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“That ’70s Show” premiered on Fox in August 1998 and ended in May 2006 after eight seasons.
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The sitcom focused on a group of teenagers living in Point Place, Wisconsin in the 1970s.
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Here’s how old the stars were at the time of the series premiere, compared to their characters.
Topher Grace starred as Eric Forman, a teenager from Point Place, Wisconsin.
Eric, the leader of his group of friends, turned 17 in season one, episode two (“Eric’s Birthday”).
Grace was 20 years old when the sitcom premiered.
“That ’70s Show” was the first project Grace ever auditioned for. He was 19 at the time and dropped out of USC to star in the sitcom.
Laura Prepon played Donna Pinciotti, Eric’s childhood friend who was a month older than him.
Donna lived next door.
Prepon was 18 at the start of season one.
Like Grace, “That ’70s Show” was Prepon’s breakthrough project.
Mila Kunis played Jackie Burkhart, a rich and bossy girl who was younger than the rest of the gang.
She only became part of Eric’s group through her relationship with Kelso.
Kunis, then 15, famously lied about her age during the audition process.
Kunis was 14 when she auditioned for “That ’70s Show”, but lied by omission and said she was going to be 18 without specifying when. The actor was caught when it came time to sign the official papers for the show.
“In my contract I had to put an asterisk for ‘studio teacher,'” Kunis told Vanity Fair in 2022. “They said, ‘What do you mean?’ And I thought, ‘Oh PS, I’m 14.'”
Kunis said the show’s creators Bonnie and Terry Turner were nice about it, saying “We loved you at the time, so what did we care?”
“It was in the heyday when older kids played younger kids and I was actually the age of the character,” she added. “I wasn’t intimidated. I had a solid ego.”
Ashton Kutcher played another teenager named Michael Kelso, better known as Kelso.
He was not the wisest person in his group of friends.
Kutcher was twenty, only a few years older than his character.
He met his now-wife Kunis through their roles on the show. They have been married since 2015 and have two children, a daughter named Wyatt and a son named Dimitri.
Danny Masterson played Steven Hyde, known as Hyde, the group’s rebel.
Hyde was Eric’s best friend who talked constantly about his contempt for the government.
At 22 years old, Masterson was the oldest of the core cast of actors.
Masterson’s acting career started with commercials. By the time he landed a role in ‘That ’70s Show’, the actor had already starred in films such as ‘Beethoven’s 2nd’ and ‘Face/Off’.
In May 2023, a Los Angeles jury found Masterson guilty of two counts of rape. He faces a prison sentence of up to 30 years, with a sentencing date set for September 7.
Wilmer Valderrama starred as Fez, a foreign exchange student at Point Place High School.
Fez loved sweets.
Valderrama was 18 at the start of the series.
“That ’70s Show” marked Valderrama’s TV debut. A few years later, he made his first screen appearance in the 2001 movie ‘Summer Catch’.
Lisa Robin Kelly played Eric’s older sister named Laurie.
Laurie was specified as 20 years old in season two.
Kelly was 28 years old in real life.
Prior to “That ’70s Show,” Kelly had appeared on a plethora of TV shows, including “Married…. With Children,” “Murphy Brown,” “The X-Files,” and “Days of Our Lives.”
Read the original article on Insider
