Thoughts On Beau and The Final Season

[Dr. Thong]

I've been watching the episodes I taped from the TV Land Marathon and one thing becomes apparent: There were some pretty weak shows during the last season.

I think the worst example was the episode where Horshack refused to dissect a frog - not so much the fact that he didn't want to do it, but the whiny way he went about protesting.

And while I suppose it was admirable they tackled the subject of teenage drinking, Arnold Horshack is not my idea of the poster boy for alcoholism. I guess he was touched by an angel, because he reformed in the end and devoted himself to the woman of his dreams.

As for Beau, he was pretty much just there for the most part. He was just a fill-in except for the episodes where they focused on his practical jokes. Thankfully, there were only a couple of those.

I noticed there were even episodes where Horshack, Mrs. Kotter and Woodman were missing. Let's dilute the cast even further and really make it bad!

I also think it's funny that Gabriel Kaplan is listed in the opening credits for each episode when he appeared in less episodes than John Travolta, who was credited as a "Special Guest Star" only when he appeared.

It's too bad "Kotter" had to do down in such a blaze of mediocrity. The first three seasons were great, but the fourth one made you want to put the show out of its misery - which ABC did in 1979.

[Kotter_Fan]

I honestly hate the episodes with Beau! I like the First,Second, and third season but after that forget it!

[Dr. Thong]

Originally posted by Kotter_Fan:
I honestly hate the episodes with Beau! I like the First,Second, and third season but after that forget it!

Half the time, you're looking at Beau and wondering "Why is this guy here."

Obviously, they needed a fourth full-time Sweathog, but Barbarino he wasn't!

[Richard]

AMEN!

The title character(Kotter,that is)rarely appeared in the last season-and the shows from that season I saw even less rarely.

[luvinjuan1980]

Beau is the missing link.

I mean look at Juan, Freddie, Horshack and
Vinnie (when he was on) and it's so clear that Beau should have stayed down South.

[Kotter_Fan]

I couldn't agree more.

[HiThere]

Yeah that whole thing was just plain wrong they should've made Carvelli as Sweathog

[Buckeye Deb]

I don't think it was as funny as the first three seasons but that does happen...... when you lose a scene stealer like Travolta, you are in TROUBLE!!!!!!!! The others were good but the combination along with Travolta was magic!

[luvinjuan1980]

I also would rather see Carvelli and Murray as Sweathogs than Beau.

I think Beau could somehow be related to
Lyle Flanagan, that guy who went to school with Gabe.


[This message has been edited by luvinjuan1980 (edited 07-26-2001).]

[ThomasE]

Let's give Beau some credit. It was not his fault. The show was just watered down-weak in the last season. No Mr. Kotter,less Vinnie and if you noticed, the sweahogs wore regular clothes.
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Judy Borden: Vinnie you're so low that you could crawl under a pregnant ant.

[70'schick]

When Beau came on this show definitely "Jumped the Shark"........... he was Awful

[Mr. Garrett]

Here's my 2 cents on the demise of WBK:

WBK was a classic "what could have been" with other inner city classics like The White Shadow and Chico and the Man. If anyone was born to be on WBK it was Freddie Prinze Sr. (Who was cast as Chico and CATM and WBK both debuted at the same time.) Had Freddie lived he could have replaced Travolta. Nobody else could have stolen scenes like he did.

Gabe Kaplan self destructed off the set almost exactly the same way as Rerun did on What's Happening. This caused the demise of both shows. Rerun was a set cancer that was always holding out for more money and trying to get his castmates to do the same. Gabe was from many accounts a control freak and also had more then his share of money battles with ABC. Ultimately the network reached a point where Gabe had threatened to leave so many times that they finally let him. Add this with all the writers Gabe fired in the meantime and John Travolta's rise to movie stardom and you have a ship with no captain or an anchor waiting to hit a reef and sink.

To save the show they tried to make Horschack a serious character. This was suicide because Ron's range wasn't strong enough to pull this off and one could no longer like him as a character. Beau isn't even worthy of discussing but he was possibly the most miscast person in tv history. He added nothing to the show and was the weakest link, not the missing link, goodbye!

The biggest blow of all may have been a network swipe at Gabe when Mr. Woodman started telling uncle jokes at the end of episodes. This was the end of the line and this broken down horse was sent to the woodshed around that time.

It's too bad because this show could have been one of the greats!

