Posted on 11/02/2005 10:33:42 AM PST by Chi-townChief
In tonight's episode of Fox's "That '70s Show," almost everybody gets stoned. Again. That's how you can tell "That '70s Show" is still stuck in the spirit of the "Me Decade." If the characters were to live it up '80s-style, they'd all be snorting coke and wearing yellow Izods.
You can't really blame the writers of the show (7 p.m., WFLD-Channel 32) for holding off the "Decade of Greed." If you had to pick between living forever in the late '70s or the early '80s, the Carter years would be your winner. Politicians living in a state of red-baiting moneyism might opt for the go-go Reagan years. But they'd have to be high to make that margin call.
The late '70s was about mellowing out, getting laid and watching "MASH" and good movies. The early '80s was about buying stocks, lovingly conditioning the leather seats of your bitchin' Honda Prelude, and wearing argyle sweater vests. That's not even a fair fight.
That said, "That '70s Show" may have run its tie-dye course. It's been kind of an amusing sitcom. But tonight's hourlong eighth-season premiere is saddled with the chore of keeping the ensemble cast busy while making up for the exit of lead actor Topher Grace, who has played the pothead ringleader Eric.
With Eric gone as a regular character, distractions abound. Someone gets punched; someone dies; a stripper paints her toenails in the kitchen. The episode doesn't reek. I laughed two little laughs, chuckled twice and smiled three times. I kept count. Basically, an hour passes without incident.
Also, there is a serious logistical discrepancy. The mom, Kitty (Debra Jo Rupp), gets baked on buds, making her see walls rock as if they were storm-tossed ships. This is filmed funny. But she also thinks people's heads are super big, atop squiggly bodies. Methinks she dropped acid and PCP, too, because that is not a pot high, dudes. Get your drug interactions straight.
If "That '70s Show" is more quickly passing into the great hereafter of creativity, it deserves credit for having provided more humor than most sitcoms, and for being cast well. Some of the actors are making strides elsewhere.
*Grace is scheduled to play a villain in "Spider-Man 3," after turning in critically acclaimed performances in "Traffic" and "In Good Company."
*Ashton Kutcher -- who will appear this season in only some episodes, including tonight's -- hooked up with Demi Moore and made a name for himself, as himself, in MTV's prank-pulling "Punk'd." Then again, he was in the movies, "Dude, Where's My Car?" (eh), "Just Married" (chafe) and "Cheaper by the Dozen" (I think I'm gonna be sick).
*And Wilmer Valderrama presumably engaged in the steamier methods of animal husbandry with Lindsay Lohan when he was briefly her boyfriend, as noted wildly in the media for about five minutes, a million tabloid-years ago.
Maybe the show that made them stars and semi-stars will keep growing, like a sticky stalk of herb in a high schooler's closet. I wouldn't count on it. But better that than a mirror and a razor blade. The '80s can go binge-drink some bong water.
mailto:delfman@suntimes.com
I remember the late '70's being about gas lines, stagflation and 444 days of us doing nothing while the Islamonazis paraded our Tehran embassy staff in front of the world media as hostages.
mmm....laura prepon....tall, redhead, likes guns.
didn't like it when she died her hair blonde, though.
Obviously. If they'd been old enough to pay a mortgage or drive, they'd remember.
The 70s had better movies and dirtier magazines. The 80s had a better economy and better hygeine. Its a draw as far as music is concerned.
No matter what is said Laura Pepron is seriously HOT. Flaming, roaring bonfire HOT.
Guilty as charged. I HAD a bitchin' Honda Prelude!
That show is still on? I thought those were re-runs. Those "kids" must be in their 30's by now.
Red also had another family in the early 1960s. When he refused to let his Gay son persue a career in acting and continue hanging with his pals in the Dead Poets Society, the son took Red Foreman's gun and offed himself.
Which is exactly why the left and the media want to brand the '80's as the "Decade of Greed", or pretend the decade never happened.
Oddly enough, commie CNN rat Jeff Greenfield used to write for the 'Poon.
Also in the 80's that is when the PC movement began..
Watching Jimmy Carter on the Today show the morning I was reminded how bad things really were back then. There was a "shortage" of everything. Then the disaster in the desert with the rescue attempt. I thought it was over for America. Jimmy Carter has nothing to say. He was an idiot then and he's actually worse now. He needs to depart the scene.
wow, that was him?
Red has always been a hard assed dad!
Don't forget the "malaise" Carter put the country through either.
The show is kinda like MASH... It has been 1979 for a long time.
Yup...got that right.
She's a gun girl too!! Hot and can use a gun! What I wouldn't do for one chance...
I better shut up while I can!
Never seen an episode.
I'll take the 80's, thanks. The decade of Reagan was a high point in my life and something I'll always remember fondly.
We'll never see the likes of National Lampoon again.
That brings back memories, and you are absolutely right about the Lampoon. GREAT, all time funny satire.
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