Die wilden Siebziger

I guess that one might say that "That '70s Show" is to the 1990s what "Happy Days" was to the 1970s: a look at how cool things were twenty years earlier in Wisconsin. And they do a great job with it. The characters are: Eric Foreman (Topher Grace), a sometimes clueless high school student; Donna Pinciotti (Laura Prepon), Eric's strong-willed friend; Michael Kelso (Ashton Kutcher), a complete imbecile; Jackie Burkhart (Mila Kunis), the vain, egotistical member of the group; Steven Hyde (Danny Masterson), the cynical member of the group; Fez (Wilmer Valderrama), a foreign exchange student who always tries to be cool; Red (Kurtwood Smith), Eric's hard-ass father; and Kitty (Debra Jo Rupp), Eric's jolly mother.

Tommy Chong occasionally appears as Hyde's stoner boss Leo. Throughout the series, the circle of friends comes across all sorts of situations, which usually end up accentuating Kelso's stupidity or Hyde's distrust of authority. Oftentimes, they assess everything through popular culture (namely disco or any TV show that had existed up to that point). But no matter what happens, it's always safe to assume that Red will threaten to kick someone in the ass, or at least call someone a dumb-ass.

Either way, it's a great show. You gotta see it.

As the title suggests, this comedy takes place in the 70's (one of my favorite musical decades). It revolves around a group of friends which are all late teenagers and covers all of their daily hassles with friends, parents work and love. There is a variety of different and real characters here, plus the one that no comedy can work without it seems: the incredible dumb-ass. In this series this person is Kelso (Ashton Kutcher). Then there is Eric (Topher Grace), whose basement is the place where the main characters usually hang to avoid their parent and Erics sister. Eric is an OK guy, whose girlfriend Donna (Laura Pepron) lives in the same street as he does. The relationship between the two is very well worked out and they behave in a way I think is appropriate for serious couples of that age. The rest of the crew are Jackie (Mila Kunis) who is really self absorbed and not one of the favorite's of the group, although she belongs there. Then of course there's Fez (Wilmer Valderrama) the foreigner, who is thinks very highly of himself at times, but who is also naive and shy in a way. The crew is completed by my favorite character, Hyde (Danny Masterson). The reason I like him so much is that he is very easygoing. Plus he is extremely cool, I mean when he cracks a joke or makes a remark it always strikes a chord, whether it is a wise or a mean statement. Overall this is a good show with some great and some standard comedy characters (of which not all are mentioned here).

8 out of 10

This is a really funny show indeed. The script is good and never fails to deliver new ideas. After seven seasons, the show hasn't got boring and that credits must go to the writers. There are some very interesting and funny characters like Red Forman, Fez or regular guest characters like Leo. The actors are quite good, especially Danny Masterson or Wilmer Valderrama (he got a fabulous accent) or Debra Jo Rupp. At first Mila Kunis was really bad but she got better as the show advanced. It is good that the story advanced really well along these seasons. And I like the way they capture the '70s atmosphere, like through the references of the movies or music.

And the title song rocks.

Over the years, we've seen a lot of preposterous things done by writers when the show just had to go on no matter what, keeping "8 Simple Rules" going after John Ritter died comes to mind, but this is probably the first time I cared. The idea of having "That 70's Show" without Eric or to a lesser extent Kelso is ridiculous. They tried to cover it up with a comeback of Leo and increasingly outrageous story lines, but it always felt like why bother when you don't have a main character anymore. It just didn't really connect, it was a bunch of unrelated stuff happening that most of the time wasn't even funny. The last season felt like the season too much for every single character, simply because Eric used to take a lot of screen time and now we'd be smashed in the face by how stale and repetitive the rest of the characters were. Focusing on the gimmick that is Fez was thoroughly uninteresting and the character would simply stop working, because the whole deal was that he'd say something weird from out of nowhere, and you can't say stuff from out of nowhere when every second line is yours. They also brought in the standard cousin Oliver, only this time it just wasn't a kid. Whenever you heard somebody knock on the door, you started praying it wasn't Randy, please let it not be Randy. The deal with Randy was that he'd do really awful jokes, usually as Red would say, smiling like an ass and totally screwing up delivery and Donna would be in stitches. I think more than half of the last season was Donna pretending to be amused. The problems had started earlier though: what once was a truly great show with an equally great concept that for once wasn't about a dysfunctional family slowly got into the territory of soap opera. Everybody started being in love with everybody, emotional scenes were dragged out at nausea, with just one usually lame joke placed somewhere to divert attention that we were watching "As The World Turns". I'm guessing this was character development, but come on that was written almost as clumsily as the moral lessons from "Family Matters". To be fair, the last episode, also because it had a cameo by Topher Grace (a cameo in his own show), was really good, even if not that funny either.

By the way, yet more criticism on Season 8: what the hell was with the opening theme? Not only did they use the same joke twice (a character not singing), Fez scared the hell out of me. Dude, don't open your eyes that far. But the first five seasons or so,among the best comedy ever broadcast.

This show is one of my favorites. I just started watching it last week when Fox aired an episode every night of the week. I cannot believe I've been missing this show! It's one of the funniest shows I have seen in a long time. Tho, I'm no fan of the 70's as a decade, the show makes me wanna go back and live it all again...wait I was born in 1978, so forget that idea. Anyhow...the show follows the lives of a group of 17 year- olds in the 70's and everything they do is hilarious. I love the character of Fez, who happens to be foreign, and he's sorta the dork of the show. He tries to be cool and catch all the fads of the time, but he never seems to get it right, and he's always after Jackie, played by the beautiful Mila Kunis. As for Jackie, the relationship between her and her boyfriend is classic. The guy is a total idiot, and she's almost as dippy as he is...As for Eric, who is the male lead, and Donna- his girlfriend, they are so sweet together...if I do say so myself. They are the perfect couple on the show, and I'm shocked they're acting, they do the couple thing so well! The show is like a lot of comedies, but it's got an edge most shows don't. I love the shots where the camera rotates around the table, showing all the guys talking...it's a staple of almost every episode. Check this show out if you haven't had a chance, or chose to ignore it!!