Here in the northwest corner of the US, we have a chain of stores called Fred Meyer. A few years ago, they started what I think a BRILLIANT;) holiday campaign with “Snowmom”. This is an ad from last Christmas:
I wasn't thinking Fred Meyer or Christmas when I saw my first one, I was thinking, "OMG!! OMG! It's Kitty Forman!!" :DMy favorite episode was when Grandma died (played by Happy Days’ Marion Ross).
You’re at least partially right. As Jackie arranged it I think the trip (in her mind) was more for bonding in the gang. The boys came along so they could smoke and keep “the stash” out of the hands of the adults and Eric and Donna came along for an opportunity to spend more time together. I’m also certain that Jackie wanted to spend more time with Donna too.
Also, anyone noticed how abusive Jackie and Kelso’s relationship is?
I think Marion Ross enjoyed playing a bitch on that. There was an episode of Roseanne where many TV moms made an appearance.
Admittedly, I haven’t watched it since it was new, so this is just memory, but my impression of it was first that it wasn’t a representation of 1976 (isn’t that when season 1 was?) but more like the 1980s. Nothing specific, more subtle, like attitudes, minor details, patterns of speech, incorrect slang. Second it seemed more like Hollywood’s idea of Wisconsin than an accurate representation. Like the ‘accurate’ recreation of Old New York in Futurama, but not as ridiculously over the top. Like they got the forms, but not the substance.
I’d have to see it again to remember the specific things. Wonder if I’d have the same opinion-I wasn’t as long out of chedderland as I am now.
Oh yeah, Eric’s grandmother is hilarious.
This just occurred to me. The kids would have been watching SNL then, so SNL catch phrases would have leaked into their conversations.
You’re definitely wrong. The show went through a ton of title changes (“Teenage Wasteland” was the frontrunner for a long time but there were like a half dozen others). But none of the executives could agree, so they just called it “That 70s Show,” which is what they were calling it internally before it had a title.
Again, you’re wrong. These cutaways continued throughout the remainder of the show’s run.
I read that the name came from test audiences who were shown pilots for a few different shows, but all anybody talked about afterward was “that 70s show.”
Anyway, I love the show. Love it! I overwatched reruns, starting with my local channel 36, which at the time was one of two stations I could watch. The cutaways, parallel conversations, the circle, and the rest were a great break from the standard family three-camera sitcom visuals.
Well, even though I was 10 in 1980, the culture in Texas was very slow to change, and I had an older sister who I tagged along with. So I was exposed to a lot of the culture shown in That 70’s show and Dazed and Confused. I think they got it pretty much right. Naturally, the movie was more realistic than the T.V. show. But most of the people I knew from '80-'85 then smoked weed; worshiped Zeppelin, Floyd, AC/DC, ZZ Top and Aerosmith; and had varying lengths of hair.
There were muscle cars aplenty, and they were just becoming collectible, so lots were still affordable cars for teenagers. If the Vista Cruiser symbolizes anything, it was the strange cars people seemed to drive around up until about the mid-90’s. When I was in high school, I knew 3 people with Pintos (two with V-8’s), one guy with a V-8 vega, a guy with a sand rail, and another guy with a 440 Police Interceptor (the Blues Brother’s car). Heck, I had a modified '75 Ranchero painted metalflake purple in high school. The V-8 crazies were at least as fast as anyone’s 60’s muscle car when it was stock, and faster than a lot of them even afterward.
Either way, for the backward place I was raised in, they read fairly correctly - and they were fun watching either way.
Uh-Uh, change the accents, make Laurie occasionally less than evil, and it’s pretty much my mom and my sister. The reality wasn’t as funny, but it had its moments.
It must be a generational thing with That 70’s Show. I guess I’m about 6-7 years older than the kids in the show, and I remember the second half of the 70s as very bleak. I had graduated from a good school with good grades, got a good job with a good company, and then the recession of the mid-70’s hit and my company laid off employees for the first time in their history. Got a second job with a small company that went bankrupt 9 months later. Finally had to take a job in a bleak part of the South. The music was crappy (compared to the music of the 60s and early 70s). And the gas shortages and the soaring price of gas, when you’re stuck driving an old car that guzzles gas. Not to mention how crappy the weed got and how damn expensive it got for complete crap. Not a time I really want to remember. Everything seemed to suck until the 80s dawned. (and as much as I hate Ronnie Ray-gun, the “It’s morning in America” hype had a ring of truth to it.
The only thing that rang true about the show was Red being laid off from a good job and his having to scramble to support his family. Really depressing show to me.
