OOH! OOH! Mr. Kotter is coming to DVD on June 12th...



http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000NJMJHA/?tag=imwan-20

Alright, dumb question ~ or maybe not such a dumb question considering the depths the RIAA has sunk to at this point ~ what are the odds of John Sebastian's theme music being replaced due to "copyright issues"??

I'd like to think the producers thought of this BEFORE they announced the DVD release!

I suppose it's possible. I'd think that the same complications would have arisen in syndication, though.

WKRP in Cincinatti had this problem in syndication ...long before the DVD's were ever mastered. ( Replacing songs like Foreigner's "Hot Blooded" [ when Les is putting on the toupee ] with some studio music. )

I mentioned this in a thread here before. I sent an e-mail to Mark Evanier asking about this a while back and he later posted this link:

http://members.allstream.net/~jacjud/wkrpmusic.html

Welcome Back Kotter wouldn't be the same without the theme.

Well, I would imagine that it was commissioned for the show, so some kind of arrangement would have been made. The syndicated version had the theme and the DVD compilation from last year had it as well, so I don't think there's a music rights issue.

In fact, that's the only music used in the show. I don't recall ever having heard any other underscore music used for the transitions between scenes, etc.

I had a teen crush on redheaded Hotsie Totsie... because she was hot to trot.

Travolta does a good Travolta.

I always thought they should do another syndicated Welcome Back Kotter, called Welcome Back, and have Epstein come back to teach the new sweat hogs. To me, he was the most talented guy anyway.

Dear Miz Burns:

Please excuse DAC from posting on IMWAN today. He has the flu.

Signed,
Carr's Mother

That's actually not a bad idea, not bad at all, I'd watch it.

To me, Epstein showed the most range and comedic talent. And do it with some new kids, keep it somewhat relateable to the current generation, and you might have a hit.

Robert Hegyes (Epstein) and Ron Palillo (Horshack) appeared on Danny Bonaduce's daytime talk show around 1996. As I recall, they said that an updated series was in development that would show the sweathogs in their adult lives.

As Travolta was just coming off Pulp Fiction, I doubt he would have been part of the proposed show. Nothing ever came of it, so I guess a Welcome Back revival wasn't meant to be.

Hegyes said that the late John Sylvester White (Mr. Woodman) was a sweet man who everyone loved and that all the guys had a crush on Marcia Strassman (Mrs. Kotter) - in reality, she was only a couple of years older than they were. And she was a hottie.

I remember people saying the same thing about the woman who played the Wicked Witch in the Wizard of Oz. Funny how sometimes the nicest people play jerks so well.

You know, reading what you wrote, my series idea could work even better. Originally, I only had Epstein but maybe Arnold and him are roommates, show the heart warming friendship between the two guys over the years.

Maybe Arnold could be the guidance counselor?

True story, I am three degrees from Marcia Strassman, who was in Tremors the Series with Michael Gross, who was in Tremors with Kevin Bacon.

I watched Kotter for the first time in many years around Christmas, and was surprised at many elements of the show. As a kid watching Kotter in syndication in the 1980s, of course all of the high school kids looked a lot older than me. As an adult watching Kotter 20 years later, I was surprised to find out that the high school kids *still* looked a lot older than me. I know that they'd all been left back a few times, but man...

Gabe Kaplan was still the highlight of the show, although it looks like most of what I really liked about him stems from the concept, "What if Groucho Marx had to teach high school?"

Mrs. Kotter was one of my first crushes, and it was a relief to find out that she's still one of the great 1970s TV babes, along with Bailey from WKRP and Lynda Carter on Wonder Woman.

Maybe I'm getting old, but I had a lot more sympathy for Mr. Woodman this time around. He's just trying to run his school the best way he can, and to be fair, most of the Sweathogs really *were* juvenile delinquents who seemed to be out to get him. I have more and more sympathy for the principals, teachers, and cranky old men in TV and movies as the years go on, but I think I've always had those tendencies, since I knew I'd end up a rule-follower instead of a rule-maker when I grew up.

Bumping this thread ~ Tuesday is the big day!

What's that Linda? A Theme Weekend?

Marcia Strassman was indeed ten kinds of hot. She had that Bailey from WKRP thing going on.

And that SNL clip was amusing, in its way.

Ohmigosh! We forgot all about Kotter Weekend!!!

Before Kotter, Strassman appeared on a few episodes of M*A*S*H, playing the very cute Nurse Cutler. She had shorter hair and was a bit younger, but still very much Marcia Strassman.

Robert Hegyes said in an interview once that all the guys on the show had a crush on her.

That was hi-larious! Thank you, Colonel.