"The Telethon" starts off with Kotter passing out test papers that are all blank, Mrs. Bazooti reporting that the mimeo machine had broken down. Horshack reads her confidential note in front of the entire class, including the part where she proclaims her love for Gabe, who claims he hardly knows her (Barbarino: "she's the one with the bazootis!"). A discussion on how to raise money to pay for new supplies switches to Woodman's cheerful news that budget cuts will finally dissolve the Sweathogs once and for all, absorbed into 'the mainstream of the school.' Arnold is adamant that they should put on a telethon to raise $700, and Brooklyn's channel 52.4 takes the bait. Program director Oliver Miles (Jerry Rannow) brings cameras into the Kotter classroom, where Julie opens with a little off key warbling, Epstein pounds the bongos, 'Boom Boom' tickles the ivories, Horshack acts as dummy to Gabe's ventriloquist, and Barbarino does his 'Ba Ba Ba, Ba Ba-barino' while the studio audience goes crazy. Only Mr. Woodman is disappointed that he couldn't sing "My Way." Jerry Rannow makes his final on screen performance, having scripted several episodes of KOTTER, his lone major movie role opposite John Carradine in 1965's "The Wizard of Mars."
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