That '70s Show

That '70s Show
Series intertitle.
Created by	Bonnie Turner Terry Turner Mark Brazill
Starring	Topher Grace Mila Kunis Ashton Kutcher Danny Masterson Laura Prepon Wilmer Valderrama Josh Meyers (Season 8) Debra Jo Rupp Kurtwood Smith Tanya Roberts Don Stark Lisa Robin Kelly Tommy Chong
Opening theme	"That '70s Song" performed by Todd Griffin(season 1), Cheap Trick(season 2–8) & Ben Vaughn, written by Alex Chilton and Chris Bell
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	8
No. of episodes	200 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer	Caryn Mandabach
Production locations	Point Place, Wisconsin
Running time	22 minutes
Original release
Network	Fox
Release	August 23, 1998 (1998-08-23) – May 18, 2006 (2006-05-18)

That '70s Show was an American television sitcom that centered on the lives of a group of teenagers living in the fictional suburban town of Point Place, Wisconsin, from May 1976 to December 31, 1979. It debuted on the FOX television network. That '70s Show aired on August 23, 1998 and ran for eight consecutive seasons, concluding with the 200th episode airing on May 18, 2006. That 70's Show was a launching pad for the film careers of some of its stars, who were mostly unknown at the time they were cast.

The show's main cast was Topher Grace, Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher, Danny Masterson, Laura Prepon, and Wilmer Valderrama. During the eighth and final season, Josh Meyers was added to the main cast after Topher Grace's departure from the series.

Cast

Main

• Topher Grace as Eric Forman (Seasons 1-7; Appears in final episode)
• Mila Kunis as Jackie Burkhart
• Ashton Kutcher as Michael Kelso (Seasons 1-8 ; Recurring role, season 8)
• Danny Masterson as Steven Hyde
• Laura Prepon as Donna Pinciotti
• Wilmer Valderamma as Fez
• Josh Meyers as Randy Pearson (Season 8)
• Debra Jo Rupp as Kitty Forman
• Kurtwood Smith as Red Forman

Supporting

• Tanya Roberts as Midge Pinciotti (Seasons 1-3, 6-7 ; Recurring role, seasons 6-7)
• Don Stark as Bob Pinciotti
• Tommy Chong as Leo Chingkwake (Seasons 2-4, 7-8 ; Recurring role, seasons 2-3, 7)
• Lisa Robin Kelly as Laurie Forman (Seasons 1-3, 5; Recurring role, season 5)
• Christina Moore as Laurie Forman #2 (Season 6 ; Recurring role only)

Elements of the show

The Seventies

The show tackled social issues which had been significant in the 1970s such as feminism and sexual attitudes and the reaction of the Greatest Generation to their burgeoning influence; the economic hardships of recession; mistrust in the American government among blue-collar workers; teenage drug use; and developments in entertainment technology, from the television remote ("the clicker") to the video game Pong, and probably the most frequently noted Star Wars (the latter neatly tying in to a new round of Star Wars mania in 1999). Red also shows his dislike (or hate) of Communism, and those who prefer it, an attitude contemporary to the Cold War era.

Beginning with the second season of the show, the series' theme changed dramatically, and 1970s current events no longer had a significant bearing on the plot of the series and Lisa Robin Kelly (whose character's disappearance wasn't explained) left. Successive seasons focused less and less on the socio-political aspects of the story, to the point that the decade simply became a backdrop against which the storylines unfolded. The dynamic of the relationship between Eric Forman and Donna Pinciotti, which was the focal point of the series through most of its run, was dramatically altered in later seasons to more closely resemble the relationships of other "power couples" on teen dramas, removing the emphasis on their awkward attempts to reconcile their conservative upbringings with their desire to have a "progressive" relationship founded on 1970s values. Likewise, the first season of the show featured a recurring, non-comedic storyline in which the Forman family was in constant danger of losing their home due to Red's hours being cut back at the auto parts plant where he worked. Recurring storylines in later seasons, even when they carried dramatic elements, were always presented as comedic.

The show also notably featured actors from 1970s TV shows, such as Betty White and Mary Tyler Moore (The Mary Tyler Moore Show), Tanya Roberts (Charlie's Angels), Tim Reid and Howard Hesseman (WKRP in Cincinnati), Barry Williams and Christopher Knight (The Brady Bunch), Tom Bosley and Marion Ross (Happy Days), and Tommy Chong (Cheech and Chong). Many episodes are named after famous and popular rock music hits from Led Zeppelin (season 5), The Who (Season 6), The Rolling Stones (season 7), and Queen (season 8).

Split screens

File:That 70s Show - Who Wants It More?.jpg

An example of the show's use of split screen.

