[LOS ANGELES - Topher Grace and Ashton Kutcher are leaving, but “That '70s Show” will keep on truckin’ into an eighth season in 2005-06.
Fox is banking that the rest of the cast - who have all signed on to the show’s eighth year - will be enough to keep viewers coming back to one of the network’s longest-running series.
…
Working in the show’s favor is the fact that Grace and Kutcher were part of a fairly deep ensemble. Laura Prepon, Mila Kunis, Danny Masterson, Wilmer Valderrama, Debra Jo Rupp and Kurtwood Smith are set to return next season.](http://www.azcentral.com/ent/tv/articles/0121that70s.html)
At least Happy Days still had the Fonz!
I have long been a big fan of the show. I was ready to salute the show as it went off the air. I really thought this season had been mailing it in, but then that is true of many sitcoms that go on a bit too long.
And I thought that because of the declining ratings and the desires of Grace and Kutcher to go on to bigger/betters, that this was the end.
But they decide to go forward without them? Seems a bit silly. Will the gang still hang out in Eric’s basement with him gone?
How will they handle Donna with no Eric?
And who will provide commentary on the quality of an individual burn?
Just greed on the part of the studio, trying to pass off a clearly inferior product on unblinking drones who sit in front of the tube and watch anything that is thrown at them. Hopefully it will now tank and reveal the studio’s treachery.
And of course, we’ll have the other thing; Topher Grace and Ashton Kutcher without That 70’s Show. Although if history is a guide, we won’t be seeing them for long.
That 70s show is one of those shows that I like a lot but rarely remember to watch. Personally my favorite characters were Red and Hyde. Kelso being out as a character doesn’t hurt the show much for me, because I don’t find his antics all that funny.
No more Eric Foreman is a big hit though, and I’m not sure the show can survive that.
The biggest problem I see in situations like this is when you lose actors the writing also seems to plummet (some of it may just be because with characters leaving you have fewer plot options.)
Aren’t they about up to the 80’s now? I say they change the name to That 80’s Show. I’m sure show called That 80’s Show would on the air for years. I mean how could it fail?
They’ll just have to adopt the “24” model and base their entire eighth season around a single day so as to conserve the rapidly dwindling amount of the Seventies that’s left.
Granted, most of these seasons will include several episodes of all of the cast members snoring. And some kind of hideous virus will have to be introduced to explain how all of the cast members got so OLD over the course of a couple of weeks. But those are minor details at best.
If they did the show 24-style, it would take them two seasons to get through a single day. They could definitely keep milking it for a long time that way.
