A biased review of That '70s Show

I was drawn to That '70s Show when it first aired back in 1998, because I grew up in the 70s. At least, I did for the first three years of my life. So really, I guess that was a lie, but so are most of the things I write about myself, so that's neither here nor there. Anyway, the show's final season (sans Ashton Kutcher and Topher Grace) will begin airing in November, so I'm using this respite from the adventures of the residents of Point Place, Wisconsin to say that I'll miss That '70s Show, but only a little. While the show was far from the worse thing on TV, it was clearly a show that should have been better than it was. The cast, after a rocky first  season, soon jelled into a tight unit, and the writing was typically clever and first rate. However, the show relied far too much on sitcom formulas, especially when it came to the relationship between Eric and Donna. Too often I saw episodes where Donna would become miffed at some trivial thing Eric had done, blowing it out of proportion while Eric (playing the typical bumbling sitcom male to Donna's beleaguered but understanding female) tried to set things right. That kind of approach to a show is "Sitcom 101" at best, and had the show been meant as a spoof (or even homage) of 70s sitcoms, it might have worked. I will give the show credit for one thing, though. Patriarch Red Forman, as played by Kurtwood Smith, was probably the most realistic father figure on television since Kevin Arnold's dad on The Wonder Years.