That ’70s Show (1998-2006)

Starring: Topher Grace, Laura Prepon, Danny Masterson, Ashton Kutcher, Mila Kunis, Wilmer Valderrama, Kurtwood Smith, Debra Jo Rupp, Don Stark, Tanya Roberts, Lisa Robin Kelly, Tommy Chong, and Josh Myers
Grade: B

When the gang is all together, That ’70s Show can be loads of fun. At its best, it’s a great reminder about the good times spent with your friends when you were younger and how the biggest stress you had back then was figuring out what to do to have fun. Along with being a solid ode to the 1970s, this sitcom did a very good job in showcasing friendships and relationships in the complicated years of our early young adult life, the period in which we think we know better than our parents. There are lessons to be learned from our lovable group of “dumbasses” (as Red would say), but there’s just enough humor in-between to keep the tone light and breezy. There’s smoking weed (the show’s signature), partying, teen drinking, pranks, and just about everything else these teenagers could think of to waste time and have fun without getting into too much trouble. To be fair, there’s a not a whole lot of stuff to do in Wisconsin. You kind of have to make stuff up as you go along.

Thankfully, this group is filled with some great improvisers/troublemakers.

The entirety of the show’s run takes place between the period of 1976, to the very last day of 1979 in Point Place, Wisconsin. There, the Forman family is at the center of all the action.

For the most part, the foundation of the show is built around the sarcastic teenage son Eric (Grace). He’s a relatively good kid and is the centerpiece of his close group of friends, with the Forman family’s basement being the signature hangout of the group. Out of all the guys, Eric is considered to be the normal one by default but has the most to learn throughout the show. This is due to his awkwardness, inexperience, and lack of confidence. He gets funnier as the show progresses though, and he becomes our favorite little insecure kid fairly early, as we root for him to figure things out with his beloved on-again, off-again girlfriend and prototypical “girl next door” Donna Pinciotti (Prepon). For those who are unaware, Eric and Donna basically become the next generation’s Corey and Topanga just as Boy Meets World was coming to a close. The two grew up together. Naturally, they are noticeably attracted to each other from the pilot, and though their love is tested at an exhausting rate due to Donna not knowing what she wants at the right times and Eric being an idiot at even worse times, we love them for what they are, teens just trying to figure it out. As Eric gets funnier, he becomes worse at thinking things through as a character, and it can be infuriating to watch at times, especially because Donna matures at much quicker rate, cutting Eric slack more than any other girlfriend would ever. I guess this is just a part of growing up in a place where there isn’t much to do. Regardless, they make the group dynamic work and are able to balance everyone’s personalities out to keep the friends together because of how level-headed and “mature” they are, at least compared to the others.

Now, they are a classic teenage sitcom relationship. They start things very slow and spend a lot of episodes trying to figure out when to make the first move as they take advice from everyone. There are the classic storylines of miscommunications, first date troubles (First Date), figuring out when to take things to the next level (Drive-In), and the missteps revolving around how they should approach things after graduating high school. The drama surrounding Eric and Donna is the heart of That ’70s Show, which is why the final season doesn’t work (more on that later).

Though Eric is the star, Donna is the rock of the relationship and is more understanding of his personality and quirks than anyone, including his parents. Actually, Donna knows Red (Smith) and Kitty (Rupp) very well, and she becomes a welcomed part of the household throughout the show. They seem to like her even more than Eric, with Red regularly questioning how his idiot son managed to convince Donna to fall in love with him. Early on, they almost look at Donna as another daughter, but is it love or pity? It could be a bit of both, as though the love does seem earnest, Red and Kitty are very aware of Donna’s parents in goofball Bob (Stark) and the attractive but moronic Midge (Roberts). Regularly, the two groups of parents hang out because they are neighbors, but it’s more because it gives Red and Kitty a group to hang out with, not because they like them. If Red never saw Bob or Midge again, he wouldn’t care. Kitty is the one who just wants people to talk to, even though the both of them make her uncomfortable more often than not with their weird or stupid comments. How Donna becomes as normal and intelligent as she does when being raised by those two imbeciles is a testament to her character. She starts to develop into a stronger, more confident woman with dreams and ambitions.

As she does this and becomes a stronger character and person, Eric seems to be threatened and pushed into different directions because of his inability to support her in an appropriate manner. Though it’s admirable in some respects because he wants to provide for her, it also can be just a flat-out ego problem for him (The Crunge). Realistically, you could argue that because Eric never figured it out as Donna progressed at such a fast rate, it led to the character going to Africa at the end of Season Seven. As much as I like Eric, he never really had a handle on things as much as you would want out of a main character. It gets frustrating because you wonder where he gets such a backwards thought process at times. In one of his final, major scenes of the show, he admits that Red was right in calling him a dumbass. If this doesn’t sum it up, I don’t know what does. Donna doesn’t have it all figured out per say, but working hard to figure out your purpose is half the battle. Eric doesn’t do this until he leaves and even in the end, he still admits he didn’t.