One common scene in the show is to depict a split screen in which two groups of two characters speak. One character is usually seeking advice on some sort of problem with someone in the second pairing, and the other character advises them. The humor in such scenes stems from the conversations usually mirroring each other, but coming to entirely different conclusions. It is most often used for the couples of the show, which each member of the couple being advised on their relationship in a different fashion. For example in one such scene, Donna and Eric consult Jackie and Kelso for advice on attending a drive-in; as the scene closes, Kelso offers to accompany them and is rejected by Eric, while Donna asks Jackie to accompany them and she agrees.

Dream sequences

Signature elements of That '70s Show include surreal, sometimes elaborate, dream sequences to depict various characters' vivid imaginations or dreams, some of which include references to or parodies of fads and films of the time, such as Star Wars, Rocky, and Grease.

Sometimes, those who imagine scenes are heard narrating them, but even if they don't, the other characters perceive them (which means those who imagine tell them what they are dreaming about while the audience gets to see the scene). In the episode "Stone Cold Crazy", as a parody Jackie mentioned she liked the song that was playing in Fez's dream sequence. Such scenes are usually introduced by the wobbling screen transition. Sometimes, the transition is absent when the characters who imagine the scene believe those scenes are real (for example, Eric's dream about Donna in "Eric's Birthday" or Jackie's dream about Hyde proposing in "It's All Over Now").

In the 100th episode "That '70s Musical", all singing scenes were Fez's dream sequences.

The Circle

The Circle was used primarily to illustrate the teens' cannabis use, usually in Eric Forman's basement. The scene shown is the final scene of the series (Note Donna's blonde hair, Hyde's mustache, and Kelso's short hair.)

Another signature element is The Circle scene, in which a group of characters sitting in a circle engage in a conversation (usually in Eric's basement room, though occasionally elsewhere), as the camera slowly spun around in a circular direction, stopping at each successive individual as he or she speaks. It was primarily used as a means for conveying to the audience that characters were under the influence of cannabis. Thick clouds of theatrical smoke and an extreme wide-angle lens added to the "drug-induced" feel of these sequences.

To prevent any issues with standards and practices, the producers avoided any visual appearance of cannabis, matches, water pipes, or any similar substances. Characters never spoke the word "marijuana"(except in one episode Reefer Madness) or any slang term for it unless it carried negative connotations. However, in the episode "Bye-Bye Basement", Theo (Leo's cousin) refers to it as "weed", and in the episode "The Relapse", Kelso remarks that to Fez that the concrete wall behind the gym is used mostly for "smoking weed and beating up freshmen." In another episode, Red exclaims "That kid's on dope!" referring to Eric while learning about the side effects of it. Positive references to marijuana always used vague, broad terms such as "stuff" or "stash".

One of their occasionally-used gimmicks was Eric watching the kitchen wall moving around erratically, performed as a mechanical special effect live on the set, this also would sometimes show that he was drunk. As the series progressed, the circle became one of the series' defining features, and it was quickly adopted by the shows' writers as a narrative technique to streamline the flow of dialog even in non-drug influenced scenes.

The only four episodes where the whole gang is in the circle together are "Class Picture", "I'm A Boy", "Substitute", and "That '70s Finale". The other time that the gang sat in the circle was when they do the That 70s Show theme song (in which Grace and Kutcher were no longer credited).

The Stupid Helmet

Another common feature of the show is the "stupid helmet". The stupid helmet is an old Green Bay Packer helmet that a character is forced to wear when he or she does something that is deemed stupid by the rest of the gang. Eric had to wear it when he told the gang he wanted to propose to Donna, and Fez wore it when he started banging his head on the table after he helped Kelso keep Jackie. The helmet can be seen in the basement on a shelf behind the main cast. When the series concluded in 2006, Kelso took the helmet with him. This is due to the fact that the last one up the staircase had to call Red a "dumbass", something he always calls the kids. Since Kelso was the last one he grabbed the helmet as protection.

The Water Tower

In many episodes the main characters are often hanging out on the water tower; at the end of several water tower segments at least one of the main characters falls off (usually Kelso). When Charlie fell off in season 8, he died. The water tower was renamed in his honor. After Charlie died, Kelso fell off it again and survived, leading him to believe that he is "invincible". In the episode "Water Tower", the gang painted a marijuana leaf on the tower, but it looked more like a green hand giving the finger. Kelso is known to fall off the water tower once in every grade.

Scene changes

The scene changes were used for almost every scene transition. They featured the main characters doing something in front of a colorful, psychedelic, lava lamp-like background. These sometimes included the mirror image of the character doing the exact same thing.

