The Good

A funny show with zany humor that carries over into today.

The Bad

Not enough extras for this fan friendly release.

Welcome Back, Kotter: The Complete First Season gives us 22 episodes of Mr. Kotter (Gabe Kaplan) and his students, the Sweathogs, as they do their best to change Brooklyn's James Buchanan High School's opinion of them. It isn't always easy as Vinnie Barbarino (John Travolta), Juan Epstein (Robert Hegyes), Freddie Washington (Lawrence-Hilton Jacobs) and Arnold Horshack (Ron Palillo) often get themselves and Mr. Kotter into more trouble then they know what to do with. We open with "The Great Debate" as Mr. Kotter tries to show the schools debate team that his kids are just as smart as anybody else. As you can guess this has some comic side effects. Freddie is in love and in the "Classroom Marriage" episode, Kotter and the other Sweathogs try and do everything they can to stop him from taking the plunge. Lastly, "One Flu Over the Cuckoo's Nest" finds teachers out sick, so the Sweathogs are placed a classroom with "normal" students.

Sure the styles are different now and so are a lot of the jokes but Welcome Back, Kotter: The Complete First Season feels snugly comfortable.

Features

"Only A Few Degrees From A Sweathog"

In this featurette Kaplan talks about being in classes similar to the ones that the Sweathogs were in in high school, and how he and Producer Alan Sacks developed the show from that after Sacks heard Kaplan's stand-up act. This is also a historical look at this show that places it in the context of today's teen shows. For some reason though, the kids in high school in today's shows don't look nearly as old as the Sweathogs and the other students. Lawrence-Hilton Jacobs cites the paper airplane that he threw into Gabe Kaplan's hair as a kismet moment for this show being as popular as it was. All the characters are broken down, all the bases are covered and this is a pretty decent, comprehensive look at this film.

Actor's Original Screen Tests

Video

Standard Version. Presented in a format preserving the aspect ratio of its original television exhibition. These shows didn't look that great but truthfully, having watched this show in reruns in the 1980s, I don't recall them looking too amazing then either. Things are simply composed but all the colors seem really toned down. Nothing grabbed me as being amazingly sharp or vibrant, but I don't usually look for those things when I watch a TV show.

Audio

Dolby Digital - English: Mono. The audio for this show was good. Some of the early episodes feel a little stilted, but that seems to be the actors finding their legs in front of a live audience. Once that got worked out the flow of this show was pretty smooth. Also, across all 4 discs everything played very strongly. I didn't have to adjust my volume that much and it also seems like Warner Bros. may have even bumped up the audio a little bit.

Package

Taking a present day approach and giving it a 1970s vibe, the front of this slipcase cover gives us all the main cast members from this show in their own colorful little box. The back cover images feature a 50/50 ratio between shots from the show and promotional stills done between takes. There is a description of this show, a Special Features listing, a cast list and technical specs. The 4 discs for this set are stored in two slim cases, with episode listings, descriptions and airdates laid out all over them.

Final Word

I am so excited that Warner Bros. decided to release to Welcome Back, Kotter: The Complete First Season. I know that they floated around a bunch of episodes on one disc (they actually did this for a bunch of shows) with the goal being to find out the interest level for this show on DVD. I am glad that consumers responded in kind because the minute I heard the familiar piano strains of the opening song a smile came to my face. The cast in this show was perfect. They had a solid back and forth banter and they really played well off of one another. Also, the characterizations were over the top but they weren't corny or cheesy in any way. Also, one really gets the sense that Mr. Kotter cares about his students. As much as they may drive him up the wall sometimes, it is apparent that he really has their best interests at heart.

Welcome Back, Kotter was released .