Jim Morrison is a God.
A God who thought my breasts looked like mushrooms.
This is not a weird prequel to "It's Always Sunny
in Philadelphia."
This is "That '80s Show."
This seemed like a logical follow up
to Fox's largely successful prime time sitcom "That '70s
Show."
However, Fox's hopes and dreams for lightning to strike twice
in the same exact place were quickly dashed
and the show was canceled after airing only 13 episodes.
So what happened here?
With such a clear roadmap to creating
a successful nostalgia-saturated sitcom sitting right
in front of their faces, how did Fox drop the ball this hard?
When spinoffs are created, they usually go one of two ways.
They either copy their parent series to the letter.
We've seen a lot of successes here with countless "NCIS-es"
and "Law and Orders."
Spinoffs also find great success in doing something completely
different with a popular character,
like "Mork and Mindy," "Laverne and Shirley,"
"Frasier," or even "The Jeffersons."
Where shows usually fail is when they
try to do both of these things at the same time.
So today, we're going to be trying
to take a look at "That '80s Show"
and how trying to do two things at once
can sink a spinoff series in just a few short months.
"That '70s Show" aired in 1998 and ran for over 200 episodes,
until it was canceled in 2006.
To this day, it is one of the longest-running sitcoms
in Fox's television history.
In fact, the show ran for so long it
became a joke amongst the producers
that they were eventually going to have to start
calling it "That '80s Show."
As it would turn out, that joke would eventually
become reality and production on "That '80s Show"
began in August of 2001.
There was an interview conducted by "The Daily Advertiser"
featuring one of "That '80s Show's" producers, Linda
Wallem, in which she stated that the showrunners had been
talking about what they had been doing in the '80s
and found that they had all been in pretty
much the same situation, which was supporting themselves
with jobs they hated, but really burning to be in show business.
She added that they created these characters
as "people who are constantly being
pulled between their artistic dreams and commercial reality."
Having this understanding about how the show was created almost
makes it seem as if the show was written
from a place of bitterness and frustration towards the era.
And it definitely bleeds into the show's overarching themes.
Let me guess.
A Cyndi Lauper look-alike contest?
I think you've got a lock on it.
That's so mean.
You must be Tuesday.
You see, "That '80s Show" was not
a spinoff, despite being marketed as such.
Rather than continue the storyline of "That '70s Show,"
"That '80s Show" would sort of serve as a distant cousin
to its predecessor.
We mean that quite literally, as the spinoff was centered
around this guy, Corey Howard, played by "It's Always
Sunny in Philadelphia" star and co-creator Glenn Howerton.
Corey Howard was introduced as Eric Forman's cousin.
This would be the only real connection
made to the show's predecessor.
The rest of the cast was filled in with characters
who felt more like satirical representations of various '80s
cliches rather than fully fleshed out human beings.
It's not the strangest move for a sitcom spinoff
to diverge from its predecessor entirely.
Frasier did this with great success.
The "Cheers" spinoff ran for 264 episodes
and received over 107 Emmy awards and nominations.
The difference is "Frasier" was a completely standalone series
and its own identity.
It wasn't called "Cheers 2, Frasier Moves to Seattle,"
nor was it marketed as such.
It was clearly defined as its own show.
And while there are subtle nods back to "Cheers" here
and there, it was a completely separate entity
in its story and tone.
Just naming the show "That '80s Show"
cemented the idea that this show is
going to be a direct spinoff of "That '70s Show"
in the minds of the viewers.
In utilizing this name convention,
Fox was essentially making a promise to its viewers
that they never intended on fulfilling.
The promise being, hey, we're continuing the show that you
loved, only they weren't.
They were creating something completely different
and expecting it to yield the same results.
There's a saying that goes something
to the effect of "Happiness is reality minus expectations."
And it rings true to the fans of any entertainment property.
When our expectations are set at a certain level
and are never met, we become dissatisfied.
Our viewing experience becomes wholly negative
and our capacity of maintaining a vested interest
depletes at a rapid pace.
From a writing perspective, "That '80s Show"
used the same formula "That '70s Show" used.
But where "That '70s Show" uses tropes and cliches from its
titular era as an aesthetic to add to an already rich story
about friendship, love, maturation,
and the struggles of navigating early adulthood--
Oh, Red.
Oh, Kitty.
[CHEERING]
[APPLAUSE]
"--That '80s Show" uses them to drive pretty much every aspect
of the show.
Here.
I got this for you.
Oh, Jagermeister.
So misunderstood.
It's really a digestive aid.
"That '70s Show" relied on creating comedy
through relationships and drama.
