WELCOME BACK, KOTTER 🌟 THEN AND NOW 2020

you [Music] when it premiered on the 9th of September 1975 Welcome Back Kotter was just another sitcom in ABC's new forces and lineup the cost was felt with television newcomers and while the four main students had some film and Broadway chops the star of the series had new act and experience whatsoever yet before the first season had ended kids across America were parroting the mannerisms of Washington horshack at Al the sweat Hawks were being marketed in every conceivable medium and John Travolta signed a 1 million dollar three picture deal with Robert Stigwood not bad for a show that never cracked the top 10 in the Nielsen ratings still there are probably some facts you didn't know about the hit comedy and how they changed team is here to bring them to you the series was inspired by Gabe Kaplan stand-up routine Kaplan was a star player on his high school baseball team and dreamed of someday plane in the major leagues when he tanked at the San Francisco Giants spring training camp he headed back east and took a job as a bellman at a resort hotel in Lakewood New Jersey after watching the touring comedians who be walked there for a few months he decided to take a stab at stand-up he eventually developed a routine based on his experiences in a remedial class at Brooklands New Utrecht high school and took his act on the road fellow Brooklynite Alan Sachs who was working in Los Angeles at the producer of chica and the man caught Kaplan's performance at the Comedy Store at the urging of Freddie Prinze and a TV sitcom pitch was born any resemblance to real persons was strictly intentional Vinnie Barbarino originally called Eddie Barberini in the pilot script was a combination of two real-life people captains fellows sweathog Eddie Lee Cary and a tough kid named Jerry Colucci that one Saxony junior high school Freddie Ferdie payton inspired Freddie boom boom Washington and Epstein the animal as he was known at Kaplan's Al Motta was transformed into the half Puerto Rican huan Epstein at the suggestion of ABC's than head of programming Michael Eisner only Arnold horshack character retained his real-life counterparts name although the original Arnold was so obnoxious that by the fourth grade according to Kaplan even the teachers began calling him Arnold horseshit Robert hey guys originally auditioned for Barbarina in fact he thought he'd landed the part until he arrived to shoot the pilot he got intern elevator with Alan Saxon John Travolta and sax introduced Travolta to him by saying Epstein this is Barbara no no no no he guys corrected him I'm Barbarina no sex repeated you're up Stein this is Barbarina after a brief pause hey guys asked tacks do I get the same pay he does when he was assured that their salaries were equal he replied okay it's fine with me the share was supposed to be called simply Carter but when former lovin spoonful singer John Sebastian was commissioned to write the theme song he found it difficult to find any appropriate words utter slaughter that rhymed with Kotter instead he composed a tune called welcome back that event stay warm nostalgic filling of a man returning home to his roots rather than a classroom full of delinquents the title of the series was duly changed and welcome back went onto the top of the Billboard Pop chart for one week in May 1976 some of Charlie's Angels wanted to be mrs. Kotter both Farrah Fawcett majors and Kate Jackson auditioned for the role of Julie Kotter Marcia strassman the actress who landed there became good friends with Jackson who gifted her with a motorcycle for her 30th birthday sadly not long afterward Strassmann had a nasty accident while riding that left a gash on her cheek that required 10 stitches and eventual plastic surgery to repair paws shacks love came from a sad place Ron Palillo was 10 years old when his father died of lung cancer he developed a severe stutter as a result of the tragedy and his mother sent him to acting classes hoping that it would help to correct his speech problem when Palala auditioned for the role he made up the character on the spot and imitated his father's wheezy gasping voice as he struggled to breathe during the late stage of his illness to create horshack's trademark cloth the original catchphrases were much ruder up your nose with a rubber hose as a rejoinder was as ubiquitous as kiss my grits and dynomite in the late 1970s the rhyming put-down came from Gabe Kaplan stand-up routine it was called drinking and the most famous rank at his school usually uttered by hot [ __ ] when he was at a loss for words was a pure hell with a male role a male role was an ice cream treat popular in Brooklyn in the Bronx the ABC brass decided that the malla role ranked along with the others submitted by Kaplan was inappropriate for primetime TV so they softened them a bit not that of my case toilet face was a bouquet of roses three of the actors hit the Billboard charts while working on the series Marcel Strassmann had tried her hand at a singing career back in 1967 with little success in John Travolta would go on to have a few hits from the grease soundtrack but while cutter was in its heyday Travolta and two of his co-stars attempted to launch recording careers Gabe Kaplan STOVL - single op he knows the rubber hose made it all the way to the 91st in 1977 while lawrence Hilton Jacobs self-titled album Najd into the lower reaches of the Billboard soul chart in 1978 predictably John Travolta who was already heading toward her throat status had the most success hitting number 10 in 1976 with Lateran Boston area residents missed the first four episodes when Welcome Back Kotter premiered in September 1975 racial tensions were running high in Boston due to the court-ordered desegregation of public schools via forced busing the head of Boston's ABC affiliate decided that cutters cast of non scholastic high schoolers might have an unhealthy influence and local students and refused to carry the show four weeks later it became apparent that the Sweathogs had more in common with the Marx Brothers than with the Crips or Bloods and the ban was lifted in time for the fifth episode to ear Groucho Marx almost made a cameo Gabe Kaplan managed to work his croucher impersonation into almost every episode and Robert heyguys patterned Epstein after Chico Marx so of course the two were excited when it was announced that croucher had agreed to do a quick walk on appearance Marx was 86 years old at the time and in rapidly failing health he made it to the studio but he was barely able to walk he leaned heavily on his assistant Erin Fleming and seemingly unaware of his surroundings the producers realized that he was in no shape to go on camera instead his sudden Kaplan's chair on the set and posed for a few pictures with the cast while Fleming beached herself for a possible future cutter appearance reportedly Marx's appearance was so disturbing that the photos were never the four sweat Hawks were more popular than Fonzie at one time after the first episode of Welcome Back Kotter aired before previously unknown stars were shocked to find that they couldn't go out in public without being mobbed the producers took advantage of their popularity and soon the Sweathogs faces were on everything from t-shirts to launch boxes to board games the network once had to fly the cast to LAX by helicopter so that they could catch their flight to New York on time looking down at the thousands of fans flocked around the airport Robert hey guys commented excitedly to Ron Palillo Ron we are the freaking Beatles pallulah who was more of a feet firmly on the ground kind of guy replied Bobby we're not even the freakin Monkees and that's all for now don't forget to leave a like subscribe and share this video with fans take care

Channel: HOW THEY CHANGED

Views: 63,820

Rating: 4.7761903 out of 5

Keywords: how they changed, then and now, before and after, tv, film, actor, actress, boy, girl, tv series, celebrity, celebrities, famous stars then and now, Antes e Depois, Avant et Après, sitcom, top 20, top, top 15, viral, filmography, nostalgia, aging, thenvsnow, 70s, 80s, 90s, where are they now, fair use, soap, soap opera, Welcome Back, Kotter, Welcome Back Kotter, 2020, Gabe Kaplan, Gabe Kotter, Marcia Strassman, John Sylvester White, Robert Hegyes, John Travolta, James Woods, George Carlin

Id: JRzVvsRx5rk

Length: 10min 7sec (607 seconds)

Published: Mon May 18 2020