Welcome Back, Welcome Back, Wel-come Baaaack

So in honor of the return of Pop Culture Fiend, here's the theme song from Welcome Back Kotter...



Now one interesting thing about this show, is that it was based in part on creator and star Gabe Kaplan's stand-up comedy routine where he recounts his high school years growing up in Brooklyn. The routine is featured on the EXTREMELY hard to find comedy album Holes and Mellow Rolls, for which the cover art originally looked like this...

After Welcome Back Kotter became a hit, however, the album was re-released with cover art that tied into the show...

In any case, it's a brilliantly funny LP, and in addition to his tales of the real-life "Sweathogs", Kaplan delivers hilarious bits on feminine hygiene, The Exorcist, and masturbating astronauts. 

WBK ran on ABC for a total of four seasons, at which point it completely fell apart largely due to the departure of star John Travolta. But I was pleasantly surprised to see that when TV Land honored the series this past April, Travolta (though he's the only cast member that's still relevant in Hollywood today) happily joined his fellow cast mates, minus Ron Palillo (Arnold Horshack) to accept the award. 

Of course, no discussion of WBK would be complete without a mention of rap artist Mase's use of the WBK theme song in his 2004 "comeback" song, "Welcome Back". This is probably the most interesting sample in the history of hip-hop since Jay Z copped the banjo licks from Green Acres for the intro to The Blueprint. (Okay, that didn't really happen but wouldn't it be cool if it did?) 


And finally, can someone please tell me why a classic show like this is not available on DVD? I mean, you can buy the first season, but that's it. Come on ABC, get on the ball -- we want more stuff like this...