Thankfully, some of the best television shows haven’t been rerun into the ground. They pop up in our thoughts every once in a while, leaving us to wonder, what the cast is up to. If Welcome Back Kotter is a title that runs through your mind, look no further.

Welcome Back Kotter was a great sitcom in the mid to late seventies. Situated in a classroom it followed Gabe Kotter, teaching the remedial class at James Buchanan High School to a primary foursome of loveable misfits. Interestingly, it was a class that a few years prior, he was a member of. 

Mr. Kotter himself was named after, and by, Gabe Kaplan. While enjoying a career as a stand-up comic, he developed the show based on his own high school experience. During his time on Welcome Back Kotter, he got involved in financial markets, doing so well that some of his strategies have been written about in financial magazines. He played in the short-lived series Lewis & Clark in 1981 and appeared in an episode of Murder, She Wrote, then hosted a sports radio show from 1990 to 1992 called The Sports Nuts with Gabe Kaplan. Twice, he was the champion of both The Super Bowl of Poker and the Commerce Club’s Low Ball Tournament and has come in second and third place, several times, in the World Series of Poker. He was on High Stakes Poker earlier this year and recently has been doing stand-up comedy again, joking that he may still pursue a career in baseball. Check out his website for other news and information.

Robert Hegyes, known on the show as Juan Luis Pedro Phillipo de Huevos Epstein, has maintained a career in the entertainment industry. He played a detective on Cagney & Lacey through two seasons, from 1986 through 1988.  In 1998 he starred in The Pandora Project and in 2001 he was in Bar Hopping with Kelly Preston, who’s married to Hegyes’ Kotter costar, John Travolta.  He has made guest appearances on NewsRadio, Diagnosis Murder, and L.A. Heat.  Now, he teaches screenplay writing, acting for camera, and public speaking at Rowan University, his alma mater.  A few years ago, he partnered with Craig Titley to create The Venice Walk, an internet series.  Look at his website for more interesting information. 

Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs has enjoyed a career in both acting and music. After playing Freddie “Boom Boom” Washington in Welcome Back Kotter, he performed as a keyboardist and singer with Rick James, Johnny Gill, and The Temptations. He won the NAACP Image Award for best actor in The Mighty Gents in 1983 and taught acting at The Adam Wade Workshop. Hilton-Jacobs has appeared in Alien Nation, Martin, Roseanne, Sliders, Weird Science, and Moesha. In 1989 he starred in L.A. Heat and in 1992 played the controversial role of Joseph Jackson in The Jacksons: An American Dream. Earlier this year he starred in the psychological thriller Sublime.

After playing Arnold Horshack, Ron Palillo multi-tasked with acting, art, and teaching. He has sold artwork in New York, Hawaii, and California and is known for doing good work with color and with black and white, pen and ink. He also did the art for two children’s books, The Red Wings of Christmas and A Gift for the Contessa. His TV appearances include The Love Boat, The A-Team, Murder She Wrote, Cagney & Lacey, Darkwing Duck, and One Life to Live. He has taught acting at the University of Connecticut as of 1999 and starred in The Guardians in 2006. He was recently in the play Inherit the Wind and appeared on Celebrity Boxing opposite Dustin Diamond (Screech from Saved by the Bell). 

You’d have to be living under a rock to not know what John Travolta has been up to. His charisma, and smile, lifted him into stardom while playing Vinnie Barbarino, and the immensely popular movies Saturday Night Fever in 1977 and Grease in 1978. He starred in the three Look Who’s Talking films and was nominated for an Academy Award in 1994 for his performance as hitman Vincent Vega in Pulp Fiction. He played a good guy/bad guy in Face/Off and most recently dressed in drag as Edna Turnblad in Hairspray. Travolta earned his flying license to command aircraft in the 1980s and now owns five airplanes. He married actress Kelly Preston in 1991 and they have a son named Jett and a daughter named Ella Bleu. He is currently working on an autobiography. His website has a lot more information, including a “Dear John” section where fans can write him a letter.

With an interesting cast like this, it’s no wonder Mr. Kotter went back to high school.

Who’s on your list to know where they are now? Let us know at: samanda@gemstonepub.com