You know who does have a handle on things? Eric’s parents in Red and Kitty. They are crucial to the sustained success of That ’70s Show. Though Red is the hardass who is a detriment at times to Eric’s development as a person, the strong foundation of Red and Kitty as parents holds the show together for everyone. They essentially become parents to all the kids in Eric’s friend group because of how bad all of their home lives actually are. Bob and Midge start hating each other and start sleeping with strangers until they eventually get a divorce. Midge moves, and though Bob has many relationships throughout the rest of the show, he never really recovers and is pretty useless as a parent, prompting Donna to seek out Kitty and Red for advice and comfort because of it. Jackie’s (Kunis) dad goes to prison and her mother (Brooke Shields) is as careless and shallow as she is, which only forces her to grow up and talk to Kitty all the time. Though Kitty has to sit through her backhanded compliments, she knows Jackie needs a motherly figure in her life and tries her best to guide her. Jackie even befriends Red because of her attitude and rougher approach to life and the people in it (Career Day). Kelso’s parents clearly don’t give a fuck what he does, despite him needing more guidance than anyone, but he seems to find a home at the Forman’s, albeit to a lesser extent. Lastly, Hyde (Masterson) comes from the most dysfunctional family of them all. He’s abandoned by his lunch lady mother (Katey Sagal) and his stepfather Bud (Robert Hays), believed to be his real father until Season Six when WB (Tim Reid) is introduced, abandoned his family even earlier. Though Bud comes back into his life at some point, it’s clear he’s unfit to be a parent, and it only furthers Hyde’s relationship with the Forman family.

With the exception of Eric, Steven Hyde is my favorite character. He represents this era of anti-establishment, rock and roll, and degeneracy more than anyone on the show. With his curly hair, signature sunglasses, toughness, and uncaring demeanor, he sets the tone with his attitude more often than not. Honestly, he’s kind of a legendary sitcom character. Danny Masterson just understood this character inside and out. Additionally, Hyde’s development is the most interesting and entertaining of all the main characters, including Eric. He’s also the constant of the group. He grounds them and keeps them on the path of fuckery and partying just when things seem to be going alright. Though Hyde is the degenerate that guys like Fez (Valderrama) look up to, he can provide advice as well. Regularly, Donna or Eric will look to him to talk to because of the assured confidence he has when offering suggestions. At the same time, he always looks to push the right buttons when needed because he revels in being an instigator. So, though he can be the voice of reason at times and a person to talk to for characters, with his advice even stretching to Kitty and Red, he’s also just as comfortable in being the group’s shit-stirrer because it’s so much fun. He does it the most with Kelso, though he makes it a point to say he never snitches as this would make him a rat. He just likes to nudge people in the right direction and imply things without actually saying it, purely because it’s funny. I can’t say I blame him either. Though he looks like an asshole at times, this is actually how the group tends to operate.

Hyde isn’t the only one who does this and or other dick-ish things to amuse themselves. Every one of the characters are guilty of this, and you can’t get mad because this is a very “high school” thing to do. When you take a look at the friend group as a whole, they’re all assholes to each other. Obviously, they’re good friends, but they would much rather insult one another or set them up to be pranked or “burned” than help each other in their time of need. To the wrong pair of eyes, viewers might not enjoy this element of the famous friend group, but this is part of the charm of That ’70s Show. You have to think back to high school and how accurate this is. Honestly, this was exactly how my friend group was/is. This is why I, as well as many fans that adore the show, tolerate how these friends act towards each other because this is how we were. This is especially true if you’re a friend group from a small town. For the most part, you spend a majority of your time in close quarters hanging out, with not much else to do. This creates situations for a lot of conversational humor, your friends making fun of each other, and pranks being played. This is how it is, so guys like Kelso and Hyde taking every opportunity possible to burn their friends purely for their own amusement and rarely (if ever) letting up is annoyingly accurate.

