Mr. Forman, can I like this off in your house?
Sure.
And then I'll light my foot off in your ass.
This is the season finale of That '70s Show,
and despite the disjointed and empty mess
the show's eighth season makes of the primary storyline,
the season finale comes together in a way
that feels like a perfect ending to the series.
When a sitcom is ending its run, it's
usually existing on borrowed time
and wrapping up a show that is losing steam, something
which That '70s Show was definitely
in the process of doing.
The series finale doesn't just stick the landing.
It effectively pulls the entire show out
of a complete nosedive, and it's largely due to a return
to form.
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The final episode of a sitcom is almost never
anyone's favorite episode.
Time and time again, networks have
found incredible difficulty delivering a satisfying finale
to fans of the respective properties.
Seinfeld's finale decided to focus
on plot rather than humor.
Scrubs head a finale and then awkwardly returned
for a ninth season.
And How I Met Your Mother killed off the mother
that the show is titled after.
These shows all fall into the same trap over and over
again, that trap being trying to do something big
or trying to go out with a bang if you will.
Well, that's a shame.
Sitcoms are often a reflection of daily life.
That's what makes them resonate so much with us,
and that's what makes them so successful in the long term.
They remind us who we are, the importance
of our relationship to the world around us,
and the friends we've made within it.
When a finale takes all of that and throws it
into the garbage for the sake of creating a largely
unbelievable and exaggerated final episode,
we don't go along for the ride.
We actually disconnect entirely.
This is what makes the finale of That '70s Show so impactful.
It never goes for some ridiculously huge moment.
Instead, That '70s Show reunites its cast
for one final episode for the show
to do what the show does best, telling small personal stories
through the eyes of well-thought-out characters
while leaning heavily into nostalgia to connect us
to the story and drive the narrative.
You may or may not be familiar with the concept of nostalgia
porn.
As a phrase, it refers to the current trend
of filtering a story through a pastiche of various time
periods.
Some shows deliver nostalgia porn
with great success like the first season of Stranger
Things.
However, some shows rely on it too much
and end up sacrificing story to pander
to nostalgia like the third season of Stranger Things.
As a tool, nostalgia is best when
it's utilized as a spice and not as a main course.
That '70s Show isn't a successful show
because of all its subtle nods to 1970s culture.
It's successful because it tells stories people can
connect to while using the backdrop of the '70s
to support it.
Whoa.
This will buy me a monster bag of--
marshmallows.
The finale of That '70s Show piles this nostalgia
on top of more nostalgia, a nostalgia inception
if you will.
It is truly the end of an era, not just
for a characters in Point Place, Wisconsin,
but also for us as viewers.
The episode centers around the gang getting
back together for one last hurrah
before closing the door in the 1970s,
and it feels like we're right there celebrating
alongside with them.
New Year's Eve is the perfect setting
because it's a time where we can put our differences aside
and celebrate a universally appealing concept.
This is also true for both the characters
in That 70s Show and the audience
as the eight season leading up to this point
had left viewers confused and, well, a little upset.
At the end of That '70s Show's seventh season,
the show suffered a major setback
with the departure of Topher Grace's character, Eric Forman.
In television, characters get written off
with incredible frequency, but less frequent
is the removal or replacement of a show's primary lead role.
When it does happen, the show usually
ends up becoming a shell of its former self
while desperately trying to fill a massive void left
by these departures.
Fans might have been disappointed
that Ashton Kutcher reduced his role as Michael to just
a few episodes throughout season eight,
but removing Eric Forman from That '70s Show
entirely was a five-finger death punch
into the heart of the series.
And the show's eighth season was the final steps
it was taking before completely collapsing.
Eric, not real good with words, so I
thought I'd say goodbye the only way I know how.
Hit it, boys.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
After Eric left, the show went into immediate decline.
Eric Forman was the glue that held the show together,
and without him, all of the pieces felt disjointed.
They tried to shove this Randy character down our throats
as a replacement, and it just really didn't work.
New guy, you're hired.
Leo, you're not fired.
Jobs for everyone.
Well, that was hard, but it had to be done.
We covered this in a previous video,
and we placed the link in the description.
The point is That '70s Show was in trouble.
When it got announced that Topher Grace would be returning
for the finale of That '70s Show,
fans were given a glimmer of hope
that the show might be able to somehow clean up the mess
that it had made and deliver appropriate closure.
And despite many of them being turned off
by the introduction of Randy, audiences
tuned in to see the series off in whatever capacity
that ended up being.
Man, the last day of the '70s.
