That 70s Review and Commentary Part 3

 How do you do,

  The television shows we see echo that of the old serials in the use of the cliff hanger. In the theater, people waited a year or more to find out what happened to Andy Hardy or the Little Rascals. On television, we usually have to wait for months before a new season commences and we find out how things are going. Same with That 70s Show where after a summer of waiting, we finally get to see what happens to the gang. 

  Season Five begins with Donna and Kelso in California while Eric is moping about in Point Place, until he learns of her call. He then goes all the way to California to be with her and they reunite like the previous season never happened. They head home to face angry parents. Red takes away the vista cruiser and Bob sets Donna up in a Catholic school. Jackie has moved on from Kelso for good by moving on to Hyde, who grew a beard at some point. Kelso and Hyde go into a war over Jackie, which is briefly interrupted when the former's girlfriend from California, played by Jessica Simpson, arrives and Jackie becomes territorial. One day, Kitty announces she has started menopause, which makes her feel old, while her parents come into town. The problems with it are made manifest when the gang visits a college. Kitty's father dies and she deals with her cold mother while Simpson leaves with the knowledge that Jackie and Kelso are still into each other, yet Jackie stays with Hyde for the rest. Eric proposes to Donna and everyone soon finds out. Red puts the hardest of oppositions to their marriage by firing Eric and using his college money for personal projects (also fining him for being out of line), leading to Eric to hire himself into Bob's girlfriend's job. Fez finally gets a girlfriend in Nina, to whom he loses his virginity to, before she dumps him for his neediness. One day, it's revealed his green card was expiring and he has to go home after graduating. The teens gather at a camp and miss graduation, after which Laurie marries Fez so he could stay, which is more than what Red's heart can bear.
   Season Six then follows with Red recovering from his heart attack while Eric puts his moving out  on hold to help out around the house and as well as his marriage plans. Kelso claims to have "done it" with a girl at a concert, who later reviews to be pregnant with his child. Kelso decides to become a cop, leading to a variety of jokes involved. Fez gets his citizenship official and apparently leaves Laurie, who gets a new actress in this season and is written out. He and Kelso become corners of a love triangle with another cop at one point. Jackie's father goes to jail for fraud and she moves in with Donna. All is fair until her mom returns. Her welcome from the guys is warm, but not the girls. Donna and Eric are also caught having sex and Donna decides to hold it for marriage, leading to some strain, that both admit they can't handle abstinence. Eventually, they both begin to doubt their marriage and wonder if they could go through with it. The season ends with Eric running off and leaving Donna at the altar.

   Seasons five and six mark the high water mark of That 70s Show, having some of the best and worst episodes of the series' run. It's the turning point for the show as the gang now must transcend from childhood to adulthood, though teen rebellion is shown to not really be conquered at this point. There is one thing to point out before we go too deep.
  Shortly after Season Four premiered, the 9/11 attacks happened. The buildings made in the Seventies, the World Trade Center, were destroyed on that day, which, perhaps, may have some affects to the show, but I can't find any production notes to cite. One thing I noted is how it took in the post-9/11 hysteria and translated it in the Seventies lens in the premiere of Season Five. When Red is asking where Eric is, Hyde goes into a ramble about how one day the US government will create tracking devices that would be placed into our bodies, leading to this exchange:

   Hyde: Damn US Government.
   Red: 'Damn US Government'? Without our government, you'd be stuck in Siberia right now, sucking the juice from a rotten Commie potato. And if the US Government decides to stick a tracking device up your ass, you say "thank you and God bless America." ["Going to California" 2002.]

   It's meant to be something of a joke to rattle those who were waving the Old Glory after the attacks, but over time, as controversies of the PATRIOT Act arose, the hindsight sort of changed among the viewers. No doubt, Hyde would have claimed the attacks were an inside job while Red would deny that, saying it's a Communist lie or the US Government wouldn't kill its own people unless a totalitarian regime had taken over the country, adding that it wouldn't happen because "We the People" would rise up and stop such a regime.
   I mentioned previously how the characters can line up on the political spectrum and it's still true in Season Five. Red is still on the Far Right, becoming increasingly patriotic in the series' run, whereas most of the teens are on the Far Left and seem to show indifference to patriotism, or see the US Government as the bad guy here. However, except for "Love California Style", much of the political commentaries have shifted into the background while the character drama takes center stage, continuing the teen rebellion against adult authority figures.
   The first part of Season Five has that authority coming down on the teens. After Eric, Donna, and Kelso return, Red takes away the keys to the Vista Cruiser, leaving Eric without a set of wheels. Driving the car is a privilege, and Eric lost it in his journey. At least he knew better than to drive it to California, since that would be deemed auto-theft. However, as the season progresses, Red's punishment comes close to abuse. In the Thanksgiving episode, Eric forges Red's signature when he is failing math and tries to hide it, but the truth comes through. Red was just letting Eric sit with the adults, but when the truth comes he sends Eric back to the kiddie table, and then fines thirty dollars. A better way to handle it would be to discuss the matter later and carry on the dinner, but charging a teenager thirty dollars, which ought to be $119.09 in today's money (looking at that, you are likely to have whistled, which proves my point). Most teenagers don't have that much money, as they routinely blow it away on other things. Even though Eric has a job, this fine would have hit him in the budget area since that's practically what he makes in a week. Even the threats of kicking Eric in the rear, designed to be a gag in the show, qualifies as abuse, and Red's only lucky Eric turns eighteen around this time.
    Speaking of time, one thing that bothers me in the show is the year a season is in. First Season was both 1976 and 77, while Seasons two to three are 77 to 78. However, despite Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas episodes in each season, we are still stuck in 1978 in Season Five. And that's not the worst of it. Eric turned seventeen in Season One, and he hadn't aged a year for the past four seasons. In truth, Season Five with its year setting should have had Eric turn twenty-one and be in college by now. At least, Season Five is the season everyone graduates from high school, except for Jackie.
    Back to the way everyone comes on the teens, Bob finally puts his foot down on Donna's behavior in the last season and decides to send Donna to a Catholic school, jokingly called Our Lady of Perpetual Sorrows. As you would expect, the story line is not developed well and exists only to put Donna in the uniform of a Catholic school girl, specifically for fanservice. Not only that, where Donna had been in rebellion all through the past season without Eric's help, Bob is willing to believe that Eric had dirtied her up (apparently not over what happened in "Parents Find Out" or earlier) and his decision to keep them apart is his way of fixing it. This also leads to him and Red arguing on who was the worst. Bob also tries to keep them apart in college in setting Donna up for one school, while Eric has to settle for the university. Ironically, Bob's attempt at separating them only keeps them together all season.
    Eventually, Eric decides that he doesn't want to be separated from Donna and he asks her to marry him. She says yes, but they keep the engagement a secret for many episodes until Kitty goes to a ring store to pick up what turns out to be the engagement ring. Not really the best way to find out. The adults are shocked, as you would expect.
    Not as shocking as Jackie moving onto Hyde when Kelso ran out on her. I have heard of how girls have this "bad boy" phase, and apparently that is what Jackie is having with Kelso gone. However, Kelso goes through great lengths to get Jackie back, none of which work. When Jessica Simpson comes to town, her beauty once more sparks rivalry, leading to the moment when Jackie catches her making out with Kelso and yelling, "Get your hands off my boyfriend!"
   To tell the truth, that is something that has never happened to me, yet; an ex-girlfriend coming along and telling some woman to get off me. If it did happen, I'd be willing to point out to the said ex that we aren't together anymore and she has no right to claim me. I am sure plenty of the male readers (or female, if you're a Lesbian reader) would agree and have done the same thing. Kelso, however, lets it get to his head that Jackie wants him back. So does Hyde. Remarkably, they have the situation resolved in the end with Simpson's character departing from the show for good, while Jackie convinces Hyde she has no lingering feelings for Kelso. It really isn't until near the end that another crisis comes up: Hyde thinks Jackie cheated on him with Kelso, prompting him to cheat on her. It turns out, Kelso was freaked out about a sex dream Fez had that featured him in it, and it's not really homophobia. It's just weird. Hyde confesses, which makes Jackie break up with him and for the first time we see Hyde changed. Earlier, he shaved his beard off and let Jackie sleep in when her father is arrested for fraud. Yet here, nothing seems to work, though when Kelso decides to take advantage of the situation and make a move on Jackie, their rivalry continues, with Kelso falling off the tower again.
   At the end of the season, Jackie is made to chose between the two (becoming Dawson's Creek moved into the seventies), but decides she loves herself in Season Six. I know people tell others to love themselves, but Jackie's takes it up to the eleven, considering how selfish she gets. However, she isn't over Hyde and fantasizes of reconciliations with him, including a Grease themed one. They do reconcile and make another relationship, during which Jackie finally begins to grow from the spoiled princess into a caring girl. Unfortunately, it ends in mid-season, once more, when Hyde shows that he has commitment issues.
    In my experience, there comes a point in the relationship where one or the other member of the couple will want to get married, and it's usually the girl who gets the wedding fever. One sign of them being perfect together is rather or not the guy might take the hint and propose. Of course, since Hyde has seen his dad run off, followed by his mom, and Season Six reveals (surprise, surprise!) Hyde's father was someone else, thus he has no model on which to lean on for getting a stable relationship. Instead, he has only seen love never last. The result of that is Hyde becomes a commitmentphobe because he doesn't want to get hurt after being so so many times. This will be something to return in Season Seven.