Though Hyde would much rather be known as this type of surface-level person, he’s a lot more than that. Despite his obvious troubles with emotional maturity and how to connect in his relationships because of his refusal to look vulnerable, he’s the most levelheaded of the group and is fairly intelligent. He is content in the fact that he’s probably the kid who will end up in prison because of his bad home life, but it’s clear that everyone around him sees his potential and want to help him, especially Red and Kitty. Though he hates to outright admit it, he holds a great deal of respect, admiration, and appreciation for Eric’s parents. We can see it right away with how he responds to them when they take him in (The Good Son, Sleepover). A lot of the time, especially with Red, Hyde becomes the favorite son they never had, even though they already have Eric. It’s actually very sweet to see how Hyde responds to the authority of Red and the love of Kitty (Hyde’s Birthday). To anyone who will listen, he tries tirelessly to retain his identity of the “future criminal”, but Hyde is a good kid at heart. He just hates showing it. However, Red and Kitty know this and love the hell out of him for it. It’s easily my favorite relationship in the show, as we see Hyde grow up into such a respectable young man, despite all the immature stuff he still does without their knowledge.

The pseudo father/son relationship Red and Hyde have is exactly the one Red should have with Eric. Some may question the message this sends, even though it’s amusing, but I totally get this. Red gives Hyde so much credit because he doesn’t expect as much out of him. As a result, when Hyde exceeds expectations, he looks great in Red’s eyes. In fact, this is basically explained as soon as Hyde moves in with the Forman family. With Eric, Red has high expectations because he’s Red’s own. He wants him to be more because he knows he can. This is why he’s much tougher on him, and the results of this parenting tactic are pretty accurate in the manner they are presented in the show. I really liked the Red/Hyde dynamic though, all the way to the bitter end of the sitcom. It humanized Red in ways his relationship with Eric couldn’t. It softened him without him having to act soft, which is why Red appreciates it. Their close friendship makes a lot of sense too. They have the same interests, hate talking about their emotions, handle big moments in similar manners, and deal with women in corresponding, closed-off ways. Red sees a lot in Hyde, and this is why they connect, even though he knows Hyde’s potential of turning out “bad” because all signs point to it.

Though Eric brings a lot of problems on his self with overthinking and god-awful decision-making skills, you can argue that a lot of his problems stem from his contentious relationship with his father, Red Forman. The hard-nosed veteran and tough-minded conservative is the most no-nonsense television dad you may ever see. Depending on how old you are when you watch the show, you’ll either think of him as an inconsistent antagonist, or a tough but well-intentioned father you may grow to respect. If you’re a teenager watching it, you’ll note how he never gives his kids a break, and it’s true. His presence scares the kids a majority of time but from a character perspective, you can still see where he’s coming from. These years are very important to a teenager in shaping who they become as a person and since he knows somewhat of Eric’s group and their troublemaking ways, he tries to stop them every chance he gets because it’s the only way he knows how to parent. The father/son relationship of Eric and Red is a very underrated one. In the first couple of seasons, when Eric is younger, he shows the early stages of his smart mouth but still shows Red a lot of respect in fear. As a result, there are quite a few instances where Red cuts him a break, offers actual advice that isn’t just setting up a catchphrase insult, or shows him a little leeway in the name of growing up (Streaking, That Wrestling Show, A New Hope). There’s still some love between them, which is a stark contrast in later seasons where they all kind of acknowledge how the two don’t get along, especially noted by Eric’s mother Kitty.

There’s not a lot of outright love, but you’ll notice these small instances in the earlier seasons if you’re binge watching. It’s just enough to show you they still love each other without coming out and saying it. When they do come forward and show some emotion, it means that much more. This is why Eric and Red’s private parting conversation in “Till the Next Goodbye” is my all-time favorite moment in the entire series bar none. For Eric’s exit, the show moved past the sitcom humor for this one important moment that meant the world. Despite all the trouble and stress the two put each other through, it was all for a reason, and Red was just doing the best in the only way he knew how. It was short, it was sweet, and it was all we needed to show Eric the respect he earned from his father. It was a great moment in TV history and served well as a goodbye from the show’s writers as well.

All the characters being mean to him up until his exit also felt eerily similar to how the show’s producers and the rest of the cast felt for Topher Grace leaving the show in real-life too. It’s kind of hard not to read between the lines in this episode.

With that being said, it should be noted that many attribute the show’s prime to being when the characters start growing into their roles more. Of course, this is when Red’s anger is tuned up, and he starts to play the foil Eric has to get around. This gives us a lot of great episodes because of the way Red is portrayed and feared by the kids (Red Sees Red). This may be controversial, but I’ll still argue that my favorite point in the show is after Red gets his heart attack. Not only is Topher Grace’s Eric showing improvement by the episode at that point, but his sarcasm is also at its best because he’s not scared of Red anymore. Plus, Red can’t get too excited either, so he has to hold back at times. This Eric benefitted greatly and as a result, so did the show. Kitty (Rupp) is the total opposite of Red, being the loving and caring mother who regularly has to be the peacekeeper between Red and Eric. Because of this, her and Eric have more of a loving relationship. In the middle of this is their daughter Laurie (Kelly). Eric can’t stand her and regularly points out her whorish qualities, which she never denies. In fact, it only gets worse a few seasons in. She’s a pretty awful person too and will try to get Eric in trouble just to start shit. She’s actually a pretty bad person with very few redeeming qualities, other than the fact that she’s hot. Of course, Red believes every word she says because he babies her and parents her completely different than he does Eric. Funnily enough, the usual happy-go-lucky Kitty knows Laurie’s actual personality and user tendencies but has to accept the fact that she’s Red’s favorite.

