History Series / That70sShow

* AdoptingTheAbused: In the first season, Hyde is shown to be living in squalor with his parents having abandoned her. After Red and Kitty Forman see the conditions he was living in with his parents gone, they take him away and set him up in a room in the basement.

%%** "Dillhole".

* IdiosyncraticWipes: With cast members jumping, swinging and having fun in front of groovy backgrounds during an EyeCatch.

* InformedDeformity: In season 8, Fez would sometimes call Jackie a "midget" despite her being only slightly shorter that him.

* TitleOnlyOpening: Subverted. In most episodes, a TitleOnlyOpening appears in the beginning of the episode, followed by the teaser, then followed by another TitleSequence with everything ''but'' the show's title. Though on some occasions, the second TitleSequence is absent and the trope is played straight.

* FunnyBackgroundEvent: Once when Eric had to get something from the kitchen, he ran into his father and had a conversation with him. Eric is still stoned from The Circle and the wallpaper behind Red is visibly moving.

* {{Bookends}}: The first and final episodes shows the protagonists in the Formans' Vista Cruiser singing Music/ToddRundgren's "Hello, It's Me" during the end credits.

** When Midge left Bob, [[BuxomBeautyStandard the boys lament over losing "her sweet uptown rack"]].

* SweaterGirl:
** When Midge left Bob, [[BuxomBeautyStandard the boys lament over losing "her sweet uptown rack"]].
---> '''Fez''': Oh, good God, man, what a marvelous set of kittens. Remember that sweater?\\
'''Kelso''': Oh. Remember the other sweater?\\
'''Eric''': Yeah. Remember that time she ran up to us in a sweater?\\
'''Hyde''': Remember the week she took up jump rope? In a sweater?\\
(This is followed by a montage of said sweaters.)
** After deciding they want to chase older women, Fez and Kelso decide that [[spoiler:Kitty is hot]] and maybe they should buy her a sweater.

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Due to her towering height over the rest of the cast, Laura Prepon was encouraged by the producers to not wear shoes as often as possible in her scenes. That is why Donna Pinciotti is either barefoot or wearing socks much more frequently than anyone else on the show.

* CitizenshipMarriage: A reoccurring plot point in Season 6 that got [[AbortecArc aborted]] with Laurie [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome being written out of the show]]. At the end of season 5, Laurie married Fez only so that he doesn't get deported. The events of season 6 clearly demonstrated that its a marriage in name only.

* Does Not Like Shoes: Due to her towering height over the rest of the cast, Laura Prepon was encouraged by the producers to not wear shoes as often as possible in her scenes. That is why Donna Pinciotti is either barefoot or wearing socks much more frequently than anyone else on the show.

** In season 6, Pam gets a lot of slut shaming from Kitty and Donna when she starts dating Bob (Not helped by her GolDigger ways), such as when Kitty snarked at her for wearing a SexySlitDress.

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Donna has a younger sister for exactly one episode, "Eric's Burger Job." She is never seen again. They lampshaded this in the credits of "Vanstock" (which was parodying the "tune in next time to find out" ending from ''Soap'').

* NotNowKiddo: Kelso tells Jackie to watch him drink his eggs. Jackie tries to tell him something, only for Kelso to keep shutting her up, saying that whatever it is can wait till after he has drunk his eggs. She does so and after he has drunk his eggs, reminds him that he is actually allergic to eggs.

* PrimalScene: Eric once walks in on his parents having sex. He is pretty traumatized by the experience.

* RawEggsMakeYouStronger: Subverted and PlayedForLaughs. Kelso attempts to impress Jackie by working out and during a conversation with her announces that he's going to drink a cup of raw eggs. She tries to say something and he rudely stops her, drinking the eggs anyway. When he's done, she reminds him that he's allergic to eggs.

** Another example:

* TruthTellingSession: Eric and Laurie get into this at one point. The show-stopper is when Eric reveals that Laurie was born with a tail, which causes her to run away in tears.