   Season Five and Six are about change. For one, Kitty announces she's pregnant in "What is and What Should Never Be", only to find out in "Heartbreaker" that she is starting menopause. For fans of The Golden Girls, Betty White appears here as Kitty's mom. She seems like a nice old lady at first, though she has a bad habit of saying something mean with a smile (something I personally hate) and is pushing to have her way at times with her husband: she would ask him to do something, he says he'll get to it or it's fine; she asks again, and he replies again of either one; then she yells "Bert!"
  Her arrival shows a generational gap between her and her daughter. If one thought Kitty was conservative, her mom actually considers the word "menopause" dirty talk. Later, when Kitty tries to have a woman to woman talk with her about it, Betty claims she didn't have it, and then says that it was not something to talk about, showing her to be from a different time.
    Kitty goes crazy after menopause. She gets very sensitive to criticism (to a point that you can't be honest around her without causing her to get upset), throws a hissy fit at the drop of a hat, and gets jealous when a pretty woman walks in.
    To me, Kitty's menopause was what ruined these two seasons because, for the most part, because of the way it's treated. Women who have menopause are going to be experiencing some vulnerability and need some support, just as they did when they got their first periods (in this case, they have gotten so use to bleeding once a month and worrying about pregnancy during sex that when this happens all that suddenly seems like Paradise Lost) and Kitty is no exception. Instead, most of the guys get awkward about any discussions of the lady parts, even trying to come up with euphemistic names for it, while avoiding Kitty, leaving Red to handle her. The only guy to sit still and listen to her talk is Fez, as shown in "Over the Hills and Far Away", but he has become a creep in this season, which implies the only reason a man would listen to discussions of body parts are creepy sorts. The girls barely give any support, with Jackie too vain and Donna would only go into a feminist rant about it. The one person she turned to for support on the idea that she knows what is happening, her mom, refuses to talk about it. Then she loses her dad, who was willing to be encouraging. All the while, even her own husband would claim it to be worse than the Korean Conflict. In short, something either mock or cringe at (and yet the show is okay with talks of sex and teenagers having sex?).
   It gets worse in Season Six. Jackie's mom, Pam, returns late in the season, though they have transformed the character. Now played by Brooke Shields, Pam Burkhart is a knock out who gets the guys delighted, since she apparently now eye candy for the male gaze. This a far cry from "The Keg" where she appeared as a realtor and more professional looking. But this transformation was apparently something for the male teens in the audience, who are encouraged by the show to drool over her just as teenage boys are suppose to over older women. Not only does that affect the guys, but also the older men, Red and Bob, and Kitty gets very territorial with Red whenever a mention of Pam comes up. Once more, the menopause shows up with the implication that women are good when beautiful and fertile, and once they reach the point of becoming barren and old, they must be traded in for a superior model. While Bob quickly goes along (kinda had to since he and Joanna split a couple of episodes back) while Red tries to convince Kitty that he has no feelings for Pam. In the season finale of Season Five, Red has a heart attack, from which he recovers quickly (lets see, the dad has a heart attack while the mom goes into menopause; was this show trying to imitate 7th Heaven?). However, it's only in "Man With Money", just sixteen episodes in, that he is given a heart monitor, which goes off supposedly when Pam is around and Kitty thinks that is a sign of arousal to the former. In the end, it turns out Bob annoys him and makes his rate go up, which explained the monitor beeping, and showing that Kitty was jealous over nothing. She also took offense to the implication of the doctor that she would be the source of stress during an examination, until he tells her Eric was the cause.
   Kitty's menopause is not the only change. Season Five is when the gang finally reach the time  when they graduate from high school. In "Over the Hills and Far Away", Kitty and Red take the boys to the University of Wisconsin in Madison, introducing them to college life, or what one expects from it. Just why we never see a scene where the boys learn how different the course work in college is from high school is beyond me. In "Celebration Day", the teens are on the eve of graduation, though they decide to spend their last night in high school out camping. The comedy of errors happen that prevents them from attending, but they still get their diplomas. Well, all except Jackie, who has only one more year. So, with the other five graduated from high school we can see them all going to college.
    No, it turns out Fez's time in the US is cut short in "Immigrant Song" and Donna is the only one who talks of leaving town. Eric plans to go with her in their engagement, which upsets their parents. Red still doesn't think Eric is man enough to get married while Kitty sees Eric as her baby, while Bob thinks Donna can do better. In Season Six, when Donna is moving away, Eric tries to consul Bob, who reminds him of how he "dirtied her up and made her have to go to a Catholic school." The one support comes from, of all places, Laurie, who shows up in the final episodes as a reformed woman, though no one seems to buy it.
    Red's heart attack is another change, as it signals the man we see as one tough guy is mortal and thus will die at some point. There was one earlier episode where Red almost gets hit by a branch, leading him to have a vision of his funeral where no one shows up. So, he reforms and starts being nice around everyone. However, this gives him the vision of not getting any peace, even in death. The early seasons also had a case of Red's health brought up and Kitty putting him on a diet, which further shows an out of date concept of masculinity being that real men don't eat healthy food. In Season Six, we get "Join Together" when this diet is brought up again, and this time Red can't have any beer. He reacts to that by faking another heart attack to get Kitty to change her mind, but she doesn't buy it. All the while, Red becomes child like in not being able to do and have the things he use to take. At least, he gets to have sex again in "The Magic Bus."
    Eric rises to the occasion to be the man of the house while his father recovers, giving up college for a time in the process, which does mean Donna and he will be apart for awhile. However, in a strange plot twist, Donna returns in the same episode as she left. In "The Magic Bus", Eric turns eighteen, at last, and expects the party he always gets (as opposed to his seventeenth where he finds the birthday parties embarrassing). Instead, Kitty doesn't set up a party and Eric's birthday is treated as second to his parents getting intimate. Here, Eric learns that with adulthood some of the things we use to consider cantankerous and odious suddenly is longed for because we don't get it anymore.
   Other changes include Kelso getting a woman pregnant and joining the police force to get the money to raise his child. At the same time, Fez's marriage to Laurie ends when the latter, who is played by a different actress, disappears and he becomes a US citizen. "A Legal Matter" has him being given some facts about the US, which I'll mention a few things. When Donna mentions that the Statue of Liberty was a gift to the US from the French, Kitty claims to have not known that (then tries to use cooking skills as a way to feel equal, if not superior, to Donna). Then, when Donna tells Fez the basis of the Vietnam War, Red pulls Fez from her and then says "it was a tie" and that the Vietnamese were happy for American involvement. The implication from it is the older generation knows nothing about America and if it did it's only the politically incorrect myths, the Anglocentric version, etc. This episode aired almost a year after we went into Iraq, which many liked to claim was the new Vietnam, which suggests to me the episode was meant to satire the war there. Red sits Fez down and has him recite a bunch of nonsense that would make a right wing talk show host proud, all the while struggling to get Fez to say "America." I personally think Fez's mispronouncing of America seems a little racist since plenty of people from Latin America and the Caribbean learn how to pronounce it properly (just caked by their accents), and I have never heard of anyone say "A-may-dee-ka."
    Fez and Kelso also form two ends of a love triangle in two episodes, "Sally Simpson" and "Won't Be Fooled Again", where Officer Suzy, played by Alyson Hennigan, appears. Fez gets a crush on her, while Suzy is smitted with Kelso, who sees her as a guy (prompting feminists to roll eyes at how the only way a man would avoid objectifying a woman is to treat her as one of the guys, as evidenced at his continued staring at Donna's chest). The miscue forms the comedy and the two men almost don't speak to one another. Suzy tries to get them to settle their differences, but it only works when she walks out on the both of them, thus removing any reason to fight. This I often question because Donna and Jackie never have a guy to fight over and they never settle their differences.
   One thing I must bring up is how Kelso gets progressively dumber with each passing season. I mean, what next? Is someone going to mention of him humping something for some strange reason (like a dog on someone's leg)? He is pretty much an idiot in the earlier seasons, especially when they talk of him lighting a bag full of feces and then stomping it out, leading to Leo to call him "crappy shoes" (hashtag punchline rimshot), as well as him starting a fire in Jackie's house. In Season Six, he really gets dumb. He actually believes he is a stooge; he takes the car he was suppose to watch out for a joy ride, which when stolen he wants to call the cops before seeing his badge. Then there is his firing a flare gun and thinking he could put out the fire with another flare (and he was waving a flare gun around while under the influence). The last part won't seem funny after you get this commercial. Kelso also grows a mustache to fit in with the cops, during which he makes a transformation and leave the drug habits of the circle. This results in Hyde and Fez altering it in his sleep, and the next morning, Kelso looks like Hitler and has to be shown it (at least he sees it as a "good burn", how did he not see it when getting ready that morning?). Topping it all is how he thinks having sex standing up determines the sex of the baby he has spawned.

   The final change to complete is Eric and Donna heading to marriage. Through Season Six, they pull it through, and there is even one point that Bob begins to come around while Red appears to be sabotaging the marriage with taking away money and job. At one point, back in Season Five's "Battle of Evermore", when Red asks why Eric didn't do anything about the hubcaps, he says, "You took away my keys so I can't drive. You took away my job so I can't afford a new hubcap. You took away my self-esteem so I have no pride in my job or my possessions." Even when Eric takes on adulthood, there is still no respect. Eric tries out the household chores with Red watching, with two reactions. One, Eric takes delight in having Red be the one to hold the flashlight for a change, and two, Red never thinking Eric's skills are good enough. "Young Man Blues" has him fixing a lawn mower and testing it out, and it works. However, Red doesn't believe him.
    Kitty, on the other hand, eventually comes around, though not before making a big deal out of it. That thing of her needing something to take care of leads to Red getting her a dog name Shotzi (and a fish in an earlier episode), though the dog disappears for a while. When Donna has her bachelorette party, we get more of Kitty's rivalry with Donna over generations where she said hers was when she had her first sip off wine. Donna and Jackie, however, bring Kitty to a strip club to show that this is suppose to be Donna's last wild night (which makes me point out the hypocrisy in the male gaze philosophy, where the complaints of women being objectified are done by the sex industry, yet the feminist Donna is willing to oogle a bunch of men stripping without raising a fuss. I mean, male strippers are as human as their female counterparts, and suffer the same abuses and standardization as well).
     However, the one thing to undo it is what is considered normal, the pre-wedding jitters. I have yet to meet anyone who never got those, not any of my friends seemed to have had them. Donna and Eric get them and it leads to them thinking of bailing. In the end, it's Eric who bails while Donna shows up at the wedding. This after a season of build up to the day with opposition from parents and some problems within. In "Baby Don't Do It", Donna uses the pregnancy scare and marriage counseling to decide to abstain from sex, and like a typical television male Eric gets upset because in the television world men are suppose to be eager for sex. Eric doesn't last long, especially when Pam comes in and gets him horny. Finally, in "Happy Jack", Eric is caught masturbating in the bathroom by Donna and he claims his needs have risen to Fez's levels. In the end, Donna also inadvertently admits that she can't hold back either, and she also indulges in the solitary act.
    Eric also sees Donna's dress and winds up ruining it. Fortunately, Donna has a back up. Yet, these are nothing to compared to the jitters. When Eric leaves, it's one great disappointment, but at least Midge returns. The season finale "The Seeker", Donna and Eric finally meet again and they agree they aren't ready for marriage.

  Despite the flaws, there are a few good things in these two seasons, particularly as the changes transform the place. For once we are in 1979 and the teens are allowed to grow up and graduate. Unfortunately, as I mentioned, these two seasons are the high water mark of the series. In the next part, we come to both the watershed season and the worst season. 

That 70s Review and Commentary Part 2.

   How do you do. 

[This was delayed the couple of weeks with distractions, and it's come out longer than intended. Fair warning.]

   When That 70s Show came on the scene, it practically caught everyone's attention with its pop references to the decade that people were nostalgic over while poking fun at the said nostalgia. It made Topher Grace, Ashton Kutcher, and Mila Kunis famous when it came out, which sometimes proved a bad thing for the supporting cast. As the world entered the Millennium, Season Two wrapped up with Hyde taking the fall when Jackie's stash was found by the police, resulting in a cliffhanger where we wonder how long will he be in the Forman residence. 

   Season Three kicks off with Red Forman angry at Hyde, later Eric, for the stash he was arrested for and grounds everyone on the premise. Eventually, he calms down. Hyde later meets his father and the two attempt to mend bridges, though "Cats In the Cradle" is never referenced (and that's a song from the seventies). Kelso and Jackie are still estranged, even having the former charge the latter for damage to his van in one episode. Fez and Jackie have some chemistry, but Fez eventually goes to a girl named Caroline. The relationship shows some potential, until it's revealed that Caroline is crazy and practically stalks Fez until he breaks up with her and tries to use Donna as a shield. While that happens, Jackie reconnects with Kelso and the two manage to stick long in the season. The same is not said for Donna and Eric, who deal with some struggle with conflicting future plans that end with their break up.
   The breakup puts Eric in a depression, as does Donna, and they set up a loyalty war over their friends in the Fourth Season, that lasts a few episode. The awkwardness is broken only when Midge leaves Bob and Eric's form of comfort is sex. Donna regrets it and keeps Eric away. Fez moves on from Caroline to Big Rhonda for a couple of episodes until they break up from bad advice. Jackie is cut off by her father over her relationship and takes up a job as a cheese seller, which eventually leads to problems in the relationship with her boyfriend and another break up. Eric gets paired with two girls on a few occasions, with Donna becoming jealous at each, until she meets Casey Kelso and the two date a while. The relationship makes Eric jealous, while Donna goes into a downward spiral. The others, including her father, who goes into dating a woman named Joanna, try to talk to her while Casey decides to call it off, leaving Eric and Donna free to reunite. Eric rejects her, causing Donna to run off with Kelso, who manages to patch things up with Jackie again and this time the last wants more than a relationship, to California. Red is manager at Price Market, with Eric working under him, which holds well into 1978 while Kitty begins to spend time at home. Laurie also leaves for college and is out for most of the season.