But props to Kurtwood Smith as Red. And seeing how excellent an actress Mila Kunis turned out to be, damn the show for using her in such an annoying, shallow character.
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The main character on that, Corey Howard, was played by Glenn Howerton, who now plays Dennis Reynolds on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
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What puzzles me is why That 80s Show couln’t be about teenagers too…
I was living in Wisconsin for part of the show’s run, and it did strike me that the weather seemed way too mild for Wisconsin. In most episodes this didn’t really come up, but I remember one where Red had his annual Veteran’s Day cookout and everyone was standing around outside without jackets on.
Will have to rewatch it again. I didn’t even notice that.
Funny thing is that my parents (well my Dad) have an enormous collection of music from the 70s and my brother and his friends (and I) love to listen to it. In fact, my brother’s friends once came over just to listen to my dad’s music. I’m a little disappointed some of those artists didn’t turn up in the show-- Janis Ian anyone?
Another thing which would have been awesome-- Evita technically came out in 1976 (concept album at least). The first production came out just two years later in London-- is the show doing an Evita cutaway. Jackie (Mila Kunis) “singing” Rainbow High, with Eric as Peron and Hyde as Che, would have been hilarious.
“I come from the students/they need to adore me/So Christian Dior me/from my head to my toes/I need to be stunning/I need to be Rainbow High/They need a diversion/so do I”.
“Don’t cry for me oh Wisconsin…” 
“Oh what a circus, oh what a show/Point Place High’s gone to town/over a cheerleader called Jackie Burkhart…”
You had that all written out before you started the thread and were waiting for just the right time to spring it, weren’t you? ADMIT IT! :D:D Actually, very clever, kudos!
This is just a feeling, but: when something like That '70s Show starts out, songs can be had for pennies. When it gets very popular, visions of dollar signs start dancing in everyone’s head, which starts bidding up the fees to use the songs. THE DEALS can get very Machiavellian, ergo, fewer songs to use 
.
You’re probably right. Now I can’t get the image of Hyde singing “Oh What A Circus” out of my head! He actually fits the character a lot more than Fez does with his perpetual political anger/attitude.
Reminded me of Herman’s Head, of all things. Cast of quirky young up-and-comers with a few respected veterans thrown in, unusual concept, starts out very funny with some truly brilliant moments, not afraid to get weird, highly enjoyable for about the first half of its existence, eventually settles into various conventions, eventually falls into a rut, eventually makes some VERY bad decisions, but manages to leave on a relatively high note and before getting truly execrable. So…a solid thumbs-up.
And (you probably saw this coming), I’m going to have to go completely against the consensus on Fez and Laurie. These were the two characters that did not work for me at all. Okay, Fez. I could envision a character starting as a moronic, pig-ignorant, stumbling, incoherent, constantly embarrassing buffoon being successful, so long as he eventually grows out of it, or at least develops some kind of twist. “No! Forget it! I’m through being an embarrassment to others! Which is also why I’m never going to tell you about Kelso’s bizarre addiction to…er…oh, wouldn’t you like to know!” But he never does, and it got freaking old. Along with that “guess the nationality” that wore out its welcome about midway through the first season. As for Laurie…look, I’ll make it real simple. Overbearing twit who gets away with it most of the time and at least serves some purpose (C.M. Burns, Bender, Mayor of Townsville, Bushwhacker Bob, and, yes, Jackie): potentially good. Completely obnoxious, irredeemable eternal Karma Houdini: freaking dreary. No, not aggravating, she didn’t even rise to that level. Nobody even tried to make her anything resembling a human being, she was simply a collection of irksome qualities with a face and voice. That “good girl/bad girl” crap just compounded it.
Other than that…liked. Yeah, it was good. Not blisteringly witty like early Friends, or endearingly poignant like The Cosby Show, or unrepentantly off-the-wall like Perfect Strangers, but it had top-notch acting (have to agree with everyone who said that Kurtwood Smith and Topher Grace put on a clinic) and really respected the source of material, and…well, I almost never considered it a waste of time. (Heavens, I do use that damning-with-faint-praise thing a lot, don’t I?)
The only real surprise for me was that this was what launched Ashton Kucher’s movie career. “Big lovable lunkhead” isn’t exactly a challenging role.
On Fez: My own idea was that Fez was making half of the stuff about his home country up and exaggerating the other half to impress people.
I can’t comment on Wisconsin specific stuff, but I think it did a great job of capturing the '70s. But…
…Dazed and Confused really really nailed it. Except for the hazing, D&C is a perfect representation my experience. I knew all of those people too. Still might be my favorite Linklater movie.
Really? It sure worked for John Travolta.