R.I.P.
This month marked the broadcast of the final new episode of the one-time hit and cultural phenomenon, That 70s Show. The Emmy Award winning show that helped launch the careers of Topher Grace and Ashton Kutcher while helping to put the lingo of 70s back into the vernacular, ended its run of eight seasons on FOX. Unlike when Seinfeld went of the air to all the hoopla and hype, this end of an era just feels a bit more sad. Of course it will live on in reruns from now until eternity, but when it died a little bit of us died too. Much like losing a friend or our innocence.
You see, to me, That 70s Show is much like The Brady Bunch and Happy Days were to the kids growing up in the 70s. These shows are all about growing up. Seinfeld was hilarious and a cultural watermark of the 90s, but it was a self-proclaimed story about nothing. Not a show about first loves, friendship, and learning about being an adult. On Seinfeld we learned to be masters of our domain, not to use butter as a suntan lotion, shrinkage, and yadda yadda yadda. Hilarious, but nothing you grow close to the way you could with the gang from Point Place.
On a side note, there is even a connection between Happy Days and That 70s Show, both are set in Wisconsin. I’m not sure why both are set there, but my guess is that whole Midwest wholesomeness crap, which was played out in Happy Days and assaulted in That 70s Show.
Though I came to the show late (regular viewer the last three seasons) I came to love the characters and their antics. I’ve always had a thing against the 70s, but after watching the show a few times I realized that the show is not really about the 70s, but about this group of kids trying to grow up. And at first, like all of us, they want to grow up fast and become adults so they can escape their parents’ oppression. They want to be able to drive, not be told what to do, drink, and just have fun. But as time goes by they get there, and its not as much fun as you think it will be. Instead it can be heartbreaking and anything but fun. Then over time to come to the realization that you don’t want to grow up because now everything goes by so quickly. As a kid you scoffed at that idea with the school year seeming to last forever, but now the years go by so quickly that it seems like we just had a Presidential Election. I think I’ve figured it out, and that it is perspective. As a kid your perspective is a much smaller amount of time, so that the three-hour road trip is a far larger percentage of a six-year olds time than a 25 year olds time. A six year old has lived for 52596 hours, but a 25 year old has lived for 219,150 hours so three hours is a much more significant block of time for the six-year old. But enough theories.
So we watch Eric, Hyde, Jackie, Donna, Kelso, and Fez grow up and become young adults and reminisce about how we grew up, even though for most people we grew up in a different era with just as bad music, clothing, and hairstyles. We were watching a mirror, though often a smoky mirror in the basement. It was usually funny, but always entertaining.
Therefore I say, Rest In Peace my friend. May the 80s be kind to all of you. Farewell.