    When we first see the characters back in Season One and Two, they didn't get much fleshing out. With the teens, it was easy to know who was who: Eric is the every man of a teen seeking to prove himself a man, Donna was the girl next door, Jackie is the spoiled rich girl, Hyde is the rebel, Fez is the token minority, and Kelso is something of a Jack of all Trades in tropes, being the jock who doesn't do much sports, and is bad at wrestling; the loyal sidekick who is very vain and narcissist; is a ladies man, who loses out on two girls. Even the grown ups are standard in characterization with Red the conservative, All American, man's man who frets about his son not into manly things, Kitty something of a smothering mom who prefers to keep her boy as a baby, and Bob and Midge are the weird neighbors.
    Usually, in Season Two, the characters would be fleshed out, and they are. They become fleshed out even more in Season Three. When Hyde sees his father again, there is a point where it seems he won't make amends. I will say that Hyde does distract from the show in Season Two where, after seeing his parents bail, he becomes an orphan in need, but he refuses to call for help. When his father returns, it suddenly becomes a popularity contest in "Hyde's Christmas Rager", where Bud Hyde has to learn how it is to be a father. One problem that comes up is how this subplot is abandoned after a while and then it's retconned in Season Six, but I'll get to that on a later date.
    Speaking of dates, Fez actually gets a girlfriend after being something of the lonely guy in Season Three, and the first one he meets likes him well. In "Dine and Dash", Fez learns that sometimes romance has to be turned off, like in a place where the girlfriend works (believe me, it does get hard to keep professional at times) and is offended by it. However, his girlfriend, Caroline, makes up for it by the end of the episode. Ironically, Caroline is shown to be obsessed with Fez more so than any girlfriend would, basically inverting some fantastic scenario where a girl desperate for a boyfriend winds up having one who basically stalks her. Fez eventually wises up and dumps Caroline, but he uses Donna to shield him from her for a time in "Fez Dates Donna." Caroline then gives up (like most TV girlfriends) but the not so funny thing is people get hurt when stalking happens, if not killed, and crazy ex-girlfriends get quite a bad rap for that. Luckily for Donna that Caroline doesn't go sneaking into her room and threaten her with harm. If anything, Caroline would be back.
    As to Eric and Donna, they become the center piece couple for the run of Season Three, to the point of people mocking them as an old married couple for it. Yet, the relationship dances on pins and needles from "Holy Craps" on where Eric encounters a grouchy old man who warns him the dangers of marrying a high school sweetheart, something most people today take to heart. However, Eric chooses to stick it through.
     What is really shown is how they see the future differently. In "Baby Fever", Donna has published a story in the paper and shows it to Eric, yet he goes gah gah over the way she handles a baby. Donna did work hard on that paper and she really took pride in it. To have it dismissed as second to being able to handle something as mundane as changing diapers is offensive, and I can hear today's feminists cranking up their own interpretations about it. Not only that, when they talk about the future, Eric imagines the house set up he grew up with (him coming home to find her with their kids), to which Donna changes to have herself come home from work while Eric stays at home. Yet, the horny deviant (read, teenage boy) in Eric uses that into a sex fantasy. Donna does it better by making his fantasy backfired on him and tells him to "get bent."
     We can excuse Eric in this instance. Unlike myself or others, he never got to know that women can be breadwinners and dads can stay at home with the kids, and nothing shameful can be said about it. Eric was a boy in the Sixties, when women still stayed at home while men brought home the bacon. However, everything else can't be excused. His turning Donna's "equality based" fantasy into an erotic one is degrading.
   Donna is not the innocent party in the underlying troubles of the couple, however. In "Eric's Panties", she freaks out at seeing a pair of panties in the Vista Cruiser, going so far as to come off as the jealous type when looking for answers, which drives off Eric's study partner. Of course, it turns out they were her mom's and her mom was with her dad in the car. In "Backstage Pass", Donna ditches Eric to interview Ted Nugent, and without even apologizing for it. Finally, in "Promise Ring", when Eric buys the said ring, Donna has troubles wearing it. Eventually, she tells him that she doesn't see her future with him, prompting Eric to break up with her.
    In weighing it out, Eric is the worst brat of the two; he disregards her passions, he objectifies her, he forgets his mom's birthday, he keeps porn magazines under his bed, he groans in doing something to make women happy, yet expects free sex, and he reads her diary (a violation of her privacy). Donna, meanwhile, gets jealous real easily, gets mean often, and rejects a promise ring that Eric had put his heart in to buy (nothing worse than spending time and money to buy something for your woman than to hear someone not think it special).
    So, we get that Donna and Eric have been put on a pedestal in Season Three and wonder if they are still in Season Four. Apparently so, because the season is all about how their break up upsets everything and they should be brought back together.
   As a foil to Eric and Donna (could we say Ericonna, or something?), Jackie and Kelso start out broke up in Season Three, as Jackie has her sights on Hyde, because he took the heat when she was caught holding a bag of drugs. Of course, Hyde doesn't return the affections while Kelso vies for Jackie again (even acting like a jerk in "Roller Disco" when she takes Fez out to dance with her). It really isn't until "Jackie Bags Hyde" that Hyde actually shows he likes Jackie, simply by knocking out her date. Unfortunately, the whole thing is scrapped in "Ice Shack" where its once more Jackie being sought out by Fez and Kelso. Fez demonstrates at being the dogged nice guy where he does good things for Jackie. He goes as her partner in the Roller Disco, where she later gets drunk, yet he doesn't take advantage of her. There is an interesting part with that where Batman subs for the angel while the Riddler plays the Devil in Fez's decision making (a secular interpretation), and Fez goes with Batman, since he's the good guy. Of course, Fez's action is commended, but the stinger throws it away by him getting drunk and asking Jackie to take advantage of him (showing television's double standard). Finally, there's "Ice Shack" where Fez challenges the two couples to the Newlywed game and Kelso proves himself good in remembering things, impressing Jackie. However, he throws that away by crying over his lost van and Jackie sees that as a sign. She turns to Fez for comfort, but Fez makes own variant of Butler's parting line (at least he kept his pride, considering this is another case of a guy does all the nice things for the girl, yet she chooses someone else in the end).
   Kelso attempts to move on, only to not get turned on in a make out session with another girl. He freaks out at experiencing an early onset of impotence, until it turns out it's a sign he still has feelings for Jackie. So, he goes to Jackie again, who decides to test him out in "The Trials of Kelso", but it takes him knowing about it to actually pass them all. First there's the egg to make seem a father figure and then there's the fake illness Jackie brings up to see if he is shallow. Finally, she gets a girl to pretend to come on to him and he rejects her advances. Jackie is satisfied and they stay a couple for the rest of the season.
    How Kelso and Jackie work as opposed to Eric and Donna could be argued that they are the same; both Kelso and Jackie are vain, arrogant, and self-centered. It's these things that made them last and it seems they could mature on it. Kelso has, even if he has to be told in order to do so. If there is a flaw in their relationship, as Season Four shows, it's basically their own problems that are only expressed by cheating on the other, while Kelso can't seem to mature fast enough. Meanwhile, Eric and Donna have disagreements on a few things and practically have a "my way or the highway" sort of approach that ultimately leads to the break up.
    So, in Season Four, Eric and Donna are broken up while Jackie and Kelso are a couple, leaving Hyde and Fez as the only single guys in the group. That is until "Hyde Gets a Girl" where in a party to set Hyde up, Fez meets Big Rhonda, a plus sized blonde with glasses. Here, we see a potential of a new girl in the group, as she begins to hand with Donna and Jackie in a few episodes, while giving plus sized girls someone to look up to. I like how in "Red and Stacy", the other two girls try to give Big Rhonda a make over, only for Fez to accuse them of corrupting her; as if to take a shot at the idea of women changing their appearances for their men would improve their lives. Instead, we have a man who likes her the way she is. Unfortunately, we don't get more of Big Rhonda after "Kelso's Career", as she is written out for some strange reason. During that time, Fez starts to want to lose his virginity to her, only to be rejected. In "Everyone Loves Casey", he takes the advice of Casey Kelso and makes his move, and that results in the break up.
    Kelso and Jackie don't break up in the end, however, but Jackie begins thinking of getting married, while Kelso has something of a commitmentphobia, causing him to runaway to California instead. I personally hated that, since all the build up was made in these seasons to get back together and dealing with underlying issues, and Kelso decides to throw all that away.

    One episode I'll go into detail on is the start of Season Four, "It's a Wonderful Life," an episode that not only uses the title, but also the plot of It's a Wonderful Life, with Eric playing George Bailey and Wayne Knight plays the angel. The episode shows Eric what it would be like if he and Donna never kissed, resulting in a paradox where Hyde and Donna date, get into a relationship, and are married in the 1980s. Meanwhile, Eric's alternate self remains the whimpy boy who caves to Red's anger, a social outcast who joins the chess club, and only loses his virginity to Big Rhonda (even though she is later seen telling Fez she is saving for marriage). The paradox also means that when Kelso and Jackie break up, they never make up, but only settle for occasional hook ups while Fez simply becomes a rock star, similar to Michael Jackson.
    The episode is non-canon, mostly, by having Donna act out of character and creating situations that don't add up. As a feminist, Donna's beliefs would clash with that of Hyde's at some point (example, she wouldn't in real life get a tattoo that made her Hyde's property) and the two would part. The future shot that comes in also has Eric making less attempts at proving himself a man, leading him being seen as weak by his parents who get a new boy -- a hyperactive sort who just might have terrics, but Red approves of him anyway -- while Kitty is no longer fretting over his departure and actually hints that he should leave in the wedding of Hyde and Donna. All the while, it's never implied that Fez and Jackie would find each other, nor is the idea of the lack of Eronna causing too much of a paradox. However, in the end, Eric realizes it was better to have loved and lost than to not love at all.
    It touches close because it makes one think of how the past few months would be if he and his ex-girlfriend stayed as friends. Yes, less drama would have come and they'd feel time wasn't wasted for naught (unless it's a one sided crush), but then what would the two people would compensate for it? Remaining ignorant of the wrong buttons to push, never getting to see the other side of the person (like the creative side, if the woman could draw pictures or make jewelry), or being robbed of a good experience with something the two of you are into, or seeing that movie you both went to? And in couples who had sex while dating, I am positive they wouldn't be dealing with guilt of it out of wedlock, while also not knowing how important foreplay is. For people who met the love of their life, imagine if none of that happened. I have friends who are married, and I am sure at least two of them are reading this, and they would say how poor their lives would have been if they didn't make that decision to become more than friends.
    One thing to add is looking at the footage, I can't help but think of how Eighties Kelso as a reporter resembles Will Farrel in Anchorman.

