by Tom Stewart

Created on: May 28, 2009

"Up your nose with a rubber hose!" It's kind of hard to believe that 'Welcome Back Kotter' launched Oscar and Golden Globe winning actor John Travolta's career. But before he starred in such cult favorites like 'Pulp Fiction' and 'Grease', Travolta played a cocky Italian 'sweat hog' on the television show while coining this phrase and several others from 1975 to 1979. The unofficial leader of the class and heartthrob to women everywhere, Vinnie Barbarino was a dim-witted but amusing character that helped get Travolta noticed.

'Welcome Back Kotter' and the character of 'Barbarino' were based on the stand-up comedy of the show's star Gabe Kaplan. He developed the characters through his comedy acts along with many of the other characters featured on the television show, all of which were supposedly based on people Kaplan grew up with.

Travolta's portrayal of Barbarino quickly became one of the most popular characters on the show. He would often find himself a part of many of the main plots and often delivered some of the funniest lines. His popularity led to posters, lunch boxes, and t-shirts. And in no time he found himself being offered movie roles, television roles, and even started a music career.

In 1976 Travolta was able to squeeze in a TV role in between 'Welcome Back Kotter' filming on a special called 'The Boy in the Plastic Bubble'. It was quite different from his comedic role on 'Welcome Back Kotter' and helped display his serious acting side. The movie brought him much critical acclaim and quickly opened the eyes of other Hollywood directors and producers as to the kind of actor Travolta could be.

While also working on 'Welcome Back Kotter', Travolta took advantage of his fame and attempted a musical career by recording and releasing a series of pop music records. The albums were moderately successful but did produce the hit song 'Let Her In' which peaked at #10 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart. And his obvious acting and singing skills quickly led to starring roles in movies like 'Saturday Night Fever' and 'Grease'.

Both movies were huge box office hits and quickly established Travolta as a major Hollywood leading man. He also found more musical success with the singing of many of the songs on the soundtrack to the movie 'Grease'. With all of his sudden success, his appearances on 'Welcome Back Kotter' became less frequent and Travolta focused more on his movie career. He went on to film other hit movies like 'Urban Cowboy' but a sequel to 'Saturday Night Fever' called 'Staying Alive' was the start of many professionally bad decisions by Travolta. The critics destroyed the film 'Staying Alive' and ripped his performance in it. Travolta also turned down a chance to star in movies like 'American Gigolo' and 'An Officer and a Gentleman' while choosing roles in unsuccessful movies like 'Two of a Kind' which reunited him with his 'Grease' co-star Olivia Newton-John. That movie was the start of a big lull in Travolta's career that would take nearly 10 years to revive with the movies 'Look Who's Talking' and 'Pulp Fiction' in the 1990's.

With all of his blockbuster roles, it's hard to believe that John Travolta's career started off playing a dim-witted student on a small television comedy in the 1970's. While he owes his career to the role in some ways, he doesn't talk about the show much. It's also hard to find much biographical information about his work on the show. I suppose it could be the fact that he was well on his way to stardom before the show and in his mind didn't need the role. Or it could be the idea of not wanting to be known as the actor whose reply to most questions was "What?" "Where?" "Why?"

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