18 JUNE 1999 SURVEY NEWS: Christopher Masterson came in first, by one vote ahead of his brother Danny, in our last survey, is trailing well behind leader Ryan Phillippe, who just edged ahead of Ben Affleck, and Ben Silverstone, who are currently in a tie for second place.
If you would like to vote for your favorite actor, scroll to the bottom of this page, click on the plea to the Muse With the Jaundiced Eye to take you home (ours, not yours), then scroll down to the survey form.
"That '70s Show" has settled into an 8:00 P.M. Monday time slot, with each new episode followed by a repeat from the first season, for the benefit of the clueless who have no idea who any idea who these people are, or where Fez comes from.
Yeah, it's only a repeat of Joseph Godron Levitt's first appearance on the show, but he and his "best friend," Eric, were so popular that the show's ratings jumped dramatically in the week following Buddy's first appearance. Will he make a second appearance? We have not been able to find out!
Just to keep you on tenterhooks, here, courtesy of The Good Bill page, is one of three pictures from Buddy's first appearance. We'll post the other two NEXT WEEK, after the episode airs, for the benefit of those of you who missed seeing it.
For the benefit of you truly diligent scanners of the lists of the Academy Award nominees, chrisTOPHER Grace is not the CHRIStopher Grace whose film was nominated in the Best Live Action Short Film category (but did not win); that Christopher Grace is Cymric, and Topher is American. (Topher also seems to be very well liked by the people who do "That '70s Show" -- almost everyone whom we spoke to about him had good things to say.)
On December 6th, "That '70s Show" featured a very surprising kiss for Eric (Topher Grace). Was America ready for it? . . . Well, America seemed to love it! The show's ratings had been slipping for several weeks (in week #7 of the Fall TV season, for example, it had 12.8 million viewers; the following week it had 11.7 million viewers, and only 11.4 million viewers tuned in for The Kiss). They must have liked what they saw, though, because the following Sunday, almost 900,000 more people tuned in to see "That '70s Show," giving it ratings that it hasn't seen in over a month. Just another example of Americans not needing government and network censors to think for them!
Will Eric's bud Buddy return? We are going to try to find out for all of you Buddy fans. (And for you Joseph Gordon-Levitt fans, too.)
Click here for the OFFICIAL Fox "That '70s Show" Web site.
Click here to read an Associated Press story about having lunch with the stars.
Click here to read what Iowa thinks about Cedar Rapids-ite Ashton Kutcher. (Did you know that his first name, like Topher's, is "Christopher"?)
Fear not, O '70s fans! Baseball playoffs and the World Series notwithstanding, Fox-TV not only bought more episodes of "That '70s Show," but it remains strong in the ratings. Apparently, network execs were worried that the show wouldn't do well (see the note below about its apparent postponement for a year) and they simply didn't order enough episodes. Surprise! The show was an instant hit and Fox got caught with its pants down, not having enough episodes to fill out the season. . . . Or so we have been informed. We expect to see it back on the air real soon -- as we point out below, it was one of Fox's biggest hits ever, and the only show to ever out-do "The Simpsons" when appearing after that Fox workhorse, except for "King of the Hill;" and "That '70s Show" did better that the premiere of "King of the Hill." Like Ah-nold, it will be back.
Our reviewer, the Shea-man, swears that he saw a preview of this show at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences last year, but it has made it to Fox television only this season. It became an immediate hit, debuting at #7 in the national ratings, and falling only to #8 in its second week. It's first episode was then aired opposite the 50th Annual Emmy (tm) Awards show, which destroyed everything in its Nielsen ratings path, but it is back into first-run episodes.
(Note from the Grand Panjandrum: Our Reviewer is sitting here whining, "Ask them if they saw me at the Emmy's -- I was sitting by Andre Braugher and Christine Baranski?!" so we relate the question. Don't bother to answer -- we don't care. We donote, for the benefit of Danny Masterson fans, that Our Reviewer did not discuss him with his former "Cybill" TV Mom, although he did find time to start an argument with Anne Heche.)
There is an excellent unofficial fan page for "That 70's Show," so we'll confine ourselves to the occasional bit of gossip, some pix, and the Grand Panjandrum's periodic maunderings.
Unless otherwise indicated, all photos on this page are © 1998 or 1999 by Fox Broadcasting Company. So don't copy them without their permission, which we have and you probably don't. Link here, instead.
