If I remember right, they stopped the practice of flashing the date at the beginning of the episode at the beginning of Season 2. Probably for the reason you cited -- if they continued to do it, they would have been "pushed" into 1979 by this season. As it stands now, the current episodes can be said to be taking place any time after the mid-1977 timeframe.
I kinda chuckled at the "Dungeons and Dragons" reference in last weeks episode (Donna's Radio Daze). Thought they were getting a bit ahead of themselves there -- I don't remember D&D becoming a real fad until about 1981 or so . . .
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