Welcome back to ‘Should It Stay Dead?’, a feature all about TV shows and movies being resurrected for the small screen. In case you missed the first edition, each week we’ll be taking a different old TV show or film and exploring how messed up it could be if someone decided to revive it on television for no good reason.
Which is happening all the time these days. This week was supposed to be Lethal Weapon, but that’s actually going to be a new TV series. Anyway, onto our victim of the week.
Back in August we learned that The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air would be getting a new outing nearly 20 years after it aired its final episode. It got us thinking: what other sitcoms could we resurrect like some kind of unholy Frankenstein’s monster?
That ’70s Show was a comedy about a bunch of spoilt white teenagers who’s biggest problem was whether they could score enough gas money off their parents to drive around Wisconsin wasting time. Also, they spent endless hours round a table smoking pot and giggling at each other. Honestly, if looked at critically, the adventures of Eric, Donna and the gang seem like an explanation for the downfall of the post-war American dream.
Well, maybe I’m reading too much into it. Actually it was just a comedy about high schoolers doing high school stuff in the 70s and getting high at least once an episode. Eric Forman is a slightly goofy kid whose a bit of a smart-alec, and his girlfriend Donna is a budding feminist. There’s some other characters, like Ashton Kutcher’s Kelso, who’s an idiot, and his intimidating girlfriend Jackie, played by Mila Kunis.
A lot of the plots are informed by the 70s, such as Eric’s dad losing his job due to the bad economy of the decade, or the music festivals and subcultures of the era. Attitudes to sex and drugs are also explored, but ultimately That ’70s Show wasn’t that interested in saying anything profound about the 70s. It was just a backdrop from which to mine gags.
Despite its flaws, of which there are many, That ’70s Show was easy to watch. Topher Grace’s Eric was constantly wisecracking and all the other characters were interesting to a degree. It never quite hit the emotional levels The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air could sometimes reach (I challenge you not to cry at the episode where Will’s dad shows up), but it wasn’t trying to.
That ’70s Show only went off the air in 2006, so it’s not exactly ancient history. It only took five years for Hollywood to reboot Spider Man though, so everything is now fair game. Or at least it is here because I already wrote half the article. The show looks and feels older, especially with all the sleazy sex jokes and canned laughter.
The Pitch
What possible reason could a TV executive have to bring back That ’70s Show after so little time? Well, Mr Executive, let me offer you this for free: That ’90s Show.
Eric Forman was supposed to be 16 for most of the original series run. Admittedly I think he went to college in the final season, but let’s be honest; who even watched the last season of That ’70s Show? Anyway, Topher Grace is now 37, about the age Eric would be in the 90s. Also, That ’70s Show began airing 18 years after the end of the 70s. It’s now been 15 years since the end of the 90s, so wouldn’t it ride a similar wave of nostalgia?
What if, suddenly, Eric is the dad and his kids are getting in to loads of 90s scrapes? His daughter is super into Nirvana and his son is obsessed with the Nintendo 64. Have Eric work for AOL or something equally as lazy. The show could be filled with ‘this internet thing is never going to catch on’ jokes. Think of all the cheap Enron gags they could throw in there?
Seriously, kids who grew up in the 90s are now a big marketing demographic. Giving them some cheap nostalgia is basically a win-win. The show wouldn’t even need to be that good. The writers could bash out a new script by Monday afternoon and spend the rest of the week at drug-filled Los Angeles parties.
If you can bring back some of the old cast that’s great. Laura Prepon, who played Donna, has had recent success with Orange is the New Black but doesn’t get nearly enough work for an actor of her talent. All we really need though is Topher Grace, and if he’s honest with himself he hasn’t really got anything else going on right now.
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