Show Description:

Gabe Kotter returns to his Brooklyn-based alma-mater, James Buchanan High School, to teach a group of misfits called the Sweathogs. The Sweathogs are a group of supposedly unteachable, under-achieving and incorrigible students. The core of Sweathogs are Vinnie Barbarino, the group's wisecracking leader; Juan Epstein, a Jewish Puerto Rican; dimwitted Arnold Horshack; and streetwise Freddie "Boom-Boom" Washington. Gabe, at one time a Sweathog himself, has to try to reach out to these students by relating his own experiences, but is often hindered in his efforts by Buchanan's cantankerous vice-principal, Michael Woodman. Gabe and his wife, Julie, share an apartment near the school. Gabe becomes a father in 1977 when Julie gives birth to twin girls. By 1978, Vinnie graduates from high school (John Travolta by this time had become a major movie star), and a new Sweathog Beau DeLabarre, who had been expelled from seven other high schools, enrolls at Buchanan. Julie also beomes a teacher at the school.