   Another episode in Season Four is titled "That 70s Musical". Fez had tried out ballet during the two season side of the show, largely to meet girls. He does have to put on tights, but he does get the girls, but is disappointed. "They let me touch their thighs, but not their hearts," he tells the others, which is one way of showing how the ballet dancers don't see him as anything but a dance partner. Yet, he does have fantasies of ballet sequences, one something like West Side Story where he and his girls fight off rough guys and dance happily ever after, and the other him in the girls doing what could be considered a mating ritual.
  Now he becomes a singer in a school musical pageant and he invites everyone to see him. Unfortunately, some of the petty dramas delay their arrival, making Fez think they don't care for him. It is humorous watching them break out into musical numbers, like "So Happy Together" or "The Joker" (That song that opens with "Some people call me the space cowboy...") the latter with four of the teens forming a swastika in the middle of the song. In the end, the gang arrives and witnesses Fez singing, even with Red being all grouchy about it.

   Feminism and Masculinity are two things to talk about at this point. That 70s Show brings up the way the decade was where it seemed traditional gender roles were being challenged, especially in wake of what had happened in the past decade. Women's Lib movement had happened which challenged the very concept of gender roles, making it a watershed moment. Before the sixties, it wasn't unheard of for women to stay at home while men went to work. That's just the beginning: in 1958, it was rare to see women in pants. Now we come to 1978 (show's time), we have girls in bell bottom pants, hot pants, and denim pants. Kitty's cooking habits would have been seen as normal, too, and not something from an underlying psychological issue, while the idea of wives leaving their husbands and children would be a sign of being invective prior to the 1960s. Women's Lib, or Second Wave Feminism, had changed the spectrum in the sixties, replacing said roles for the world of sex, drugs, and rock 'n roll, resulting in a sudden need to have masculinity to be defined.
   That 70s Show doesn't provide its own definition, but it does use the older generation's definition of masculinity many times, mostly by setting up a standard and mocking any man who doesn't meet it. Red Forman is treated as the example of the old school masculine man. He doesn't express his emotions, other than anger, hate affections, and puts his energies into manly activities like sports and hunting. This leads to him not having a good relationship with his son, as the latter is seen as "twitchy" in his eye. Even when he does well, Red offers no respect, and in "Love, Wisconsin style", when Eric tells him how Donna came to him and he rejected her because he didn't want to be a rebound, Red asks how is he too proud for her. "You're not an athlete and the only smart about you is your mouth," he says, basically kicking him while he's down. Red's solution to helping Eric over his break up with Donna is giving him chores, also, which never really works. Yes, doing something will get your mind off the break up, but it's a short lived relief and you suddenly have to find another project. Suppose you run out of things to do? Then what? (I know because I had a girlfriend break up with me months ago and even after helping with the wood and doing this blog, the sting is still present). In the end, you're just running away from and denying your scars, which Red seems to think that is what men do. It goes on the concept that men don't ask for help and are not suppose to feel, something that needs to be addressed. (At the same time, Eric's drug habits don't help either; it's like giving someone morphine constantly after touching a hot stove). In "Eric's Stash", Red learns of Eric accusing Hyde of stealing his secret stash and Hyde getting mad about it, and his solution is to have them fight it out; he even adds if they are not mad enough to fight, they aren't really mad. Having the boys fight each other won't make them less angry. If anything, it just encourages violence while giving them more reasons to be mad at each other. The only place I have seen where two men beat each other up and come out laughing about it later is in movies.
   Of the other men, Red likes to think he has plenty of friends, but can't stand the others. Hyde is the only one of the younger men that he sees as a real man, and he is a rebel who violates his house rules with his lifestyle. He sees Kelso as an idiot, which is justified. Fez, of course, is given racists remarks (without using slurs, but sometimes calling him Tarzan). Then there's Bob and Leo, the former he sees as an annoying clutch and the latter as doped up hippie. The one man he does bound with is Pastor Dave, over football, and it results in him deciding to give up preaching. As you would expect, the church gets mad at Red for that, and Red has to convince Pastor Dave not to leave the church. So, you can conclude that Red doesn't have any real friends he can relate to, as he drives people away, while thinking being old means he doesn't have to make new friends. For the most part, Red's all about maintaining his image as an Alpha male, best evidenced in some dinner scenes where when Kitty sits the meal down, Red would grab the first bits, with Kitty following, and Eric getting the last bits, if at all (unlike my father who would let my mother and us eat first). The one time Eric challenges this, Red gets into battle mode with a threat of physical abuse ("a swift kick in the ass", he calls it).
  While Red is not someone to look up to in being a man, there is one example of positive masculinity he attempts to pass on to his son. In "Kitty's Birthday (That's Today?)", Red and Eric forget Kitty's birthday, which is something I wonder if it's possible. I mean, two men forgot the birthday of a woman, who is wife of one and mother of another. I certainly know my mother's birthday, in fact it's so easy to remember: it has something to do with an important event in history. I also know my ex-girlfriend's birthday (the reason I am not typing it down is out of respect for her privacy). Somehow, they forget Kitty's, and she is obviously upset (and as revealed earlier in the show, such as with "The Parents Find Out", Kitty is the only person to make Red run for cover when she gets mad). So, the first thing they try to make her happy is by doing some of her chores, or rather pretend to, as she comes home. However, their smiles aren't fooling anyone and Kitty simply walks by without saying a word. Red then decides for the sake of Kitty's happiness, he and Eric must do something they normally wouldn't do: Square dancing. Neither Red nor Eric like this, but if mom ain't happy no one is happy.
    This is one out of many, of course. Even the guys (and to a lesser extent, the girls) have a standard of being a guy to which those who don't cut out are subject to mockery. The show even does this on numerous occasions, often aiming the mockery gun at Eric. In "Red Sees Red", when we see the boys first trying out drugs, Eric is the only one whose voice has broken yet (and I can't tell if they got a girl to play her or if they just dubbed the guy's vocals). One way the girls have this is "Hyde's Christmas Rager" where Jackie takes Donna to a bar and flirt with firemen who are twice their age, but that's okay because they "can bench a keg, Eric can bench a cup." Translation, forget the whimpy Eric and go with someone with big biceps and a deep voice. In "Class Picture" Eric is also mocked because he gets a pimple every time pictures are made, one of which is placed near an eye to look like a red tear. Red also goes at him for his preference for comics and nerdy things like Star Wars, even referring to his GJ action figures as dolls.
     After Eric and Donna break up, two sides of Eric happen. One is sensitive, especially after Donna publishes her Roman a Chef story, about Wanda and Derek who have a love affair that ends in the fictional Point upon the Place. Eric takes offense to the story, since some of it ruined his reputation over such things that seem trivial to him (killing a cat and looking at porn). In response, Eric writes a counter, though several drafts go back (including one where Wanda is a witch) before publishing. Donna is upset, but reveals hers was in two parts, with the second one stating that Wanda still loved Derek. Another side has no title, but it seems despite what most would think, Eric does well in getting girls into him without Donna. In "Hyde Gets the Girl", he is able to get a dozen to him by being a wounded bird, with one willing to go out with him to make him feel better (if that worked, as opposed to this wanting someone with confidence deal, I am sure guys would be more willing to wear their hearts on their sleeve instead of hiding their feelings). In "Uncomfortable Ball Stuff", Eric and Donna agree they aren't going to the ball on a date, so it shouldn't be a surprise a girl is into Eric, but Donna is shown getting jealous over that and vindictive. He also gets a date with a cheerleader, shown to be airheaded and into his car, though his messing up in parking the car, as well as stealing it, gets him in trouble. Eric even takes pride in being "Point Place's most eligible Viking". The only failures are with Penny, who turns out to be his cousin and teases him out of revenge, and Stacy in "Red and Stacy", a cashier girl in Stock Mart with a crush on Eric's father. In the latter, Eric wonders why she would prefer someone old enough to be her dad, and his friends, Donna included, suggest he is soft ("softer than Liberace in a Playboy mansion", they say), leading to him to have a talk with Red, accusing his tough fathering the reason why he is this way. Red answers to that with crocodile tears, claims he isn't the bad guy by using the "my father would never have done this" argument, while saying he has a creepy girl coming after him now while his wife is thinking of him being unfaithful.
    Side note on that, I like how they are willing to show that girls can be creepy and men can find attention unwelcome from women, especially such an age gap. One could feel sorry for Red in the fact he is creeped out by a girl and feels unwilling to tell Kitty about it because one, he'll seem unfaithful to her, and two, makes him less of a man to feel uncomfortable about attention from girls.
   Not just Eric; but Fez gets mocked for embracing what is today called "metrosexual" fashions (though how cologne wearing qualifies as metro is beyond me). In Season Three, he goes roller disco with Jackie as a partner, almost like someone going with a girl as her dance partner, earning scorn from Kelso. The show goes along and makes Fez weird for doing this. He is also treated to that in joining the ballet, since people think men in ballet are gay. Finally, there's his musical. All the while, Fez is basically embodying the opposite of American masculinity. Not just these seasons, but there is an earlier episode where Kelso, while dating Laurie, comes to the basement and the latter says "there's a twig in my shorts", to which Hyde says, "what a coincidence, so does Kelso." Speaking of Kelso, his quest to win back Jackie is commendable, yet he is later shown to be not ready for marriage and runs off instead of telling Jackie so.
    I am sure Pop Detective would tackle this as he did with The Big Bang Theory, even showing how long "toxic masculinity" has been around. But ideal of masculinity shares the spot light with femininity and feminism. Femininity is illustrated with the two girls, Donna and Jackie (not to be ageist, but I'll stick with the teens). Donna, as you wouldn't believe, is Italian for woman, though I noted they don't use proper Italian phonics with Pinciotti. The name doesn't add much, as Donna is set up as a tomboy and a feminist, who burns for respect as a person and not treated special for being a woman. Opposite her, Jackie, supports the traditional forms of femininity, even going to so far as to demand it from boyfriends, yet she is also shown as to be a spoiled rich girl, implying that women who like guys that hold doors and all are either brainwashed or entitled brats while women who prefer equality are more down to earth.
   One example is with money. Jackie is a rich girl and could get what she wants with her money. However, in "Jackie Says Cheese", it is revealed her father cut her off for dating Kelso, and she has to get a job because beauty is temporary and she'll be poor soon. I like how she learns the value of the dollar in the end, even telling Kelso she won't share her money because it doesn't "grow on trees." Kelso quickly becomes jealous and goes into modeling, much to Jackie's chagrin, because it reveals that women can be competitive, usually when it comes to looks. Currently, most women are valued at how good they look and it has led to women feel the need to be the prettiest in the room. If someone prettier comes along, suddenly it's open season. This last explains why Jackie and Donna are the only girls the gang (with Fez's girlfriends leaving after a break up).
    Another place happened in Season Two. In that episode, "Eric's Stash", Kelso remarks that college is for ugly girls, and Donna replies, "College is for women who don't want to marry the first [sic] idiot they meet and squeeze out his bastard, moronic children." This statement is noteworthy as Donna was born in a time when women going to colleges were seen as obtaining an MRS, making the whole statement ironic, because college girls often wind up marrying the first idiot they meet and squeezing out his children. Of course, in the years since the time period of the series, that perception has faded away and women who go to college for husbands have become a minority while women who don't are the majority. I am sure Donna would have liked the statistics, if she ignored the new perception of college being a place where parties last all weekend and hooking up is the norm, while most of the rhetoric is no longer academic, but based on emotional responses to new facts. At the same time, imagine her reaction to the 2016 election.
   This is where feminism comes in. It's not clearly defined, other than what's known from the period. To Donna, feminism means equal rights, no gender roles, and more opportunities to women like her. One thing of Donna, as seen in thus far, she seems to think that feminism is about going by the rule of "do what thou wilt." To her, doing favors is sexist, as is compromising. To Jackie, feminism is a bunch of manly girls and not worth her time. As to everyone else, where feminism depends on who you ask and the results that follow.
   Midge disappears in Season Four, later revealed to have left Bob for some reason. This is because her actress, Tanya Roberts, took a leave of absence and rather than try to explain around her disappearance, the show chose have her leave Bob, with a hint of it being due to unhappiness (itself suggesting their reconciling and marriage renewal in Season Two to be nothing but hot air). Bob takes Midge's going feminist in Season One like that of a child who had his treats taken away. When Joanna comes, it seems from the start that she will henpeck Bob until the episode, where Bob actually stands up to Red. The non-canon episode implied Eric lacked the confidence to stand up to Red because dating Donna gave it to him. In short, the implication women could turn men into confident fellows, or render them into steers, a trope that basically makes men out to be needy. Then we get the woman, Joanne, who takes over from there. In "Eric's False Alarm", Bob hosts a barbecue with Red and Kitty joining, yet Red is shocked that Joanne is willing to operate the grill, and even gets Kitty to join in, while regulating the chopping of celery into slaw job to the men. Red complains of a woman taking what he believes is a man's job (all but admitting he feels threatened at this) while he finds Bob's standing up to him offensive. In response, he hosts his own barbecue and lets Bob and Joanne be guests, only he winds up burning the meat.
  In short, feminism is shown to be a disruption of the peace in That 70s Show, where happy housewives are corrupted by its messages and it makes them leave home, while making daughters become bad girls, while making everyone confused on how to behave with each other. I'm not a feminist, but even I can see how one-sided the portrayal is, often coming across as misogyny, which is saying something of the seventies that, from many angles, is more sexist than the fifties. When the girls are not a bunch of brats who demand equality, they are eye candy for the guys. Best example is "Hyde Gets the Girl" where dozens of girls shown as airheads come to flirt with Hyde. Then, in "Eric's Cousin", his Cousin Penny comes in largely to accommodate the male gaze factor. In the latter, the girls, especially Donna, don't bother to tell the guys to snap out of that idea and accuse them of objectifying women, and instead see Penny as a hated rival. They even try to get a tan just to make things even. I am sure there are people who will say more of the show where the boys compete over girls and some how go back to friendship if the girl was out of the picture, yet the girls are shown to be fiercely territorial and often at each other's throats over the guys (despite being outnumbered), and only ganging up on outsiders.
    Besides other girls, the female characters even find rivalry in machines: Kelso's van and Red's car. All I will say about that is, which would be better: obsessed with you or obsessed with his car?  At the same time, while female jealousy is shown a bad thing, the male jealousy is shown to be a form of caring and concern, further adding a case of double-standards in the show. When Eric sees Donna with Casey, he gets jealous of her being with the latter, which does make him hypocritical, but his jealousy is shown in a positive thing, confirmed when Casey proves to be of negative influence on Donna. All the while, the show doesn't provide a good model for masculinity while showing to be sexist against women in portrayals.

