It was painful to watch. I couldnt bear to make myself watch the whole thing, I turned it off at about the 1/2 way point and played Medal of Honor. God, that was awful.
I hope Fox learns some lessons from the mistake that is That 80's Show. Speaking of Freaks and Geeks - Whats the status on Undeclared, is it renewed for next season or canned?
Out of protest, I stopped watching the show starting with the re-runs, as it was a dumb move in the first place to scuttle a perfectly good show and cast, and "right in the middle", so to speak.
In the promos, it appears that plotting is sacrificed for sight gags and alot of shorthand, get the chase character construction...no substance here, just alot of artifice.
Dear God, I think this show set a record for 1) most inappropriate use of a laugh track and 2) incessant use of said laugh track. I thought my ears were gonna start (ha, ha) bleeding (ha, ha) at (ha, ha) any (ha, ha) minute!
This show sucks hard! The only character who was the least bit interesting was the record shop owner, and she was a complete rip-off of Tommy Chong's character on That 70's Show.
Wow... I can't believe we watched the same show. I liked it!
Some funny jokes, a nice fairly unknown cast (except Brittany Daniels, she was on "That 70's Show" the night before too) and decent writing. All in all, not bad for a first episode.
I'll be tuning in next week for sure.
Oh, and according to an article in EW, the producers didn't want to call it "That 80's Show" out of fear that people would make assumptions like MikeAW did above, but apparently Fox (or whoever it was, don't remember) insisted.
I think the show has potential, but it did have a weak start. There were too many site gags and not enough character development.
Based on the references in the show, I would put it at no earlier than 1984. I wondered because that punk girl was a little late in the 80's to be doing that. To my surprise, they actually wrote that in, the guy making the Bay City Roller comment.
Otherwise, the show is full of typical stereotypes.
The mid-life crisis divorced father, the best friend with the Alex Keaton Reaganomics ideology, the girlfriend, who humiliates him by not only dumping him, but falls in love with his sister, the record shop owner, who I think is more like someone out of High Fidelity, and the punk girl, who becomes the antagonist/sexual tension plot for the show.
What's amusing is, I don't even remember the guys name in this show.
Many people have thought to just move That 70's into That 80's with the same cast and I think that would not have worked. That 70's started in 1976 and established the mindset of the characters. The same had to be done with That 80's, it couldn't start in 1980, people didn't just switch to another style in the 80s. Plus, the venue had to change. I doubt Point Place Wisconsin woould be the ideal 80's stereotype life. The venue had to be changed to a place like California, where the trends (better or worse) were happening.
The ratings showed what's called a "solid debut" in the 18-49 age group demographics, for the opening show...guess it was mostly the curiousity factor in play...proof is what happens the succeeding weeks.
Here's the link... Link Removed
Here are more links for the show itself... Link Removed
Just watched the tape, yowza, it's pretty lame. I was only checking it out 'cause I love Margaret Smith. In the future, I'll just fast forward to her scenes.