She does her best as a mother to her, but they never get along, despite how much Kitty tries. This is yet another reason as to why Kitty has more of a soft spot for Eric and gives him the benefit of the doubt more often than not, something Red downright refuses to do. Debra Jo Rupp’s Kitty may be my favorite television mother ever. This is how good she is. She loves all of Eric’s friends like they are her children and the individual friendships she has with each of them becomes an enjoyable development over the series. You feel the love she brings. Plus, she’s the only one who can mess with Red on a regular basis, and it’s always funny to watch because he needs to be brought down a couple of pegs. If she didn’t have a voice in this household, Red would have turned into a tyrant, which is not what the show was about. Though they give her the classic sitcom mother trait of drinking too much in later seasons, she still retains her loving personality and makes every storyline she’s a part of an absolute joy to watch. In addition, that outlandish laugh she has is so infectious. I laugh every single time she does it. Some of the best moments of the show come from when she tries to release the awkward tension of the room with her laugh either because of her uncomfortableness or because two characters are heated with each other and it’s the only way she can break the ice. It never gets old. A lot of sitcoms will have characters rely on certain gimmicks once they figure them out through the course of the show, but Kitty’s laugh is one that is not only welcomed but loved.

Ashton Kutcher does a great job of taking over the role of “sitcom doofus” with Michael Kelso, the good-looking idiot who makes it his goal in life to skate by on his looks. Outrageously stupid, careless, insensitive, and a womanizer, you’d be surprised how much Kelso is loved by fans of That ’70s Show. Despite not only being a destructive moron who doesn’t help anyone on the show, he’s also a selfish asshole. Though all the characters take turns being dicks to each other, Kelso is on a whole other level because of his inability to stop cheating on any girl he’s with and never knowing the right moment to say or do something. This is what separates him from Hyde. Hyde picks and chooses his moments and does so in a sly way. Plus, he has more of a moral compass, though he tends to stay low-key about it. Kelso is a jackass on a CONSTANT basis. The only time he grows up is when he impregnates Brooke (Shannon Elizabeth), but even then, it took some convincing to step up. Still, Kelso is a fan favorite, mostly because he’s responsible for a lot of the funniest one-liners in the show not said by Red or Eric. He has his ups and downs though. Despite his relationship with Jackie going for as long as it did, I’m glad they finally moved on from each other. They were toxic as hell together, and Jackie was unbearable for a majority of it. Kelso never fucking learned either. There were episodes where you thought he did, but he always showed enough traits of reverting back to his usual self to where no one could trust him. Him knocking a random like Brooke up was fitting and was the right choice for the character. He needed it to improve his character arc and to redeem himself a little.

An underrated angle played up in the show is how he’s such a wild card that Red and Kitty kind of just let him run amok because they know he’s stupid. It’s pretty funny to watch. Red will put the fear of God into most but with Kelso, he just groans because he knows he’s a lost cause.

To round out the boys, we have Fez, the exact opposite of Kelso. Fez is the foreign exchange student who never reveals his real name nor his country of origin, both recurring jokes in the show, Fez is a horny little pervert who has more trouble than anyone with women. To put it lightly, he “has needs” and desperately wants any and every woman, failing more often than not. It’s not for a lack of trying though. He loves fashion, candy, porn, and on an unrelated note, he’s a surprisingly good dancer. A lot of jokes fed to him in these scripts aren’t necessarily funny, but Wilmer Valderrama makes things funny with his delivery, making his made-up accent a consistently amusing element to the show. In contrast with someone like Hyde, Fez is also in touch with his feminine side. Regularly, Kitty will look at him for advice on decorations or fashion, he’ll compliment outfits or admit Kelso is good-looking, and in the last couple of seasons, he finds a home working at the hair salon. Lastly, there’s Jackie Burkehart, the role that made Mila Kunis a star. Kunis played the role of the bitchy, popular, shallow, better-than-everyone princess so well, she’s actually quite insufferable in the earlier seasons. It takes a lot to bring her down to Earth, so though she experiences some devasting moments in her personal life that ground her a bit, it’s needed for you to actually give a shit about her. As awful as she can be, she does have some decently funny insults towards Donna though.