Scene changes in the first season were typically still images of faces from the 1970s with only the mouth moving (à la Conan O'Brien's "Fake Celebrity Interviews") using Syncro-Vox, usually yelling, in a rock form, "Yeahhh!" or similar (ex. Farrah Fawcett saying "Yeah!" or Richard Nixon saying "Are you ready to rock and roll?").

Often, in early seasons, the scene changes included no people whatsoever. They were usually black backgrounds with something colorful (such as a ball, balloon, flowers and things like that) doing strange things, like exploding, replicating, deflating or bouncing around and so on. Sometimes they would be visuals of lava or lava lamps with the That '70s Show logo plummeting to the bottom of the screen in front of it. Another typical early season scene transition would consist of a picture of a random animal, person (sometimes a popular person of the decade, like Farrah Fawcett), or object singing "ohh baby baby baby ohhh", in a Robert Plant-style voice.

The Vista Cruiser

Many of the show's episodes featured Eric and the rest of the kids in or around Eric's "Aztec Gold" 1969 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser, handed down to Eric by Red. For the first seven seasons of the show, the show's introduction showed the cast inside the Vista Cruiser.

The show's pronunciation of "Vista Cruiser", with emphasis on "Cruiser", conflicted with the pronunciation of author George Plimpton in the Oldsmobile television advertisement for the 1969 Vista Cruiser, where he pronounced the two words with the emphasis on "Vista".

That particular station wagon was bought by Wilmer Valderrama at the show's conclusion from Carsey-Warner for US$500.

In August 2009, the show's Vista Cruiser was named third-greatest television car ever by MSN Autos.

Timeline

The creators had wanted the show to have a 1970s "feel" from the beginning, and so opted to set the series later in the decade, when trends and political ideologies had become firmly established and disseminated. The idea that the duration of the series would carry socio-political undertones also necessitated a chain of social events which could influence the characters, Thus, 1976 was chosen, which allowed episodes set within a short time frame to address streaking, the Equal Rights Amendment, the 1973 Oil Crisis, the presidencies of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford, all of which were culturally influential events that occurred in the earlier years of the 1970s. The shift to 1977 during the last half of the first season also allowed the inclusion of a Star Wars episode (20), as its premier airing roughly coincided with the box office debut of A New Hope at that time known just as "Star Wars".

Throughout the first two seasons, episodes opened with title cards stating the season/month and year (example: Late Spring, 1977 or June 1977). These, however, were eventually abandoned after seasons 1 and 2, with few subsequent episodes using them. During the final episode they were used again showing that it was Dec. 31, 1979. From the premiere onward, the year in which the episode took place could be determined by the registration tags on Eric's Vista Cruiser at the end of the opening and closing credits. The final episode's closing credits showed an "80" year tag.

The show was set in May 1976 in the August 23, 1998 premiere. After twelve episodes, the series transitioned to 1977. The 23rd episode, "Grandma's Dead", was also set in 1976, because it was supposed to be the season finale of Season 1. The show remained in 1977 for the next two seasons. Near the end of the third season, the series transitioned to 1978 until early in the sixth season. The remaining episodes took place in 1979, and the series finale abruptly ends during a New Year's Eve party as the characters reach "one" during a countdown to January 1, 1980.

The show's unexpected longevity (it was the only series to debut on Fox in 1998 to survive cancellation) combined with the first season jump to 1977 necessitated a slow-down of the series' time line. Over time this proved problematic from a narrative standpoint, as nearly every year featured a Thanksgiving and/or Christmas episode, and the teen-aged actors playing high-school student characters all aged into their mid-twenties by the time their characters graduated high school after five seasons (except Mila Kunis who was not quite 20). As the series time line sped up and slowed down with more rapidity near the series' climax, the time line necessitated that several major events depicted as having occurred months apart would have in fact happened within weeks or even days of one another.

8th Season and series finale

Eric Forman was written out of the series at the end of the seventh season, as Topher Grace desired to move on with his career. Ashton Kutcher was demoted to a recurring guest role when he also chose to depart following the seventh season, but Michael Kelso hadn't been written out yet, so to give better closure to the character, Kutcher appeared in the first four episodes of the eighth season (credited as a special guest star) and later returned for the finale. Tommy Chong (who began reappearing by late Season 7 after a long absence) became a regular again to help fill the gap. Jackie and Hyde became the show's new central characters focusing on their relationships and jobs (Jackie with Fez and Hyde with Samantha). Eric was originally supposed to be replaced by his new friend Charlie, played by Bret Harrison, he proved fairly popular with audiences but the character was killed off after the actor was offered a lead role in the series The Loop. A new character named Randy Pearson, played by Josh Meyers, was introduced to take Eric's place. Unfortunately, Randy was not received well by fans and critics. Another new character, Samantha, played by Judy Tylor, was added to the cast as Hyde's wife for nine episodes. Both Eric and Kelso returned for the series' final episode, though Grace's role was uncredited. The location of the show's introduction was also changed from Eric's 1969 Vista Cruiser to the "Circle".

