{"id":44233,"date":"2024-06-15T20:04:38","date_gmt":"2024-06-16T00:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=44233"},"modified":"2024-06-15T20:09:33","modified_gmt":"2024-06-16T00:09:33","slug":"welcome-back-kotter-the-complete-series-dvd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2024\/06\/15\/welcome-back-kotter-the-complete-series-dvd\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome Back, Kotter: The Complete Series (DVD)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Now Available from Warner Home Entertainment.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWelcome Back Kotter\u201d is mainly known as the launch pad for John Travolta\u2019s huge career beginnings, but on its own it\u2019s a solid sitcom. \u201cWelcome Back Kotter\u201d garners a fun premise teeming with so much comedic cache, and it\u2019s remained immortal thanks to John Sebastian\u2019s theme \u201cWelcome Back.\u201d Sebastian who spent most of his career in the band Loving Spoonful delivers on a theme that sets the stage for the series quite well and is definitely catchy enough to where you\u2019ll hum along to it on occasion. Comedian Gabriel Kaplan is a teacher who returns to New York to teach in an inner city school.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s an idealist tasked with teaching the special ed class which is taken up by local gang \u201cThe Sweathogs.\u201d Kotter, being an ex-\u201cSweathog,\u201d takes an interest in getting his students in the right track amounting to some hilarity.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Although the series has its fair share of haters, I like \u201cWelcome Back Kotter.\u201d In its prime it was hilarious ensemble series with surefire laughs and some very likable characters. Among those spotlighted as the central characters, there\u2019s Kaplan as Mr. Kotter. There are also \u201cthe Sweathogs\u201d: Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs is great as \u201cBoom Boom\u201d Washington, Robert Hegyes as Juan Epstein is consistently hilarious, and Ron Palillo as Arnold Horshack borders on shrill at times but has his charms. There\u2019s also a young John Travolta playing Vinnie Barbarino in his first principal TV role<\/p>\n

Before Travolta hit movie stardom, he\u2019d spent a lot of his time dabbling in television and even toying with a music career. As Barbarino, Travolta is often hysterical as the nitwitted leader of the Sweathogs. Travolta’s ace comic timing and ability to play off of everyone on the cast is a highlight. There\u2019s also Julie Strassman, Kotter\u2019s wife, an understanding and good natured woman who often helps Kotter deal with his problems involving his work at school. One thing still relevant about \u201cWelcome Back Kotter\u201d despite its period is that public schools still suck. Kotter\u2019s deck is stacked against him and he has to work within rigid school guidelines in order to hope to get the Sweathogs out of poverty and gang life and in to a decent future.<\/p>\n

A lot of that if course pushed in to the background for the sake of classic sitcom mayhem, with the series spotlighting most of the Sweathogs as the primary source for laughs. The series\u2019 prime is during its first two seasons as by the third season Gabriel Kaplan spent a lot more time with his comedy career. Meanwhile Travolta had been on the verge of a massive movie career that helped to literally define the 1970\u2019s. While the last two seasons are fine enough, the first two seasons are where the cast clicks and garners the biggest laughs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWelcome Back, Kotter: The Complete Series\u201d includes all 95 episodes from all four seasons with thirty five hours total. Sadly there aren\u2019t any extras or audio commentaries; there aren\u2019t even any archival segments ported from other releases.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now Available from Warner Home Entertainment. \u201cWelcome Back Kotter\u201d is mainly known as the launch pad for John Travolta\u2019s huge career beginnings, but on its own it\u2019s a solid sitcom. \u201cWelcome Back Kotter\u201d garners a fun premise teeming with so much comedic cache, and it\u2019s remained immortal thanks to John Sebastian\u2019s theme \u201cWelcome Back.\u201d Sebastian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1996,219,558,947],"class_list":["post-44233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-collectors-den","tag-classic-tv","tag-comedy","tag-john-travolta","tag-sitcom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44233"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44236,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44233\/revisions\/44236"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}