How That ’70s Show can (and should) get in on the rash of reboots

I cannot bring myself to watch any more reruns of That ’70s Show. Former core cast member Danny Masterson has pulled an irreversible cloud of unpleasantness over his character’s legacy.

That was bad enough for Netflix to cut him from his more recent endeavor, The Ranch. And it is bad enough to sully Steven Hyde. But it is also not enough to pull the plug on The Ranch altogether. In turn, it need not kill all dreams of a That ’70s Show revival.

Shortly before Netflix dropped Masterson this past fall, fellow ’70s actor Wilmer Valderamma (aka Fez) met with Steve Harvey, and the subject of a potential reboot inevitably arose. Valderamma’s assessment in that interview: “There’s nothing official…I feel like the show is still so fresh in syndication. I feel like it might be premature for us to have that conversation.”

Maybe not as premature as he thinks. A full year after the allegations started erupting, Masterson’s constant presence as Hyde still taints the syndicated airings.

And in its own way, this is why a reboot is all the more desirable. If and when they are ready, the cast and crew of That ’70s Show can reconvene without the tarnished ingredients.

Another cast alumnus, Ashton Kutcher, is living proof that a popular program can press on even after rightly removing a key cog. For the last four of its 12 seasons, Two and a Half Men had Kutcher fill Charlie Sheen’s gaping gap. It even dropped the gloves and pulled no punches on Kutcher’s disgraced, dismissed predecessor in the series finale.

Masterson’s fireable offenses, while still alleged as of this writing, are worse than what precipitated the Sheen fallout. But all the same, for the sake of the other ’70s actors, a life-after-Hyde project is a must. They deserve a chance to draw their fans back to the screen without any nagging moral misgivings.

Even without the Masterson mess, there would still be an argument for catching up with the people of Point Place. An unmistakable manifestation of nearly insatiable ’90s nostalgia has spearheaded the rampant rebooting across the TV industry.

There is no other explanation for the likes of Fuller House, Twin Peaks: The Return or the upcoming Roseanne revival. Virtually every rebooted or belatedly continued series began, peaked or had the majority of its run in the ’90s.

As it happens, another recent revival, Will & Grace, originally coincided with ’70s. Both premiered in 1998 and continued through 2006. Now the former is in its first season back on NBC after an 11-year hiatus.

It would be most gratifying if That ’70s Show could do the same, for it has one unique capacity its former contemporaries lack. Whereas the other reboots bring beloved ’90s characters to our present day, a return to Point Place at this time would virtually amount to a return to the ’90s.

As of May 18, it will have been 12 years since Fox viewers watched the Point Place gang ring in 1980. Granted, only four years elapsed in their universe over the program’s eight-season run, which would ostensibly make 1986 their current year if they came back this fall.

But odds are that rule is not written in stone. There is no reason why the one-time teen actors of That ’70s Show could not credibly portray circa-1992 versions of their characters now.

Heck, 20 years ago, Mila Kunis was a 14-year-old circumventing the age limit so she could be cast as Jackie Burkhart. Now she has co-starred in two movies where her character is the mother of two grade-school children.

For that matter, Kutcher’s (Kunis’ real-life husband, with whom she has parented two children) character, Michael Kelso, was already a father when ’70s ended. As such, by the mid-’90s, Betsy Kelso is in the same age group as her father was when ’70s premiered.

Depending on how much or how little has changed, she has likely been raised in Chicago, where Kelso relocated late in the series. Nonetheless, his return to Point Place, along with Eric Forman (Topher Grace), for the finale reaffirmed the gang’s status as a virtual family.

Assuming Eric and Donna (Laura Prepon) fulfilled their destiny, it would not be a stretch for their kids to consider themselves Betsy’s cousins. It is also worth asking if fatherhood will harden Eric into something resembling Red (Kurtwood Smith).

Or perhaps grandfatherhood has softened the one-time ardent tail-kicker and simultaneously encouraged Eric to adopt a more mollified parenting style. Maybe the mere era holds sway on that change as well.

And who wouldn’t be curious to see whether Jackie and Fez’s relationship had lasting legs?

Realistically, these questions will not be addressed in another week-to-week saga. The careers of Grace, Kunis, Kutcher, Prepon and Valderamma would all have to align for availability again and again.

But in his aforementioned chat with Harvey, Valderamma was on to something more plausible and equally enticing. “I would definitely say I wouldn’t keep That ’70s Movie out of the conversation,” he said. “Everyone seems pretty busy right now…and I feel like this would be an interesting Segway to do something where all of us would compromise and come together and play those characters again.”

That ’70s Show tickled latter-stage baby boomers and early-wave Generation Xers with many allusions to the decade’s culture. If it gets a ’90s addendum, the millennial drool for a lighthearted journey down Memory Lane could fill a bathtub.

That too would not be an unprecedented move. Some ’90s kids who may have later followed ’70s in its original run grew up on Nicktoons. Now they are being lured back for childhood reunions with multiple Nicktoon-based TV movies. There has even been buzz over plans for a massive crossover in a single film.

To that point, it would be just as satisfying if the powers that be could time at least one full-length film. Besides putting the Point Placers (or at least the ones played by still-desirable personalities) in another era raring for retroactive self-deprecation, it could also make room for a cornucopia of ’90s nostalgia cameos and cultural references.

That ’70s Show tickled latter-stage baby boomers and early-wave Generation Xers with allusions to everything from Grease to Charlie’s Angels to Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. It also employed a who’s who of guest stars who had their heyday in the depicted era. Of particular note, Tommy Chong and Tonya Roberts were recurring regulars for multiple stretches.

If the saga gets an addendum, the millennial drool for a lighthearted journey down Memory Lane could fill a bathtub. To a lesser extent, more mature audiences would surely appreciate a smattering of homages to the programs that comprised NBC’s Must See TV and its contemporaneous competitors.

That could come in the form of That ’90s Movie, set in the middle of the decade. Or it could come via That Millennium Movie, set in the lead-up to Y2K.

Or better yet, it could be a succession of both, deliberately spaced out by a handful of years.

And if it must begin on a bittersweet note with Hyde’s funeral, or at least an upfront acknowledgement of his loss, so be it.