    Apart from these flaws, seasons three and four have their good times. Citing them all would make this long entry go longer, sadly. 

Going Twenty: Pleasantville

   How do you do,

   Starting July, the four part That 70s Review is underway, reflecting in the wave of nostalgia many in the Nineties got for the Seventies. Following in that sense, plus knowing there was a wave of nostalgia in the time frame by baby boomers for the Fifties, there came the film Pleasantville, starring Toby McGuire and Reese Witherspoon as two typical teenagers from the Nineties winding up in the Fifties centered sitcom, Pleasantville and wind up interacting with the characters. It's a plot element of breaking into the story that is used in 1993's The Last Action Hero, only instead of becoming extras to call out cliches, McGuire and Witherspoon become the teen characters in the show. 

    Pleasantville takes the nostalgia of the decade and puts it on its head, by slowly unwrapping the worst elements like one peels an onion. For one, McGuire plays Dave who watches Pleasantville to escape reality, because the show presents a Utopia where there is smile to find and everything is...well, pleasant. In this fictional show, the Rosy picture of the Fifties is shown: no one smokes in Pleasantville (as opposed to the real Fifties America where people smoked like chimneys), no one drinks, people live in a safe and structured life, the opposing team is a faceless entity, the outside world is non-existent, and since there's no fire to threaten homes the fire department exists to rescue cats stuck in a tree. Everyone looks nice there, as well as act. 

    In short, it's paradise. 

    Well, that's at the first glance, but as the movie progresses where color replaces the black and white world, Pleasantville reveals to have a dark side, something the real decade had, too. The happy mom, played by Joan Allen, is really an emotionally repressed woman, as shown, and she seeks out pleasure without her husband. There is an interesting inversion where Jennifer, now assuming the role of Mary Sue (more on that later), tells the mother about the birds and the bees, then teaches the art of self pleasure. Next thing you know, she does just that in the bath tub. This allows her to develop color, and falls for the fry cook that her son works for. All the while, the good father figures in the town are shown to be not be good as the colors begin to appear. First, they react with shock over such things as kids feeling things or women thinking (a man shows his shirt having a burn mark from when his wife got distracted). When Mr. Parker finds his wife and kids gone, he never asks, "is anyone home?" or frets about his family not being home (he doesn't even walk upstairs to find Jennifer studying). Instead, he says, "where's my dinner?"
    In the last, I know most people didn't expect men to cook their own meals when married, but even with that one would have to go through a suspension of disbelief. There are times men will cook; such as in the military when assigned KP (that's Kitchen Patrol, for anyone who doesn't understand military terms), or when they cook for a living like Mr. Johnson at the malt shop, and if men are living on their own they are likely to cook something for themselves, too. Handling the BBQ grill is also cooking. The idea that they get married so they wouldn't have to cook anymore is something I can't think of having any basis. The only reason Mr. Parker wouldn't cook his own meal has something to do with the show hyping up the popular image of men working and women cooking, itself commercialized after World War II, added with most working jobs making the men worn out that he often doesn't have enough energy to cook (which is something having both parents be breadwinners brings in that both often don't have the time or the energy to make supper at the end of the day, explaining the constant fast food take outs or frozen dinners of today), as well as a fact, women just make foods more delicious than men can. I am positive Parker could cook his own dinner, but the television tropes prohibit it, and the movie wants us to see him as a selfish guy who needs to check his privileges.
   Eventually, the town's fathers (get it?) decide to crack down on the loss of values that made the town great. First, they suggest the town do something about it. The result of that is the situation getting worse with the malt shop vandalized and books burned, signs saying "no coloreds" appear, while Betty gets sexually harassed by a couple of monochromatic youths. Betty is even given a sit down discussion by her husband, in a way that would come off as abuse outside of Pleasantville, while Betty now no longer feels shame at her colors that she refuses. Instead, she leaves him. The Mayor and the town's fathers (got it yet?) then decide to establish a set of rules to benefit everyone and make things pleasant again, but when they are read they seem to benefit the oppressors instead. So, David leads the rebellion of the youth and is brought to court over it, with the Mayor being both judge and jury, yet a passionate speech by David allows the whole town to become colorful, including its mayor.

    As a Catholic, I am aware of an underline motive of color coming into the black and white world of Pleasantville over the course of the movie, with characters suddenly becoming more human like in the process, which is easily interpreted as the celebration of the Fall. There is even a scene where Dave's date picks an apple from the tree and hands it to him to eat (not too subtle there). On the next day, Dave is called up by the TV Repairman, played by the late Don Knox, who is set up as though he were God (a gag on that comes where Jennifer moans "Oh God", and the Repairman comments on the way they are showing gratitude in an offended tone). He calls him out on how he and Jennifer have messed up the paradise and now they are coming home (basically, he intends to nip this one in the bud, wink wink), but Dave refuses. The irony was earlier he wanted play out his character role in the beginning while Jennifer refuses to be a "Mary Sue".
    Mary Sue is a character archetype introduced in Star Trek as someone, usually a woman, who has no flaws and is able to do things with perfect ease. It's become very common lately. So, to see that the daughter is named Mary Sue sort of makes it a joke.
    I am positive feminists will note Jennifer's story arc, where she starts out by refusing to be Mary Sue, often rebelling against the norms of the sitcom, yet only in embracing her role as Mary Sue does she actually become empowered. I have noted how in her date with Skip, we get a shy, nice guy, who is good looking in her eye, who only gets upset at the thought of noting dating her, while paying her compliments that are not about her body (David even tells Jennifer that no boy notices her breasts in Pleasantville), though it came come off as placing her on a pedestal. Yet, Jennifer takes control of the date by suggesting they leave the malt shop early, and head up to lovers' lane. Skip admits this is sudden, as most couples don't go up there unless they had been pinned awhile, and Jennifer decides to not wait and seduces him. The devirginized Skip later goes on tells his pals about the date night, introducing the concept of sex to the teens and suddenly we see the 1950s hook-up culture. By then, Jennifer is in Skip's arm constantly, until the book reading fad catches on and she becomes interested in D.H. Lawrence. In her embracing of Mary Sue, she puts on a sweater and her glasses, both of which are almost never sexualized. Then she turns down Skip's date to study. Skip eventually is seen among the conservatives and tries to burn her book, basically turning him into Gaston in the process. So, Jennifer dumps him and kicks him in the groin, and is never seen getting her hooks on a man after. And she finally gets her colors by rejecting sex for the book. Finally, she decides to go to college in the show instead of going home, thus showing she has become Mary Sue.
    Dave, on the other hand, has the arc of going into Pleasantville to escape reality, only to become the rebel leader. He one by one gets people to change, ending with his television father, and the mayor. In fact, Dave was changing the town earlier, though without any intention to it; first by almost not letting Skip date Jennifer, then telling Johnson he can make adjustments on his activities. He puts out a fire and becomes a hero, which gets the eye of Margaret, who bakes him cookies. He does refuse them twice, but eats them in the end, and asks her out on a date, all of which are against the plot. It's by this point, we can see that Dave is no longer doing right, and is thinking with his other head (wink wink), until he gets the shouting at from the TV repairman, and goes back to doing right by continuing to change the place.
    I found the shooting script of Pleasantville online, and in it one finds that the TV Repairman was originally to be Dick Van Dyke in repairman clothes. Why they didn't get him to play the role? I have no idea. Maybe some problems with the payment negotiations, I guess. I don't really know. Not only that, the Repairman had more scenes, and not just be someone who shows up once and then is only spoken to on the television. He actually visits Dave / Bud in the jailhouse, demanding the remote, and Dave refuses to hand it over. Of course, they cut the part out, along with the cast change, and basically redid the scene where George Parker visits his "son" in the cell and they have a talk. Personally, I like this better, as it gives Dave the closest thing to a father-son moment (he has only his real mom at home). The original scene, on the other hand, confirms the whole Fall from Grace undertone that Joseph Schimmel in his Hollywood's War On God brings up (he doesn't start talking about it until about one hour and nineteen minutes in). In the end, the authority figures are either converted to the good side or ousted, like the Mayor chooses to flee instead of facing reality (making him, in a sense, Dave's foil, as the latter watched the show to escape instead of facing reality). The residents of Pleasantville gather outside the courtroom and enjoy a brave new (and beautiful) world with its rich colors. While Jennifer goes to college, Dave goes home and closes his arc by switching the television off. Nothing is done elsewhere. The TV Repairman even smiles and drives away in the end, as if he intended this to happen the whole time. At the same time, we are left wondering where the town will go from here. The final shot where Betty and George speak of that and not knowing anything about it, then revealing Johnson in Parker's place saying he doesn't know either, raises a lot of questions that need answering. Far too many to list, however.
    Another thing is how it desensitizes the sin glorification by using familiar images. Besides color, we see a shot of books being burned a la Nazi book burnings (they even use footage and manage to hide the swastikas), the destruction of the malt shop to be akin to vigilante groups going after people with AIDS as well as the Night of the Broken Glass in Nazi Germany, signs saying "No Coloreds" (an ironic play on the meaning, since there aren't any people of color in Pleasantville, while the colorizing of people in a black and white world makes them the literal definition) to remind the viewer of the segregation that was common in the time, and the courtroom scene having it set up like the courtroom scenes in To Kill a Mockingbird, while Dave goes into a speech not too different from Brady's speech in Inherit the Wind. While stories as allegories can present something controversial, but disguise it as something else so it wouldn't be attacked, is common, the way Pleasantville does it has a sinister component to it. It implies that sin is good and knowledge making, and those who oppose sin are no better than all the evil people in history. Thus, it uses this Fall from Grace motif to attack the nostalgia of the fifties.