You know, thinking back, it's like one big blur.
You're welcome.
That's '70s Show's finale starts off
in the absolute most perfect place
for That '70s Show to end, which is on the final day of 1979.
This turn of the decade setting is satisfying
to us right from the get go as it fills in the blank
that we'd been filling in our heads
for so long in that the series would inevitably
end when the 1970s ended.
We immediately jump into the exact thing
the series had lost for an entire season, our characters
just hanging out in their natural states.
It's not trying to force anything to work.
It's not trying to manufacture relationship drama
or anything like that.
It's just our favorite characters
reflecting on the last decade and preparing
to move on with their lives.
Why are we wasting our time talking about this?
Donna's leaving town.
It's the end of the decade.
We should be doing something awesome, man, something
we have never done before--
or this.
[COUGHING]
There's something about nostalgia
that makes us really forgiving about the past.
We look back on things as being maybe a little better than they
actually were, and sometimes we even get a little protective
over the idea of that pristine nostalgia being
tarnished in any way.
This is true in life, and it translates directly
into our viewing of this finale.
There's this great moment at the top of this finale--
let's call it Red Forman's foot in the ass soliloquy
How'd you like to own a little bit of my foot in your ass.
How about I drive my foot into this thing called your ass.
Delivering this at the top of the show
makes us laugh right away, which loosens us up
for the remainder of the episode.
This also serves a powerful second function
by pulling on our sense of nostalgia
and wistfully connecting us to a better time.
This brief trip down memory lane primes
the pump for a really enjoyable experience.
The episode also backtracks on some
of the more forced elements of the eighth season.
First of all, that Randy character
is only in this episode for about five seconds.
He's just hanging around in the kitchen watching
while Hyde delivers Packers tickets to Kitty
and then disappears from our lives forever.
It's incredibly awkward to watch,
but thankfully the show didn't elect
to waste any time wrapping up a character that
should have never existed in the first place.
The largest backtrack, however, comes in about one third
of the way into the episode with Red and Kitty Forman
deciding that they will not be moving to Florida after all.
Ever since we decided to move, you--
you've been so happy and smiley and you're never
that way except for when you kill a deer.
This is met with much rejoicing by the show's supporting cast,
but it also helps this finale feel
great because we know that despite the show ending
its run, our characters are going to be right
where we inevitably leave them.
They aren't heading off to some stereotypical retirement
in Florida selling a sitcom based on their lives
or anything like that.
They're simply remaining, and it's quite comforting
to think about.
The initial tease of Eric Forman missing his flight also
hits home with us--
I circled the airport so many times
that my finger actually hurts from flipping people off.
Mostly because Topher Grace's return to the show
was also an exciting prospect for viewers
who had spent the last 21 episodes yearning for him.
In a way, we are all Donna at this moment.
We're disappointed that he isn't there yet,
but this delay in his arrival provides
for an extremely impactful moment when
he shows up in the show's final act and reconnects with Donna,
which again pulls at our feelings of nostalgia
for the series.
Throughout the rest of the episode,
we're treated to some really familiar and heartwarming
connections with the ensemble and some genuinely hilarious
moments with some of the show's supporting cast
really getting some time to shine.
Everyone gets a little nostalgia flashback sequence
while they reminisce upon the last decade.
The final image of the series is a nod
to the first thing we see from season one, which
is the gang hanging out in the basement
while there's a huge party going on upstairs.
It tells us that despite the excitement and goings
on in the world around them, the real party has always
been down here with Eric, Donna, Kelso, Jackie, Hyde, and Fez.
Instead of sneaking upstairs to steal some of Red's beer,
the gang heads up and joins the party counting down
to the end of the decade and the end of the series.
3, 2, 1.
The episode's ending doesn't really feel like an ending
either.
It feels like a new beginning without the promise
of another season.
These characters' lives are going to continue.
Their relationships are going to grow
and our imaginations are left to run wild as the gang heads
upstairs to usher in the 1980s.
Hopefully, someone insults Red, and maybe someone will actually
get a foot up their ass.
Do you ever actually do that with your foot?
Once.
The finale of That '70s Show is one of the few truly great
sitcom finales to ever air.
It doesn't focus on grandiose moments that
feel out of place and instead returns to its roots,
providing the audience with a sense of wistful nostalgia
while taking a look backward before it moves itself forward.
It's well placed, thoughtful, touching, and very funny,
exactly the way any great episode of That '70s Show
would be.
The finale brings us a little bit
of closure without causing us any grief or hardship
and leaves us wanting more.
That's it for this week's episode.
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