The Antipodean

OK, I think we can officially call "That '70s Show" the "Happy Days" of our generation -- and we're about to entire the Ted McGinley/Chachi years. Yeesh. From EW:

''That '70s Show'' will live on, without Topher Grace -- He'll be gone next year, and Ashton Kutcher will appear only occasionally by Gary Susman

That '70s Show, which has lasted almost as long as the actual 1970s, will continue for another season, despite some major cast defections and the show's ratings slide this season. Variety reports that Fox is preparing to renew the series, even though star Topher Grace has said he's leaving at the end of this season when his contract is up. (''I never cry, like ever. Even at Finding Nemo,'' the 26-year-old actor told People while promoting his current film, In Good Company. ''But I'm going to just lose it'' when his final episode tapes, he told the magazine.) And Ashton Kutcher, who's had the most successful extracurricular career of all the cast members, is expected to return only part-time as he concentrates on his production company and his movie career.

Another sign of age for the sitcom, which launched in 1998: It's lost 35 percent of its audience in the past year, down to 6.5 million viewers a week, according to Nielsen. The show ranks 82nd in primetime this season, thanks largely to competition from a new rival in its timeslot, ABC's hit Lost. Still, keeping the show alive for another year adds to the already tall stack of episodes in syndication, where the show does well. So money from reruns will probably keep rolling in through the 2070s.

Red Dog

They really should end it, particularly if Topher Grace is leaving. It has dropped noticeably in quality. Plus you can now assume that he and Donna break up.

MrX

Yeah, this will turn out well.

Looks like Fox's dependence on reality shows and inability to create new comedies and allow them time to find an audience is coming back to bite them in the ass.

LorenzoL

They should end the show this season and give them a big send off. Instead they are going to let the show withered away next season. Pretty sad.

rfduncan

I thought I read long before this season started that Grace and Kutcher were done and the show was to end. They even had changed the license plate at the end of the opening credits to read '79. I thought it was cool they'd end it as the 70's end, but I guess that was too much to ask for. WEAK.

Gil Jawetz

On the bright side, now they can go for that smooth transition into the super-successful That 80's Show!

Groucho

Boo! This is one show that's been consistantly good through it's entire run (although this season is a little sloppy). End it on a high note.

LorenzoL

They already tried that and it sucked.

Roto

Ugh! If they were so desperate to keep it going, do a spinoff or something instead of continuing with a broken up cast. I'm actually a little surprised that the cast wants to keep going this way. They've been doing the show a long time and I've seen many of them in other things before and after the show started its run.

B.A.

Stupid, stupid Fox.

Gil Jawetz

I know. I was trying to make a joke about it.

Cusm

Fox has always been committed to great TV and has stood strongly behind every show it has aired; it is appalling that you could make such wild accusations.






Maybe they should think about bringing back Greg the Bunny, the Tick or Keen Eddie, or any other great show they completely ignored/missed.

Morf

No shit. After watching the Greg the Bunny DVD this past weekend, I find myself cursing Fox in my sleep for canceling that particular program. Damn youze, Fox!!

conscience

Basically,

Prepon, Masterson (after 70s show), Valderama, and Kunis's movie careers are non-existent (either complete bombs or movies that never saw the light outside of a small theatre in L.A.)

I already know the reason why they want to stay - they probably can't get anything else worth getting.

Although Kutcher is not a great actor, he is really popular and has all that MTV stuff going on. He has other things to do.

Grace is the best actor out of the show and is slowly getting credibility with his new movies (along with Traffic).

Deftones

Actually Prepon is starting to get some buzz in her acting in the movies and Kunis has the voice work from Family Guy to fall back on.

conscience

So Kunis is 100% doing the voice of Meg for the new shows of FG? If so, that made my day. (I read somewhere a few months ago that she might not be doing it.)


Which movie(s) is Prepon getting buzz for? I have heard nothing.

http://us.imdb.com/name/nm0696059

Has to be Deadly as The Chosen One is an animated movie.


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sherm42

Here we go again with Fox. They really like to run their shows into the ground until there is literally no one left watching them.

Examples: Melrose Place, Beverly Hills 90210, X-Files.

Especially the X-Files. They destroyed that show with that 9th Season.

Jackskeleton

Dependence on reality shows?

Sorry, you have 24 and arrested development to count as items fox will stand behind. This news really does suck for the shows future. It will not be the same and Topher's film career will boom. His work on "in good company" was pretty good and well beyond that last flick he did.

The show will not last a season after the gutting.

Draven

If Arrested Development gets renewed I'll be extremely surprised.

About this article...Topher pretty much makes the show for me (even though I like everyone in the cast.) So I'll probably keep watching but I won't enjoy it as much...which is a shame, because I think the show has been consistently awesome since the first season.

Goldberg74

Topher actually has a pretty good resume of films so far... (except for the WADWTH! stink-fest.)

• Ocean's Twelve (a bit part)
• Win a Date With Tad Hamilton
• Mona Lisa Smile
• Ocean's Eleven (a bit part)
• Traffic

Roto

Wilmer Valderrama had a pretty decent sized part in Party Monster. Plus he can always fall back on whomever his current girlfriend is. He's well on his way to sleeping to the top.

Kurtwood Smith (Red Foreman) seems to be constantly working
Debra Jo Rupp (Kitty) seems to get a lot of voice work.
Danny Masterson seems like the only one who hasn't done anything else in a few years. He must be turning into Hyde.

mikehunt

I haven't watched anything on Fox other than football in at least 2 years

Breakfast with Girls

Yeah, but more than likely they'll get him back for the final episode so they can get back together. He'll propose, she'll accept, yadda yadda yadda.

Matthew Chmiel

Wilmer Valderrama is my generation's Scott Baio. He's a terrible actor and not that good looking; but he gets the hottest women in Hollywood.

conscience

The whole point of my post:

I am talking about movies that are either popular, have good word of mouth from critics or from people online (like this forum), or something like that.

Party Monster is not one of those films.

Take case in point both Kutcher and Grace:

Kutcher - Putting himself out there and doing different things where people will notice him: Punk'd, that other MTV junk, Demi, his craptacular movies that teens love, etc.

Grace - Choosing decent movies to star in with established actors/directors to make a name for himself in movies. Of course he did Tad Hamilton, but 99% of actors have those missteps.


The other actors have not done this.

I'm not saying they have final say to give the show another season, but I am betting they are happy that they might have a job next year.