** The Thanksgiving episode in Season 5 used the "Baby, baby, baby, baby, oooo!" wipe, not used since Season 1.
** A half-successful one in Season 7. Eric says, about Hyde and Kelso respectively, "No heart, no brain", then points to himself and says "No courage." This partly calls back Season 4's "Tornado Prom", wherein Jackie has a dream that she goes to Oz. Kelso and Hyde play the Scarecrow and Tin Man. However, Fez is the Cowardly Lion and Eric plays a Flying Monkey.

** In one episode, Eric goes to the pharmacy to pick up some photos while his Bob is there to pick up her prescription, which he believes to be cough syrup. When the pharmacist tells him it's birth control, Eric bolts out of the store.
** In a similar and kind of {{Inverted}} example: in one episode, Kitty provides Eric with a bag of condoms, which is embarrassing. However, later Kitty and Red are planning to have sex and realize that they're out, so Red sneaks into Eric's room to take one. Eric walks in, Red is angry/embarrassed, and Eric freaks out because he incorrectly believes that Red saw his marijuana stash.

** Played hilariously in one episode where the family is playing a game called ''Church'' Rummy with the Youth Minister at their church and Laurie shows her cards: 6, 6, and 6.

* WannabeLine: One episode had this as an A plot, where Eric, Donna, Hyde and Fez try to get into a Studio 54 knock off in Chicago. Donna as the designated hot girl gets in right away but the boys take longer. Fez gets in with his dance moves, Hyde with his anti-conformity speech, and Eric simply because he is Donna's boyfriend (the bouncer couldn't believe she was dating him, and thought they were ''siblings'').

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Donna has a younger sister for exactly one episode. She is never seen again. They lampshaded this in the credits of one episode (which was parodying the "tune in next time to find out" ending from ''Soap'').

** Season 6: In one episode, Eric kept trying to convince his parents that he managed to fix the lawnmower. Kitty's response was that she "believed in him believing" that he fixed it.

* FutureMeScaresMe: In one episode, Eric's guardian angel [[ItsAWonderfulPlot takes him into an alternate timeline]] in which he'd never dated Donna--including a foray into the 80s, where Donna is married (with kids) to Hyde, and Alternate!Eric is a hopeless loser. Notable because even though it was an alternate timeline, it was the only time the show ever accurately depicted the [[TheEighties 1980s]] (70s!Eric even remarks on "The Safety Dance", which will be released five years into his future).

** It's not hard to see where Eric's attributes and personality stems from. Red even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] it in one episode when Eric beats up a Green Bay Packers fan at a football game, claiming Eric's got the "Forman rage in him".

* HellBentForLeather: In one episode Kelso gets a leather jacket because he wants to look like [[Creator/MarlonBrando Brando]] in ''Film/TheWildOne''. Instead everybody laughs at him for looking like [[Series/HappyDays Fonzie]]. When he throws it away in anger Hyde puts it on and immediately becomes [[MrFanservice irresistible]].

* IllTakeTwoBeersToo: In one episode:

** Done literally in-universe. In one episode, Fez daydreams about how cool it would make him if he jumped over a shark like Fonzie before Hyde reminds him it was arguably the worst moment in TV history.[[invoked]]

* LysistrataGambit: Played with in one episode, in which Eric and Donna decide to hold out on each other after an argument over a school report. While Eric caves in the end, Donna had to bluff her way for him to concede as a last-ditch effort. Donna accidentally gives her mother the idea (she's either so horny or such an airhead it's never even occurred to her). Instead of offering advice, she cheerfully announces that she's getting the bathroom painted.

** One episode has Kitty voluntarily smokes a joint in the bathroom, and sees Red and Hyde's bodies morph.

* NixonMask: Played straight in one episode when the guys decide to streak during a presidential campaign stop in town, with Eric wearing said NixonMask.

