Speaking of reunion shows...
There was a short-lived NBC sit-com in 1997 called "Mr Rhodes", staring stand up comedian Tom Rhodes as a school teacher. It was actually a pretty good show, but was against some pretty stiff competition, and died in the ratings.
In one episode, blatantly entitled "The Welcome Back Show", Mr Rhodes begins to doubt if going into teaching was a good decision. He wonders if his flippant attitude and tendency toward wacky hi-jinx undermines his ability to actually teach his troubled students anything of real value. He fears that he isn't getting thru to them.
And with these doubts in his mind, he dreams an encounter with "Mr Kotter", who appears as Rhode's personal equivalent of Ben Kenobi. Unfortunately, Gabe Kaplan wasn't available to do the episode, but Kotter was masterfully played by John Kassir (best known as the voice of "The Crypt-keeper" on "Tales from the Crypt" and Buster Bunny on "Tiny Toons") doing a dead-on Kaplan impersonation. The episode also featured apparitional visits from most all of the original Sweathogs (save Travolta, who was Hollywood gold at that time, and well out of the price range of a fledgling sit-com w/ crappy ratings).
Nice episode, and iirc, Hegyes in particular really shined in it, playing with Rhodes in much the same way as he normally dealt with Kotter, and it's pretty much Epstein that convinces Rhodes that he really is accomplishing something as a teacher.
I'd love to find this series somewhere, mostly for just this one episode, but it's not on DVD, and I've not found it online for download anywhere, legally or otherwise. (The pilot alone is available, on Youtube).