   Pleasantville bombed when it came out, only gained a cult following since it was aired frequently on television. If there is a legacy, it's the fact it marked a turning point to the nostalgic look back to the 1950s, which had been lasting since the Seventies. For people seeing all the horrors of that decade, there were people who longed for a simpler time that came with the Fifties, something that many in the Fifties had also thought of for the pre-World War II era (1900s, 1910s, 1920s). This was what made American Graffiti such a success in 1974, and Grease in 1978, as well as the show Happy Days being such a hit. The song "American Pie" cites the plane crash that killed three Rock stars in 1959 as the death of the innocence of Rock n Roll, the music forever associated with the decade, thus saying another type of innocence died as well. Through the Seventies and Eighties, finally the Nineties, this nostalgia lasted with the Fifties treated as source for fantasies (mostly to white Americans, since there is rarely anything to cater African Americans or other minorities in these scenarios). Pleasantville arrived as Hollywood was making a turning away from that rosy picture and began to show less pleasant sides of the Fifties. October Sky came out a year later to feature a pair of teenage boys learning rocketry while in the largely backwoods West Virginia with the father of one embodying the tyrannical father figure of the decade. The show Boy Meets World had an episode of Cory seeing the Fifties and being accused of being a spy for Russia. Those are just a few examples, but it continued on in the Millennium where the Fifties was now shown as something of a worse time in comparison to the present, as almost everything connected to it would feature racism, sexism, paranoia, and suppression of individualism.

    Today, the Seventies are in the nostalgia lens, though it's taking a while for it change, as with the Eighties, and already are some of the nostalgia of the Nineties are being challenged in a few places. One day, we will see that with this current decade (imagine the embarrassment of future generations to hear of a time when people always got emotional over problems instead of rationally solving them, while coming up with all sorts of ramblings of the evils of the world; someone might one day find the man bun and the pixie cut as down right weird one day and ask, "what were those people thinking then?"). Now, maybe they'll have a better way of addressing it in the future.

That 70s Review and Commentary Part 1

  How do you do, 

  Star Wars. Bean bags. Lava lamps. Mood rings. Bell-bottom pants. Afro Hairs. Farrah Fawcett. Disco.
   A couple of things people think of when they think of the 1970s. For Americans, the 1970s is a time in US history where things were topsy turvy, if not strange. This is after the 1960s where we saw so much turmoil and shocking sights to our image as a stable democracy* and champion of liberty. Now it's the "Me Decade", the period of sex, drugs, and rock n roll, when all the good things of the fifties are forgotten, when everything is being challenged, and when it seemed there was nothing to do about it. The Civil Rights era saw the break down of the Jim Crow, but there is no sign of improved race relations anywhere (and this was before society opted a more color blind approach that worked until recently). Women's lib opened doors for women in the new century, but the Equal Rights Amendment was in the works and doomed to fail while women lost all respect for objectification (cue the Maddie & Tae song). We had also gotten out of Vietnam, with many sore egos and dissolution to follow (we left the Southeast Asia to fall to Communism, after all). Gas became scarce and prices went up, while the nation was aware of the pollution to the point of going more eco-friendly after seeing fires in rivers. We also had a president resign. 

    The 1970s was a time period not too different from the 2010s where the younger generation is more technology addicted and having cases of being smarter than the older one, yet can't seem to do simple actions or are busy using that intelligence to question the need for authority figures. At the same time, there are people who are wanting illegal substances, definitions of gender are being remade, the traditional courtship ritual replaced by a hook up culture, we saw a controversial war that was overseas end with us withdrawing; even the fact that on both decades a republican is in office is not to be forgotten, though it seems an inverse of the Seventies where the republicans were in office at the start and were replaced by a democrat, whereas we have a democrat replaced by a republican now (though plenty of Nixon imitators have happened). There are plenty of things different from the 1970s, of course, and I am not talking about the technology wise (though vinyl records are making a comeback, but not cassette tapes?). 

    I was not born in, nor grew up in the 1970s. I did those after, so I was like some European peasant who walked by the Roman ruins and saw evidence of a mighty civilization, without actually experiencing it. The Viewmaster, the cassette tapes, the VCR, and disco tunes were still done in the 1980s, while newer gadgets and toys were in the house. I also remember music being played on the archive reels at home, which is a far cry from the playlist on the ipod we have today (you couldn't carry the thing everywhere you went) and the TV was not made of plasma. My parents were in college in the seventies, so they saw some of it. People of their age and younger (the cut off point will be those born in 1978) had plenty of memories of laughter and tears of the decade, unless they were doped up or drunk from all the drugs and drinks during the keg parties. Some of the best shows on television, which air endlessly on TV Land and Hallmark first aired at this time: Dallas, Dukes of Hazard, Little House on the Prairie, The Waltons, to name a few. This was the decade of horror flicks, with the slasher films becoming common, beginning with The Exorcist and Halloween to Carrie and The Omen, and Alien. Besides Star Wars, classic movies like The Godfather, Rocky, Grease, Jaws, Close Encounters With the Third Kind, and Superman (which turned forty this year) are products of the decade while literature saw the arrival of John Updike, Steven King, William Styron, Alice Walker, and Peter Benchley, who all chose to return to the old fashioned ways of storytelling instead of focusing on so much on sex and violence. This was the decade Alex Haley published The Roots.

   The memories of the decade, to an entire generation (two generations if we add in the Baby Boomers), included those movies and books, television shows and games, the good stuff and the tragedies, plus a few examples of flawed leadership, were preserved and kept on as everyone came of age in the 1980s. Then came the 1990s with a completely changed world. Nixon's war on drugs continued with new studies on the effects of drugs on people, though in a newer tone. Board games are being replaced by computer games, the thriller films replacing some of the bleak films of the past (and CGI effects were making movies look more pristine than before, if not more fake), and the AIDS scare has put a damper on sex while a hook up culture has sprung up. At the same time, what seemed like progress in the Seventies now became baby steps in comparison: black men were taking on places of power, while women were doing the same. Also, ghosts of the 1970s were being resurrected in the 1990s. The Lewinsky Scandal was the Watergate of my generation, while the OJ Simpson trials exposed the deeper seated racism in a country that had black men in power, and it seemed the generational gap was just as wide as before where the popular image has the parents wondering about their children who march to a different drum. This was the decade when gay children made headlines when they came out of the closet, with the Gay Culture being redefined and becoming normalized where same sex couples appeared on television and movies, and the decade ended with the tragic massacre at Columbine High. Though the arcade could still be found, a great many children were playing on Nintendo and game-boy at home, public places were becoming more smoke free, concerns of pollution replaced by global warming, and so many safety features required around children from seat belts to bicycle helmets. So, many Gen X'ers were looking back toward the 1970s, which they once believed was a low point in American history and now suddenly seemed another world; a Garden of Eden that they left long ago and now would prefer to return to. It's the same fever that came to Baby Boomers in the same decade and began to wax poetic about the 1950s, and some of my generation are doing the same with the 1980s and 90s (no doubt someone reading this has a pretty picture of the 2000s, also). 

   That sort of nostalgia was the genesis of the series known as That 70s Show. Following in the footsteps of the 1950s influenced Happy Days, plus the ABC TGIF line up night where Sabrina and Salem go from their show and see the others while taking each respected series to another decade (Sabrina went Sixties, Boy Meets World to the Forties, Teen Angel to the Seventies), That 70s Show takes the audience to the popular side of the decade and has characters live out their lives in the period. This period piece show is not really something like Mad Men of the Sixties, or like the upcoming family sitcom on ABC called The Kids Are Alright that also deals with growing up in the Seventies, coming out this fall, but rather a comedy skit, meaning jokes are played at the expense of the nostalgic picture the show is trying to present, making it seem that whatever rosy picture your parents had of the Seventies is all a big joke.

    The show takes place in Point Place, Wisconsin, which makes it differ from most shows that take place in either the Northeast or in the South, or even out west. The opening credits include the song "In the Street", though Season Two begins the more familiar rendition by Cheap Trick. The First Season seems weird with the opening, where the kids are jamming to the song in Eric's vista cruiser, and ends with the singers going "Oh Yeah!". The Second Season has different players playing the song and includes the "We're all alright!" chant at the end, while added space is given (both versions have Kelso screaming "Hello Wisconsin!"). Of course, that's just an excerpt of the song, just as Dawson's Creek gave us only an excerpt of "I Don't Wanna Wait" in the opening credits and not the whole thing. Just click here and you'll hear the whole song.
   The characters consist mostly of the teens and the adults. Eric Forman, played by Topher Grace, leads out the cast, along with Michael Kelso (Ashton Kutchner) and Stephen Hyde (Danny Masterson) -- the two boys who are often called by their last names, Kelso and Hyde -- plus Fez (Wilmar Valderrama), whose last name is never mentioned, and as the token minority, person of color in a mostly white cast, is a foreigner whose country is never mentioned, yet is hinted by his accent and and skin color (somewhere in the Caribbeans) as the guys. Eric has his close friend, later girlfriend, Donna Pinciotti (Laura Prepon), a red headed feminist girl who is said to be the strongest in the group, and Jackie Burkheart (Mila Kunis), basically Scarlet O'Hara and Verruca Salt merged into one, who dates Kelso. The group are at odds with the adults, consisting of Eric's parents, Red and Kitty (Kurtwood Smith and Debra Jo Rupp), Donna's parents, Bob and Midge (Don Stark and Tanya Roberts), plus Eric's sister, Laurie, Hyde's mom, Jackie's dad, and Fez's foster parents, plus whatever teacher of Point Place High who comes in.


