John Sylvester White Movies

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is a 1979 made-for-TV adaptation of Washington Irving's classic ghost story. Humor is the drawing card in this version, with Jeff Goldblum a delightfully nerdish Ichabod Crane, Dick Butkus an appropriately nasty Brom Bones, and Meg Foster as spirited Katrina van Tassel. Angered that Katrina has grown fond of schoolmaster Crane, Brom Bones determines to scare off the interloper by filling his head with spooky tales of a Headless Horseman. Crane pooh-poohs the legends, until one fateful ride home in the dark of night. Filmed not in Upstate New York but in Park City, Utah, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow premiered on October 31, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

As Season Three of Welcome Back, Kotter gets under way, Julie Kotter (Marcia Strassman), the wife of Buchanan High School's funniest teacher Gabe Kotter (Gabriel Kaplan), gives birth to twin daughters. Before long, the babies are being hugged and coddled by the four prankish-but-lovable remedial students in Gabe's home room, better known as the "sweathogs": Vinnie Barbarino (John Travolta, Juan Epstein (Robert Hegyes), Horshack (Ron Palillo) and Washington (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs). This situation leads to one of the season's funnier episodes, in which Gabe peers into the future when his twin daughters are grown up and he and the sweathogs are all doddering oldsters! Joining the cast halfway through the season is Melonie Haller as Angie Globagoski, a defiant underachiever whose goal in life is to be the first "female sweathog." Evidently she doesn't meet that goal, inasmuch as she has been written out the show by season's end. Another recurring character appears in the form of Murray (Bob Harcum), a remedial student from another school who frequently matches wits (such as they are) with Buchanan's sweathogs. By the end of Season Three, both Murray and his pal Carvelli (Charles Fleischer) will have transferred to Buchanan, possibly as means of "cast insurance" should costar John Travolta, whose star was ascending rapidly via such films as Carrie and Saturday Night Fever), decide to break his contract and quit the show (PS: He didn't). Ironically, although it was Travolta's character Vinnie who was expected to exit at any moment, it is Gabe Kotter who considers "dropping out" of Buchanan to pursue a career as a stand-up comic (with material supplied by his students) in the two-part episode "There's No Business Like Show Business". Other third-season episodes worth mentioning are a brace of Welcome Back Kotter "specials", "The Sweathogs Back-to-School Special" and "The Sweathogs Christmas Special", both of which consist primarily of highlights from earlier seasons. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"The Mansion" is a huge estate in which vices of all sorts are bought and sold. With the Syndicate holding the Mansion in an iron grip, the police have been unable to shut the place down. Hoping to succeed where his colleagues have failed, Tony Baretta (Robert Blake) gains entrance to the Mansion by posing as a gangster on the lam. Sondra Blake, the then wife of series star Robert Blake, is one of the supporting players in this tension-packed episode. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The pilot episode of Welcome Back Kotter finds history and social studies teacher Gabe Kotter (Gabriel Kaplan) taking charge of the remedial class at Brooklyn's James Buchanan High School, some ten years after he had graduated from the same class. Despite his status as a former "Sweathog", Gabe has a lot of trouble riding herd over such "unteachable" 10th graders as Barbarino (John Travolta, Horshack (Ron Palillo), Epstein (Robert Hegyes) and Washington (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs), and by the end of the first day he is sadly informing his wife Julie (Marica Strassman) that he intends to quit. Gabe is prevented from doing so when the "Sweathogs" tell him how much they really like and appreciate him--much to dismay of our hero's longtime nemesis, Buchanan's scowling vice-principal Woodman (John Sylvester White). Incredibly, this pilot show was NOT the debut episode of Welcome Back, Kotter's first season: Instead it was shown third, after episodes in which the sweathogs match wits with a snotty debate team, and in which Washington contemplates dropping out to become a basketball star. Though audiences of the time were probably confused by the chronological mixup, they quickly picked up on the comic rhythm of the show, especially those scenes in which Kotter's charges indulge in their pet hobb of "ranking"--that is, topping each other's insults. Before long, all of America was rooting for Kotter's sweathogs and booing the efforts of Mr. Woodman to undermine Kotter--which including finding an academic loophole forcing Gabe to retake his high school finals! Among the first season's best episodes are "Whodunit", in which student Rosalie "Hotsy" Totzie gets even with the sweathogs for underservedly tagging her with a "fast" reputation; "No More Mr. Nice Guy", in which Kotter and Woodman unexpectedly exchange personalities when Woodman takes over teaching the class one day; "Arriverdci Arnold", wherein the nerdy Horshack is promoted to a "smart" class--and hate it); "Follow the Leader", a two-part power struggle with Barbarino and Washington vying for the unofficial position of class leader; and "Dr. Epstein, I Presume", in which Epstein displays a hitherto unsuspected talent as a veterinarian. In addition to the actors mentioned above, Season One features a number of recurring characters: Vernee Jean Williams (Vernee Watson), who in one installment is talked out of marrying Washington by his pals; supersmart Judy Borden (Helaine Lembeck), whom Barbarino despises until she helps him improve his grades; and Todd (Dennis Bowen) and Maria (Catarina Cellino). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A roman a clef depicting the Wylie-Hoffert murders, this is the first of the made for TV movies introducing the Kojak character and was essentially the pilot for the long-running crime series. When a black ghetto youth is accused of two bizarre murders, Kojak takes it upon himself to find the real murderer. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide