{"id":143105,"date":"2022-11-29T17:43:05","date_gmt":"2022-11-29T17:43:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/that-90s-show-sets-netflix-premiere-date-producers-discuss-sequel\/"},"modified":"2022-11-29T17:43:05","modified_gmt":"2022-11-29T17:43:05","slug":"that-90s-show-sets-netflix-premiere-date-producers-discuss-sequel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/that-90s-show-sets-netflix-premiere-date-producers-discuss-sequel\/","title":{"rendered":"‘That 90s Show’ Sets Netflix Premiere Date, Producers Discuss Sequel"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\tWhen Netflix first reached out to \u201cThat ’70s Show\u201d creators Bonnie and Terry Turner about rebooting the show and setting it in the 1990s, their answer was swift: No.<\/p>\n

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\t\u201cAnd then we thought about it some more,\u201d says Terry Turner. \u201cAnd we said ‘no’ again.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tBut the notion had been unlocked. This was during the COVID-19 quarantines, and the Turners had plenty of time stuck indoors to think about it. Meanwhile, Carsey-Werner’s Tom Werner, who successfully brought back \u201cRoseanne\u201d (with one hiccup, of course, leading it to evolve into \u201cThe Conners\u201d), was also in contact and asked the Turners about it as well.<\/p>\n

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\tThe Turners thought about it some more, and started considering it \u2014 but only if they came up with an idea that worked. \u201cOur first pass what that Eric [Topher Grace] had at some point gone to a rock festival and hooked up with someone, leading to an unknown grandchild,\u201d Terry Turner says. \u201cAnd at the doorway shows up a 14- or 15-year-old kid who says he’s Red [Kurtwood Smith] and Kitty’s [Debra Jo Rupp] grandkid.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tNetflix told them to try it again, as \u201caudiences just don’t warm up\u201d to a surprise love child. The Turners then approached Gregg Mettler \u2014 who wrote for them on \u201c’70s Show\u201d and \u201c3rd<\/sup> Rock from the Sun\u201d \u2014 about taking the reins as showrunner. Together, Mettler and the Turners (including their daughter, Lindsey) cracked a concept.<\/p>\n

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\t\u201cWe agreed amongst ourselves, we weren’t going to do it unless we could find a reason,\u201d Lindsey Turner says. \u201cAnd the thing that Greg said that I really loved, and I know mom and dad did too was, the ’90s was the last time that people were looking up, they weren’t looking down at their phones. It was that last place of a real kind of engagement, having to make your own fun and really connecting with each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tThe fruits of their 10-episode, live-action \u201cThat ’90s Show,\u201d starring Smith, Rupp, and a young troupe of newcomers, premieres Jan. 19 on the streamer. Variety has a first look at the teaser trailer and cast photos; scroll down for more.<\/p>\n

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\t\u201cI wanted to have the same feeling as ‘That 70s Show did,\u201d Mettler says. \u201cThe show had a very special tone. It was playful, it had a heart, it was sarcastic, it was filled with love within this family, within the friend group. I missed being in the basement with those kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tIn \u201cThat ’90s Show,\u201d Eric and Donna (Laura Prepon) are married and have a 15-year-old daughter, Leia. (\u201cEric would have totally named his daughter Leia,\u201d Mettler says of the \u201cStar Wars\u201d-inspired name. \u201cThat whole notion made me smile so much that I knew I had something to build on.\u201d) One summer, Leia winds up visiting her grandparents, Red and Kitty, who are still living in the Forman family home in Point Place, Wisconsin.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\u201cThat ’90s Show.\u201d (L to R) Sam Morelos as Nikki, Mace Coronel as Jay, Ashley Aufderheide as Gwen Runck, Callie Haverda as Leia Forman, Maxwell Acee Donovan as Nate, Reyn Doi as Ozzie. (Patrick Wymore\/Netflix)<\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPATRICK WYMORE\/NETFLIX<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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\tLeia (Callie Haverda) soon meets next door neighbor Gwen (Ashley Aufderheide) \u2014 named after 90s icon Gwen Stefani, natch \u2014 and falls in with Gwen’s crew, including Gwen’s brother Nate (Maxwell Acee Donovan), his girlfriend Nikki (Sam Morelos) and their pals Ozzie (Reyn Doi) and Jay (Mace Coronel).<\/p>\n

