Why Arnold Horshack Is Cool.

   In the 1970s, there was a TV show called "Welcome Back, Kotter." It was about a teacher in Brooklyn, named Mr. Kotter, going back to his old high school to teach. Grumpy vice principal Mr. Woodman gives him an assignment to teach the remedial academics group, a group of students that call themselves Sweathogs. Mr. Kotter used to be a Sweathog too. So the show follows his adventures trying to teach this class full of crazy teenagers!
    So, my Dad introduced me to this show a few years ago, unfortunately it did not catch on with me as much as "Happy Days"'........until I stumbled upon on METV in November. It was one of those "where has this been all my life?" moments. I love it!!
     But this post is not entirely about the show itself, I just had to fill you in on what it was. This post is about the character Arnold Horshack, one of the main Sweathogs, played by Ron Palillo. It seems that most girls were drawn to John Travolta 's character, Vinnie Barbarino, as they should be because John Travolta is awesome. HOWEVER. Arnold is my favorite, hands down, from minute one. From the first "Hello. Howareya. My name is Arnold Horshack" second. So somebody needed to blog about this to get some Arnold fans together!! Here and now, I'm gonna talk about why he was cool:
1: He was funny. His laugh was hysterical!
2: He had great style. I tried to make the long striped scarf, but am a little discouraged. Trying to Do garter stitch for so long will do that to a person. And those plaid shirts and sweater vests though.
3: He was the smartest Sweathog. Mr. Woodman wanted to move him up and out of remedial academics, but Arnold was not going for that.
4: He knew when it was time to be a man. When he had to fight a guy from a rival school? He recognized that he had to do it. His stepfather dies? He sees that he needs to step up and be the man of the house for his mother and siblings.
5: He had an appreciation of old movies. Plus, plus! I still need to see "Footlight Parade."
6: He had his sense of cool. Not like top dog Barbarino cool. Not hip Washington cool. Not  tough Epstein cool. He had his own dorky Horshack cool.
7: Though Ron Palillo did not like his nose and had plastic surgery to change it, he has my favorite nose of all time. And I have a list of favorite noses.
Here are some random character facts.
1: Ron Palillo came up with the Arnold voice by mixing his aunt's New Haven accent with Dustin Hoffman's accent in "Midnight Cowboy."
2: He got the laugh from his dying father.
3: Horshack means "the cattle are dying. " it's a very old and respected name. Most of the Horshack men were men of the sea.
4: Gabriel Kaplan based the Sweathogs around guys he grew up with.
5: Arnold's middle name was Dingfelder.
So, thank you Ron Palillo for bringing such a cool character to life, for making me want to be a teenager in the 70s, going to Buchanan High. I know, that if that show was a real life thing, we would have been buddies.  RIP.
Have any of you guys watched the show? Share your thoughts below!!!!