That '70s Show

That '70s Show
Image:That '70s Show logo.png That '70s Show logo
Format	Comedy (sitcom)
Run time	23 minutes (approximate)
Creator	Mark Brazill Bonnie Turner Terry Turner
Starring	Topher Grace Mila Kunis Ashton Kutcher Danny Masterson Laura Prepon Wilmer Valderrama Debra Jo Rupp Kurtwood Smith Tanya Roberts Don Stark Lisa Robin Kelly Tommy Chong
Country	USA
Network	Fox Broadcasting Company
Original run	August 23, 1998 – 2006
No. of episodes	179 (as of Nov 2, 2005)

That '70s Show is a Fox Network television sitcom centered around the lives of a group of teenagers living in the fictional suburb of Point Place, Wisconsin, a suburb to Green Bay, near Milwaukee, during the late 1970s. It debuted on August 23, 1998.

Although the show has been on for seven years, the timeline has been noticeably slowed. When the show first began in 1998, the show was set in May 1976, and in the past seven seasons, only three years have gone by.

1 About the show
2 Theme song
3 Trivia
4 Special guests
5 Crew
6 See also
7 External links

[edit]

About the show

Image:Ericdonna.jpg

Eric Forman and Donna Pinciotti

The first working title for the Fox Network series was called Teenage Wasteland, before being changed to That '70s Show. Other names were The Kids Are Alright, Feelin' All Right, and Reeling in the Years. 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 had been broadcast. The remaining three episodes were shown in a later run of repeats. However, That '70s Show is one of the longest continuous running sitcoms for Fox in the US.

The show follows the life of Eric Forman (Topher Grace) and his five teenaged friends; Donna Pinciotti (Laura Prepon), who is also his girlfriend, Steven Hyde (Danny Masterson), a disillusioned hard-rocking stoner, Michael Kelso (Ashton Kutcher), the unintelligent narcissistic ladies man, Jackie Burkhart (Mila Kunis), a high school cheerleader who is self-involved and extremely concerned with wealth and status, and Fez (Wilmer Valderrama), the nicknamed goofy foreigner whose country of origin is ambiguous, whose real name is unknown to all but him, and whose hormones are out of control. Eric drives a 1969 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser, a station wagon given to him by his father.

Other main characters include Red Forman (Kurtwood Smith), Eric's overbearing veteran father, obsessed with making "...him a man, which he's not" (Red Forman: episode 421: Prank Day); his overprotective menopausal mother, Kitty (Debra Jo Rupp), who is caught up in trying to be a fulltime mom and housewife, while maintaining a job as a nurse in a local hospital; and Laurie Forman (Lisa Robin Kelly, 1998-2001, 2002-2003; Christina Moore, 2004-2005), the promiscuous older sister who can do no wrong in the eyes of their father. The show also follows the relationship of Bob and Midge Pinciotti (Don Stark, Tanya Roberts), Donna's parents, both of whom are slow witted and easily influenced by the movements and fads of the '70s, which sometimes places stress on their marriage. Tommy Chong also appears as the recurring character of Leo, the stoner owner of the Foto Hut [sic].

The show has gained recognition for providing a bold retrospective to a decade full of political events and technological milestones that have dramatically shaped the world today. The show manages to use smart humor in tackling all significant characteristics of 1970s America, dealing with major political movements such as feminism, new attitudes towards sexuality, economic hardships of recession, a developing lack of trust from blue collar workers in American government, as well as the use of marijuana among teenagers and impact of new technology on entertainment, from the TV remote (or "the clicker"), to Pong.

[edit]

Theme song

The show usually opens with the theme song, "In the Street," by Alex Chilton and Chris Bell of the band Big Star. Beginning with the second season, the song was performed by the band Cheap Trick. The lyrics are as follows:

Hanging out, down the street
The same old thing we did last week
Not a thing to do, but talk to you
We're all alright! We're all alright!