Throughout the show’s tenure, Jackie dates every guy in the cast except for Eric, which is kind of funny when you look at the show in totality. In fact, one of the things I wish they played with more was Eric and Jackie’s friendship. It’s well documented how much Eric can’t stand Jackie, and it gave us a lot of funny moments, but this was an element of the show that needed to be revisited more than it was.

Tommy Chong’s Leo is an inconsistent member of the cast, regularly jumping in and out of the show throughout its run, but his shtick was perfect for a sitcom like this. Though we feel almost dumber in some “Circle” instances with him and Kelso being involved together, you can’t help but laugh because Chong’s misdirection humor combined with his pothead gimmick are consistently amusing no matter how predictable the punchlines are. His friendship with Hyde is a highlight too. He may not be in the show as much as we’d like, but Chong’s delivery is so memorable, there’s a good chance you’ll walk away from That ’70s Show with a Leo impression of your own.

Though Topher Grace’s Eric is the star of the sitcom, Red and Kitty Forman regularly steal the show because of Kurtwood Smith and Debra Jo Rupp. This is mostly because of how good they are from the start. They were already acting veterans from Season One. You can tell they understood their roles better than anyone right from the first episode. On the other hand, in the earlier seasons, the acting from the rest of main cast is noticeably stilted and subpar in some regards. In their defense, they’re legitimately kids getting their first major television roles. However, this is why Seasons One and Two can be a bit of a chore at some points because of how average to below-average the performances are from the main characters. Things start clicking for everyone later on though, and you can see their progression with each season, especially Topher Grace in his final two seasons where he really nails both the comedic aspects of his character, as well as the development of his arc when he ages and progresses in his relationship with Donna and how it compares to his frustrations with his parents.

With that being said, I never felt like Laura Prepon improved as an actress throughout the entirety of the show. Wilmer Valderrama started to figure it out early, Danny Masterson gets it even earlier (mostly because he was the oldest one out of the friend group and more experienced), and though it took a while for Mila Kunis to give us more than just bitchiness, she started to actually show different sides of her acting ability when she starts dating Hyde in Season Five. However, Prepon is almost exactly the same actress from Season One to Season Eight. It’s not like she didn’t have the opportunity because there are a lot of emotional storylines, as well as genuine fun things for her to do throughout the show, but she stays virtually the same. How can you not play drunk or high believably for eight straight seasons when the whole show is centered around it? It just never clicks with her like it eventually does for all the others.

Speaking of which, despite “The Circle” being a signature of That ’70s Show, no one really captured a believable performance as a pothead. Danny Masterson is the only one who truly understood the mission. You can argue Ashton Kutcher’s Kelso did, but I don’t count it because he just plays it stupider than he normally does, which is arguably pretty easy. The others never figure out the essence of a group who regularly smokes. Also, I may bother you with this one, but “The Circle” was never really that funny. People on social media can say all they want about Friends not being funny without a laugh track, but I implore you to try and watch That ’70s Show without one. The joke writing is outrageously average, to below average a majority of the time. When you get to the point of binging through the seasons, you’ll start to predict punchlines and be right more often than you think. I’m serious. This show isn’t nearly as funny as people remember it. It benefits more from a laugh track than any sitcom I’ve watched in quite some time. There are countless instances where the joke writing led to me going “Ehh..”, but I smiled anyway because the laugh track is in your subconscious, training you to grin at the very least, especially in the earlier seasons. Though it holds a special place in many hearts for those that watched it back in the day (me being one of them), the show’s humor doesn’t hold up nearly as well as most of us would like to remember. Don’t get me wrong, there are still loads of funny moments, jokes, and one-liners that will have you cracking up. I’ll laugh any time Red hits us with his catchphrases of calling someone a dumbass or threatening to put his foot in someone’s ass, or Kelso noting a burn, but it’s just not as laugh-out-loud funny as some people would like to have you believe.

Shows like Boy Meets World and Friends crush That ’70s Show by a mile in every aspect, and it’s not particularly close.

Now, as fun as the show can be, it’s riddled with bad decisions. First of all, the mishandling of Eric in the later seasons throws the show all out of whack, to the point where he looks worse and worse as a person. As I said before, though Topher Grace improves as an actor, and the character gets a lot funnier because he’s done living in fear of Red and constantly irritates him with his one-liners, the decisions made regarding his character to stretch out the length of the show felt like it hurt the growth of the sitcom and its characters. I hated Eric walking out on Donna on their wedding day at the end of Season Six (Going Mobile, The Seeker). Not only was it hard for the characters to forgive Eric, but it was even harder as a viewer. The whole show was built around the Eric/Donna relationship. Though they didn’t have to get married, considering they were so young (Red was right and we knew it), the writers wrote themselves into a corner to the point where this was the next logical step. Everyone from the characters to the viewers watching knew they were rushing this, but they managed to pick the worst possible outcome to stop the characters from taking this next step by making the main character look like a jackass. Even worse, Donna admits she had her doubts too, but it doesn’t soften the blow because she showed up and Eric didn’t. We can’t help but see this through Donna’s perspective. It just doesn’t make sense for Eric to figure leaving her at the alter was his best plan of action. There’s no way he can be this stupid after everything he’s experienced up until this point between them.

