Anyone who knew me from junior high to high school knows that I was obsessed with the sitcom That ‘70s Show and would watch it religiously every Friday night on The CW. I loved the characters. I wanted to dress like them, be like them, and have friends like them. I thought it was funny and relatable and, even though I’m not in high school anymore, I still think it is. I’ve found that amidst the jokes and entertaining scenes, there’s a significant amount of meaningful messages about relationships and growing up. Here are the top 3 lessons I learned from That ‘70s Show.
1. True friends will be there for you when it counts the most.
They might make fun of you, purposely get you into trouble with your parents just for laughs, or set you up for embarrassment, but you know that it all comes from a place of love, and that they’ll always be there for you when you really need them. In That ‘70s Show, Fez is teased all the time for his accent, quirky antics, and addiction to candy, but despite all the teasing, his friends make it clear that they truly care about him. When Fez’s girlfriend Caroline becomes manipulative and aggressive, Donna steps in to orchestrate a questionable but funny plan to get him out of the relationship where she basically pretends to be Fez’s girlfriend. Even though she is dating Eric, and has to deal with Caroline threatening her, Donna decides to make the sacrifice for the sake of her good friend Fez.
2. Sometimes blood isn’t thicker than water.
The proverb “blood is thicker than water” means relationships and loyalties within a family are more important than friends. While this is true in a lot of cases, it certainly isn’t for Hyde, whose friends become his family after both his stepfather Bud and later his mother Edna abandon him. When Eric realizes that Hyde’s mom has run off with a trucker and that he’s alone in a rented house eating ketchup on crackers for dinner, Eric takes action to persuade his parents to do something about his best friend’s living conditions. Hyde is invited to live with the Formans, and Mr. and Mrs. Forman treat him like a son, at times hilariously better than they treat Eric. Hyde eventually finds a job working at the Foto Hut and his burned-out hippie boss Leo takes him under his wing as well. Then when Kelso wants to buy Leo’s El Camino car, Leo decides to gift it to Hyde instead, explaining “I’m not selling it. I’m giving it to him, man. He’s family. He’s like the son I never had.”
3. You can’t run from your problems.
Making bad decisions is part of growing up and it’s totally okay. All of the characters in That ‘70s Show cause a lot of trouble, together and individually, but in the case of any mishap they show it’s important to accept the fact that they screwed up, learn from that bad decision, and move forward. Kelso is the most immature, happy-go-lucky member of their friend group. He’s constantly coming up with “burns” and getting into trouble, and Red, Eric’s dad, is always calling him out for being a “dumbass.” During his sophomore year of high school, Kelso is presented with the chance to sleep with Brooke, the hottest senior at Point Place High School. They end up hooking up in a bathroom at a Molly Hatchet concert, and Kelso can’t stop bragging about it—until he finds out he got Brooke pregnant. Instead of running away from the problem, unexpectedly, Kelso takes responsibility for the child. He then whips into shape by moving to Chicago to take a job to support and be near Brooke and her family and his soon-to-be-born daughter.
What I appreciate about That ‘70s Show is that while it’s a very classic type of sitcom, every episode is more than just a superficial plot motivated by punchlines. Even though the show is set in the 1970s in a small town in Wisconsin and presents a specific perspective on the experience of the American teenager, it’s still timelessly relatable, and I think that’s why it has remained popular more than 10 years after it was taken off the air. Although I’m no longer a high schooler like Eric, Donna, Fez, Jackie, Hyde and Kelso, I still enjoy watching it from time to time because it’s funny, entertaining, and real without trying too hard.
Images courtesy of that70sshowofficial.tumblr.com
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