‘Kotter’ Cut-Up Hegyes Returns with Webisodes
Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer
Venice, California. Where teens talk a mean blue streak that could make sailors blush. Where students deal drugs outside the police station. Where juvenile delinquency officers shoot firearms to keep kids in line. Welcome to ‘The Venice Walk,’ an online series created by producer/director/co-star Robert Hegyes, who first gained national attention in the mid-1970s, appearing as Juan Epstein on the hit sitcom ‘Welcome Back, Kotter.’ Hegyes, 58, is now exploring the Internet as an artistic outlet. His latest show is a dramatic twist on his old show, wherein he plays the frizzy-haired Kotter figure, Paco Santana, a juvenile probation officer charged with delinquent students. On a recent afternoon, the Palisadian-Post caught up with Hegyes to look back”and look forward”with the actor. A Venice resident, Hegyes is a fixture in the Palisades, where his girlfriend, home furnishings dealer Jessica Miller, is based. The erstwhile ‘Kotter’ actor welcomes the challenge of distributing ‘Venice Way’ online. ‘You don’t make money on the Internet, you create awareness,’ Heyges tells the Post. ‘I like the fact that this is hard. Henry Ford had three companies fail before he started his car company.’ His goal with ‘Venice’ is to sell it as a limited series on cable, and stream 150 half-hour Webisodes onto mobile phones. Born in Perth Amboy, New Jersey, Hegyes grew up in neighboring Metuchen (he’s a cousin of Jon Bon Jovi). After graduating Glassboro State College (today Rowan University), Hegyes hit Manhattan. ‘Those were the days when they used to go to Broadway to discover actors,’ says Hegyes, who got his big break when producer James Komack saw the 24-year-old playing a Puerto Rican gang member in ‘Don’t Call Back.’ ‘I tortured Arlene Francis with a knife for two hours every night on stage,’ Hegyes says. ‘I didn’t even have time to change and I wore the same thing to my audition for ‘Kotter.” That denim cut-off vest became Hegyes’ signature Sweathog look. ‘Welcome Back, Kotter’ (1975 to 1979) starred stand-up comic Gabe Kaplan as a Brooklyn high school teacher Gabe Kotter, assigned to a motley crew of wise-cracking inner-city youth known as ‘The Sweathogs”’Vinnie Barbarino (John Travolta), Arnold Horshack (Ron Palillo), ‘Boom Boom’ Washington (Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs) and Hegyes’ character, the half-Jewish/half-Puerto Rican dual-purpose token, Juan Epstein. Recalling a typical ‘Kotter’ one-liner, Hegyes quips: ‘Half of my family was making pants, the other half was stealing it.’ (For an actor known for portraying Puerto Ricans and Jews, he is, in fact, Hungarian on his father’s side, Italian on his mother’s.) Hegyes recalls how close-knit the young actors were: ‘We were highly competitive, in a positive sense. We would give each other lines we thought belonged to the other characters. I marveled at how talented everyone was. No one knew each other when we met, but here’s the key: we were all Broadway actors.’ Briefly on NBC before airing on ABC, ‘Kotter’ began as a vehicle for Kaplan, before the meteoric rise of cast mate Travolta, whose blockbusters ‘Saturday Night Fever’ and ‘Grease’ took theaters by storm, overshadowed everyone. Originally, says Hegyes, ‘Larry Jacobs was the movie star. He had played in ‘Death Wish.” The Sweathog actors had no problem with Travolta’s sudden career ascension: ‘John set out on day one to leave to do features.’ Tension between Kaplan and ‘Kotter’ producer/creator Alan Sacks affected the sitcom, which ended atop the Neilsens. During its 95-episode run, Hegyes directed an episode (‘Aliens land in Brooklyn and it turns out to be a dream sequence’) and began writing at the encouragement of then-agent Ron Meyer, the CAA co-founder now running Universal. Heyges rejects any blowback regarding non-Latinos playing Latin roles: ‘That’s utter B.S. God forbid Brando should not actually be Polish [in ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’]. Ridiculous. The role goes to the best person. That’s why it’s called acting.’ When he arrived from New York, Hegyes landed in Toluca Lake, close to NBC’s lot, and spent 11 years in the Valley before discovering Santa Monica. In the 1980s, Hegyes landed the recurring role of detective Manny Esposito on ‘Cagney & Lacey. ‘I would not go to my dressing room,’ Hegyes says, mesmerized by the consummate talents of Emmy-magnets Sharon Gless and Tyne Daly. ‘I would just watch them rehearse. ‘Kotter’ taught me comedy. ‘Cagney’ taught me how to act.’ Hegyes credits his teens from his first marriage”Mac, 18, and Cassie, 21”for ‘Venice.’ ‘They inspired me to write about what I know,’ he says. Which includes Venice High, where Heyges taught for three years. Combining his ‘Kotter’ and ‘Cagney’ roles, Hegyes originally dubbed his program ‘Epstein,’ envisioning a serious re-imagining of his ‘Kotter’ role (think CBS with ‘Lou Grant’). With screenwriter Craig Titley’s (‘Cheaper By The Dozen’) input, it evolved into ‘Venice.’ Jimmy Hanks (Tom’s brother) will direct upcoming episodes. Hegyes views edgy Venice to New York’s Lower East Side; its imagery as a hook. ‘It’s all about branding,’ Hegyes says, grinning. Referencing his ‘Kotter’ role, he adds, ‘You see me as a teenager forever.’ To view the pilot, visit www.TheVeniceWalk.com/
