Editing Welcome Back, Kotter (section)

== Premise ==
[[Stand-up comedy|Stand-up comedian]] and actor Gabriel "Gabe" Kaplan stars as the main character, Gabe Kotter, a wise-cracking teacher who returns to his alma mater - [[James Buchanan]] High School in [[Bensonhurst, Brooklyn]], New York City - ten years after graduating,  to teach a remedial class of loafers known as the Sweathogs. The rigid vice principal, Michael Woodman ([[John Sylvester White]]), who was formerly Kotter's [[social studies]] teacher, dismisses the Sweathogs as witless hoodlums. Woodman only expects Kotter to contain them until they drop out or are expelled or arrested. Kotter had been a remedial student and a founding member of the original class of Sweathogs. He befriends the current class and stimulates their potential. Kotter forms a rapport with his students. They begin visiting his Bensonhurst apartment, sometimes via the [[fire escape]] window, often to the chagrin of his wife Julie ([[Marcia Strassman]]).

[[File:Welcome back kotter 1977.JPG|thumb|The Sweathogs celebrate a winning lottery ticket as Mr. Kotter looks on.]]
The fictional James Buchanan High is based on the Brooklyn high school that Kaplan attended in real life, [[New Utrecht High School]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.genreonline.net/Welcome_Back_Kotter_Season_One_DVD.html |title= Welcome Back, Kotter: The Complete First Season |website= genreonline.net |access-date= 2016-01-17 |archive-date=February 3, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110203143214/http://genreonline.net/Welcome_Back_Kotter_Season_One_DVD.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> which is shown in the opening credits. Many of the show's characters were based on people Kaplan knew during his teen years as a remedial student, several of whom were described in one of Kaplan's stand-up comic routines "Holes and Mellow Rolls". 
The character Vinnie Barbarino was inspired by Eddie Lecarri and Ray Barbarino; the character Freddie 'Boom Boom' Washington was inspired by Freddie "Furdy" Peyton; the character Juan Epstein was partially inspired by Epstein "The Animal"; and the character Arnold Horshack was inspired by someone of the same name.{{Citation needed|date=August 2020}}