Stand-up comedian Gabe Kaplan’s most popular bit was telling stories about the hoodlum guys he went to high school with. The Sweathogs were such a funny, colorful bunch that ABC commissioned a sitcom with Kaplan as their world-weary teacher. But Welcome Back, Kotter was more than a workplace comedy — the show was bookended with scenes of Kotter’s home life, mostly centered around corny jokes that he’d tell his wife Julie.
Marcia Strassman had to put up with Kaplan’s dad jokes, but she wasn’t the only actress up for the part. Among the performers in the running: future Charlie’s Angel Farrah Fawcett. The reason producers ruled her out for the part? They didn’t think viewers would believe a schlub like Kaplan would have a wife as beautiful as the future angel.
Not surprisingly, Strassman was miffed when she heard the reasoning. “And you think I do look like Gabe Kaplan’s wife?” she allegedly said. “Thanks a lot!”
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To hear Strassman talk about her Welcome Back, Kotter days — while she was still featured on the hit show! — it sounds like Fawcett dodged a bullet.
“I’m miserable,” she told People midway through the show’s run in 1978. “Gabe runs hot and cold, one day your best friend, the next day not speaking. Even blatant hostility would be easier to deal with. It has always been hard to act with him, especially in intimate scenes.”
Strassman was making a public plea to be fired, and it’s hard to imagine her agents were happy about it. “I hate the series,” she said. “I pray every day for a cancellation. If this is what success means, maybe I should get married and have babies.”
It wasn’t only problems with Kaplan. Strassman also had dreams of being a movie star, and claimed she had to turn down two film offers because she was handcuffed to her five-year Kotter contract. (People called bullshit on that claim, reminding readers that Strassman had just finished a movie.)
Strassman kept throwing gasoline on the fire, telling People that being on Welcome Back, Kotter was so traumatic that it broke up two romantic relationships.
It wasn’t the first time Strassman had gone public with her gripes, ripping Kaplan during the previous summer’s press junkets. The Sweathogs were sure Kaplan would throw a fit. “We joked that I should be wearing a bulletproof vest,” she said. “But the man never said a word. Not a word.”
Kaplan didn’t fire back, at least not directly. But he did explain that “when I’m working, I’m not expressive or open. I can’t do the Hollywood ‘sweetie, baby’ trip. I’m quiet and therefore not ego-satisfying for some people.”
Take that, Strassman!
“Men can be temperamental on a show, and they’re only temperamental. But if you’re the only woman and you express your displeasure, you’re a bitch,” she fired back.
Take that, Kaplan!
When the People article was published, ABC was in the process of moving Welcome Back, Kotter to a better timeslot to improve its ratings. “Oh, God, the network is going to make us a hit again,” Strassman griped.
That could have been your hit, Farrah Fawcett. As it was, you only had to deal with Charlie.
Content shared from www.cracked.com.