That 70s Show: 10 Changes The Show Made After The Pilot Episode

A lot can change with a TV show after the pilot episode, as it’s the network’s job to make the show is as broadly appealing as possible. Characters and storylines can be added, removed, or changed, depending on what viewers took a liking to, and that’s no different when it comes to That 70s Show.

From narrative arcs and the way that some characters spoke to even adding new characters, whether audiences noticed or not, there were some subtle changes made to the show after the pilot episode and some big ones, too.

10 Adding Eric’s Sister

In the second episode of That 70s Show, it’s Eric’s birthday, and his sister, Laurie, travels in from college to visit him. She became a regular on the show after this.

But there wasn’t a single mention that Eric had a sister in the pilot episode and it was strongly insinuated that Eric was an only child. Despite the fact that Eric surely wishes he was an only child, as the two don’t get along, Laurie was a great addition to the cast. She had some of the best scenes, especially when she teased Kelso and caused friction between him and his girlfriend, Jackie.

9 Foreman’s Fear Of Red

In the series, Eric Forman is a 70s kid without a care in the world. He’s the first of his friends to own a car, he has the coolest basement, and he’s the most daring of the group, that is, if it wasn’t for his terrifying father who judged everything he did, down to the way he walks.

Though Foreman has always been sarcastic with his father, he has always tiptoed around him, but in the pilot, there are several giveaways that show how the teenager isn’t quite as scared compared to how he gets later in the season.

8 Transitions

If there’s one thing That 70s Show is known for, it’s the strange hippie style transitions between each scene. But in the first episode, one of the few transitions features Fez speaking directly to the camera about his outfit in front of a disco ball.

After the pilot, the show instead opted for a more playful flower-power type transition, with different cast members dancing to music.

7 Kelso’s IQ

Kelso’s idiocracy is what led to some of the show’s best episodes. He was by far the biggest comic relief the show had to offer, as he had little to no common sense, came up with dumbest ideas, and frequently injured himself with his daring stunts.

But the pilot didn’t show him as the court jester of the show, rather a good looking guy who was in fear of being left out because his friends didn’t like his girlfriend.

6 Fez’s Broken English

One of the most beloved characters of the sitcom is the foreign exchange student, Fez, and it only makes sense that the group of people he gravitated to when he moved to Wisconsin was this band of misfits.

Though Fez’s struggle to fit in throughout the series is one of the reasons why we felt bad for him, he was never as lost as he was in the pilot episode. Fez could barely speak any English in the pilot, but by the second episode, his vocabulary and accent had improved tenfold.

5 Hating On Jackie

From the very first scene of the pilot, it was clear how the group dynamic worked and it was blindingly obvious how much the guys hated Jackie. As she was more of a girly girl and cared more about her outfits and social rankings than anything else, she didn’t exactly fit in with a bunch of guys and Donna.

The group was restlessly mean, trying to ditch her at every possible stage. Though Jackie remained the token annoying character of the group, the guys softened up to her in the second episode.

4 Being Strapped For Cash

In the second episode of That 70s Show, there are whispers of the Foreman family being poor and not being able to afford the luxuries that other families could.

This wasn’t established in the first episode, and the family looked rather well off for a Midwestern family in the 70s, as their son was the first to get a car, they hosted parties, and they have a big house. But in the following episodes, it was revealed that they were virtually broke and it got worse in later seasons.

3 What The Characters Call Each Other

The teenagers of the show always call each other by their last names, save for Jackie, Donna, and Fez. Eric goes by the name of Foreman, Steven goes by the name of Hyde, and Michael goes by the name of Kelso, but in the pilot, most of them are being called by their first names.

What’s even stranger is the Eric calls Red ‘Pop.’ As Eric only ever calls Red by his first name, calling him anything else is totally jarring, and after the first episode, there is never a time when Eric calls Red “Dad,” or any of its synonyms.

2 Jackie’s Dad’s Presence

With both Eric and Donna’s parents having as much of a presence in the series as the teenagers, it seemed like Jackie’s dad would too, as he was at the Foreman’s party in the pilot and in the dream-like sequence.

But he took a back seat for most of the series, appearing infrequently to criticize Jackie’s boyfriend, Kelso (despite them arguably being a great couple), and to sometimes bail Jackie out of trouble.

1 Red’s Toughness

Though his anger led to some of his best quotes, there are a lot of times that Red was too tough on the guys, and this accounted for many of the times fans hated him. However, not only is Foreman not as scared of his father in the pilot, but Red isn’t exactly the bull-in-a-china-shop angry veteran that he’s known to be.

In fact, Red is almost a kind father, as he gives Eric the Vista Cruiser and doesn’t get angry about the fact that the gang travels out of town, even when he specifically told them not to.