That '70s Show

*That ’70s Show* premiered on Fox on August 23, 1998, and ended on May 18, 2006, after eight seasons. Created by Bonnie Turner, Terry Turner, and Mark Brazill, the sitcom follows teenagers in fictional Point Place, Wisconsin, beginning in 1976. Much of the action takes place in Eric Forman’s basement, where the friends gather beneath the watchful eyes of his parents, Red and Kitty. The show’s final episode takes them to New Year’s Eve 1979, just before the decade they have spent together gives way to the 1980s.

Topher Grace plays Eric, whose relationship with his neighbor Donna Pinciotti, played by Laura Prepon, anchors much of the series. Their circle includes Michael Kelso (Ashton Kutcher), Jackie Burkhart (Mila Kunis), Steven Hyde (Danny Masterson), and Fez (Wilmer Valderrama). Kurtwood Smith’s Red is a Korean War veteran with a famously short temper, while Debra Jo Rupp plays Kitty, a nurse whose warmth often softens his household rules. Donna’s parents, Bob and Midge Pinciotti, are played by Don Stark and Tanya Roberts. Tommy Chong also appears as Leo, Hyde’s laid-back employer at the Foto Hut.

The series makes its period setting part of both its comedy and its storytelling. Eric drives a 1969 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser, a car that becomes a familiar gathering place as well as a connection to his family. In the basement, a rotating camera moves between seated characters during scenes known as “the circle”; their marijuana use is implied without being shown directly. The opening credits put the friends in the Vista Cruiser singing along to “In the Street,” a song originally recorded by Big Star. Cheap Trick performs the theme version used from the second season onward.

As the characters grow older, their lives move beyond school and the basement. Eric leaves for Africa near the end of the seventh season, following Grace’s departure from the regular cast. Kutcher likewise leaves his regular role as Kelso during the eighth season, which introduces Josh Meyers as Randy Pearson. The finale brings Eric and Kelso back for the last New Year’s gathering. Decades later, Netflix’s *That ’90s Show* returned to Point Place: its central character, Leia Forman, is Eric and Donna’s daughter, spending the summer with Red and Kitty. That sequel keeps the Forman house at the center of a new generation’s friendships, making its connection to the original series unmistakable.