That ’70s Show is back 15 years after its finale with a Netflix revival….That ’90s Show.
When Netflix first came asking creators Bonnie and Terry Turner to reboot the show and set it in the 90s, their answer was simply no.
“And then we thought about it some more,” said Terry. “And we said ‘no’ again.”
But the pair thought about it all throughout the pandemic, and finally started considering it – but only if they came up with an idea that worked. “Our first pass what that Eric [Topher Grace] had at some gone to a rock festival and hooked up with someone, leading to an unknown grandchild,” Terry said. “And at the doorway shows up with a 14- or 15-year-old kid who says he’s Red [Kurtwood Smith] and Kitty’s [Debra Jo Rupp] grandkid.”
Netflix advised them to try again, since “audiences just don’t warm up” to a surprise love child. The Turners reached out to Gregg Mettler, who wrote for them on That ’70s Show, to take on the role as showrunner. Together they figured out the plot.
“We agreed amongst ourselves, we weren’t going to do it unless we could find a reason,” Lindsey Turner said. “And the thing that Greg said that I really loved, and I know mom and dad did too was, the ’90s was the last time that people were looking up, they weren’t looking down at their phones. It was that last place of a real kind of engagement, having to make your own fun and really connecting with each other.”
“I wanted to have the same feeling as That ’70s Show did,” Mettler says. “The show had a very special tone. It was playful, it had a heart, it was sarcastic, it was filled with love within this family, within the friend group. I missed being in the basement with those kids.”
In That ’90s Show, Eric and Donna (Laura Prepon) are married and have a 15-year-old daughter, Leia. “Eric would have totally named his daughter Leia,” Mettler says of the Star Wars-inspired name. “That whole notion made me smile so much that I knew I had something to build on.”
Per the official logline: “It’s 1995 and Leia Forman (Callie Haverda) is desperate for some adventure in her life or at least a best friend who isn’t her dad. When she arrives in Point Place to visit her grandparents, Red (Smith) and Kitty (Rupp), Leia finds what she’s looking for right next door when she meets the dynamic and rebellious Gwen (Ashley Aufderheide). With the help of Gwen’s friends, including her lovable brother Nate (Maxwell Donovan), his smart, laser-focused girlfriend Nikki (Sam Morelos), the sarcastic and insightful Ozzie (Reyn Doi), and the charming Jay (Mace Coronel), Leia realizes adventure could happen there just like it did for her parents all those years ago. Excited to reinvent herself, she convinces her parents to let her stay for the summer. With a basement full of teens again, Kitty is happy for the Forman house is now a home for a new generation and Red is, well… Red.”
Each season will only take place during the summer, as Leia takes trips to see her grandparents when school is out. The producers say they like the idea of a fresh slate for the characters each season.
“They physically change, they emotionally change, their lives have changed, their goals have changed,” Bonnie Turner said. “It just was great story fodder.”
Terry added, “Setting it only during the summer gets the whole school and having-to-go-to class thing out of the way, which we discovered on the original show, that wasn’t where it was interesting. It was more interesting in the basement… also, people change where they go away. They come back nine months later and when they’re teenagers, sometimes there’s a radical change, sometimes not. But sometimes people have decided to go a completely different path.”
Original That ’70s Show cast members Topher Grace, Laura Prepon, Wilmer Valderrama, Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis will all make guest appearances. (Not back is Danny Masterson.) The real consistent stars from the original are Smith and Rupp, who will also be executive producers this time.
“They didn’t need convincing for a second,” Bonnie said. “They both said separately. If you’re there, we’re there. They read the scripts and were very valuable in talking to us about how Red and Kitty have aged and maybe they’re like this.”
“What was really key early on, was talking to Debra Jo and Kurtwood about who Red and Kitty became in the quiet, after the kids left. And how do the kids coming back change that. How has it reawakened pieces of them? How have they changed, how are they the same? Part of the reason that we knew we were doing good, was those conversations were funny, and nuanced and interesting,” says Lindsey Turner.
The series clearly aims to stick very close to the vibe of the 1998 comedy, as the original staffers will return to include costume designer Melina Root, hair department head Gabriella Pollino, and more.
“That was one of the most amazing parts of this experience,” Mettler said. “We had a lot of people reutrning that had DNA with the old show. When they put those sets up, which were exact replicas of the sets from That ’70s Show, I believe they used the old plans. When they started loading in the little details like the tchotchkes on Kitty’s shelves and the stuff in the kitchen, that is when I started to get chills. When do you get this chance ever in life to go back home again like this?”
There is a new theme song. Mettler recalls the pressure being high to come up with something as iconic as the That ’70s Show theme song, “In the Street.” For this new theme song, Mettler said he listed to a lot of ’90s-era Spotify playlists, attempting to find the right song. Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha helped out. Finally, Mettler arranged a new version of “In the Street” but with a ’90s sound, and recorded a demo with his daughter on vocals. Iha took the track, recorded it with former lead singer for The Donnas, Brett Anderson, and put together the new theme for That ’90s Show.
The new series is actually the third in the franchise, as there was a short-lived 2002 sequel called That ’80s Show.
Here’s the first look at That ’90s Show:
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