History Series / WelcomeBackKotter

* EndOfEpisodeSilliness: Formerly the TropeNamer when it was called "Uncle Herbie". Every episode ended with Gabe telling Julie an anecdote about ome of his many uncles.

** The end joke was dropped with Season 4.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: In Season 3's "Kotter for Vice-Principal", the Sweathogs start a petition campaign for Mr. Kotter to be vice-principal, only for the deadline to run out. In the two-part "The Drop-Ins" at the start of Season 4, as soon as Principal Lazarus retires, Woodman becomes the head principal, while Mr. Kotter moves up to vice-principal.
** In Season 1's "Whodunit?" Rosalie claims one of the Sweathogs got her pregnant and she wants the father to come forward and take responsibility, only for Rosalie to reveal that she was never pregnant. In Season 3's "The Return of Hotsy Totsy", it is revealed that Rosalie has dropped out of Buchanan High, had a child out of wedlock, and is working at a strip club, with the Sweathogs coming to help her finish high school and get a better job.

* FormerTeenRebel: Kotter was a delinquent in high school- in fact, he started the Sweathogs in the first place, and now has to deal with the current generation.

** Gets a CallBack in Season 3, when the boys discover that Rosalie is working in a strip club to support her child. There is talk of finding her a different job, and Arnold announces he has found one--for himself. "I want to support you and your baby."

* MirrorRoutine: Parodied in "Arrivederci, Arnold", when Mr. Kotter puts on a skit to convince Mr. Woodman to let Arnold back into the Sweathogs; Arnold looks at Kotter, wearing an identical hat, scarf, and coat, with identical lunch boxes, and they both do a few wheezy laughs, with several "Ooh-ooh-ooh!"s, and then Arnold says "Wait a minute: I don't got no mustache..."

Long before Creator/JerrySeinfeld wondered about airline peanuts, before Creator/TimAllen grunted his first "Arrr arrr arrr!", before Creator/RoseanneBarr became a Domestic Goddess, there was Gabriel "Gabe" Kaplan, one of the very first stand-up comedians to successfully [[SitComic turn his stage routine into a hit TV sitcom]]. ''Welcome Back, Kotter'', which ran on Creator/{{ABC}} from 1975–79, was based on Kaplan's own high school experiences with remedial education and his memories of a teacher who cared dearly for her students.

The premise: Gabe Kotter returns to Brooklyn's James Buchanan HighSchool as a teacher and is assigned the [[DustbinSchool remedial class of "Sweathogs"]] to which he himself once belonged. Mr. Kotter is an involved and caring teacher, which one would have to be in dealing with a certain four students in his class, who end up in trouble on a regular basis: ladies' man Vinnie Barbarino (breakout star Creator/JohnTravolta), the always cool Freddie "Boom-Boom" Washington (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs), the tough [[OverlyLongName Juan Luis Pedro Phillipo de Huevos Epstein]] (Robert Hegyes), and the sheepish Arnold Dingfelder Horshack (Ron Palillo). Kotter frequently finds himself butting heads with cantankerous vice principal Mr. Woodman (John Sylvester White), who dismisses the Sweathogs as a lost cause, and tries to juggle his teaching life and his home life with his wife Julie (Marcia Strassman).

[[quoteright:320:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/WBK_4051.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:320:''Magazine/{{Mad}}'s'' Jack Davis is drawing us for the ''Magazine/TVGuide'' cover? Very impressive, Mr. Kot-tair!]]

Long before Jerry Series/{{Seinfeld}} wondered about airline peanuts, before Creator/TimAllen said his first [[Series/HomeImprovement "Arrr arrr arrr!"]], before Series/{{Roseanne}} became a Domestic Goddess, there was Gabriel "Gabe" Kaplan, one of the very first stand-up comedians to successfully [[SitComic turn his comedy routines into a hit TV sitcom]]. ''Welcome Back, Kotter'' ran on Creator/{{ABC}} from 1975–79. The series was based on Kaplan's own high school experiences with remedial education and his memories of a teacher who cared dearly for her students.

The premise: Gabe Kotter returns to Brooklyn's James Buchanan HighSchool as a teacher and is assigned the [[DustbinSchool remedial class of "Sweathogs"]] to which he once belonged. Mr. Kotter is an involved and caring teacher, which one would have to be in dealing with a certain four students in his class, who end up in trouble on a regular basis: ladies' man Vinnie Barbarino (played by breakout star Creator/JohnTravolta), the always cool Freddie "Boom-Boom" Washington (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs), the tough [[OverlyLongName Juan Luis Pedro Phillipo de Huevos Epstein]] (Robert Hegyes), and the sheepish Arnold Dingfelder Horshack (Ron Palillo). Kotter frequently finds himself butting heads with cantankerous vice principal Mr. Woodman (John Sylvester White), who dismisses the Sweathogs as a lost cause, and tries to juggle his teaching life and his home life with his wife Julie (Marcia Strassman).

