Why Topher Grace Left That ’70s Show

That ’70s Show ran for eight seasons, although most fans agree that not all seasons were the same. Where exactly is the line between a good ’70s Show and a bad ’70s Show? Some say this is around the time Donna went blonde. Others say it happened shortly after Kelso and Donna returned from California. Some say the decline started back in the middle of Season 3 when Lisa Robin Kelly left the show. One thing is clear, though: No one really cares about Season 8 because it’s the season without Eric (Topher Grace).

In a way, Eric’s departure was inevitable. He was the smart, bookish member of the gang, someone who should probably have started college shortly after Season 5, but the longevity of the show made the writers jump through hoops to explain why he lingered so long after high school in Seasons 6 and 7. Heart Attack Redo was a worthy excuse for several episodes, and the writers got some credit for Eric’s desire to take a year off to learn about himself, but after two seasons it was sad to see him still hanging out in his parents’ basement.

So it makes sense that Eric finally decided to leave Point Place in Season 7 and took a job as a teacher in Africa, which would allow him to stay away from the rest of the gang. If the series ended there, it would be a great ending for his character. Unfortunately, there was still a whole season left.

As is usually the case in such situations, the reason for Eric’s departure had little to do with his overall character and everything to do with what happened to the actor in real life. During the first few seasons of That ’70s Show, Topher Grace got a taste of motion pictures, but the heavy sitcom schedule severely limited the number of roles he could take on. Like one newspaper described is: “Grace is leaving the series to devote more time to her burgeoning film career.” The fact that the quality of that ’70s Show’s writing had already clearly deteriorated probably helped spur his departure.

Almost immediately after Grace’s departure in the Season 7 finale, Sam Raimi announced that he had cast Topher Grace in Spider-Man 3. It was the kind of announcement that firmly meant that Grace’s decision was already paying off, though it became less promising a few months later when it was revealed that Grace was playing Venom, a character that many Spider-Man fans believed Grace had miscast. . .

Although “Spider-Man 3” has increasingly appreciated over timethis was considered disappointing back in 2007, especially in the context of Grace’s film career. While Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis’ rise to fame in the late 2000s/early 2010s seemed insurmountable, Topher Grace’s surprisingly low-key film career became a point of contention among ’70s That Show fans, who resented that Grace left the series. Of course, slow and steady wins the race: While the other cast members of That ’70s Show are now in prison or they’re having PR nightmares, Grace has continued to star in fun, diverse roles in projects like Black Mirror, Black Clansmen, and Housekeeping. He may not be an A-list celebrity, but his post-’70s Show career is still pretty impressive and shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon, including an unrecognizable cameo in 2024’s The Heretic.

Although Eric’s departure seemed like an obvious point of no return for the series, especially when Ashton Kutcher’s character Kells also left soon after in Season 8, the cast and crew remained optimistic about the series’ future. “When they made the decision — which was totally, 100 percent fine, because after eight years I think you can say you want to get out — we looked at it and said, ‘Do we have a show?’ said Fez actor Wilmer Valderrama, on hiatus before Season 8. “And it’s such an amazing ensemble. We each have our own understated character, so we knew there were a lot of lines to explore.”

Publicly, at least, fans seemed to be hoping for a Cheers-like situation, a show that could have easily fizzled out after Diane (Shelley Long) left, but instead, it continued to go strong for six more seasons. Josh Meyers, who joined the cast in Season 8 as a quasi-replacement for Eric, also seemed hopeful that the series would have a lot of life. “Last year, everyone thought it would be the last season … but the ratings will be the deciding factor,” Meyers said said. “I can’t imagine that these actors wouldn’t want to come back for another season because they’re making a lot of money. My mother read somewhere that Danny Masterson is making $15 million this season, so I’m not talking out of school.”

Remarkably, no one in the cast seemed to blame Grace for wanting to leave. In interviews after his departure was announced, most of the cast and crew seemed to support the choice. For Mark Hudis, one of the show’s producers, he was impressed with how well Grace handled the spotlight in 1998. “Topher Grace did a wonderful job,” Hudis said May 2006 interviewreleased a few weeks before the series finale. “He was a kid who had virtually no experience except for school shows.”

For the most part, the cast of That ’70s Show reacted to Eric’s departure as usual. Eric was constantly mentioned, but the tone and setting of the series remained largely the same, with everyone still hanging out in Eric’s basement and living their normal lives. One of the most memorable Eric-related characters in Season 8 is when Red Foreman finally admits he misses his son; it’s an uncharacteristically tender moment, one that Red would be embarrassed to know he got on tape for Eric to hear.

The biggest fallout from Eric’s departure was that he and Donna broke up off-screen. They both realized that the long-distance relationship was not going well, and agreed to break it off for the time being. This paved the way for newbie Randy (Josh Meyers) to become Donna’s new crush, in a creative choice that didn’t sit well with Randy’s longtime fans. It was a storyline that really emphasized how weird it was that the gang was still hanging out at Eric’s house; It’s one thing if Donna stops seeing Eric, but why is he flaunting her new boyfriend to Eric’s parents and why does Randy feel so comfortable hanging out at Eric’s house?

While fans often blame the lack of Eric for Season 8’s problems, Season 8 could also have been bad for reasons that had nothing to do with him. The most damning thing is that the show threw out Hyde and Jackie’s beloved romance to pave the way for Fez and Jackie’s creepy romancea decision that destroyed any goodwill the series might have had left. With the exception of the ever-reliable Red and Kitty, almost all of Season 8’s main characters felt like caricatures of their former selves. Well, everyone except Randy.

I like Randy Pearson, for one. Or rather, I like Josh Meyers, who, like his brother Seth Meyers, has always had a kind of amiable charm that smooths over jokes that don’t quite fit. Don’t get me wrong, I wish they had kept it potential replacement for Eric Charlie in season 7 instead of throwing the guy off the water towerbut Randy himself wasn’t all that bad. If he had been introduced earlier in the series, and if the writing had remained high quality, and maybe if the writers hadn’t bothered to write any romances with him and Donna, there’s a chance that fans would have liked Randy.

Of course, none of this happened; Randy was faced with the impossible task of saving a spiraling streak from certain doom, and in the process became an easy lightning rod for the fans’ anger. It didn’t help that the script itself kept insisting that Randy was the coolest guy ever, even to the point that he dated every girl in Point Place before he met Donna. A lighter touch would probably go a long way.

And despite Josh Meyers’ early interviews in which he expressed hope for a series, he seems to have quickly realized that his character is not popular. “I did the last season of That ’70s Show, which made a lot of people dislike me,” he said. said in a 2022 interview. “They were like, ‘You stole Eric’s girlfriend,’ and I was like, ‘No, no, no, Topher Grace went to do Spider-Man 3, I just got a job, Donna’s not a real person, she’s a character… “

So what’s Josh up to these days? Well, since then he’s gone on to star in lesser-known but noteworthy TV shows like The Awesomes andRed oaks.” These days, you’re more likely to see him as California Gov. Gavin Newsom on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” or as himself on the annual Thanksgiving episodes of “Late Night With Seth Meyers.” He may not have been perfect. replacement for Topher Grace, but that was never a fair expectation for him in the first place.