The 70’s show – the drama behind the drama series

Of all the series that I had seen, this one has a bit of a backstory. For a very long time, we never had any cable TV at home. Star World ruled the roost at that time and there were many famous shows across Sony, Star and other channels that had caught everyone’s attention. Boogey Woogey (?) was one show that was hosted by Javed Jaffrey I guess. Not sure if I recollected correctly but it used to run in Sony. Zee had its Saregamapa which churned out so many fantastic singers, some of whom ruled the playback world for a decent bit. Star World was the premier one of the lot with its marquee programs like KBC and many famous English series. Around the time when KBC early seasons were aired, the famous theme music can be heard across every household having a cable across the streets. Amitabh and later SRK ensured the show had its bumper opening in India as well. Some of my friends had found many inventive ways to have a crack at the cable on the loose, for the charges were quite heavy at that time. They would put some pin or tie the wire to their antenna and do all kinds of experimentation that would put any lineman from EB to shame. The moment you get the pirated channels in possibly the worst screen refresh mode ever, there would be a sense of accomplishment. Most of my friend’s house had this pirated version running where they were piggy banking on the charges paid by their illustrious neighbors. ESPN was a separate channel at that time and all India tours of England, Australia used to be aired primarily on that channel. They will increase the monthly rate whenever India went on foreign tours and even amongst the illustrious neighbors only a handful had access for that channel. Given the fact that India were poor travelers most of those matches would be washouts except for some individual brilliance by Sachin or Dravid or Ganguly at times, which would be “viewed” while reading the sports section on the next day paper. Idhu varaikkum 70’s show pathi sollavay illayengareengala..oru vazhia pointuku vanten.

Happy days used to play in Star World at that time I guess. If not the entire series, at least some episodes of it. When I was sent to Bangalore for a 2 week training, the guest house where we were all placed, had a TV with all  channels subscribed. Every evening, the entire batch would crowd around the TV set to watch KBC primarily and every other program that they could lap on. I don’t remember what exactly drew my attention to that particular series, but always wanted to see “Happy days” show. When I went to US, was searching for drama series from the 70’s and stumbled on this show in particular. Looking at the casting and the setup, initially I thought this was the series that I had seen in bits and pieces a decade back. With no prior reference or recollection to rely on, I binge watched on this series, which was fun in its own sweet way. It was based on Point Place, Wisconsin – not sure if there is really a town called Point place in that state. The story revolves around the Foreman family – Red (dad), Kitty (Mom), Eric (son), Laurie (daughter) and the friends gang of Eric comprising of Donna (his lady love from next door and school), Kelso (Ashton Kutcher at his amazing best), Hyde, Fez and Jackie (Mila Kunis at her wowing best). I was so smitten by this series that when I came back to India I had the entire set on my hard disk for repeat watch. Unfortunately, this series never came on any of the channels here and booting up the system for even a casual watch became tedious beyond a point. The best thing about the series being, like FRIENDS, this was also based on a group of youngsters and their daily lives. Unlike that serial, here all of them are high schoolers and their world is supposedly set in 1977 and onwards. There is a definite charm around the 70’s as a decade world over and especially US for it shows a much simpler life style involving more people and less machines. There are genuinely relatable relationship fight situations, job losses due to mechanization and how American public viewed such situations as a sample. And casting is one of the major strong points of this series with Mila Kunis, barely the age she was playing on screen and exhibiting thorough professional performance like a seasoned actor. With her bushy eye brows and her height just about  that of an average toddler, she is a riot in that series closely matched by Ashton kutcher’s Kelso – the deadpan dumb character mandated on series like this. (There was one blogger kid who was of similar height and had bushy eye brows, whom I had nick named Mila Kunis. That kid is majorly missing in the blogsphere for last couple of years and is totally out of touch now. Oru postukulla evlo posts!!!) Beyond a point, the series became a drab as there is only so much of wise cracks and one liner wit that can carry. The main cast soon got dissolved or involved into mainstream movies I guess, for towards the closing seasons there were hardly any from the launch season. The guy who played Eric, made a brief appearance as Venom in Spideman-3. Ashton has made a mark for himself on mainstream movies and in Two and a half men as replacement for Charlie sheen. Other than Mila kunis who had her bit of hits and misses, not sure about rest of the cast. But for those who care a decent laugh, this show (at least the initial seasons) is a guaranteed one.

So..edho showa paaka poitu..edho seriesa pudichi..adhu engayo mudinji..adhuku oru jaangiri suthara rewind review postum poatachu 😊