User Reviews

"Goodbye, Mr. Kripps" was a clever play on the British "Goodbye Mr. Chips" from 1939. Leonard Kripps (Jack Fletcher) is the shop teacher, who Kotter remembers as having a very bad temper, his favorite pastime berating Sweathogs, Barbarino in particular. A brief confrontation between the two in Gabe's classroom leads to the unexpected death of Kripps (offscreen), who suffers a fatal heart attack in the middle of his tirade. Vinnie becomes so distraught after what happened that he now considers himself a bad luck charm, eventually confessing to murder at the police station to the exasperated desk sergeant (Bryan O'Byrne). The detective (Norman Alden) initially takes Barbarino seriously, but with Vinnie's choice of weapon his mouth it's not long before he too is ready to throw up his hands. Epstein's response to being questioned: "I refuse to testify on the grounds you may incinerate me!" This was the first appearance of Sally Hightower, unbilled as Laura Stevens, prominently featured in one further episode, "The Kiss" (Melonie Haller's Angie reduced to one useless line per show).