* NoNameGiven: Fez is short for "foreign exchange student". His actual name is played with during one episode where he ''does'' say it, but is [[TheUnreveal drowned out]] by the sound of a school bell. During this scene, Fez' actor just said the names of all of the main actors in a row quickly.

* NotSoAboveItAll: In one episode, even Jackie starts giggling like a schoolgirl after explaining to Fez that "penal code" doesn't mean what he think it does.

* ThePreciousPreciousCar: Red Forman is very attached his 1950's Corvette convertible and doesn't let anyone touch it let alone drive it. In one episode, Eric took the car on a joyride while his parents were out of town in order to impress a cheerleader. He accidentally drives the car into a ditch, it doesn't get damaged but it gets covered in mud and he has to clean it before his dad gets home. He succeeds but his cover is blown when his dad starts the car and finds the radio tuned to a different station.

---> '''Eric''': I tried pot once, and now I'm incurably insane!

* TrappedInATanningBed: In one episode, Donna and Jackie decide to get tans and fall asleep under a tanning lamp; the two end up getting sunburned as a result.

* YourMakeupIsRunning: In one episode Jackie puts some makeup on Kelso, telling him it'll make him look better. Eventually it [[DraggedIntoDrag gets out of hand]]. When he meets up with the guys later, it's revealed that he's forgotten to remove all of it, and he's informed that his mascara is running.

* GretzkyHasTheBall: Deliberately invoked when Eric says the first time he strapped on a pair of skates was like "the first time Joe Namath laid his hands on a bat."

* ThePermanentRecord: In the episode "Halloween," the gang sneaks into their old elementary school, which burned down years ago, for some Halloween hi-jinks, but decide to leave soon after because they're not having any fun. Just as they're about to go, Jackie and Donna rejoin the others and show off some file folders from the principal's office containing their permanent records. When they open Hyde's file, they read a note from his second grade teacher that he's a born trouble maker after he lied about smashing another student's project, to which he still insists he didn't do. Just then, Eric admits to smashing the project becuase he was jealous, and Hyde then gets angry at Eric and blames him for getting yelled at in front of the class, and Eric's the reason he's been treated like a criminal ever since. When Hyde opens Jackie's file he tells everyone [[EmbarrassingMiddleName her middle name is Beulah]], and finally they all turn on Kelso for lying about his age. He got held back and was now 18, and could have legally bought them beer. He didn't bring it up at all (the rest of the gang are 17, and the legal drinking age in Wisconsin at the time was 18). Finally, they decide to make peace and [[LetUsNeverSpeakOfThisAgain agree to forget the night's events]] and bury the records since they figured they couldn't be burned.

* EverybodyMustGetStoned: Happens once, when Red and Kitty accidentally eat some brownies laced with marijuana.

** One Samba moment happens when Eric goes upstairs to make toast and runs into his father, Red; while they talk, the wall in the background is moving. Also, Red once accidentally eats a "special brownie" made by the kids. HilarityEnsues.

* BatmanGambit: Red tells Eric not to take the car out of town for the sole purpose of getting Eric to take the car out of town. Initially subverted in that Red's warning did not cause Eric to take the car out of town, he was planning to do it anyway and Red's warning almost caused him not to. Ultimately played straight because Red's purpose was to have an evening alone with Kitty, thanks to his plan the kids didn't call him for help when the car broke down.

* CorrelationCausationGag: Eric calls out his paternal grandmother for being openly mean and nasty to his mom Kitty. He then flat-out says it wouldn't kill her to be nice. She then slumps dead onto his shoulder.

* DrillSergeantNasty: Red has this reputation; to the point that when the guys were mistakenly arrested for stealing Kelso's grandmother's car, one of the arresting officers asks Eric if he's Red Forman's kid, before being told "You poor bastard!" after confirming it.

* TheirFirstTime: While all of the main cast have a first time, Eric and Donna's is perhaps the most recognizable to use in this trope (it's subverted).

* LesYay: In-universe example; Kelso thinks that Series/LaverneAndShirley are "one bottle of wine away from making out", just like Jackie and Donna.