Ooh! Ooh! I know! I know! He's the guy who played Horshack!!

alz wrote:

Kinda crazy knowing Travolta was on that show. It's always weird seeing big name movie stars, and thinking back to their days as Stand up comics, or sitcom actors (IE, Tom Hanks - Bossom Buddies; Robin Williams - Mork and Mindy).

I didn't watch much of the show (was a bit before my time really).

I'm not sure which came first, but Travolta may have been in Carrie before he was in Welcome Back Kotter. It wasn't a big role, and he pretty much plays a version of Barbarino, except in the movie he gets a blowjob from Nancy Allen. Once Saturday Night Fever became a hit, Travolta was still under contract for Kotter, and they worked out some kind of arrangement where he appeared in a few episodes of Kotter each season until he was free from his TV obligation. The show had kind of become stale at that point anyway. There's only so many times you could hear Washington utter his "Hi there ..." line or listen to Epstein read a note from his mother. It got so bad toward the end that even Gabe Kaplan left the show. By that time, the actors who were supposed to be in high school were all about 30 years old.

JV wrote:

I always found it a bonus when Kotter's wife showed up. Marcia Strassman, wasn't it?

Yeah, at first she kind of had the librarian motif, but once she lost the glasses, let down her hair and wearing tighter clothes, she became kind of hot. Not in an obvious, Farrah Fawcett-Majors kind of way, but in a subtle, MILFy style.

JV wrote:

artie_fufkin wrote:

JV wrote:

I always found it a bonus when Kotter's wife showed up. Marcia Strassman, wasn't it?

Yeah, at first she kind of had the librarian motif, but once she lost the glasses, let down her hair and wearing tighter clothes, she became kind of hot. Not in an obvious, Farrah Fawcett-Majors kind of way, but in a subtle, MILFy style.

Whenever I think of her my thoughts immediately run to Jan Smithers.

Ronnie/Arnold, you're cool with having us dish about '70s babes while watching the boys dig your grave here, aren't ya?

I don't think it would have made a difference either way to him.
The Bailey/Jennifer argument is really just an extension of the age-old Ginger/Mary Ann debate. Best answer I've ever heard about that one was from a guy I went to college with who asked "Why can't I have both and make it a threesome?" It's that kind of creative thinking that makes we Americans unique.

JV wrote:

I want you to know that this thread sent me looking again for a WKRP DVD release status. I see Fox put out Season 1 a few years ago with all of the original music and references to it either replaced with junk or hacked out along with the scene it was played in. Makes me sad that we may never see a proper release thanks to greed.

You mean they edited Dr. Johnny Fever saying "Here's 'Magic Bus' ..." because they didn't want to pay a couple of sheckles to Roger, Peter, Mrs. Moon and Mrs. Entwisle? Typical Fox.
Best episode ever was the one where they dropped the turkeys out of the helicopter. "As God is my witness, I swear I thought turkeys could fly ..."

artie_fufkin wrote:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST01bZJPuE0

That's the stuff! I keep forgetting about YouTube. Don't tip off anyone in law enforcement, but there are "unauthorized sources" from which the complete original shows can be obtained.

Fox can and should spring for the admittedly substantial music costs to bring these shows to whole new generations of viewers, but from what I gather the fault isn't completely theirs. I'll never understand why artists/record companies/publishers would object to having their material presented in such a positive (not to mention incomplete) manner. How could it possibly cost them sales?