How come he couldn’t stand up for himself as a man, while being respectful and still listening to Red and Kitty when they tell him he’s too young? At that point, it’s clear they are getting married purely out of spite, and they all know it. There’s no reason as to why they couldn’t have just let Eric listen to his fucking parents for once! This could have easily led to a huge moment in the series where Eric and Red have a serious discussion where Eric admits his faults but still shows how he has the potential to be a good husband someday. This could then allow for Red to show some compassion, telling Eric he believes in him, but he just wants him to figure out his future first before making such a major commitment. It would’ve added some much-needed depth and some realistic sentimentality at a time when the show needed it. Sadly, the writers force everyone to stay as stubborn as humanly possible instead of the characters deciding to have an adult conversation to solve their problems, and they choose the most immature way to go about things, forcing the main character to take the fall as result. In a way, it was brave for him to take the backlash from everyone in stopping the marriage, so Donna didn’t have to be the one that did it, but he wasn’t given enough credit, even from Donna herself! After this, Eric kind of loses his direction and the character treads water for his final season, strengthening Topher Grace’s argument in leaving the show to move on with his career.

Truthfully, they didn’t really have anything gripping enough for him to stay. Though Season Seven was Grace at his best in terms of his performance as the character, it felt like a waste as Eric himself wandered aimlessly until it was time to go. In a move not scene by any main character of a sitcom of note, Eric decides to take a break for an entire year to figure out what he wants to do with the rest of his life. With this “goal” in mind, the character becomes lazy, unmotivated, and more of person willing to screw around and waste time, with not a single ambition coming to mind. The writers seemed to wander as much as the character does in Eric’s final season, and they just insert him into random situations to get a laugh. Again, it’s still funny, but it’s clear he’s just going through the motions. So, though we are still entertained, the substance is gone when the show should be getting deeper, considering the age of the character and how important this year is for him regarding his future. Instead, we go through a whole season where our main character does essentially nothing. It feels like the whole season is a waste, especially because it’s the last we see of Eric.

There’s also the little factoid of timing. For those that don’t know, at the end of each episode, there’s a shot of a license plate where you can see what year the episode takes place. Going by the show’s rules, Seasons Six, Seven, and Eight take place in the span of one year, 1979. This would mean that Eric going to Africa and Donna freaking out and having this life crisis over what to do without him, is her living without Eric for a little over a month. It had to have been because to make sense of Season Six and Seven, they had to take up a good portion of the year, especially because Eric promised to take an entire year off. So, if I’m understanding all of this correctly, this may make Donna the most overdramatic person ever. After being away from each other for a month, they break up, she dates someone else, and he comes back because they can’t stand to be without each other? Was this MONTH really that bad for everyone involved? In addition, the characters change so much between those last three seasons that it almost cheapens the logistics of the show because it all happened within a year. We’re supposed to believe all of these visibly older, wiser, developed people are only 19? That seems insane, especially when looking at Eric. In Season Seven, he talks about how he wasted his first year out of high school, confirming our suspicions, but I just stood there in shock. Why not have the characters be 21 at that point? What’s the harm in that? It would make much more sense if Eric had no idea where he was going in life had he been in his 20s, but this thought process seems a bit dramatic for someone at 19. It’s just hard for me to believe.

Honestly, I wish I didn’t know about the license plate thing, so I could just take things at face value. However, since this was ruined for me, I thought I should do the same for you.

Also, Hyde and Jackie should’ve ended up together. This was the biggest takeaway I got from the show. It couldn’t be more obvious. They were the perfect match. Jackie forced Hyde to care about someone else’s feelings, showed him what love actually is because she’s the only one who managed to break through his rough exterior, forced him to grow up, and showed him how he can’t go through life being the insensitive prick he wants to be. Hyde’s positive influence on Jackie actually made her a likeable person, something thought to be unthinkable in the earlier seasons. Finally, she figured out what a compromise was and saw how being with a real man can make her a more complete person. With Hyde, she becomes a better human being and a well-rounded at that. Before, she was insufferable with Kelso because she reveled in bossing him and others around, with Kelso just taking it. She could never do that with Hyde because he’s too strong of a personality. Together, they made up for each other’s negative traits and became better people and characters. It’s obvious how much they rubbed off on each other and became stronger as a result. They needed each other. In the most boneheaded move of the entire series, they completely screw Hyde. After all the improvement the character showed throughout the series to the point where he was willing to marry Jackie and start a life with her, showing how much he grew up and how important she was to him, they choose the cheap humor route and have him go to Las Vegas to marry a stripper in drunken mess of a storyline to kick off the final season.

