| "That's" What
It Was, it is what it is... It’s kind
of weird for me taking about “That 70’s Show” on a website for
retro-centrics and vintage aficionados with our main focus being the
192’0s through to 1955 and trying to revive that spirit of substance and
style now in the 21st Century... With some obvious exceptions, everything
that I disliked about the 1970’s is everything I love about “The Golden
Era.”
It also seems strange since later on in this rant I’ll be hammering out
some words about “Happy Days,” which was a show about the 1950’s and
early 1960’s and was popular during most of the years “That 70’s Show”
took place; from 1975 until it was decimated by “The A-Team” in the
early 1980’s and finally canceled in 1984. …And as we all know, “1984”
is the name of the famous novel about a Totalitarian future as perceived
by George Orwell in 1948. Thinking or writing about this might cause a
paradox or temporal rift in the time-space continuum… or at the very
most be an entertaining read.
It also seems to be asking too much to write a commentary about the show
when there seems to be more going on in the world that deserves more
attention; which seems also ironically appropriate since the 1970's seem
to have been this ultra frivolous decade where superficial things seemed
more important to the everyday man and woman then what was actually in
the news. Disco was more important then 3-Mile Island and The Iranian
Hostage Crisis, Blockbusters like “Close Encounters Of The Third Kind,”
“Star Wars” “Saturday Night Fever” and “Grease” did better to capture
the population's imagination then NBC’s Nightly News with David Brinkley and John
Chancellor. That’s not to give anyone a hard time who lived and enjoyed
life from 1970 through 1979 and beyond, that’s just the way things were;
as if the country and the rest of the world was taking a break after the
turbulent 1960’s and went looking for distractions during the OPEC gas
crisis and the recession (known as “Carter’s Malaise.”)
For me, “That ‘70’s Show” captured the essence of the decade and how I
remembered it. They achieved that with the costumes, the set design and
hair styles. But beyond that “That ‘70’s show” also captured the mood of
that decade with characters mannerisms, all of whom were stereotypes of
people in the United States during those years. There are times I’m half
watching the show and the other half of my mind is remembering the town
I grew up in as it was during those years. This show has been a terrific
mechanism to jog my memory about my childhood, places that I haven’t
thought about for ages because they aren’t there anymore, people who
were part of my daily life but I haven’t seen in a generation, and music
that I haven’t heard since then, either.
The show reminded me of the typical hang-outs
that we all had as Teens, unconventional niche’s we carved out for
ourselves in some unwanted space like one of our parents basements,
above a garage, an attic, or in my neighborhood while growing up – the
hay-loft of someone's barn (sans actual hay.) It’s ironic because now
those places where we used to hang out are now used to store some of
those things that were important to us and other daily item that are now
broken and obsolete, as if they are cluttered museums to those moments
of our lives. It’s been amazing to watch "That 70's Show" and remember
the trends and things that we “had to have” during that decade and how
those “must have” items are lost in our basements, attics, garage which
had been our hang-outs during those years
Looking back, while we all felt sort of shafted for being pushed aside
to those strange niche's we carved out for our selves while we were
anxious for our lives to begin and sick and tired of people telling us
that our years as adolescents were going to be looked back upon as the
best of our lives, they were right to an extent. We learned more about
ourselves, each other and the rest of the world during those times then
we ever would again. It seems ridiculous now, looking back at those long
afternoon talks that spilled into the night with a bottle of what ever
we could get our hands on while debating the meaning of life that could be
deciphered on an album cover were in fact some of the “best times” of my
life. I learned more about tolerating other people’s opinions during
those bull sessions then I ever could in school or college.
Do you remember
during the 1970's when you were remembering about the 1950's?
“That ‘70’s Show” had been just a little bit
more then entertainment, it illustrated some darker aspects of being
human and our own behaviors by making a jokes. “That ’70’s Show” didn’t
tackle huge issues as other sitcoms did – like “Happy Days” (a show
from the 1970’s that were “about” the 1950’s which wasn’t anything more
then a show by Garry Marshall for the ABC Network to capitalize on
George Lucas’s “American Graffiti,”.) At the end of each “Happy Days”
episode, one of the characters in this show would learn a “huge lesson”
and share the epiphany with other characters with some sappy music in
the back ground. “That ‘70’s Show” wasn’t like that, it wasn’t preachy
or condescending – it illustrated a dark aspect of human nature, laughed
at it… and moved on.