   This review and commentary will cover the first two seasons. Season One features Eric and his friends going through 1976 and 1977, doing drugs in the basement while Eric and Donna go through the early stages of a relationship. However, the times are tough as Eric's father is losing hours at the plant and his mother is getting concerned of him getting big, yet Eric feels the need to prove that he is a man and goes into all sorts of attics to prove it so. Meanwhile, Jackie is dating Michael Kelso in a relationship that is taken to the next level, only to reveal it as shallow as they are.
   For the most part, the first two seasons of That 70s Show is about the show attempting to get its bearings straight. In Season One, we start somewhere in 1976 with the teens in the basement while the adults are having a party, clearly showing how the two groups are different worlds from each other. Eric is pressed into stealing some drinks from the adults, akin to Prometheus stealing fire from the gods, and he wins it out. Then, it seems Eric is rewarded in what is shown as a rite of passage by being given the keys to the vista cruiser (in case anyone has forgotten, this was before the remotes we have now and the push button ignition in cars).
  Basically, Eric's transition from boy to man is what kicks off the show, but there is so much confusion done. For the most part, Eric is coming of age with hardly to no respect whatsoever. He is not treated with respect in his family. His mother, Kitty, prefers to see him as the baby in the family. For example, in "Eric's Birthday", Kitty hosts a surprise party as though he were turning seven instead of seventeen. When someone gave Eric razors for a present, she grabs them away. Later, she fantasizes Eric wishing he begged her to stay as the kids are wild in the house without adult supervision. In season two, "Parents Find Out", she flips out at learning Eric is having sex with Donna, claiming her baby was defiled by "that red headed harlot", and spends days in bed, as though she lost someone. Eric's father, Red, has only two words to describe his only son, "dumb ass." Red is constantly referring to Eric as "the boy" or "dumb ass" over the course of the show, and threatening to put his foot in Eric's rear. In short, he's a bully to his son, who makes fun of him without mercy for most of the time, yet seems willing to come down on him when Eric tries to get him to stop. In "Streaking", when Eric makes a voice of opinion on politics, Red insults him by claiming he should use it for "Miss American speech." In "Battle of the Sexist", when Eric is bested by Donna in basketball, Red makes him do squat push ups to warm up for training, which only makes him too tired to play. He also is strict for the slightest infractions. In "Stolen Car", Red takes the keys to the Vista Cruiser away from Eric for "getting a purpler" which led to a small scratch. When Eric gets a job in "Eric's Burger Job", he doesn't consider it a real job because of the uniform. In many of the episodes, there are things Eric does that should have earned his respect, but in the start of the next episode it's back to before. "Streaking" is one where Eric helped out his dad when the latter is unable to ask the President his question, by streaking. Red practically thanks him for it, however it's all forgotten in the next episode. Finally, there's Laurie (played by Lisa Robin Kelly, who tragically died years after the show ended), Eric's older sister who is only sweet with her father while a terror to her brother and embarrassment to her mom. For her, Eric is basically a punch bag to insult and she could call on her father if Eric stood up for himself. Even his grandmother is hardly respectful of him, unless he is rubbing her feet, yet willingly trades him in for Fez.
    Besides his family, Eric's friends mistreat him in the show. The nickname his friends give him is Oppie, after the boy from The Andy Griffith Show, and have him get into trouble constantly in Season One. First was the pilot where they have him steal drinks. Then, for the show, it's Eric driving everyone around in the Vista Cruiser, which should have given Eric power, but does not. When Eric is made to ride in another car in "Stolen Car", he is shuffled into the back like he was second class. Whenever Eric gets in trouble, his friends bail on him and then talk of how he always gets in trouble (remarkably, he stays loyal to these creatures). Donna, one close friend and later girlfriend, seems the one friend to be respectful of him, but does tend to not take his opinions to value. When he shows concern of a guy hitting on Donna in "A New Hope", she gets mad at him, even when he is proven right. Rich girl Jackie, in a later episode, claims she doesn't see Eric as a guy, but as a "masculine girl." Even Bob, Donna's father, looks down his nose upon Eric after Donna gets on the pill.
    In short, Eric has to constantly prove to everyone that he is a man, which becomes a tough battle because the one episode story lines make it that everything reverts back to before in the next episode. Also, the degradation is done for laughs, which to some is akin to putting one in the point of view of the bully. Yet, Eric is something of an enabler in the way people treat him because he never once tells people to back off and call them out on it. Not at the start, anyway. Gradually, he begins to stand up for himself, which leads to trouble from Red, mostly (sort of inverting what we are taught that standing up to bullies will get them to back off).

    Eric's coming of age coincides with other events in the first two seasons. First, Red finds out his hours in the plant are being cut, gradually ended with the plant closed down by "A New Hope." In "The Best Christmas Ever", Red is forced to take a job with Bob. President Ford comes to town in "Streaking", though shown from the back and doing a tread mark stumbling. To clarify, President Gerald Ford did stumble from getting off Air Force One, but it was a one time event that mortified most. According to , he also got himself locked out of the White House while walking his dog. Eric gets a job in "Eric's Burger Job" in what looks like White Castle meets Wendy's. They find a keg for beer in "The Keg" and throw a party over it. The gang go out to see The Omen and Star Wars in the season (the season takes place from 1976 to 1977), Eric's grandmother visits after Thanksgiving ("Sunday Bloody Sunday") and then dies ("Grandma's Dead"). Jackie and Kelso have sex for the first time in "Stolen Car", have a pregnancy scare in "The Pill", after which they break up, leading to Kelso to date a girl named Pam Macy in "Prom Night" before they are reunited and are back together. Hyde crushes on Donna in most of the season, but gets a girlfriend in "Punk Chick". Season One ends with "Hyde Moves In" and "The Good Son", which play off as a remake of the Second Season finale to Boy Meets World, where the main boy invites his poor friend in after his parents split, though problems come up in the process. Except for Eric and Donna becoming a couple, Red's job loss, and Midge discovering feminism, Season One has no story arc and consists mostly of one episode story lines.
   Season Two continues with Hyde and Eric living in the same house, until "Laurie and the Professor" where Hyde moves into the basement. The issue of feminism splits the Pinciottis with Bob and Midge constantly trying to get Donna's favor. They split for a while, but get back together and renew their vows in "The First Time." As the title suggests, the same episode ends when Donna loses her virginity to Eric, and vice versa, making them one of the few television virgins to do the deed with another virgin. "The Afterglow" has them discussing the sex, with Donna feeling it wasn't like she thought it would be. However, they continue to couple up as long as they are together. "Parents Find Out" is when Red, Kitty, Bob, and Midge learn of what Donna and Eric were doing with the reactions you would expect: Kitty and Bob upset over it, Red still questioning them being adults, and Midge asking how it was. Kelso gets into a love triangle between Jackie and Laurie, which is shown in the opening credits of him between them in the car and glancing back and forth. He finally decides Jackie is the girl for him, but Laurie's good bye kiss is seen by Jackie, resulting in him losing both (hate it when television does that). The season also has stories over in one episode, like with a Halloween episode, one with Eric and Laurie deciding to not go to church, and Donna mooning. One that really stands out is "Laurie Moves Out", where Red finds out she is living in sin with a guy, and he reacts with great disappointment. Red has just found out Laurie was what Kitty and Eric saw her as, yet his reaction is treated as the lowest he could go just for having righteous anger about it, whereas Kitty and Eric get away with verbal jabs at her. Sad thing about the episode is Laurie could have reformed from that moment, but instead remains the she-devil upon returning home. In the same episode that Donna moons the world (all nudity censored away), Jackie and Hyde spend time together and Hyde gets arrested for holding drugs, taking the heat from Jackie. And, of course, Red learns of this (the drugs, not the sacrifice). Season Two's "Moon Over Point Place" has the ending where the main cast get into the circle time set up and shake their bottoms at the camera.


   The show tackles authority issues of the teens in a few episodes, largely consisting of the adults versus teenagers battles. The adults are only shown through Red and Kitty Foreman and Bob and Midge Pinciotti for the most part while everyone else are background characters who show up only once or twice. The teen rebellion against the adults happens from episode one with Eric crashing the party his parents are hosting and then driving to an out of town concert. In "Streaking", we see a clip also of the principal going into a speech about the president's arrival, coming across as patriotic drivel, where in an attempt to discourage anything bad, the boys get an idea on it. In some episodes, like "The Keg", the adults do respond and come down on the teens, but even without it, we see the same themes of the teen movies: the teenage rebellion is never conquered. Red could punish everyone all he can, and so can everyone else, but in the end the teens' spirit is never broken and they will try again on another day. One thing to catch in Season One is while the teens are part of the "Me Generation", the adults are shown to be just as selfish and self centered as the kids. In "Sunday Bloody Sunday", Kitty and Red join them in the basement because they don't want deal with Grandma Foreman. The previous episode even had them pretending to not hear the phone ring when she calls. The set up is basically the hypocritical "do as I say, not as I do" stance of the adults. In fact, Kitty actually says it in "Eric Gets Suspended" where she lights a cigarette in full view of Eric and Donna. In Season Two's "Kelso's Serenade", Kitty brings Laurie and Red to visit Aunt Pearl, something no one in the family likes, including Aunt Pearl herself. In the end of the episode, Kitty only hopes people would see her when she goes to a retirement home.
    The other adults include Jackie's father, who shows up early for the town's republicans, and then disappears, and Hyde's mother, who is first heard as a foreshadow to Howard's Mom from The Big Bang Theory, later revealed to be something akin to Lunch lady Doris from The Simpsons, played by Katey Sagal (with plenty of jabs are the lack of hygiene awareness in the cooking), who also disappears. Unlike Mr. Burkhart, Mrs. Hyde abandons Hyde as does his father, leaving him alone.  Finally, there's Fez's foster parents, who only appear in "Drive In", yet are mentioned by Fez as being judgmental about him, from his music likes, his choice of friends, to his wearing of cologne. From this, parents are either present and tyrannical and hypocritical, or they are absent, never somewhere in between.
    The one adult in the show that the teens really could relate to, who had any staying power in the show, is Leo, a lovable, yet senile, hippie, played by Tommy Chong. The last first appears in Season Two. He comes in largely to hang with the kids and pass some words of wisdom, that hardly mean much, and they are okay with it (mocking the values dissonance where a man like Leo would have been seen as a creep by everyone if he were doing the same today).
    Though the tone of the show is liberal, a few things that seem conservative for the sake of comedy do show up. For one, the most stable family just happens to be the Formans, despite the members being totally opposite of each other. Kitty and Red are pretty much conservative, with Kitty embracing her role as a house wife while taking part time as a nurse when Red's hours are cut. This puts them at odds with their children who are liberal. In the meantime, Bob and Midge, plus Donna, embrace some of the liberal politics and it leads to their family becoming strained until it breaks up in Season Two. At first, Midge and Donna disagree on being a woman in the era of ERA, but things change over time. Of course, there is a slant in what one would call straw-man argument in the show where the one adult woman who supports feminism just happens to be a blonde bimbo, while the traditional housewife is the more down to earth sort, which really could be offensive to some (which explains why they made Donna the voice of feminism for the most part while Kitty becomes irrational in later seasons).
   The feminism is brought on the teens, also, shown through Jackie and Donna. Donna becomes a feminist, largely in her lack of femininity and her rebellion against gender roles, which makes Jackie out to be the traditional girl, and she happens to be a spoiled rich girl. The fourth episode brings in the issue of sexism in the accurately titled "Battle of the Sexist", which The List included in their article "Misogynistic 90s TV moments that'll make you cringe"[1]. Eric is shown to not be athletic in comparison to the tomboyish Donna. It gets illustrated how humiliated he feels by showing shots of him in a dress, while Donna is pressured by her mom to let Eric win. Tons of things come from this moment, one it shows some of the sexism of the times where it's considered mature if a woman put aside her principles and let men feel all big and great. As a man, I will say I never get an ego boost or anything when women try something like that. I'll go into this more in a later part.

