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Welcome Back, Kotter is an American television sitcom that originally aired on the ABC network from September 9, 1975 to June 8, 1979.

The show starred comedian Gabriel Kaplan as the title character Gabe Kotter, a wise-cracking teacher who returns to his high school alma mater - the fictional James Buchanan High in Brooklyn, New York - to teach an often unruly group of remedial wiseguys known as the "Sweathogs." The school's principal dismissed them as worthless hoodlums and only expected Kotter to attempt to control them until they inevitably dropped out.

However, Kotter had attended the same remedial classes when he was a student at Buchanan and was a founding member of the Sweathogs. Recognizing that he is those students' last chance to have a decent enough education to allow them to survive beyond school, he soon befriends them while they learn to recognize and appreciate his commitment to them. This extended to his students often visiting his Bensonhurst apartment, sometimes to the chagrin of his wife, Julie (Marcia Strassman).

Most of the major characters of Welcome Back, Kotter were based on actual people from Kaplan's teen years as a remedial high school student in Brooklyn. As a stand-up comic, one of Kaplan's most popular routines was "Holes and Mellow Rolls", in which he talked in depth about the kids with whom he had attended remedial education classes. The names of three of the four major characters in Holes and Mellow Rolls were changed for the TV series: "Vinnie Barbarino" was inspired by Eddie Lecarri; "Freddie Washington" was inspired by Freddie "Furdy" Peyton; and "Juan Epstein" was partially inspired by Epstein "The Animal"; only "Arnold Horshack's" name remained unchanged.