From "That '70s Show" to "That '90s Show", nostalgia has aged badly

• That '90s Show

  , the sequel to

  That '70s Show

  , is available this Thursday on Netflix.

• The sitcom

  That '70s Show

  has established itself over the years as a cult series by playing the card of nostalgia for a time "where anything was possible".

• Why doesn't

  That '90s Show

  capture the essence of the 1990s like the original series?

After

,

, or

, it's the turn of another series from the 1990s,

, to have its reboot!

From 1998 to 2006 on Fox, this sitcom followed the daily life of Donna (Laura Prepon), Kelso (Ashton Kutcher), Jackie (Mila Kunis), Hyde (Danny Masterson) and Fez (Wilmer Valderrama), a group of teenagers who squatted in the basement of one of them, Eric (Topher Grace), in Point Place, a small town in Wisconsin, in the 1970s.

More than fifteen years after the finale, Netflix is ​​launching

this Thursday , a sitcom featuring a new generation of young people, led by Leia Forman (Callie Haverda), Eric and Donna's daughter (who bears the first name of the princess of

) when she comes to spend the summer of 1995 with her paternal grandparents, Kitty and Red Forman (Kurtwood Smith and Debra Jo Rupp) who are still living in the small town in the American Midwest.

Cameos from the original cast are expected, with the exception of Danny Masterson, charged with three rapes.

At the helm of this project, the creators of the original series, Bonnie and Terry Turner, and their daughter, Lindsey Turner, the showrunner and executive producer Gregg Mettler as well as the executive producers Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner, already at work about the 1990s series. Why isn't

able to break the curse of rebooting inferior to its source material?

An almost alternative sitcom in the 1990s

When it premiered in 1998 on Fox,

like an almost alternative comedy, taking unexpected risks, at least by prime-time sitcom standards of the day.

Shot with a 360° rotating camera in the middle of the actors, certain sequences of this family sitcom suggest that these young people smoke marijuana.

"The trick was to be one step ahead of the passage of the joint so as not to see it on television", explains the executive producer, Dean Batali in the columns of the

.

"If you lived in the 1970s or just survived your teenage years, one of those characters could be you," Topher Grace told The

.

The laughs leaned heavily on the generational contrast between Red, a conservative, overbearing veteran, and Eric, a slacker nerd.

The series thus allowed teenagers of the 1990s to imagine what a young person was like in the 1970s, and implied that our parents were, once, like us.

A "flagship Fox" series in the 1990s

If the series never had the notoriety of

or

, "it was really a flagship series of Fox at the time, one of its longest sitcoms", recalls Séverine Barthes, media analyst and mistress lectures at Sorbonne-Nouvelle University.

“The series was a secret pleasure for the Fox audience, the 18-34 year old viewership community,” Jim Kraus, president of national distribution for Carsey-Werner Productions, which produced the series, recalls in the columns. from the

.

“No matter what night it aired – and it was constantly moving – viewers would find it and follow it.

»

“It was a real phenomenon in the United States.

In France, it was first passed on the cable.

We are on a smaller public base, ”abounds Séverine Barthès.

A cult series thanks to Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis

That '70s Show

has remained in cathodic memories mainly because it allowed several of its actors to become stars.

“It was really touching to be back on set.

We got where we are thanks to this series, ”Ashton Kutcher confided this summer to

.

“ 

became cult a bit later when Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis got together.

All the stories about the series, about how they met, have circulated, ”says Marjolaine Boutet, historian of the series, professor at the Sorbonne Paris Nord University and author of

(First).

A show on the model of “Happy Days”

“ 

picks up the premise of another cult sitcom,

, a 1970s series set in the 1950s. went to diners, drank Coca-Cola, ate burgers and danced rock'n'roll.

A much less complicated youth than the protesting and drugged youth of the 1970s”, analyzes Marjolaine Boutet.

The unexpected success of

, the hair-drying of Farrah Fawcett, the lava lamps, the episode names borrowed from the song titles of Led Zeppelin, The Who and Queen and that constant stream of cameos of famous personalities in the 1970s… “In

the reconstitution of the time, in particular on the musical level and cultural references, played on this ground of a common culture and a mythified, happier and more colorful past, ”decrypts Séverine Barthes.

"In the 1990s, when it was a little hard to dream, there was this nostalgia for this somewhat crazy period of the 1970s, for a certain ode to freedom, for this moment when everything was possible", adds Marjolaine Boutet.

A series that relies on the “positive aura” of the Nineties

Viewers like to see themselves through a sepia-toned lens.

“We are in the principle of the nostalgic sitcom”, continues the expert.

A formula taken up in

years, series of the 1980s on the sixties,

, series filmed in 1999 on a high school in 1980 and of course,

, success of the 2020s on the Reagan era.

spin-off

a brilliant idea or a disaster in the making?

“Some of the fans of

will be happy to see how the children of the series they loved before have grown up, believes Severine Barthes.

Young people use Netflix to rediscover old series like

with this limitation: some things no longer pass like fatphobia, etc.

There is perhaps the idea of ​​playing with this positive aura of the 1990s with a younger target, but written today, with a current sensitivity.

»

A reboot that does not capture "the spirit of the times"

A frenzied dance to the 1990

, CDs by Alanis Morissette, a video club and VHS, a reference to

, an imitation of Joey in

, a parody of the video game Donkey Kong….

seems to ride on the nostalgia of the 1990s.

"After seeing the first 3 episodes, I find that the series does not say much about the 1990s. There is not really a discourse on the spirit of the period", laments Marjolaine Boutet.

In the early 1990s, grunge was the soundtrack to a great cry from the heart of a disillusioned and a little nervous youth: “

remains a very nice, smooth and shy sitcom.

I expected more music, more grunge, ”continues the expert.

Unlike

, which “says something about our imagination of the 1980s”,

misses its first target: people in their forties who grew up listening to Nirvana and Pearl Jam.

Some episodes are also problematic.

“The third episode about Leia's first kiss ends as she forcefully kisses a young ice cream vendor.

I want the action to take place in the 1990s, but we are in 2023, ”exclaims Marjolaine Boutet.

An astonishing screenplay choice in the age of consent.

“The jokes about Fez, with its hyperpronounced accent… It's dated”, still regrets the researcher.

Not sure that vintage flannel shirts are enough to captivate Generation Z like

has charmed Generation Y. In the meantime, it may make them want to rediscover the original series, available on Salto.

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