It seems to have been forgotten that during Welcome Back Kotter's fourth and final season that John Travolta was involved in a flop as well.

In late 1978, Travolta was in a movie called Moment By Moment, where his character had a romance with an older woman, played by Lily Tomlin.

The movie was a critical and box office flop, which makes me wonder: Based on this, I wonder if the show had been renewed for a 5th season that the producers of WBK could have persuaded Travolta to return full-time as Barbarino or at least to do some selected episodes as he'd done in season 4.

Speculative, but based on the movie being a flop, maybe Travolta would have been receptive to continuing on as Barbarino had the opportunity been presented to him.

Ratings were too bad by that time anyway so even if he wanted to come back ABC was already moving on

One bad movie is not a death knell for an actor like Travolta. He did bounce back in 1980 with "Urban Cowboy" so I doubt he would have returned to Kotter had it continued.

One bad movie is not a death knell for an actor like Travolta. He did bounce back in 1980 with "Urban Cowboy" so I doubt he would have returned to Kotter had it continued.

True, but then he went through a long stretch of bombs for the rest of the decade.

He rebounded a little bit in 1989 with Look Who's Talking, but his real comeback wouldn't be until 1994 with Pulp Fiction.

I think it's plausible he may have considered doing some episodes at least given the fact that Moment By Moment was such a bomb.

Of course, all this is hypothetical and speculative...

It's possible that Travolta could have come back for a fifth season, but the fourth season ruined any chance of that.If they had written the show right for the fourth season, they probably could have done another 2 to 3 seasons of Welcome Back Kotter.

This thread's title has got me thinking: If that special "graduation-of-the-Sweathogs" episode had been produced and aired, would John Travolta have appeared in that or would he have just stayed away?

This thread's title has got me thinking: If that special "graduation-of-the-Sweathogs" episode had been produced and aired, would John Travolta have appeared in that or would he have just stayed away?

If they'd played it up as a big event, he might have agreed to appear.

John would've appeared, those were his boys.

It's possible that Travolta could have come back for a fifth season, but the fourth season ruined any chance of that.If they had written the show right for the fourth season, they probably could have done another 2 to 3 seasons of Welcome Back Kotter.
or if they would have taken Gabe Kaplans suggestion and had them enroll in a junior college and Kotterr takes a teaching job there without knowing the sweathogs are there and he winds being there teacher again.

or if they would have taken Gabe Kaplans suggestion and had them enroll in a junior college and Kotterr takes a teaching job there without knowing the sweathogs are there and he winds being there teacher again.

Yeah, that would have ensured them a minimum of 2 seasons more, and open up a variety of opportunities.

4 seasons; not 2

Hell, maybe Horshack and his wife would have had a baby.

4 seasons; not 2

It would have been a community college, so 2 is correct.

I think any good will remaining between cast and the producers were used up in the fourth season. Hell, the show was called "Welcome back Kotter" and Kotter was barely in it. They should have called Season Four "Where is Kotter?" But you know this was true of so many 70's shows.

I look back fondly on the 70's. It was the last era of kids being less socially conscious about fashion. If you were a kid in school, your parents picked out what you wore and that could be virtually anything...scary. But it was a great time to be young. I can't say how many white t-shirts and blue jeans I wore out. It was an incredible period for television, sports, and movies. I could watch Travolta on Kotter or celebrate him with the Bee Gees in Fever or fall over Olivia Newton John in Grease dancing with him.

It was a magical time on all fronts. You had Jaws, Rocky, Star Wars, Close Encounters, Superman, and Halloween. We had Zepplin, KISS, Bee Gees, Billy Joel, Alice Cooper, and Queen. And in television, it was epic - Six Million Dollar man, Starsky & Hutch, Swat, Kotter, All in the Family, Sanford & Son, Columbo, Good Times, Happy Days... It just goes on and on.

But by the end of the 70's it was like a super nova. Everything was burning out. Kids were getting turned on to punk music; straight leg jeans and dress collar shirts were becoming all the rage; and preppy hair cuts were taking storm. Disco records were being burned and anything considered iconic in the 70's was suddenly deemed dated.

Everything about Kotter represents the 70's. Another year would have been failure because the social tide was turning and the 80's were getting ready to take over... sadly.