User Reviews

This episode finds Buchanan subjected to a flu epidemic with many students and teachers out sick. Because of that, a few of the academically enriched students are forced to have class with Kotter's Sweathogs. Of course, the two halves clash as the Sweathogs feel insecure and dumb around the smarter students who are able to answer all of Kotter's history questions correct.

It's a very fun episode with a lot of great interactions between the characters. Helanie Lembreck is a delight as Judy Borden and it's a shame her character wasn't given more of a role in the series. Ron Palillo is also a great talent as Horshack and its episodes like this where you can tell he really was feeling his character. Great episode, not a boatload of laughs but still very enjoyable.

"One Flu Over the Cuckoo's Nest" finds a flu epidemic sweeping through Buchanan High, reducing Miss Fishbeck's class of honor students to just Judy Borden (Helaine Lembeck) and Todd Ludlow (Dennis Bowen, fourth of five appearances), so Mr. Woodman has no choice but to combine the straight A's with the remedials in Kotter's classroom. Washington figures that if the newcomers are academically enriched, that makes the Sweathogs unenriched! Kotter's questions on American history find the honor students raising their hands every time, the Sweathogs looking on in amazement. The answer to one question is Amerigo Vespucci, and the Italian Barbarino knows exactly who he is: "that was Chef Boyardee's maiden name!" Former Sweathog Kotter comes up with a way to even the odds, by choosing subjects that his students hold dear - Washington being a great basketball buff, Horshack a movie buff, and Barbarino expert in keeping two dates at the same time! This time Epstein comes up with a note that is perfectly genuine, 'the film flam man' reduced to turning in his first legitimate excuse in 11 years!