    As to the show's content, it's very secular. Only two episodes in the first two seasons feature church going, with one of them focusing on religion, "Holy Crap." In the episode, Eric claims that having lost his virginity there was nothing to pray for, something I disagree with. Non-virgins can still be religious as virgins can, and plenty of men of the cloth previously lost it before they had their calling. For example is St. Augustine, who fathered a child out of wedlock before he was Bishop of Hippo, but he changed his ways over time, hence why he is canonized a saint. This is never brought up in the episode, since the Formans are depicted as protestant (the Pinciottis being Catholic isn't brought up until later), however it falls back on the familiar television trope: the mom being a regular church goer who pushes her family to go every Sunday, the dad taking church with indifference while focusing on sports (Red practically admits to losing his faith during a war, but only goes to set an example, and mostly asking for God to let his favorite team win, and making his children go to church anyway), and the children whining about how church going is bad. Since Laurie is portrayed as a slut, who hits on Pastor Dave later on, and Eric is in rebellion, the whole thing is treated with approval by the show, especially when they give out reasons to not go, and you can read them out in this link. Steven Hyde is shown to have no need for religion in this simple speech:

 While I respect the Judæo-Christian ethic, as well as the Eastern philosophies and, of course, the teachings of Muhammad, I find that organized religion has corrupted those beliefs to justify countless atrocities throughout history. Were I to attend church, I'd be a hypocrite.[2]. 

    When he gives the said speech, the audience cheers approval. Later on, he teaches Jackie the art of Zen, though there is never anything deep given other than maintaining calm when talking to others. During their circle time, Hyde even brings up a variant of "Could [God] make a rock so heavy that even He couldn't lift it?" (took me some effort to type that down.) I will say I always hate questions like that, as well as "how many angels could stand on a pin head?" They are stupid questions that, for all I know, are designed to shut someone up and ensnare them from their faith while they sort the question out. Besides, the variant used is very perverted. The same scene also has him quoting Nietzsche while claiming Time Magazine said so. Leo claims to have met God on a bus, who gave him a pretzel and told him the meaning of life, but since Leo is a senile, doped up hippy, it's treated as delusion. And, of course, Kitty has a dream where she and her family are damned because they didn't go to church together (which doesn't have Biblical basis) while the Pinciottis go into Heaven via a bribe to the angels (once again, no Biblical basis). Finally, in "Drive In", we meet Fez's foster parents, portrayed as religious people who believe they could hear a message from the Devil in rock music (a claim that was common at the time).

    I could go on with the way the show treats religion, especially Christianity, but it would make this blog too long. Will conclude that if you have a problem with the secular view of the world in this show, then this is not the show for you. In the next part, we'll get more into the themes and issues brought up in That 70s Show.

* see "Food For Thought: Republic vs Democracy."

1. Bell, Amanda June. "Misogynistic 90s TV moments that'll make you cringe." The List. https://www.thelist.com. 2018. (assessed online in 2018.)

2. "Holy Crap" (1999) retrieved imbd, 2018.

Going Twenty: Armageddon

    How do you do, 

    Before I get too deep, I'll tell y'all a story about the song and two weddings. I knew the groom from college, we were in Circle K together, and he once dated another woman who was into this movie. The said woman lost her father long ago, and has a mother and a stepfather, which explains the relations to it. Now, she and my friend broke up earlier in the decade and married another. The bride lost her mother also. I do not know how much she was into the movie, but I will say at the wedding, which I attended, they played the song "Don't Wanna Miss a Thing" at the reception. Even today, the bride still remembers her mom and she gave a moment of memory for her at the reception. In a connection, I would hear this song again in another wedding, which happened in May of 2017. This time, it was the groom who lost a parent (his father) and the song was played prior to the main part of the reception, but I did tell others I knew it was almost twenty years old (we heard "My Heart Will Go On" which was twenty years old). It does seem strange to think of the song connected to the loss of a parent, especially as it sounds more like a man singing about how he enjoys every moment with his lover, never wanting to miss it. Could it be that it was sung by Steve Tyler, whose daughter is in the movie? I don't know. What I do know is the song is connected the movie and thus is connected to the loss of a parent, which is where I get to the movie. 

   The film's plot is a large asteroid, similar to the one that may have killed the dinosaurs, is heading for earth and it's going to hit within eighteen days of sighting. With lack of time for a proper defense, it would seem everyone would prepare for the End of the World in any form possible. Not really. NASA creates a plan to send a team of oil drillers to drill holes into the rock, shove in explosives, and destroy the asteroid before it hits. Might be easy, but problems happen along the way that add more tension, several of the drillers turned astronauts are killed, and some equipment destroyed, and it almost seems that they are going to fail.
    There are a few things to mention. In the key point of the movie, the President of the United States, who has no name, gives a speech to the world, during which he says, "the Bible calls this day 'Armageddon', the end of all things." It's false, however. Armageddon comes from the the Israeli name Meggido, the place where in the Book of Revelations, after the sixth angel pours his vial upon the Euphrates river, the Devil's side gathers all humanity to wage war against God and His followers, after which the seventh vial is poured[1]. It's not really the end of all things, but a climatic battle fought in the named area that is followed by scenes great destruction, ending with the Devil imprisoned for a thousand years. Meddido has been a battlefield three times in history, two of which happened centuries before Jesus of Nazareth walked the earth, while the third happened one hundred years ago, this September. In each case, the defender did witness the end of his world (in the third's case, this was the end of the Ottoman Empire's rule over the Holy Land). This perhaps has something to do with the misconception.
   Not only that, the connection is lost when the President adds that Man has something dinosaurs lacked, the technology to prevent his demise. And they pull through, after losses of brave men and equipment, with earth allowed to live another day. Destroying an asteroid, or deflecting it, doesn't really count as "preventing Armageddon" in my opinion. If anything the characters have only removed one hazard to all life on earth, yet we have others to deal with. We still have to curb pollution in the world, come up with alternatives to fossil fuels and reduce the carbon footprint connected to global warming, find a way to feed what will one day be eight billion people on this planet, handle the rampant diseases that have broken out, and so on. All of these are threats to humanity that the human race hasn't been able to triumph over, and yet the movie us trying to stop a rock from hitting the planet. No doubt, we are trying to create something to deflect or destroy such rocks, but that technology is years away. In the meantime, we have astronomers around the globe watching the sky and they have told us of many threatening space objects zooming through. One or two of them have been predicted to come near us in ten years, though the chances of an impact have slackened with each new calculation made as the day gets nearer. Unlike in the movie, most of these lethal asteroids can be detected long before they can hit, unlike the actual Armageddon that will come to us "as a thief in the night."
   In the meantime, there is something that came from the movie where when the news of the asteroid is released, all of humanity is suddenly united and looking up. Only when word comes that there was critical failure in the mission does civilization begin to break down. Yet, when the good guys pull through, there is global rejoicing and one could only hope that sense of unity could last long, even knowing that it will not. 

   It does have an impressive cast. I mean, we get the new Batman kissing up to Arwen, much to John McLane's disapproval; the last leads a team of drillers consisting of Coach Bill Yoast, Lightning McQueen, John Coffey, and Mr. Pink, while NASA is headed by Sling Blade guy (he calls it a Kaiser blade, mmm hmm), with Lucius Malfoy supplying the world saving solution, and Dr. Falicier is that four star Air Force general to represent the government. Rounding things our are Eric Slates and Slippery Pete. (I bet you got a real kick out of reading this paragraph.) Here's something you might not know, the movie is directed by the same man who brought us Transformers (2000s, live action, not the animated ones from the 1980s) and J.J. Abrams, later director of the Star Trek movies and Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, was screenwriter.
   The Old Glory appears frequently in the movie, adding a sense of it becoming patriotic. It is an American film, after all, but we do see internationals involved. Truman mentions working with French, Russian, and Japanese space agencies, for one. Lev Andropov, the Russian cosmonaut on what is supposed to be the Mir is the token minority, to whom non-Americans can relate to. He certainly boasts of becoming a hero and actually does so by the end of the movie (though why he wasn't killed off is beyond me. I mean, his character is reduced to scenary after the asteroid is destroyed and we see nothing of him and his people brought up in the celebration).
    Early in the movie, we see a dog attack a Godzilla toy, an obvious shout out to Godzilla, which came out that year (making one think there was a competition between Michael Bay and Roland Emmerich) and had plenty of shout outs. I didn't mention this with Godzilla but the movies from 1990s sometimes had a Godzilla shout out of their own, that now seem silly today, usually with Japanese characters running from a monster and saying something like "This is why I left Japan." As a clever shout out to Emmerich's other movies, a black taxi driver claims that anything could happen in New York, thus foreshadowing the destruction (some of it is dated now, especially realism in wake of the 9/11 attacks). We also hear plenty of mentions to Star Wars in a few scenes ("Have you ever heard of Evil Keenvil?" "No, I never saw Star Wars.") The way Harry Stamper goes after AJ with a gun makes one think of some bad flick on mountain people while his oil drilling empire is basically Dallas for blue collared men. Rockhound even quotes Star Trek at one point. The list of references goes on.
     On theme that ties in the story is Stamper's relationship with his daughter and his men. In her, he is the father, while almost like a father to his men. The reason in the latter is he knows how to take care of them and prefers to work with his boys than with strangers. When each dies on the asteroid, he gets upset like any real father would over the loss of his children. His daughter, Grace, is raised as a tomboy, apparently, yet has a college education, possibly a masters in business, which elevates her above the roughnecks, yet she dates A.J. over some CEO sort, which Stamper really hates. It basically adds in a story like that of The Man From Stony River where a stubborn old man has a daughter seeing a younger protege who constantly tries to prove himself a man in the older man's eyes. Unlike in that one, A.J. doesn't seem to do so until he returns from being supposedly dead and having the bomb, but doesn't get to blow it up. Instead, Stamper tells A.J. to take care of his daughter and blows the rock up instead. At the same time, we see Chick Chappal, a divorced father like Stamper, who visits his estranged wife and son once to smooth things over. His wife tells the boy he is only a sells man out of shame, but when they find him on the mission, all hostility ends, and the boy greets his father as a hero in the end, which to me is one of the best subplots in the movie. Stamper even uses an emotional appeal to another father, Colonel Sharp, when asking for one night off before they leave earth, since Sharp would want to spend time with his little girls. In the end, Stamper even reconciles with his daughter via video chat before meeting his end. Considering how the movie reflects the challenges of being a father, I could have done this in June, but it wasn't planned out that way.

    The movie does have some flaws, not just scripture but also scientific. Of course, I don't have to give an example. Plenty have done that already. Still, it makes a good movie that is built on entertainment. Sometimes, realism is not necessary, since movies are to be entertaining and not realistic.


[1]. Revelations. 16:16.