John Travolta will be returning to television in a starring role for the first time since 1970s comedy “Welcome Back, Kotter” in a miniseries about the murder trial of football star O.J. Simpson, U.S. cable network FX said on Wednesday.
Travolta, 60, will play Simpson’s defense attorney Robert Shapiro in “American Crime Story: The People v. O.J. Simpson” which will tell the story of the celebrated 1994-95 trial from the lawyers’ perspective.
“Welcome Back, Kotter,” in which Travolta played the cocky high school student Vinnie Barbarino, helped launch his film career with 1970s classics “Saturday Night Fever” and “Grease.”
Simpson’s televised trial and acquittal on charges of murdering his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman in Los Angeles gripped Americans with its mixture of celebrity and race relations.