'That '70s' Show' Keeps on Truckin'

[TJ]

http://tv.zap2it.com/news/tvnewsdaily.html?29085

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) -
Something big is about to happen
on "That '70s Show."

It's just that no one is saying
what, exactly

"Are we even talking about that?"
asks Topher Grace, who plays
lead character Eric Forman on
the FOX sitcom, during a break
from rehearsals in October.

The cast is, in fact, talking
around the big event, which takes
place on the episode airing
Tuesday (Nov. 26). It involves Eric
asking his next-door neighbor and on-off-on-off-now-on-again girlfriend Donna Pinciotti
(Laura Prepon) a question. Or popping it, you might say.

On other series, what happens Tuesday could be a jump-the-shark moment. But Grace
trusts the writers of "That '70s Show" not to give it that very-special-episode feeling.

"There's a long-term plan," Grace says. "If I really
thought we were going the 'Friends' route with this, I
think I'd be worried. But I love how we do stuff on this
show."

Prepon feels much the same way. "I like that when
we deal with this, it's not like it's some special
episode," she says. "It's just within the series of
shows that we're doing."

And just as FOX has asked Zap2it to take a vow of
secrecy on the big Eric-Donna moment this week,
the two characters decide to keep their secret from
their friends and families. Of course, this being
sitcomland, people will eventually find out, and the reactions will range from pleased to
pissed.

"I think Jackie being with Stephen has taught her a lot about not being so selfish," Mila
Kunis, who plays Jackie, says of her relationship with Stephen Hyde (Danny
Masterson). "So I think she'll be happy for Donna, and not jealous."

The same can't be said for Eric's and Donna's parents.

"Oh, I'm sure he'll react with his usual calm and mature attitude," deadpans Kurtwood
Smith, Eric's dad Red Forman. "He'll approach it in sort of psychological -- no. He'll go
nuts. He'll be ballistic, I imagine."

Adds Don Stark, who plays Donna's dad, Bob: "I can't imagine he'd be pleased. ... I
think murder is probably -- I kind of look at it as justifiable homicide."

OK, so it's safe to say that last option probably won't happen, but the
event does open some new stories to explore, particularly as the kids
near graduation from high school and moving on to college or work or
whatever the future might bring.

Any number of shows, from "Happy Days" to "Beverly Hills, 90210,"
revolving around a group of high-school friends, have suffered when the gang moves on to
college. But the fact that "That '70s Show" has never focused very much on school
anyway may help some, Grace says.

"I don't know what graduation is on this show," he says. "Even though we've had winter
episodes, to me the whole show takes place on a summer day, like a late Sunday
afternoon. So it's never been about school."

That's not to say the cast will be perpetually stuck at Point Place (Wis.) High -- last
week's episode, in fact, dealt with college visits. But it's not likely they'll all be headed
off to the same school, either.

"These kids aren't rich, so they're not all going to college," Grace says. "Maybe one or
two of them are. ... Kelso's [Ashton Kutcher] not going, for obvious reasons, and Hyde
can't afford it."

Kutcher is happy to leave the show's future in the hands of the writers. He hopes only
that the affable goof Kelso continues to have "an investment" in the show's continuing
stories.

"The hard things for me to do on the show are the ones where Kelso is just in for comic
relief ... or [he has] no clear attitude about the situation," he says. "Because then you
find yourself teetering, and it's hard to make comedy funny if you're on the fence. You've
got to pick a side and commit to it."

That's one of the things that's kept the show engaging over its four-plus seasons.
Because the characters -- and the actors -- started young, they've been allowed to grow
so that Kelso is more than just the dumb guy, Jackie's not just a stuck-up rich girl and
Eric and Donna have a relationship that feels fairly true.

"The characters have been allowed to evolve and grow," Grace says. "I love watching the
[syndicated] reruns of the show now because you can see it. Also, we got to be much --
or I should say we got to be good actors. ... I really feel like we're riding the same
course with the show. It's getting better because of, or at least parallel to, us getting
better."

[Moonlight Lady]

TJ

Thanks for posting that article. It was really interesting.

Happy Thanksgiving