That ’90s Show, the Netflix revival of the popular Fox comedy That ’70s Show, hit streaming this week, finding new ways to bring back the popular characters that brought the 1970s-themed television show to life from 1998-2006. It is said that trends return every 30 years and today seems no different, with shows like In Living Color and The Fresh Prince now getting revisits. However, while the first iteration of That ’70s Show saw a resurgence of interest in 70s culture as America was launching into the early aughts, That ‘90s Show is a new series set in 1995 for the year 2023.

The revival is based on a real-time aging of the characters, with parents Red and Kitty in the original series (played by Kurtwood Smith and Debra Jo Rupp, respectively) now hosting their granddaughter Leia (Callie Haverda) in the same Point Place, Wisconsin home where their son Eric (Topher Grace), now Leia’s father, once hosted all of his friends in the 70s. According to EW, That 90s Show sets up a dynamic where many of the original cast of That ’70s Show can make regular or special appearances as their iconic characters, although some things have changed (Leia, for example, will enjoy a closer relationship with her grandfather than the comedic antagonism Red had with Eric in the original series). In addition, Eric and Donna (Laura Prepon), who dated in the original series and concluded the series finale with a heartfelt makeup of their broken relationship, now re-enter as parents who will make regular series appearances to visit their daughter Leia from the family home in Chicago.

MOVIEWEB VIDEO OF THE DAY

A Successfully Long Run With Memorable Return Characters

     Fox

Other iconic characters played by Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher, Laura Prepon, Don Stark, and Wilmer Valderrama will return to the series. While Donna’s dad, Bob (Don Stark), makes his appearance on a bad-karaoke-fueled visit to his granddaughter from Florida, Fez reappears as a cheeky salon chain owner who regularly dates a neighbor. Kelso (Ashton Kutcher) and Jackie (Mila Kunis) reemerge from their break-up in the original series as a couple beginning their “second remarriage,” whose son just so happens to be a romantic interest of Leia’s. Setting up another regular appearance dynamic in this relationship, Mila Kunis reportedly had plot qualms about her character breaking up with Fez and rejoining Kelso after the conclusion of the original series. While not necessarily credible, the “second remarriage” theme keeps up with a realistic absurdity classic to the series.

Also iconic to the Netflix revival is the hangout basement where Eric used to gather with his posse, and Leia now returns to with her new friends in the 1990s. That ’70s Show was in part made popular by its creative 360-degree shots that took place in this setting, which allowed the innovative show to explore subversive comedy themes involving recreational drugs, all while evading network censorship. True to the nostalgia of That ’70s Show, this 360 camera work recalled the journalistic, cinema vérité style of 70s video art collectives like Ant Farm and the Videofreex, who used new home availability of the portapak to explore intersections between rebellious self-documentary and creative filmmaking. In fact, an early 1970s Ant Farm film featured scenes in which a camera, mounted to a ’lazy susan’ on a kitchen table, would rotate to capture scenes of members engaged in (suggestively drug-induced) “revelations…jokes, or..empty stares”.

Building on a successful long run with memorable return characters, That ’90s Show continues the tradition of the 360 shot to explore subversive comedy on network television, proving that the franchise has made the filming technique requiring difficult-to-make ‘long takes’ for great comedy its own iconic thing.

Danny Masterson will not make an appearance in the series.