You think I like being stuck here,
nursing my lunatic wife back from the brink?
Hell no.
Whereas "That '80s Show" seems to go for the low hanging fruit
at almost every opportunity.
Wow.
You're shallow.
I'm not shallow.
You're right.
I'm sorry.
You're more of a hypocrite.
The characters are written without any depth whatsoever.
Characters are the fuel of every sitcom's engine.
Sitcoms very seldomly break the mold as far as storylines go.
Where a film like "Star Wars" can rely on a truly unique
world to highlight an otherwise run-of-the-mill
character's choices, a sitcom must rely on their truly unique
characters' choices to highlight an otherwise run-of-the-mill
world.
In "That '80s Show," everyone just exists
within the most simplified version of a stereotype
you could possibly imagine.
Where normally we'll have a compelling lead who
seems vulnerable and sincere, Corey
is written as a whiny, petulant Gen X-er who is trying
to hook up with his co-worker.
I'm pretty sure my girlfriend dumped me for a woman.
Happens.
My music career is not a career.
Happens.
And my hip dad wants me to get in the game.
The character of Sophia is almost immediately
introduced as a bisexual.
And after that, her entire character
is just centered around being bisexual and trying
to manipulate Corey's sister, Katie,
into a romantic relationship.
If I can't get the lady to want me.
Then, I'll get the lady's man to want the lady to want me.
Even the father figure, played by Geoff Pierson
is a stereotype of a creepy divorced dad
who hates his ex-wife.
Oh, hold on a minute.
I'll ask.
Are you using the timeshare in Rosarito?
Why?
Does she need someplace quiet to go and count my money?
It seems like there was an intentional shift
to create these characters in complete contrast
to the characters on "That '70s Show."
While this move is understandable
for the perspective of wanting to provide something
new for an audience, it doesn't work
when you're trying to walk in the same exact footsteps
as the show you're spinning off of.
These characters have completely different attitudes,
personalities, perspectives, and philosophies.
Yet the writers keep trying to force them into the same roles
and relationships as the characters
from a completely unrelated show.
There was heart, warmth, and vulnerability
to the character of Eric Forman that just isn't
present with Corey Howard.
Despite the inherent tokenization
of a quirky character portrayed by an underrepresented minority
in both "That '70s Show" and "That '80s Show,"
Fez's overdramatic, gullible, lover not a fighter persona
was at least made in an attempt to humanize a character that
would have otherwise felt like they
were straddling the line between xenophobia and racism.
Oh, please.
I'm a hot-looking, smooth-talking, frisky-ass son
of a bitch.
This wannabe yuppie character of Roger Park was never really
given any development beyond the fact that he lives in an attic,
wants to have sex, and can't.
A steady chick and holidays equal nothing but cash.
And I ain't about that, bro.
The point here is, by flipping the script on essentially
every character they possibly could,
they inadvertently flipped the script
on the chemistry between those characters that
made them work so well.
None of those characters seem to make sense together.
Their relationships never click.
Everything feels sort of forced, dirty, and mean-spirited.
"That '80s Show" was marketing itself
to an audience who had already proven
that they relate to everything this show was not.
It was almost insulting to fans of the original series
and "That '80s Show" lost its target demographic very,
very quickly.
From the first to the final episode, "That '80s Show"
lasted for an entire five months.
Now, it was recently announced that Netflix acquired
the rights to produce a new spinoff titled "That '90s Show"
and it seems promising.
The show follows the Forman family
from "That '70s Show" and a good chunk of the original cast
is returning.
"That '80s Show" should've have worked.
By all means, it probably could've worked.
The creative team needed to either copy "That '70s Show"
to the letter and just put it under an '80s aesthetic
or do something entirely different.
Unfortunately, the decision was made
to try and do both of those things at the same time, which
ultimately resulted in a finished product that
felt like it wasn't exceeding at any of those things.
It failed to recreate the magic of "That '70s Show," which
was the show's heart, relatability,
and focus on positive relationships.
On the other side of the same coin,
it also failed to be unique in any way, shape,
or form, relying on cheap sexual humor
and pointed references to '80s pop culture
to hopefully drive its comedy through the seemingly eternal
22 minutes of each episode's runtime.
Thankfully, it didn't last very long.
Some of these episodes are available to watch online
and they might be worth a rewatch if you view the show
as a fun framing device for how Dennis Reynolds became
a monster.
We don't want wild girls.
We want real girls going wild.
But aside from that, the show's minuscule 13-episode run
was completely warranted.
And well, that's it for today's episode.
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