In 1998, Fox first aired the throwback sitcom "That '70s Show," which became a smash hit for
the network, followed up in 2023 by Netflix's "That '90s Show." From alternate titles to
surprising casting decisions, here's the untold truth of this classic Wisconsin-set sitcom.
Perhaps one of the most well-known bits of trivia about That '70s Show is the fact that
Mila Kunis lied about her age in order to be cast as Jackie. The show had a policy that all actors
had to be at least 18 when they auditioned, so Kunis chose not to reveal her true age,
as she was only 14 at the time. During a 2012 appearance on The Tonight Show, she admitted,
"I told them I was a little bit older ... I told them I was gonna be 18,
which is not technically a lie, 'cause at one point ... I was gonna be 18."
After finding out that Kunis was underage, the producers allowed her to stay on the show,
as they felt she was a perfect fit for Jackie. The role jumpstarted Kunis' career and her co-stars
helped her achieve some important milestones in her personal life. Wilmer Valderrama taught her
how to drive, Danny Masterson was her prom date, and Ashton Kutcher was her
first kiss. And she and Kutcher eventually even became husband and wife in real life in 2015.
Before That '70s Show, Topher Grace had absolutely zero professional acting experience. He ended up
landing the lead role of Eric Forman pretty much by fluke. On an episode of PeopleTV's
Couch Surfing, Grace revealed that he was approached to audition after appearing in a
high school production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. As he remembers it,
"I was in a high school play, and I was really only in that
because I sprained my ankle, and I couldn't be on the tennis team."
The play's set designer turned out to be the daughter of Bonnie and Terry Turner,
two of the main producers of That '70s Show. After seeing Grace in the play,
the Turners approached him shortly after he enrolled at the University of Southern
California and asked him to audition to play Eric. Grace agreed and went on to win the part.
One of the most memorable supporting characters on That '70s Show was surely no-nonsense patriarch
Red Forman, who served as a constant foil to Eric and his friends. He was a well-written character,
but what really brought him to life was the performance from Kurtwood Smith.
Haggling is part of being an adult. Here's $40."
"I want $50." kjjj"Knock it off!"
But as it turns out, Smith wasn't the actor that the producers originally had in mind
for Red. Instead, they really wanted none other than Walker, Texas Ranger himself: Chuck Norris.
By casting someone as hyper-masculine as Norris, the producers hoped to establish a clear contrast
between Red and bookish nerd Eric, who had zero interest in conventionally masculine activities.
However, Norris was unable to commit to That '70s Show due to his pre-existing commitment to Walker,
Texas Ranger. And so, perhaps for the best, the role ultimately went to Smith.
Like some of his co-stars, Ashton Kutcher had precious little acting experience prior
to That '70s Show. However, he did have a significant amount of experience as a
professional model. His modeling days began when he was a student at the University of
Iowa. A wandering talent scout discovered him at a local bar in Iowa City and encouraged him to
enter the "Fresh Faces of Iowa" modeling competition. He ended up placing first,
and then he moved to New York City, where he signed as a model with the
agency Next and appeared in ads for Calvin Klein. After a few years,
he decided to shift towards acting, and his first big role was empty-headed teen heartthrob Kelso.
While the role really launched Kutcher's acting career, he doesn't exactly have
fond memories of the first season. During Fox's 25th Anniversary Special in 2012,
he admitted that he assumed his lack of experience would almost certainly get
him fired, which made him a nervous wreck in the show's early days. As he admitted,
"I was so nervous when I was [hired for] That '70s Show. I
was doing everything I could to look awesome. I thought I was going to get
fired for the first three, four episodes. I was convinced I was going to get fired."
"Faking it until you make it, full-blown, for like the first entire season."
From the moment he first appears in Season 2, Leo proved to be one of the most popular
recurring characters on That '70s Show. Played by Tommy Chong and originally introduced as
Hyde's absentminded hippie boss, he was promoted to main cast member status by
Season 4. But then he was nowhere to be seen during the fifth and sixth seasons,
though his absence is addressed by Eric and his friends in the Season 5 episode "The Battle of
Evermore." Apparently, Leo remembered he had a wife and child and had to get back to them.
"Maybe a UFO appeared. And it shot down a beam."
In reality, Leo's temporary departure was due to Tommy Chong's arrest and legal battles in
the early 2000s. He was reportedly caught up in a 2003 police investigation trying to
halt the sale of drug paraphernalia. As the financier behind his son's company,
Chong was charged with distributing around 7,500 water pipes and bongs for marijuana
use. He ultimately agreed to a plea bargain that spared his wife and son
from prosecution. As part of the plea deal, he was sentenced to serve nine months in prison,
during which time he shared a cell with Jordan Belfort of The Wolf of Wall Street fame.
After Chong served his time, he was welcomed back to That '70s Show, and so,
Leo re-emerged in Point Place in Season 7's "Down the Road Apiece." Chong became a full-time cast
member again for the eighth and final season, as Leo took a job at Hyde's record store.