* ThematicThemeTune: In fact, the producers of what was originally going to be called ''Kotter'' thought John Sebastian's "Welcome Back" captured the tone of the show so well they renamed the show after it.

* AttractivnessIsolation: In "Sadie Hawkins Day", the Sweathogs all get dates to the school dance, except [[TheCasanova Barbarino]], who decides to go alone.

* HonorableMarraigeProposal: In "Whodunit", Arnold proposes to Rosalie, who is trying to guilt-trip the macho boys in the class with a pregnancy scare (which she made up whole-cloth). It earns him a second date when she drops the charade.

* ManInAKilt: In "I'm Okay, But You're Not", new Sweathog Beau DeLabar read his file and found out Mr. Woodman pretty much considered him a Boy Scout, which did not endear him to the rest of the Sweathogs. To try and change his image with them, he "accidentally" spilled coffee on Woodman's pants, and asked him to take them off so he could get them cleaned. Beau then pulled the fire alarm and raised the pants up the flag pole. Fortunately for Woodman, Julie Kotter just happened to have a kilt she was hemming with her for him to wear.

* ReferencedBy: Howard Gabriel, a disgruntled teacher who loses his cool after the students taunt him in the "Tunnel" episode of Series/BarneyMiller.

** Some syndicated networks such as Creator/AntennaTV choose to [[EditedForSyndication omit the end jokes altogether, or move them to the beginning,]] resulting in CreditsPushback to accommodate programming time.

* EndOfEpisodeSilliness: Formerly the TropeNamer when it was called "Uncle Herbie".

** Some syndicated networks such as Creator/AntennaTV choose to [[EditedForSyndication omit the end jokes altogether,]] resulting in CreditsPushback to accommodate programming time.

* TheGhost: Principal Lazarus.

* TheOneWhoMadeItOut: Gabriel.

* VerySpecialEpisode: "What Goes Up," the Season 3 episode where Boom Boom got addicted to painkillers to heal a basketball injury. Boom Boom is in deep denial, and so is a shaken Horshack – who naively believes Boom Boom's explanation that the pills are "vitamins." The others aren't so fooled and eventually get Boom Boom to realize what he's doing. In the final season, "Come Back, Little Arnold" has Horshack using booze to boost his courage when asking out a new love interest. He snaps out of it after he accidentally punches her out while aiming for one of the guys. Both of them are back to normal by the following episodes.

--> What is, is. What was, will be. What will be ''was'' but will be again.

** AnnoyingLaugh: ... and boy was it a doozy.

** "What?" "Where?" (Barbarino)

** [SignatureLaugh "Heh, heh, heh, heh!"] (Horshack)

* DustbinSchool: The "Sweathogs" was the nickname of a class like this at James Buchanon High in Brooklyn. Gabe Kotter had graduated from this class and gone on to become a teacher. He volunteered to return to his old high school and teach this class, hoping to help kids who were in the same position he had been in in high school. They are viewed as a lost cause by Woodman.

** Barbarino's [[ObfuscatingStupidity "What?" "When?" "Where?"]] when Kotter or Woodman is looking for
answers to a situation.

* EveryEpisodeEnding: Gabe tells Julie an amusing anecdote about one of his many relatives at the end of every episode.

** Barbarino's [[ObfuscatingStupidity "What?" "When?" "Where?"]] when Kotter or Woodman is looking for answers to a situation.

* TheDanza: Gabe Kaplan as Gabe Kotter.

** "Ohhh ohh ohh ohh!" (Horshack)

* PersonalitySwap: Occurs with Kotter and Woodman in Season 1's "No More Mr. Nice Guy", when Woodman briefly resumes teaching and become a CoolOldGuy for a day, even briefly becoming more popular than Kotter, while Mr. Kotter turns grumpy and loses his cool, ordering the Sweathogs to return the stolen chalk back to Mr. Woodman.

* CatchPhrase: "Up your nose with a rubber hose" (everyone), "Hi, there" (Washington), "Heyyyy Misssster Kotttaire!" (Washington),"What?" "Where?" (Barbarino), [SignatureLaugh "Heh, heh, heh, heh!"] (Horshack), "I'm so confused!" (Barbarino), "Ohhh ohh ohh ohh!" (Horshack), "Very impressive, Mr. Kotter!" (Horshack), "Ba-ba-ba, Bar-Bar-ino!" with some dancing moves added for good measure (Barbarino), "Right you are, Mr. Kotter!" (Horshack), "Please excuse Juan from class today... [insert excuse of the week]... Signed: Juan Epstein's mother." (Epstein)