roll." The producers wanted a catchphrase, but couldn't use that in a family sitcom in 1975. So it was changed to "Up your nose with a rubber hose!" On occasion, there would also be "In your ear with a can of beer."
The series lasted 4 years, by which point Travolta had starred in Saturday Night Fever and the film version of Grease, and hardly appeared in the 4th season. And with the film Animal House having inspired failed sitcoms on all 3 major networks, the idea of "The Sweathogs Go to College" was probably shot down in at a network meeting.
With his white hair, John Sylvester White always looked a lot older than he was. When he died in 1988, he was only 68 years old. Sadly, Scott died from alcoholism in 2005, at 52; while Hegyes and Palillo both died from heart attacks in 2012, at the ages of 60 and 63, respectively. Strassman died in 2014, at 66, after a long battle with cancer.
As of September 9, 2022, Gabe Kaplan is 77, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs is 69, and John Travolta is 68; and all 3 are still acting. Helaine Lembeck is 70, and, like her brother, has mainly shifted to producing and directing.
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September 9, 1975 was a Tuesday. Also premiering on this day, on CBS, was The Bobby Vinton Show. CBS had previously brought 1960s stars back to host a variety show with Sonny & Cher, so Vinton's show, which actually debuted on Canada's CTV network (and taped in Toronto), seemed like a natural.
The series often satirized Vinton's Polish heritage, and its theme song was an oompah band rendition of his 1974 song "My Melody of Love," with Vinton also ended each episode by performing the song himself. My father, who was of Polish heritage, loved it. Vinton is still alive, at age 87, but retired from performing in 2015, after a serious case of shingles.
Singer Michael Bublé was born on this day. And these Major League Baseball games were played:
* The New York Yankees beat the Detroit Tigers, 9-6 at Shea Stadium. This would be the Bronx Bombers' last month in Queens, groundsharing with the Mets while the original Yankee Stadium was being renovated. George "Doc" Medich started and won. Chris Chambliss went 5-for-5 with 3 RBIs.
* The New York Mets lost to the Montreal Expos, 2-1 at Jarry Park in Montreal. Mike Jorgensen doubled Jim Dwyer home with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning. José Morales went 4-for-4, including a home run.
* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 6-2 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Steve Carlton won it -- it was "Win Day." Mike Schmidt and Ollie Brown hit home runs for the Phils.
* The Atlanta Braves beat the Houston Astros, 4-1 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.
* The Chicago Cubs beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-5 at Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh. Andre Thornton and Joe Wallis hit home runs for the Cubbies. For the Buccos, Dave Parker hit a home run, and Willie Stargell went 2-for-4 with an RBI.
* The Cleveland Indians beat the Boston Red Sox, 3-2 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Alan Ashbury singled George Hendrick home with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning. Winning pitcher Rick Waits and losing pitcher Bill Lee both went the distance. Indians player-manager Frank Robinson did not put himself into the game. Carl Yastrzemski went 1-for-4.
* The California Angels beat the Chicago White Sox, 5-4 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.
* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 9-1 at Milwaukee County Stadium. Neither the Orioles' Brooks Robinson nor the Brewers' Hank Aaron or Robin Yount played.
* The Texas Rangers swept a doubleheader from the Minnesota Twins, 3-0 and 4-2 at Metropolitan Stadium in the Minneapolis suburb of Bloomington, Minnesota. Jim Umbarger pitched a 4-hit shutout in the opener. Rod Carew went 0-for-2 before getting hurt, and missed the nightcap.
* The San Diego Padres beat the Cincinnati Reds, 11-2 at San Diego Stadium (later renamed Jack Murphy Stadium and Qualcomm Stadium). Willie McCovey, who never looked right in a Padre uniform, hit a home run. Dave Winfield went 1-for-3 with a walk and an RBI. Rich Folkers allowed the Reds only 3 hits: A single and a double by Dave Concepción, and a home run by Johnny Bench.
* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat their arch-rivals, the San Francisco Giants, 8-3 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
* And the Oakland Athletics beat the Kansas City Royals, 2-1 at the Oakland Coliseum. Bill North singled Bert Campaneris home with the winning run in the bottom of the 14th inning. Reggie Jackson went 1-for-4 with a walk. George Brett went 0-for-6.
The A's were about to win their 5th straight American League Western Division title. The next season, with A's owner Charlie Finley having broken up his dynasty, the Royals, who replaced the A's in Kansas City, began a streak of 3 straight, 4 in 5 years, and 6 in 10.
