Surfin’ That ’00s Show

It might seem odd that a nostalgia sitcom should embrace new media. But after viewing last Monday’s debut of Behind the Scenes at That ’70s Show–billed by producer Carsey-Werner as “the first-ever weekly Internet streaming series for a network show” (whew!)–it made sense. The jumpy video, the garbled audio (over a 56.6K modem), the thrown-together interviews with the Fox hit’s stars–the infant days of TV must have been like this. It was enough to make one nostalgic for today.

Behind’s highly qualified claim of being first is iffy: UPN’s new drama The Beat and NBC’s recently expired Homicide have both run webisodes. But in a sense, Behind (at www.that70sshow.com is more in tune with the dot-commerce age, because it’s more ad than drama. Aimed at young Web surfers, the smart, saucy sitcom’s natural audience, it’s really a child of the ingenious Internet marketing for The Blair Witch Project. It was promoted entirely online–in part through Microsoft’s MSN website–and the 10-minute episode, with hard-hitting information about the characters’ period hairstyles, is strictly fan-club stuff. There’s the all-empowering Web for you: why rely on Entertainment Tonight when you can do your own puff pieces!

But Carsey-Werner, which says Behind tripled traffic to the ’70s site, doesn’t claim this is art. At the end of the webcast, Kurtwood Smith, with the wonderful take-no-crap gruffness of his character Red Forman, reminded us of its purpose: “Tune in to your Fox station for That ’70s Show. Not this Behind the Scenes. The real thing.” No confusion about that.

–By James Poniewozik