[ sitcom ]
8 seasons _ 1998_2006
200 episodes _ 22min

TV-14 _ coming-of-age / sex, drugs
starring: Kurtwood Smith, Mia Kunis, Ashton Kuscher, Laura Prepon, Tommy Chong, Don Stark, Tanya Roberts

GOOD ++ : as rated by DR-KNOW

At roughly 25 episodes per season this show had time for all of its many characters. More importantly, it had full on laughs from the first scene in the first episode right up to ending. Unfortunately COMEDY tanslates best within age and demographic boundaries. So for me, as a highschool student during the 1970s like the show's main leads, I could identify both with them and their parents given my age at the start of the series. Both my wife and I laugh our asses off every time we watch. Over the past ten years we have watched the entire series three times. Laughing as much each time we see it. Prior to our 2010 marriage we both watched during its original run and many re-runs after. I bought the entire series around 2008 for our TV & movie collection which has more than 70 entire TV series and 30 partial TV series and over 2000 movies.

With a TV-14 rating this show is all, but adult. Sex, drugs, rock and roll. Definitely a mirror of the times it comedically portrays. It's all about interpersonal relationship. Not about the funny ways our smart-phones get us in trouble or texting each other while we're in the same room. It's about kids growing into adults and adults raising their children. Timeless stuff set in the 1970s. Most of the action centers on a teenage boy, Eric Foreman (Topher Grace), and his group of friends. They tend to meet daily in his basement much to his parents chagrin. Even still Red & Kitty, with their neighbors Bob & Midge, keep their kids and others in the group headed down the right path. In the middle of the series Red attempts to squash what he thinks is some occasional pot use only to find out near the end of the series that the whole group has been "partaking" rather heavily all those years. Despite the drinking, the pot, and other teenage misadventures the group makes into adulthood.

Two of the teen group, Ashton Kuscher and Mila Kunis, become major stars and get married in real life after having separate adventures of their own. Laura Prepom and Topher Grace also go on to successful careers. Kurtwood Smith as Red was already a seasoned actor with many roles and adds the perfect flavor to bring the show into the 1970s. While Leo, played by Tommy Chong, is mostly unbelievable, he adds fun to the set and nostalgia for his real life part in the 1970s. The "other parents", Bob & Midge (Don Stark, Tanya Roberts), play a great contrast to the conservative Red & Kitty. Ultimately, Bob & Midge get into a messy and comedic divorce which allows another 1970s great, Brooke Shields, to enter the cast.

At more than twenty years since it began "That 70s Show" is now a part of history and will stand out as one of the best coming-of-age sitcoms. Drug use notwithstanding. With the legalization of marijuana (aka. canabis, pot, weed) in several states, today's youth will have this roadblock to navigate as much or more than the kids of the 1970s. Therefore TV-14 for this show seems as appropriate today as it did in 1998. A year after that TV RATING originated

by: Todd Wheatley - Aug.2021

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