That '70s Pilot is the first episode in the first season of That '70s Show. It aired on August 23, 1998.
Point Place, Wisconsin, May 17, 1976. Nerdy teenager Eric Forman, who smokes weed with some friends in the basement, is in heaven when his dad Red decides to hand him the keys of his flashy Vista Cruiser, at the price of extra chores and forbidding him to take it out of town, knowing that won't be obeyed anyway. The gang, which just adopted foreign exchange student Fez, is excited about a Todd Rundgren concert. Jackie uses her female charms to make sure skirt-chaser Michael Kelso would take her too.
Tropes:
- Batman Gambit: 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.
- Chaos Architecture: The Hub looks completely different than in later episodes.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: The episode starts with Kitty and Red having a party with a whole houseful of friends. In every other episode, they don't seem to have any friends but Bob and Midge, which explains why they put up with their craziness. Also Eric, Hyde, and Kelso all refer to each other by their first names, although that could be because the writers wanted to establish them.
- The circle has a rare aerial view of the proceedings, and the background isn't dark and smoky, but more out-of-focus than anything.
- The Hub set is a lot more elaborate than it would be in future episodes. Most of the regular sets also looked different in the first season, with slightly different décor and lighting (such as the kitchen seats being a mesh design with cushions).
- Characters use a lot of common slang for the era the show is set in, with Eric using "queer" as a stand-in for "weird" as one example. The dialogue quickly dropped it going forward and it became much more modern.
- Loose Lips: Kelso blurts out two things he was supposed to keep secret:
- During the cold open, he tells Eric that Donna thinks he is cute.
- Right after the cold open, he brings up the planned Todd Rundgren concert to which Jackie wasn't invited, while she's sitting right next to him.