After seeing everything he went through in those earlier seasons, how much he progressed under Red and Kitty, how he became a man in front of our eyes, and became such a positive influence on Jackie, a misunderstanding led to Hyde throwing it all away, stopping the character’s progression in its tracks before the final season is over. I couldn’t believe the idiocy in this decision. It was absolutely disgraceful to the character. If Season Eight was considered to be necessary, it should’ve just been a prolonged epilogue where everything is tied up. Kelso’s fate makes sense, as does Red and Kitty’s. However, Hyde and Jackie should have been at the forefront, with them finally getting back together and planning for a wedding. Hyde could still get the record store from WB, and Jackie could get some TV job (I really liked her cable access TV show angle). Then, the big question could be if they should stay with the record store and settle in Wisconsin or move to Los Angeles or something for Jackie’s career. To complete his story, Hyde can either give the record store to Fez, Randy, and Leo, or sell it, so him and Jackie could buy a house in LA for her to pursue her dream. The final episode could work as a “goodbye” for Jackie and Hyde, as well as a party to celebrate Red and Kitty staying. With all of this happening at once, everything could lead to Donna having a borderline meltdown because all of her friends are moving on, allowing for Eric to return at the perfect moment.

That is how things should have ended.

Though I enjoyed Eric and Donna’s reconciliation in “That ’70s Finale“, they walked around a lot of potential conversations to stick to the formula, keeping things vague and safe but happy. It was still a nice ending and worked in leaps and bound, but I just wish they got a little bit more specific in their final conversation together. Then again, I can’t be too mad. I’m just glad Eric returned.

A big part of That ’70s Show‘s grade not being any higher is because of the fateful Season Eight.

Without Eric, there’s no real point to the show. All the action is centered around him. He’s the reason everyone hangs in this house together and why they all know each other. For the friends to hang out in Eric’s basement, and even with his parents, without Eric being there doesn’t make any sense at all. In fact, it’s just weird. Even if Hyde is living there, things don’t feel right without Eric. If anything, it feels almost sacrilegious to have Randy (Myers) hangout in Eric’s basement without ever coming into contact with him. Sure, Randy is a likable addition that would have benefitted had we had him for a bit in Season Seven to ease his transition into the main cast, but that’s now how it happened. He just shows up one day and befriends everyone with ease. Now, Ashton Kutcher was leaving the show to move on just like Topher Grace. However, he wasn’t nearly as hated as Grace because he gave the writers a decent amount of time in Season Eight to tie up loose ends to conclude his story, as well as have his time overlap with Randy to help him out and not make things too upsetting regarding two major characters leaving. Plus, he was also nice enough to show up for the series finale, while Grace filmed the last of his scenes before he left at the end of Season Seven, forcing them to work around the stuff he filmed for them. As we know, Topher Grace’s exit from the show left a sour taste in everyone’s mouth. In fact, there was a bit of a smear campaign regarding the actor and his real-life relationships with his co-stars. Apparently, he wasn’t best friends with all of them like we would have hoped.

Here’s the thing, if he didn’t want to be friends with them, this doesn’t bother me in the slightest. Nevertheless, as the star, the show dies when you leave, as does everyone’s jobs. If everything is centered around you, the quality of the show will inevitably go down with your exit. This is more of a reason to get mad at Grace rather than his inability to connect with Kutcher, Valderrama, and real-life menace Danny Masterson.

Could Randy have worked if they did a better way of transitioning him in? It’s possible, but the show was never going to recover with the loss of Eric. Even so, had they spent the four-episode arc in Season Seven with Randy instead of Charlie (Bret Harrison), we might be looking at him as the show’s last bright spot, instead of the nail in the coffin we consider him to be now. Plus, Eric being threatened by Randy’s good looks and being overprotective of Donna could have been funny, but Randy never crosses paths with Eric, and he steals his girl at one point. It just doesn’t feel right. On top of that, there’s literally nothing wrong with him. He doesn’t have any flaws. Actually, the only thing wrong is that Josh Myers wasn’t a very good actor in the role. The writers give him some great jokes in these scripts, but he delivers them in the same way every single time, making the character as average and sitcom-like as can be.

Hey, he’s got great hair though!

