Welcome Back, Kotter: The Complete First Season

Long ago, on a planet far, far away, somebody thought Gabriel Kaplan was funny. Oh, wait, that was our planet, circa the 1970s. As high school teacher Gabe Kotter, the unprepossessing, marginally talented Kaplan played ringleader to a motley assortment of youthful clowns known as “Sweathogs”—underachieving students taking remedial classes in a rundown New York City high school. The group's resident heartthrob, Vinnie Barbarino, was played by a young John Travolta, the one performer to escape the well-deserved obscurity that eventually overtook the other cast members—including Kaplan. How did anybody laugh at the infantile antics of Freddie “Boom Boom” Washington (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs), Juan Epstein (Robert Hegyes), or the sublimely irritating Arnold Horshack (Ron Palillo)? All 22 insufferable episodes from the 1975-76 first season are included in this four-disc set, with extras including a retrospective featurette and original screen tests. Not recommended. (E. Hulse)