The eighth season was announced to be the final season of the show on January 17, 2006, and the final episode was filmed a month later, on February 17, 2006. "That '70s Finale" originally aired on May 18, 2006.

Syndication

The show's reruns are broadcast worldwide on both local stations and cable networks, including The CW, TeenNick, ABC Family, MyNetwork TV, FX, TV Land and Fox.

Remakes

British remake

In 1999, the show was remade by the British ITV network as Days Like These using almost verbatim scripts with minor changes to cultural references. The show failed to attract an audience and was removed from the schedules after 10 of the 13 episodes were broadcast. The remaining three episodes were shown in later reruns.

Chilean remake

In early 2009, the channel Chilevision broadcast a remake of the show by Ross Film named Mis Años Grosos (My Great Years). The show initially did not receive high ratings and before filming of the second season, the main actor died in an accident, and there has been no subsequent news about the continuation of the show.

International broadcasts of US version

Country	Channel	Notes	Foreign title
Australia	7Two	Weeknights at 7 p.m.
Australia	111 Hits	7:30 Weeknights, 12:30–2:00 p.m. Weekend afternoons, 7:30–8:30 p.m. Sunday nights.
Asia	Star World	First started airing in 2000, Monday nights from 8:00–8:30 p.m. Occasionally replaced by other series.	That '70s Show
Belgium	2BE	Subtitled to Dutch. The show aired on a Flemish channel which was also available in Wallonia (also subtitled to Dutch, but the native language in Wallonia is French).	That '70s Show
Bosnia and Herzegovina	OBN		Lude 70 (Crazy '70s)
Brazil	Rede Bandeirantes, Sony	Dubbed in Brazilian Portuguese in Band and subtitled in Sony	De Volta aos Anos 70 (Back to 70s) in Band, and original name in Sony
Bulgaria	All episodes shown on GTV, repeats on bTV Comedy HBO Comedy	February 13, 2008. All seasons dubbed in Bulgarian. January 4, 2010. Subtitled.	Шеметни години (Dizzy Years) Ах, 70-те! (Ah, the '70s!)
Canada	VRAK.TV	Dubbed in French	70
Canada	Fox, Global TV, CH	As the US television station FOX is available in Canada, Canadians were able to watch the series for its entire run on that network. In addition, seasons 1–7 aired on Global TV, while season 8 aired on Global-owned CH. It also aired on latenight on Global in markets where CH isn't available.
Canada	TVtropolis
Colombia	Canal Capital
Croatia	Nova TV		Lude sedamdesete (Crazy 70s)
Czech Republic	HBO Comedy	Premiere in January, 2010. Planned all 8 seasons. Dubbed in Czech.	Zlata sedmdesata (Golden 70s)
Denmark	TV2 Zulu		Dengang i 70'erne (Back then in the '70s)
Egypt	Super Comedy
Estonia	ETV		Kuumad seitsmekümnendad (The Hot '70s)
Finland	Nelonen, TV Viisi		'70s Show
France	France 2
France	Comédie!
France	NRJ12 Dubbed in French
Germany	Kabel 1, RTL		Die wilden Siebziger (The Wild '70s)
Hungary	HBO Comedy		Azok a 70-es évek – show (That '70s – show)
India	Star World		That '70s Show
Ireland	RTÉ Two, Channel 6, Comedy Central, MTV
Israel	yes stars Comedy (on yes) HOT3, Bip, VOD (on HOT)		מופע שנות ה-70 (The '70s Show)
Latin America	Sony Entertainment Television	Including Brazil	That '70s Show
Republic of Macedonia	Sitel		Ludi 70ti (Crazy '70s)
Mexico	Sony Entertainment Television, Canal 5		El show de los '70
Mexico	The N		That '70s show
Middle East	MBC4, dubai channel ONE , SHOWtime comedy channel	Subtitled to Arabic, aired several times in the region
Montenegro	Atlas TV		Vesele sedamdesete (Happy '70s)
Netherlands	Comedy Central	Show has been running since April 30, 2007, reruns until present, subtitled in Dutch.	That '70s show
New Zealand	TV 2	Now airing on rival station TV3 & the BOX (see below)
New Zealand	TV3	First Run. Now occasionally rerun.
New Zealand	the BOX	Re-runs
Norway	NRK2, TV2	The first three seasons was broadcasted by NRK2 under its Norwegian title, re-runs and additional seasons later aired on TV2 with the original English title	Et 70-tallsshow (A '70s show) – Random episodes in no particular order running from 2008-today on Viasat 4.
Pakistan	Star World		That '70s Show
Philippines	Associated Broadcasting Company, Jack TV	ABC 5 (now TV5) aired Season 1 in 2002 (not in order), Jack TV began airing all eight seasons in 2006.
Poland	Polsat HBO Comedy		Różowe lata siedemdziesiąte (The Pink '70s)
Portugal	TVI		Que loucura de família (What a crazy family)
Romania	Naţional TV		www.rebelii.70
Serbia	B92 HBO Comedy		Vesele sedamdesete (Cheerful '70s)
Slovakia	Markíza	Aired first four seasons dubbed in Slovak.	Tie roky 70
Slovenia	Kanal A	All seasons aired.	Oh, ta sedemdeseta (Oh, that 70s)
South Africa	M-net	All seasons aired	That '70s Show
Spain	Paramount Comedy, Antena.neox and Localia		Aquellos Maravillosos 70 (Those Wonderful 70s)
Sweden	TV4		That '70s Show
Thailand	True Series Star World		That '70s Show
Turkey	TV8, ComedySmart
UK	Trouble, Paramount Comedy, Virgin 1, MTV One, MTV R Bravo 2, VH1, Channel 5	MTV R only shows Seasons 1,2 & 6.
Venezuela	Televen Sony Entertainment Television

