70s Show Analysis

What is That 70’s Show? Erik Adams explains it to be, “... a sitcom set in malaise years whose true purpose was never lampooning disco cheese or outdated technology—though it did that, too. That ’ '70s Show is about the smaller stuff, the truly memorable moments of adolescence unseen in the history books” (Adams). What Adams means by this is that this show, while set in a very distinct time period, put a larger emphasis on what the adolescent characters were going through and how they lived in the '70s instead of focusing on the wars, changes in presidency, and overall strife that are the main ideas historical textbooks let us see. Since comedy, like history, starts from a root form from the past and then builds up to fit the trends of a

Firstly, commedia dell’arte is a “form of comic theatre, originating in Italy in the sixteenth century, in which dialogue was improvised around a loose scenario involving a set of stock characters, each with a distinctive costume and traditional name” (Wilson and Goldfarb 510). The stock characters associated with commedia dell’arte are Commedia were Pantalone (a lecherous, miserly old Venetian), Dottore (a foolish pedant who was always involved in his neighbors’ affairs), Capitano (a cowardly, braggart soldier), zanni (servants who were also shy and foolish sometimes), and Arlecchino/Harlequin (the most popular of the comic servants) ( Wilson and Goldfarb 136-137). Brighella, Scopamuccia, and Pulcinella were servants as well but, they were sometimes given other roles instead (Wilson and Goldfarb 137). Those were just a few on the main characters that may be seen in commedia but the characters in That ‘70s Show may suit the lesser known ones

Fez, as an imaginary person, holds at least one trait from each of the guys. He has Eric’s nerdiness (found in the collection of GI Joe action figures), Hyde’s sarcasm (seen practically every time he speaks to Kelso), and Kelso’s obliviousness (found when he has a wide grin on his face when he doesn’t understand what is going on but still wants to look cool). When it comes to Jackie, Fez is the only one of the four male characters that worships her the way that she would want to be. Like William O’Connor said, “Jackie’s motivation [to imagine Fez] is hidden in her surname. The name Burkhart is very close to the words “broke heart.” The other men in her life [being Kelso and Hyde] either abandoned her, cheated on her, or were incapable of committing to her. It is easy enough to imagine Jackie decades later, broken hearted and alone. Why wouldn’t she pine for the admirer who was never really there? Fez is her attempt to turn a tragedy into a fairy tale, but even she knows that her wish can never come true. This is why she can never give him a real identity. He’s naught but a shadow of what should have been” (O’Connor). O’Connor is saying that since Jackie did not get to experience what true love was and what it would be like to be whisked away by prince charming, she created Fez in her subconscious to help her cope with loneliness. Fez’s “creation” is just a mechanism that they created to make themselves feel better about the things they don’t like about themselves. Maybe he