L8'r

Mr. Garrett



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I am NOT going to be known as Sexy Lingere!
Jo

[Cheryl Harrell]

Yeah, Freddie Prinze would've been great on KOTTER... http://www.sitcomsonline.com/ubb/smile.gif

[Sean Snow]

I'm not sure if he'd be able to do 'Kotter'...if he lived 'Chico' prob. wouldn't have gone overboard until around 1979, and he might have been bined to a contract by NBC.

BTW, Kaplan didn't fire the writers from what I've heard. James Komack is said to have done that.....Komack handeled Kotter very badly....he purposly started a fight between Marcia Strassmen and Gabe Kaplan. Also, did anyone notice how different Gabe looked in "The Breadwinners"? I didn't even know who it was at first!

[luvinjuan1980]

Yeah, that's right, i remember that from the E Hollywood story.
Also, another thing about James Komack. Robert Hegyes, on his own site, said that Komack wasn't a very stable person.

But yeah, he did fire Kaplan's writers and hired writers from the Carol Burnett Show.

[Adamantium]

I've been watching my WBK tapes that I taped during the Fandemonium Marathon a couple years ago. I watched the entire fourth season. Horshack is the most annoying character in that season. I mean Beau, in my opinion, wasn't that bad. Plus, I liked Mary Johnson. And Carvelli and Murray were pretty funny.

Kotter appeared in like only 7 episodes out of 23. Barbarino appeared as a "Special Guest Star" in 10 episodes. But to me, that wasn't the bad part of the season. It was the lame jokes and the fact that they were still in highschool was more sad than funny at this point. Also Mr. Woodman was watered down and seemed like he really cared about the Sweathogs, but didn't want it to show. Whereas in the first three years, he just plain out didn't like them. In a way, I'm glad the show was so bad it's fourth year. That way James Komack knew that he had made a mistake taking Gabe Kaplan off his own show. Plus with Kotter gone, everyone else on the show was telling "jokes."

Does anyone think John Travolta should have just stayed gone or did everyone enjoy his 10 appearances. Maybe Beau could have been more well-liked, if Barbarino wasn't constantly returning.

[Moonlight Lady]

Personally, I don't think it would've made a difference. Beau just wasn't Sweathog material. I could see him on Happy Days though.

[Dr. Thong]

At least it wasn't as bad as the final years of Happy Days...now there's a show that should have been put out of it's misery!!

:wave:

[trexx65]

Beau was trying to hard to fit in with the sweathogs...He couldn't replace john travolta.:crazy:

[Adamantium]

Originally posted by trexx65
Beau was trying to hard to fit in with the sweathogs...He couldn't replace john travolta.:crazy:

What got me was that Freddie, Epstein and Horshack seemed to like Beau more than Vinnie. When Vinnie insulted Beau's southern accent, Freddie came to Beau's defense saying how that accent helps Beau get more girls than Vinnie will ever see.

[Lady T]

I thought he was kinda of cute but for being a Sweathog..he did not fit in and his acting was like hearing fingernails down a chalkboard....

[Stuck In The '70's]

I never watch the last season of Welcome Back Kotter.

[Lady T]

Originally posted by mr roper
I never watch the last season of Welcome Back Kotter. I love Welcome Back ,Kotter so much, that I can actually enjoy the final season of the show, but it does not have the same quality without Vinnie (John Travolta)

[DetectiveGriffin]

:) anywhere Juan is, I am, too!

[W.J. Griffin]

You know, I remember watching the last season and thinking, "Are these clowns STILL in high school?" I mean, come on, they could've brought in an entirely new set of Sweathogs to replace the other kids (an idea that was later taken up by "Saved By The Bell" {*yuck!*}) It would have been more realistic to change the cast every couple of years...maybe even hire some actual teenagers!

Yes, Vinnie should have just stayed gone from the series, and Beau was a BIIIGGG mistake! (Actually, they did have Carvelli and Murray as Sweathogs in the third season, but for some reason they didn't stick around. And remember the "girl" Sweathog they added, some Californy-type blonde who didn't even look like she would need to be in a remedial class in the first place.{and I always assumed VernaJean and "Hotsy" Totsie were the girl Sweathogs, anyway.} But that's just typical of the missteps that sent "Welcome Back, Kotter" into the ashcan its last season!)

[howilu]

I felt the final season wasn't as good as the first three since Gabe Kaplan wasn't in very many episodes due to "creative differences" with creator James Komack. Also absent were the opening and closing jokes about Kotter's relatives. Granted, a lot of people think the show jumped the shark with the addition of Beau but I feel the show jumped without the presence of Kaplan and John Travolta. Those two made Welcome Back, Kotter a hit.