Theme song

The show usually opens with the theme song, "In the Street", by Alex Chilton and Chris Bell of the band Big Star. It was initially sung by Todd Griffin, but beginning with the second season, the song was performed by the band Cheap Trick, whose version is referred to as "That '70s Song (In the Street)". In a Rolling Stone magazine article in 2000, Chilton thought it was ironic that he is paid $70 in royalties each time the show is aired.

According to theThat '70s Show website, during the first season, at the end of the opening song, Ashton Kutcher (Michael Kelso) yells "Hello Wisconsin!". From the second season onward, Robin Zander (lead singer for Cheap Trick) took over this job. Alternate holiday versions of the theme song were arranged for Halloween, Christmas and musical specials, using organ music and bells, respectively.

Opening credits

Opening credits for Seasons 1–7 showed some of the cast driving in Eric's car singing the theme song together. At the end is a shot of the license plate showing the current year the episode was taking place in in the bottom right corner. After Topher Grace and Ashton Kutcher left the series, the opening credits for Season 8 showed a close up shot of the actors singing a line of the theme song in The Circle. (Example: Mila Kunis, "Hanging Out..."; Danny Masterson, "Down the Street"). The only actors to not say or do anything in the new opening credits were Kurtwood Smith and Tommy Chong with the exception of the first episode of season 8 when Chong sings the last "We're all alright". Notably, new cast member Josh Meyers is not in those credits, probably due to the fact that Randy Pearson wasn't introduced yet. Smith looks at the camera frowning and rolls his eyes. Chong looks around the room, confused (probably in response to hearing "Hello, Wisconsin!") starting with the second episode of the season.

Soundtracks

Several prominent songs from the decade can be heard on the series, and two soundtracks were released in 1999. The first is a collection of funk, soul and disco. The second is a collection of Album-oriented rock songs.

• That '70s Album (Jammin')
• That '70s Album (Rockin')

American ratings

Season		Episodes	Premiere	Season finale	Rank	Viewers (in millions)
1	1998–1999	25	August 23, 1998	July 26, 1999	49th	11.7
2	1999–2000	26	September 28, 1999	May 22, 2000	66th	9.06
3	2000–2001	25	October 3, 2000	May 22, 2001	67th	9.1
4	2001–2002	27	September 25, 2001	May 21, 2002	58th	11.1
5	2002–2003	25	August 30, 2002	May 14, 2003	54th	10.06
6	2003–2004	25	October 29, 2003	May 19, 2004	49th	11.04
7	2004–2005	25	September 8, 2004	May 18, 2005	85th	7.0
8	2005–2006	22	November 2, 2005	May 18, 2006	103rd	5.8

DVD releases

Main article: That '70s Show DVDs

See also

• Days Like These
• That '70s Finale
• That '80s Show
• List of That '70s Show episodes
• List of recurring characters of That '70s Show
• Point Place
• List of awards and nominations received by That '70s Show

External links

• Official website
• That '70s Show at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com show