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Welcome Back, Kotter: Difference between revisions
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[[File:WBK_4051.jpg|thumb|400px|Mad's Jack Davis is drawing us for the TV Guide cover? Very Impressive, Mr Kotter!]]
Before Jerry [[Seinfeld]] wondered about airline peanuts, before Tim Allen said his first [[Home Improvement (TV series)|"Arrr arrr arrr!"]], before [[Roseanne]] became a Domestic Goddess, there was Gabriel Kaplan, the first stand-up comedian to successfully turn his comedy routines into a hit sitcom. ''[[Welcome Back, Kotter]]'' ran on [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] from 1975 to 1979.
Gabe Kotter, newly-minted teacher, returns to James Buchanan High School and is assigned the remedial class to which he once belonged years before, the "Sweathogs". Mr. Kotter is an involved and caring teacher, which one would have to be in dealing with a certain four students in his class, who end up in trouble on a regular basis: ladies' man Vinnie Barbarino, the always cool Freddie "Boom-Boom" Washington, the tough Juan (Luis Pedro Phillipo de Huevos) Epstein, and the sheepish Arnold Dingfelder Horshack. ''Welcome Back, Kotter'' was based on Gabe Kaplan's own high school experiences with remedial education and a teacher who cared dearly for her students.
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* [[Cloudcuckoolander]]: Everyone had their moments, but Horshack is ''the'' definitive example.
* [[Dean Bitterman]]: Mr. Woodman.
* [[The Dozens]]: Discussed in the very first episode, when Kotter compares their style and subject as they were when he was in high school with how they are "now".▼
* [[End-of-Episode Silliness]]: Formerly the [[Trope Namer]] when it was called "Uncle Herbie".
* [[Five-Man Band]]:
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* [[Flowery Insults]]: "Up your nose with a rubber hose."
* [[Four-Temperament Ensemble]]: Vinnie is Choleric, Washington is Phlegmatic, Epstein is Melancholic and Horshack is Sanguine
<!-- * [[Furry Fandom]]: In one episode Kotter wears a chicken suit in a restaurant to raise extra money for emergency dental work. MOD: This is not in any way an example of Furry Fandom. Commenting out entry until we find or create a more appropriate trope. -->
* [[G-Rated Drug]]: In the episode "What Goes Up ... ", Freddie becomes addicted to painkillers (to heal a basketball injury); a naive Horshack takes Freddie at his word that said pills are "vitamins," while the others are well-aware that Freddie is becoming dependent on them.
* [[Lottery Ticket]]: In one episode Kotter chips in a quarter for the Sweathogs weekly lottery ticket when one of them comes up short. When the ticket then wins, the Sweathogs try to just give Kotter back his 25 cents instead of a share of the winnings.
* [[The Merch]]: Several novel sized paperback with original stories, a comic book, a lunchbox, a "Welcome Back, Kotter" [[Board Games|board game]], and Sweathog action figures with a classroom play area.
* [[Nobody Touches the Hair]]: Barbarino is like this.
* [[Once
* [[The One Who Made It Out]]: Gabriel.
* [[The Pete Best]]: Rosalie "Hotsie" Totsie, the female Sweathog.
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* [[Ugly Guy, Hot Wife]]: Gabe and Julie, though Gabe is more plain/quirky-looking than ugly.
* [[Very Special Episode]]: "What Goes Up," the Season 3 episode where Boom Boom got addicted to painkillers to heal a basketball injury. Boom Boom is in deep denial, and so is a shaken Horshack -– who naively believes Boom Boom's explanation that the pills are "vitamins." The others aren't so fooled and eventually get Boom Boom to realize what he's doing.
▲* [[
* [[Yiddish as a Second Language]]: Kotter—a classic New York Jew—occasionally threw out the odd Yiddish word, although far less often than one might expect. And Epstein completely averted this trope, embracing his Puerto Rican side almost to the exclusion of his Jewish heritage.
* [[Your Mom]]: Invoked and discussed by Kotter in the very first episode, when comparing how [[The Dozens]] worked "then" and "now". Averted in that Barbarino refused to hear even a hypothetical insult aimed at his mother.
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