Time has run out for That '90s Show
Kurtwood Smith announced that Netflix had opted not to renew the series for a third season, and that producers intend to shop the show around
Photo: Netflix
That ’90s Show has now gone the way of That ’70s Show, That ’80s Show, and a frankly baffling number of other television programs that did not situate themselves as chronicling an entire decade of American history via a multi-cam sitcom format, which is to say that the show has been canceled. (At Netflix, where it ran for two seasons.) Variety reports that series star Kurtwood Smith broke the news on Instagram on Thursday night, adding that producers intend to “shop” the series around in the hopes of continuing the story of the Forman clan into the infinite and glorious future of 30-years-after-the-fact nostalgia.
In addition to alums Smith and Debra Jo Rupp, the series starred Callie Haverda as Leia Forman, daughter of Topher Grace and Laura Prepon’s character from the original show. Along with a whole new cast of ’90s teens discovering the joys of hip new drug “marijuana,” the show also played host to a ton of returning cast members from the old show, allowing viewers to play a fun game of trying to remember which of them acted as character witnesses or wrote support letters for Danny Masterson’s various trials. (Also, the pleasure of basking in nostalgia for a TV show already fundamentally rooted in nostalgia; memento mori, sitcom fans!)
Reviews for That ’90s Show summed up to, basically, polite, with nobody damning the series for being anything except what it was: An effort to mix Smith and Rupp’s veteran comedy chops with a new generation of performers mining further small chuckles out of personal computers, the Spice Girls, and other easily grasped cultural signifiers. Writing on his Instagram—and while we’re processing our generational historical blind spots, there’s something weird about following the guy who fucked up Robocop so bad on the socials—Smith said, “I’ve loved every minute of getting to bring Grandpa Red to life for you all… To steal Red Forman’s words…we aren’t going to be dumbasses…we will shop the show, because good grandparents would try hard to get these kids graduated from high school.”