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\tEvery season will take place only during the summer, as Leia makes trips to see her grandparents while school is out. The producers say they like the idea of \u200b\u200ba fresh slate each season for these teenagers. \u201cThey physically change, they emotionally change, their lives have changed, their goals have changed,\u201d Bonnie Turner says. \u201cIt was just a great story fodder.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tAdds Terry Turner: \u201cSetting it only during the summer gets the whole school and having-to-go-to-class thing out of the way, which we discovered on the original show, that wasn’t where it was interesting. It was more interesting in the basement\u2026 also, people change where they go away. They come back nine months later and when they’re teenagers, sometimes there’s a radical change, sometimes not. But sometimes people have decided to go a completely different path.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tOriginal \u201c70s Show\u201d cast members Grace, Prepon (who directed several episodes of \u201cThat ’90s Show\u201d), Wilmer Valderrama, Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis all make guest appearances. (Not back is Danny Masterson, currently on trial and charged with three counts of rape.) But the real continuity with the original is Smith and Rupp, who are also executive producers this time out.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\tDebra Jo Rupp as Kitty Forman, Kurtwood Smith as Red Forman . (Patrick Wymore\/Netflix)<\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPATRICK WYMORE\/NETFLIX<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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\t\u201cThey didn’t need convincing for a second,\u201d Bonnie Turner says. \u201cThey both said separately. If you’re there, we’re there. They read the scripts and were very valuable in talking to us about how Red and Kitty have aged and maybe they’re like this.\u201d Says Lindsey Turner: \u201cWhat was really key early on, was talking to Debra Jo and Kurtwood about who Red and Kitty became in the quiet, after the kids left. And how do the kids coming back change that. How has it reawakened pieces of them? How have they changed, how are they the same? Part of the reason that we knew we were doing good, was those conversations were funny, and nuanced and interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tMettler, who wrote the \u201cThat ’70s Show\u201d finale (also its 200th<\/sup> episode) in 2006, says he luckily hadn’t painted himself into a continuity corner with how the original show ended. But he didn’t go back and watch old episodes.<\/p>\n

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\t\u201cI didn’t want to just write that show again,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd as far as the details of the characters, Wikipedia is a great thing to just refresh your memory. I didn’t want to get too heavily bogged down in it, honestly, because I just wanted to write more from the heart and the feeling of the piece. For the sake of the new series, the most important piece of it was where are Eric and Donna now, and where is their daughter. Outside of that, Red and Kitty are this classic couple that just never goes out of style.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tAs for the look and feel of the sequel, original \u201cThat ’70s Show\u201d staffers that have returned include costume designer Melina Root, hair department head Gabriella Pollino, and others.<\/p>\n

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\t\u201cThat was one of the most amazing parts of this experience,\u201d Mettler says. We had a lot of people returning that had DNA with the old show. When they put those sets up, which were exact replicas of the sets from ‘That ’70s Show,’ I believe they used the old plans. When they started loading in the little details like the tchotchkes on Kitty’s shelves and the stuff in the kitchen, that is when I started to get chills. When do you get this chance ever in life, to go back home again like this?\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tAdds Bonnie Turner: \u201cI’ll never forget walking on the soundstage the first time and seeing the set again. I had all kinds of feelings. I was weeping.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\u201cThat ’90s Show.\u201d (L to R) Mace Coronel as Jay, Callie Haverda as Leia Forman, Ashley Aufderheide as Gwen Runck, Reyn Doi as Ozzie, Maxwell Acee Donovan as Nate, Sam Morelos as Nikki. (Patrick Wymore\/Netflix)<\/span>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPATRICK WYMORE\/NETFLIX<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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\tAnd then there’s the new theme song. Mettler says the pressure was high to come up with something as iconic as \u201cThat ’70s Show\u201d theme, \u201cIn the Street.\u201d The original was adapted by Todd Griffin and Ben Vaughn from the original song by Big Star. Cheap Trick recorded it as \u201cThat ’70s Song,\u201d which became the version used from Season 2 on.<\/p>\n

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\tThis time, Mettler said he batted around a lot of ideas and listened to a lot of ’90s-era Spotify playlists, trying to find the right song. Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha, who served as the composer on \u201cThat ’90s Show,\u201d also weighed in.<\/p>\n

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\tFinally, Mettler himself arranged a version of \u201cIn the Street\u201d but with a 1990s sound, and recorded a demo (with his daughter on vocals). Iha took that track, recorded it with Brett Anderson \u2013 the former lead singer for The Donnas \u2013 and it became the new theme for \u201cThat ’90s Show.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\u201cI love all the music from the 90s, all the genres, and we try our best to weave them all into the show,\u201d Mettler says. \u201cAnd so, there’s something for everybody inside the show.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tBesides Mettler, the Turners, Smith and Rupp, executive producers also include Marcy Carsey and Tom Wermer \u2013 under their original The Carsey-Werner Co. banner. Jessica Goldstein and Chrissy Pietrosh are also EPs.<\/p>\n

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\tAs for what’s next, would the Turners also mull a \u201c3rd<\/sup> Rock” revival? \u201cActually, we were in London at the same time that John Lithgow was there doing ‘The Crown,’\u201d Terry Turner says. \u201cWe were sitting with John, and I thought, there’s no reason why the aliens can’t come back to London.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tSays Bonnie Turner: \u201cIt may be, it may not be. It’s the same way that if somebody had asked, three or four years ago, ‘Are you going to reboot the 70s show?’ We would have said no way. But it turned out well. If the story is there, then it’s there. But you’ve got to be really careful about this stuff.\u201d Chimes in Terry Turner: \u201cBecause otherwise you’ve made a deal with your own personal devil!\u201d<\/p>\n

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\tHere’s a first look at \u201cThat ’90s Show\u201d:<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n