That 70s Show appreciation thread

I thought I remembered the first episode saying it took place in May 1976.

 

I thought that the exact date was somewhat ambiguous (as opposed to, say, Dazed And Confused which was set on the last day of classes before the 1976 Summer break
for the Texas school system).

 

Typo on my part: the opener for Season Two had the Star Wars references. I was baffled, because I thought, "why not make a show about the entire decade, rather than just 1976-1979?" I think it was just sloppy writing and bad showrunning.

 

It's "sloppy writing and bad showrunning" because they decided to begin their story in 1976 instead of a year of your choosing?

 

Reviewing the first episode:

"Point Place, Wisconsin

May 17, 1976

8:47 p.m.

Location:

Eric Forman's Basement"

 

Yes. I had a 45-minute conversation with the 70s Carsey-Werner associate producer about it when we were doing the dailies on the pilot, and she was in complete agreement with me. Bear in mind that I've worked in television for 40 years and been on about 64 different TV series (and countless features and pilots). The decision to start in 1976 was totally arbitrary and silly, but I think it stemmed from show co-creator Mark Brazill being born in 1962, so 1976 would be the year he started feeling his oats. The main producers, Bonnie & Terry Turner, are a decade older than me, but they're the ones with TV experience; Mark came up with the initial concept. I think it would've worked fine set in 1970 or 1971, and would have allowed them to do 22 episodes per year, which would've worked out fine.

My idea of a 70s show that's a lot sharper, better written, and much funnier is F Is for Family, which is a raucous, nutty, over-the-top show, and it starts in 1973. They can get away with a lot more there because a) it's animated, and b) it's on Netflix. They really pushed the limits of what you can do with essentially an R rating, but it's a very, very funny show that captures a lot more of the politics, morality, and attitudes of that era. I personally worked on about 110-120 episodes of That '70s Show and didn't laugh nearly as often as I did in the 6-episode run of F Is for Family. I'm glad this show was renewed and will be coming back this summer.

 

For obvious reasons that is not believable. If that producer actually thought the writing was sloppy and showrunning was bad they would have done something about it.

Regardless of what they told you it is unfortunate they didn't ultimately take your advice. It might have been a successful show had they listened to you.

Or the fact that The Spirit Of '76 and especially Dazed and Confused had brought that particular zeitgeist into what was then the popular consciousness.

 

Season 8 is terrible for so many reasons. They could have gotten by without Eric or Kelso, but the "Randy" character was totally unnecessary (and making him Donna's romantic interest was a huge mistake).

 

I'm just waiting for The Keg episode to be uploaded onto here.

 

The producer was agreeing with me, so it wasn't a question of advice. I'm not in a position to offer advice -- it's just an opinion. We all work for the showrunners, and it's not the place for a technician (or a DP or a sound mixer or an electrician or an editor) to offer conceptual criticism. But I think it was a core problem for the show. We figured it would last 4-5 years (100 episodes), so not setting it at the beginning of the decade seemed to be a lapse to me, one that would have been easy to fix.

That 70s Show stayed on the air a long time because it was Fox and their expectations were low. You can hang on the air with a 2 rating and still survive on Fox. (On the CW, there are shows like Supernatural, which survives with about a .8 rating and just slipped to a .6, and somehow it stays on the air year after year. Nice people on that show, but it's wacky.) I didn't hate the show, but I didn't love it, either. The other Carsey-Werner show we worked on at the same time, Third Rock from the Sun, was a much funnier, more consistent show, but it never got very good ratings but managed to last 6 seasons; ironically, it was also produced and created by by Bonny & Terry Turner. I was sad when we remastered 70s that Carsey-Werner didn't go for Third Rock as well, but I think the demand for it just wouldn't justify the expense.

Have you seen the other show I mentioned?

 

My favorite joke was when Kelso hitched a ride with a truck driver, and he explained his "relationship" with Eric. The joke went, with Kelso defending Eric by saying "some people would call me dumb, but he would go up and say to them- hey, he's not as dumb as he looks".

I was disappointed with the last re-issue of That 70's show by Mill Creek. I know the music in Season 1, and they still had some subbed generic music in places. I have a tape of the network broadcast to compare. Also, its too bad all the smiley faces had to be swapped out for the hippy daisy and other things.

 

I thought the show started in 1976 because since it was fox they figured they would at least get 3 seasons and be able to get to the end of the 70's. the show was a hit and kept getting renewed though

 

randy was a last minute addition. it was going to be Charlie as a new main character. introduced at the end of season 7. Brett Harrison though took the lead in another show titled The Loop

 

I felt like Charlie was intentionally written as a boring, terrible character. I don't think he would have been a very good long-term replacement, either.

 

well whatever he was going to be he was in the show for season 8 and then had to be dropped

 

Yep. I agree.

Randy was played by Seth Meyer's younger brother and I never knew that fact until years later. Should've known because they look alike in the face but never put 2 and 2 together.


My favorite character was Red.

My favorite episode is too hard to say as there were many that made me laugh.