Hardly ever did anyone on this show learn anything by the end of the
episode, it was true to life in that the characters were slow to change
with rare accomplishments and the occasional substantial changes. Some
of the characters even joked about how someone else would never learn
and was just destined to make the same mistakes all over again. The show
also didn’t shy away from the heavy drug and alcohol use that was
prevalent in that decade, while it didn’t openly address the fact that
the reason why those kids were stuck in the basement was because they
were too drunk on beer or too high on pot – it illustrated that point
well enough by simply showing it endlessly. (The second to the last
episode had a plot line where one of the stoners, “Hyde” was using
‘sobriety’ as a crutch to deal with some of his friends moving on.) It’s
uncomfortable watching someone else getting high or drunk and laugh at
it, but does explain a great deal about how the lives of these young
people stagnate and move forward slowly.
“That ‘70’s Show’s” title even played a joke on the nostalgia phenomenon
that seems to happen every decade. Seems every decade there seems to be
one quintessential show that’s a huge success because it’s funny and
entertaining but also because it reminds people of a similar time in
their lives 20 years ago....
Again, the 1970’s had “Happy Days” with a
look back at life in the 1950’s. There was also M*A*S*H that aired
between 1972-1983 which was supposed to be The Korean War – but
essentially became “Viet Nam.”
From 1988-1993 we had “The Wonder Years”
that looked back at life in the 1960’s and early 1970’s. (And “China
Beach” which was about Viet Nam but also seemed to take a poke at
the conflict in Panama, Iran and other conflicts that were current
at the time…)
The 1990’s and up until now we’ve had “That
‘70’s Show.”
In a few short years we’ll be due for a
nostalgic and humorous view at the 1980’s – something the producers
of “That ‘70’s Show” tried to do with a show with a similar name in
2002 but didn’t seem to catch on so soon after September 11th, 2001.
A sitcom poking fun at current events of today
through the “nostalga” lens focused on the 1980’s is bound to happen,
because for what ever the reason, producers always take a chance at a
show that appeals to 30 and 40-somethings by having the show transport
them back to a simpler time in their lives while at the same time
playing on the revival of the that decades trends from a decade ago.
(People who lived during the 1970’s will tell you that the 1950’s
revival was huge, just as in the 1980’s there was a huge demand for
“’60’s” stuff… and an aspect of the Seattle Grunge movement
of the 1990's recycled
some of the fashions of the 1970’s. In a year or two the clothes worn by
Prince, DEVO and Duran Duran and the stars of the NBC show “Miami Vice”
will become popular again by everyone but the vintage aficionados who
have been steadfastly obsessed with the 1930'’ and 1940's out of pure
stubbornness and because we stick with what works. (One can only hope
that the creators of “That” show can get another crack at The 80’s.)
All Things Come
To An End... especially when they've already dragged on too long...
It was fun for a while to look back on that decade, but nostalgia time
for that decade is over, “That ‘70’s Show” has already been on a year
too long. Although for some fans it feels as if "That 70's Finale" is December 31st,
1979 all over again (the final episode which takes
place on New Years Eve) –and some of us saying good-bye to that era in
live all over again, it’s time has come and gone just as the actually
years in which this show took place. “That ‘70’s Show” had a built in
timer (or Auto-Destruct) and couldn’t stretch out 1976 through to 1979
any thinner or do what M*A*S*H when it replaced some of it’s main
characters with others played by different actors.
The show’s been well written, well acted and performed well in the
ratings while at the same time provided some of us with a vessel to
revisit aspects of our past. The Final Episode was a “sentimental
journey” about a show that was essentially a sentimental journey. How
many times can you have an episode reminiscing about reminiscing? The
way they ended the show was perfect, it's best to let things end now
rather then milk it for any longer and alienate what ever fans they had
left.
Sometimes it’s good to look back at another era
and explore what was good about those years and try to rekindle that
mood, and the show did a good job. This show will live on in re-runs for
years to come and will soon fade from memory as it's replaced by other
popular shows that will precede it. In the years to come when people
look back at "That '70's Show," I can't help but wonder, will people
associate that show with the memories of the years it was meant to
represent or will the memories associated with this show reflect the
years it was actually on? That all depends on if you actually lived
through that decade or when you grew up.
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