(CNN) When "Welcome Back, Kotter" debuted on September 9, 1975, on ABC, viewers were charmed by the sitcom and its endearing group of unruly high school students. In a controversy that's become an unforgettable part of the sitcom's history , Boston's ABC affiliate initially wouldn't let the now-classic comedy on its air. By September 1975, Boston's ABC station, WCVB, feared that "Welcome Back, Kotter" in prime time would make an already violent situation worse. JUST WATCHED Where you couldn't watch 'Welcome Back, Kotter's' 1975 premiere Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Where you couldn't watch 'Welcome Back, Kotter's' 1975 premiere 00:36Set in Brooklyn, "Welcome Back, Kotter" starred comedian Gabe Kaplan as "Gabe Kotter," a teacher who returns to his alma mater and leads a multiracial class of wise-cracking troublemakers known as the Sweathogs. "'Welcome Back, Kotter' was not trying to make a statement about integration," co-star Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs says in a bonus scene from CNN Original Series "History of the Sitcom."

Source: CNN August 01, 2021 21:55 UTC