5 Feet of Fury

‘Why Horshack Mattered’

Vulture.com:

Horshack was the pre-Screech, the nerdy loser who somehow got to hang out with the cool kids and was accepted as one of the gang. Today’s kids have Glee and The Big Bang Theory, series built around celebrating the “losers” of the world.

But in the days before “It Gets Better” and “Flip the Script,” decidedly multi-cultural sitcoms like Kotter and characters like Horshack sent a (very) subtle message to younger viewers that it was okay to hang with those a bit different.