Any That '70s Show fans who are old enough to remember the actual 1970s have surely spotted
plenty of pop culture references appropriate for the decade. Case in point: various episodes that
take their names from well-known rock songs of the era. Specifically, every episode in
Season 5 is named after a Led Zeppelin song, and every episode in Season 6 is named after a song
by The Who. Meanwhile, Season 7 is dedicated to the Rolling Stones, and Season 8 to Queen.
But that rock 'n' roll connection was originally planned to go even deeper. In the early days of
the show's production, the showrunners were going to call the series Teenage Wasteland,
a reference to the lyrics of The Who song "Baba O'Riley."
"Could you please play 'Baba O'Riley' by The Who?"
Other potential titles included The Kids Are Alright, another song by The Who,
as well as Reelin' in the Years, which was a track by Steely Dan. The showrunners also
seriously considered using the title of Traffic's "Feelin' Alright" as the name of the show,
but Fox felt that it wasn't strong enough. As executive producer Tom Werner revealed
to The Hollywood Reporter in 2012, fellow producer Bonnie Turner said,
"You know, why don't we just call it That '70s Show? Because that's what
everyone is going to end up calling it anyway. No matter what we come up with,
they'll say, 'Did you see that '70s show?' We all looked at her and said, 'You're right.'"
Few fictional sitcom cars are as iconic as Eric's Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser,
the station wagon that his dad gives to him that serves as the main means of transportation for
him and his friends. The cast members of course spent a ton of time in it,
so inevitably certain actors grew more than a little attached. In fact, Wilmer Valderrama
became so fond of the car that he promptly purchased it after the series wrapped in 2006.
As Valderrama revealed on The Kelly Clarkson Show in 2021, he went to the
props department and asked them to sell the car to him. The props specialist soon agreed,
allowing Valderrama to purchase the car for $500. As the actor recalled,
"When I look at the car, it reminds me of when I was, you know, 17, 18 years old, booking That
'70s Show and doing that opening sequence when we're just driving in the street, and honestly,
it's going to be in my family forever. And I truly believe, I'm going to put it in my
will and make sure that my kids have the burden of keeping that car in the garage, you know?"
"Honestly, it's the best, the best thing I've ever acquired from my whole career."
One of the biggest mysteries that continues to surround That '70s
Show is Fez's nation of origin. Throughout the show, he offers only vague hints about
where he's from and never outright reveals his official nationality. Not only that,
but his actual name also remained unknown when the series concluded in 2006. This
has never been elaborated on by either the showrunners or Wilmer Valderrama himself.
The closest That '70s Show ever comes to revealing Fez's real name is the Season
4 episode "Class Picture." The friend group remembers their first encounter with Fez when
they help him out of a storage closet after he's locked inside by a group of bullies. When Hyde,
Kelso, and Eric then introduce themselves to him, Fez recites a lengthy name. But the
school bell rings at the same time, preventing viewers from hearing the
truth. When Hyde appears perplexed at the long name, the gang gives him the nickname
"Fez," a casual version of the acronym F.E.S., which stands for Foreign Exchange Student.
"I know. Let's call him Captain Poo-Face."
While Fez's difficult name is played up for laughs, there was a secret meaning
behind the scene. When Valderrama is drowned out by the ringing bell,
he's actually saying the first names of every main cast member on the show. The
reveal behind Fez's name was meant as a subtle inside joke that the showrunners thought up for
the series' very special Season 4, Episode 20. We assume Tommy Chong was very proud.
When Topher Grace announced that he was leaving That '70s Show at the end of the seventh season,
producers wondered how they were going to continue
the show in the wake of their lead actor's departure. They ended up
introducing a new character near the end of Season 7 in the form Charlie Schmidt.
In the context of the series, Charlie was the son of one of Red's old war buddies. Played by
Bret Harrison, he was established as one of the new members of the friend
group with the eventual goal of phasing Eric out and replacing him with Charlie.
However, Harrison landed a starring role on the Fox show The Loop right
around the same time. So the producers then decided to write Charlie out of the show at
the beginning of the eighth season, unceremoniously killing him off after
he falls off the water tower. As Harrison revealed to PopEntertainment.com in 2006,
"Basically, if The Loop wasn't going to get picked up as a full series,
then I would have been on That '70s Show for the
whole year. Because The Loop got picked up, they threw me off the water tower."
After Brett Harrison was no longer available, the producers brought in Josh Meyers as a new
addition to the main cast to play the role of Randy Pearson. In an odd twist, though,
Meyers actually wasn't hired to play Randy right off the bat. Originally,
the showrunners hired him to literally take over the role of Eric Forman in Season 8,
as discussed in the DVD director's commentary of the Season 8 episode "Bohemian Rhapsody."
In this original outline for Season 8, Eric would've returned from Africa as a "changed
man" to explain his physical transformation into the significantly taller, longer-haired
Meyers. But fearing viewers' potential reaction to Eric's recasting, the showrunners ultimately
chose not to go this route, opting instead to create a new character. This character,
who would eventually become Randy, combined some of the characteristics of Eric and Kelso,
with Meyers acting as a successor to both roles after Kutcher left the show near
the start of Season 8, while also serving as a prospective love interest for Donna.