With this being said, I am glad they stuck with Randy over the Charlie character. With how Charlie was written in his four-episode arc, you could tell there wasn’t going to any excitement, or breaking of any new ground regarding the character that we haven’t seen before with someone else. Killing him off in the funny way they did and starting fresh with Randy was the best possible option. Then again, an even better option would have been to STOP IN SEASON SEVEN and end things better for Eric! What if just before he left for Africa, he asks Donna to come with him to start their lives together? This is a pretty simple way to end things, no? Regardless “That ’70s Finale” was a pretty good end to the show all things considered, with emotions running high enough to where you realize how much you will miss everyone involved, despite the show’s faults. For the record, Eric’s return in the closing moments of the series finale was the biggest highlight of Season Eight, if that gives you any idea of how the final season went. Sure, the season had its moments, but you just couldn’t help but think how much better everything would be if Eric was there to witness it.

Oh, and Jackie ending up with Fez was the dumbest fucking decision possible. After giving him shit from day one, she falls for him in the last few episodes of the entire series? I don’t buy it for a second. It also makes even less sense to stretch it out in the manner it did. Jackie not telling Fez right away is very uncharacteristic of her, and there should never have been a thought for a second that she would be worried at Fez’s response. The little pervert would have said “Yes” any day of the week. You’re telling me he has pride now? This was never believable in the slightest. Again, Jackie and Hyde belonged together. If anything, they could have just created a girl to give to Fez at the end of the season and spent the last ten episodes building her up as the perfect girl for him. This would’ve been the best option. It could have been that simple, instead of shoehorning a relationship for Jackie to the only guy left in Point Place she hasn’t dated.

There are a lot of memorable episodes throughout the series such as Kitty tape recording everything to update Eric on what he’s missed while in Africa, especially regarding Hyde/Kelso/Jackie (Bohemian Rhapsody), Kelso promising to pay for dinner for the group but leaving them high and dry (Dine & Dash), Hyde baking weed brownies for the garage sale and the parents eating them by accident (Garage Sale), the boys having trouble getting back across the border (Canadian Road Trip), Red losing it (Red Sees Red), Red and Eric being forced to take Kitty square dancing for forgetting her birthday (Kitty’s Birthday (Is That Today?!)), Eric making a new friend, but he doesn’t realize he is gay and likes Eric (Eric’s Buddy), Eric getting pranked by his cousin in the most hysterical revenge possible (Eric’s Hot Cousin), the night before high school graduation (Celebration Day), Donna finding panties in Eric’s car that aren’t hers (Eric’s Panties), Kitty making Red try different things in their sex life (Mother’s Little Helper), Kelso being dumb enough to threaten the President (Can’t You Hear Me Knocking), and Kelso and Eric competing for a job at Hyde’s workplace (We’re Not Gonna Take It). Additionally, there is Kelso enlisting Eric and Hyde’s help to break into the police academy (A Legal Matter), the pregnancy scare (Won’t Get Fooled Again), the disastrous party at Jackie’s (Burning Down the House), a tornado changing Eric’s plans for prom (Tornado Prom), the group trying to think of a quote for their yearbook pictures (Class Picture), taking a look at everyone’s permanent records (Halloween), Kelso’s plan to get Jackie back (Ice Shack), Eric ruining Donna’s wedding dress and trying to fix it (Sparks), Eric getting the wakeup call he needs (On With the Show), Eric and Donna finding out about Jackie and Hyde (I Can’t Quit You, Baby), Eric wanting to go to a Styx concert (You Can’t Always Get What You Want), and Eric’s emotional farewell (Till the Next Goodbye).

Also, any episode with a Fenton (Jim Rash) or Caroline (Allison Munn) appearance is usually a plus (Gimme Shelter, No Quarter, Kitty’s Birthday (Is That Today?!), Fez Gets a Girl, etc.). Without question, they are two of the funniest recurring characters in the show. As soon as they show up in an episode, you know you’re in for a good one.

That ’70s Show is another very fun 90s sitcom, perfect for those binge-watchers looking for some light-hearted entertainment. This group of friends trying to figure out life while having the degenerate fun we remember doing when we were in high school will take you back, and you’ll walk away with this one with a smile on your face. It’s not the greatest sitcom ever or anything, but there’s a reason the fanbase for it is still so large. Is it the weed? Is it the “burns”? Is it the friends, family, and extremely memorable characters who will be forever burned into our brains? Yeah, it’s probably all of that and then some. There’s just a lot of narrative screwups and character decisions that stop the show from reaching its true potential. You’ll love Eric and the gang, and you’ll want their adventures to go on forever, but this attitude goes right out the door once he leaves. After that, the show putters along until it dies.