Donna or Jackie??? Probably Donna. I couldn't take a full day being with Jackie. Though, she would be nice arm candy. Donna's personality and sense of humor is my type.


Even though I can't say what my favorite episode was, I can share some memorable ones that made me laugh:

One early episode in which they all went up on the local water tower to paint a pot leaf and Hyde tricked Kelso into risking himself and, of course, Kelso fell off the tower. Then I believe one other one did too (thinking it was Fez.) Later in the episode, Eric went to ask his mom Kitty (a nurse) for medical advice and Eric ends up walking in on Red and Kitty doing the dirty deed. Of course Red thought Eric was on drugs.

Another memorable episode is when Red bought a classic Corvette and kept it in the garage but wouldn't let anyone drive it. Red and Kitty went out of town for a class reunion, I believe, and told Eric not to touch the car. Eric wanted to impress a girl, so he took the car out anyway and let her drive it. But before doing so, he carefully looked over the car at how Red had it set up in the garage so that when he was done joyriding, he could put it back exactly the way it was. I remember Red placing a strand of hair (or tape) over the ignition and Eric did see that and remember to put a strand back when he got back. He thought he pulled one over on Red. When Red and Kitty got back, Red at first was proud of Eric and told him he could take it for a drive with him. Soon as Eric started the car, the radio was blaring rock music, tipping off Red that Eric broke his rule.

Another one: The episode in which Eric was a closeted Roller Disco Skater. He didn't want any of his friends know he was into it. His mom knew it and made him an outfit, I believe. Eric would give an excuse to his friends when they wanted him to do something when it conflicted with his Roller Disco practice. Kitty accidentally let Fez know the reason he was blowing them off when they wanted him to do something. So, the gang hid outside of Eric's house and observed him skating off in his Roller Disco outfit. They followed him to the Roller rink and surprised him in the middle of dancing with a girl.

 

that was a great episode and you forgot the funniest part. red grounds eric, I think for a month. when eric tells red why he took the car to impress a girl red changes it to 2 weeks.

 

One question comes to mind, having never seen "F Is For Family"...is it rapid-fire "Family Guy" pop-culture reference 'humor' or is there actual character development in the vein of "King Of The Hill".

 

Was there an actual "Star Wars" reference in the pilot? My recollections are fuzzy at best.

 

I guess you're using the "royal We", since you are obviously not speaking for anyone but yourself here.

In any event, the show doubled your expectations, lasting 8 seasons and 200 episodes. Again, too bad you weren't allowed to "fix" it.

If that were actually the reason, what happened to Party Girl, Lush Life, and That 80s Show?

It would make more sense that it stayed on the air a long time because people were watching it and it made money. Not to mention some sixteen Emmy nominations.

I liked both shows and I disagree. Third Rock ran out of steam before That 70s Show in my opinion (with regard to their respective runs).

 

It turns out @Vidiot was mistaken - it was season two.

 

I believe their concept for the timeline was that two seasons equalled one year.

I think they probably wanted it to be set in the same time period as "Dazed and Confused," which is set in the summer of 1976 -- the more carefree late 70s rather than the more turbulent early 70s.

 

Dude, why pick a fight over something so sinple? It was a good opinion and the show is called THE 70"S SHOW, not the 1976 to 1979 SHOW.

 

I'm just a technician, but I do have conversations with the creative people about decisions above my pay grade. Often, we're laughing as we discuss, things like, "what the hell is this? Who wrote this script? What were they THINKING?" And we laugh and laugh. It's all part of the process. Many of them have no illusions about how the fact that what we're working on is crap. It's a living.

I worked on the show with four other people, including the staff at Complete Post/Hollywood. Ace colorist Trent Johnson did the heavy lifting on the show, but Gary Barron, Andy Lichstein and I all helped out on occasion, particularly with the pre-shoots. (I can remember doing many years of preshoots.) I also remastered about 100+ episodes for HD, but those I did mostly by myself. It's always "we" with a post house, because it's a group effort: it takes a village to put these shows together.

There were aspects of the show that were terrific. I think Kurtwood Smith is a treasure, and few know what an accomplished, totally professional actor he is. He's a very kind man in real life, very thoughtful and interesting. The other actors on the show were kind of all over the place, but Kurtwood really, really impressed me on several occasions. The associate producer Toti Levine is also a first-class lady, really sharp, and she got it through many tough weeks where it took tons of work to get it done on time.

Yeah. Won for Best Costumes. The show was often very well-edited (for multicam) and should've won for that a few times. There were some aspects that were terrific: the "spinning camera" in the basement scenes where they were all getting stoned was a terrific idea, though flawed because Fox rigidly refused to allow even a spec of smoke to come out of their mouths. I think the show could've been a lot better had it been done today for (say) Amazon or Netflix, because this is the kind of idea that needs to be unfettered and uncensored.

BTW, did you ever answer my question about F Is for Family?

Please, feel free to disagree. That's why we all have different opinions and different minds. Bear in mind that when I criticize a show, I'm not criticizing you personally. I was there, I was on the set, I knew these people, and the show was not that good to me. And I worked on a thousand hours of sitcoms in my life.