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If Everyday People Acted Like The IWC


Greggulator

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"Well, the fall of Kotter was directly related to the red hot Sweathog stable having to change as Vinnie Barbarino broke out as a solo star. They brought in Beauregarde "Beau" De LaBarre as a replacement, but no one accepted the Lance Von Erich type replacement, as he wasn't considered a real Sweathog. Also, attempts at tweaking them into more of a blowjob team by dropping Horshack's awkward look and Epstein's toughness wasn't accepted. Add in that the lead face/ manager of the stable missing dates due to contract problems, and the show fizzled as fast as it hit big. It drew big, and is fondly remembered, but like many promotions...it was killed by it's own success. "

 

 

The other key factor that led to the fall of Kotter that doesn't get mentioned, besides the loss of Travolta, was the feud betwen Gabe Kaplan and Marcia Strassman. Strassman was tired of her role basically being saying "And then what did you do, honey?" (in wrestling terms, dissatisfied with her push/position in the promotion) and didn't get along with Kaplan. Usually, this would mean good bye Marcia, but the network guy responsible for the show sided with her and didn't get along with Kaplan either. This led to more Julie centred storylines, changes in the writing staff with the removal of several of Kaplan's guys (losing his friends on the booking team), and finally an expanded role for Julie in the last season and Mr. Kotter being missing for much of the season (literally, being taken off TV). However, the fans didn't buy Julie as one of the new leads, and along with all of the other problems with the last season, this contributed to the demise of the show. Luckily for Kaplan, like many a wrestler, he had a second career fallback, in this case poker, ready for his life after fame, just like Bockwinkel with insurance, Martel with real estate, and Sid with, errr, softball.

 

Edit : oh yeah, quick WCW analogy, it was the equivalent of losing their break out star (Goldberg/Travolta) to injury/stupid angle/movie fame, squandering their top veteran (Flair/Kaplan) for petty reasons, and trying to push a blonde southerner as the new face of the promotion that nobody was buying (Jarrett/Shortridge).

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