The final part ("We're All Alright!") is from the Cheap Trick song "Surrender". Robin Zander (the lead singer of Cheap Trick) yells "Hello Wisconsin!" at the end of the complete single (heard during the show's first season). In subsequent seasons, the line is yelled by Danny Masterson ("Steven Hyde").

[edit]

Trivia

This show is linked with its spinoff, That '80s Show, via the character of Eric Forman (whose cousin is the lead character in the 80s version). That '80s Show, however, only aired for half a season before being cancelled.
Laura Prepon genuinely hated the Catholic school girl uniform she was forced to wear during the fifth season.
Donna has a younger sister, Tina, who appears in one episode. Valerie is an elder sister of Donna's who is also mentioned. Neither are ever seen again (at the end of one episode, an announcer showed a picture of Midge thinking at a table, with the announcer intoning "What happened to Midge's daughter Tina?"). This phenomenon is often referred to as Chuck Cunningham syndrome. Donna's mom (Midge Pinciotti) leaves her family for California but returns at a later time.
The gang lives in a fictional city in Wisconsin called "Point Place." It does not have a specific location, but speculation has come from various trips they have taken that Point Place is a pseudonym for Racine, WI. In the wrestling episode, in which The Rock is the guest star, they talk about going down to Kenosha. In another episode, they talk about going up to Milwaukee. Racine is located between these two cities. According to the official homepage though, Point Place is a suburb of Green Bay, Wisconsin.
The original title was "Teenage Wasteland" and later "The Kids Are Alright", both of which were the title of songs by the rock band The Who, but these titles could not be used due to legal rights. Another title that couldn't be used due to legal rights was "Reelin' in the Years". The show was announced as "Feelin' Alright" but the name had few supporters. They settled on calling it "That '70s Show" because people who came out of the test audiences would say "I like that 70s show" or "I like that show about the 70s."
Red Forman's real, full name is Reginald Albert Forman.
Mila Kunis and Laura Prepon are often filmed sitting down due to the 7 inch height difference. At 5'3", Mila does not fit into the frame with Laura, who is 5'10".
Of all the shows that aired during the Fox network's 1998-1999 fall line up, this was the only survivor.
Numerous stars of the 1970s have appeared on the show in guest roles, including Danny Bonaduce and Eve Plumb.
The Rock appeared as his own father, Rocky Johnson.
The bride and the bridesmaids in the episode "The First Time" are all former Bond Girls. Tanya Roberts, who played Midge, is also a former Bond girl.
In the episode where we see Fez's first day at school, Hyde asks him what his name is. As he is saying his name, the school bell rings the whole time and Hyde says, "We'll never be able to remember that. I'll just call you Fez." Fez was actually stating the first names of all the actors on the show, with "Ashton Kutcher" as the first name he states.
There are repeated references to Ashton Kutcher's role in Dude, Where's My Car? (2000). In the Hitchcock episode, Kelso (played by Kutcher) tells the paper boy, "This is a case of mistaken identity", a phrase he used many times in "Dude...". In the episode "It's a Wonderful Life", Kelso's future wife says she'll be waiting in the LeCar. Kutcher's character in "Dude..." also drove a LeCar. Ashton also uses the line, "LeCar for LeZak," in Just Married (2003).
The fifth season episode titles are all Led Zeppelin song titles, the sixth season are all The Who songs, the seventh season are all Rolling Stones songs and the eighth season's titles are all Queen songs.
Mila Kunis was only 14 years old when she auditioned for the role of Jackie. She lied about her age.
The music and rhythm of the opening theme song changed from the first season to the second season, but the lyrics did not change. Although the music of the show's opening theme has not changed since season 2, the actions and cast members in the car in the opening have changed several times over the course of the show's run.
Jackie and Kitty are the only characters who address Kelso by his first name of Michael. Kitty, Red and later Jackie are the only characters who address Hyde by his first name of Steven (after Jackie starts dating him in the 5th season).
Hyde almost always addresses Eric by his surname of Forman. The only time Hyde addresses Eric by his first name is in the opening of the pilot, when Hyde, Kelso and Donna are pressuring Eric to steal beer from the party his parents are throwing on the main floor.