"One of the first things that was said to me about my character is he's sort of,
is so, he enjoys these people so much. They're so interesting."
Unfortunately, fans' reception to Randy was mixed at best, and Meyers was gradually
given less prominent screen time as the season progressed. This would continue until the very
final episode of the series, with Randy only appearing in one brief scene in the finale.
That '70s Show featured a fair number of famous guest stars throughout the show's
run. One of the most recognizable was surely Joseph Gordon-Levitt,
who played Eric's newfound best friend Buddy in the Season 1 episode "Eric's Buddy."
In the episode, Buddy and Eric quickly begin to spend more and more time together,
eclipsing the time Eric usually spends with the rest of his friend group. When
Eric confides his inner troubles to Buddy one night, Buddy leans over and kisses Eric,
revealing that he's been romantically interested since the beginning of their friendship.
"You're smart and sensitive and nice-looking."
It's a moment that stands out, since there wasn't much romantic
LGBTQ representation on TV at the time. Years later in a Reddit AMA,
Gordon-Levitt shared the funny backstory behind the famous onscreen moment by revealing,
"I remember the director asking me and Topher to kiss longer, and then on the next take,
kissing for what felt like several minutes. But when you watch it,
our lips touched for probably less than a second."
The actor also told Pride Source in 2013,
"I certainly am proud to have made that small contribution of whatever kind to that progress."
That '70s Show's memorable opening sequence features the main characters singing along and
dancing to classic '70s rock music while driving through Point Place in the Vista
Cruiser. It's an intro that perfectly captures an image of the carefree days of the era.
The theme song, entitled "In the Street," was originally written and performed by the band
Big Star and released on their cult classic 1972 album Record. The first season of the
show features a modified cover version of the song performed by Todd Griffin,
lead singer of the 90s band Graveyard Train,
with additional lyrics contributed by composer Ben Vaughn. From the second season onwards,
the showrunners opted for another version of the song performed by Cheap Trick.
As is standard practice for a song that appears in a TV show or movie, songwriter and Big Star
lead vocalist Alex Chilton received a regular royalty check every time "In the Street" was
used on the show. And the specific amount of money he received was a hilariously coincidental amount:
$70. As Chilton quipped to Rolling Stone in 2000,
"It's actually ironic that the amount is $70. To me it's 'That $70 Show.'"
One of the most innovative ways That '70s Show got around establishing the
characters' routine use of marijuana without actually showing it was the rotating camera
from the series' signature "circle" scenes. Amid a heavy haze of smoke,
the camera would individually focus on one of the main characters in a closeup,
then quickly turn to another one, and repeat this process. This was meant to
suggest the passing of a joint as everyone suddenly becomes a lot giddier than usual.
"Marijuana is the bee's knees."
It was a clever way to appease the censors, and soon became one of the most memorable running
gags on the show. In a 2012 chat with Smashing Interviews Magazine, Danny Masterson revealed that
the smoke was actually a combination of scented artificial smoke from the props department and
smoke from his, Ashton Kutcher, and Laura Prepon's cigarettes held off-screen. As he explained,
"We'd be smoking cigarettes and holding them low, and then they would just pump in this
movie smoke that smelled like strawberries. It was like some incense in the background."
At the peak of That '70s Show's popularity, Fox looked to further cash in by creating a loosely
connected spinoff about the following decade fittingly titled That '80s Show. Set in 1984,
the series focused on a group of friends in their twenties living and working in San Diego.
The focal point of the show was Corey Howard, played by Glenn Howerton, who would eventually
go on to It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Corey is an aspiring musician working at a
local record store who begins a romance with a co-worker, spiky-haired punk rocker June.
"I don't remember it ever taking this long."
Debuting in January 2002, That '80s Show garnered mostly negative
reviews and disappointing viewership numbers. Variety, for one, declared,
"[That '80s Show] attempts to play off the decade's superficialities [...] and
the result is as conceptually thin as a new waver's tie."
Owing to those abysmally poor ratings, the spinoff was canceled after just one
season on Fox. Here's hoping Netflix's That '90s Show does better than its short-lived
'80s counterpart, although it certainly can't do much worse.
That '80s Show wasn't the only attempt to spin off the success of That '70s Show.
There was in fact another, previous spinoff attempt in the form of Days Like These,
a British remake that was released around the same time as That '70s Show's first season
Like That '70s Show, Days Like These takes place in the 1970s and follows
a group of teenage friends. But this time it took place in a real-life town:
Luton in southeastern England. There are some slight differences between the two shows,
with certain characters' names being changed in the British version, but Days Like These retained
many of the same storylines as its predecessor, as scripts were recycled for the British counterpart.
Nowadays, it's become rather commonplace to see American TV series remaking an earlier
British show, with The Office perhaps the most prominent example. Decidedly
less common is seeing a British reboot of an American show with something getting
lost in translation when the show crosses the Atlantic. But Days Like These is one such show,
as it failed to gain any serious traction among English audiences. It was promptly canceled,
with just 10 of the 13 episodes that were produced ever being aired on TV.