
Are you a fan of ’90s television? Television in general? The ’90s in general? If so, you’ll likely love the new book 99 Episodes That Defined the ’90s: Television Milestones from Arsenio to Homer to Yada Yada Yada by Chris Morgan. The book, which you can order below, uses 99 episodes from 99 TV shows to tell the cultural story of the ’90s. In addition to being a MovieMaker contributor, Morgan is the author of the books The Nickelodeon ’90s and The Comic Galaxy of Mystery Science Theater 3000. We hope you enjoy the following excerpt from 99 Episodes That Defined the 90s about That 70s Show and “That Disco Episode.”—M.M.

That 70s Show: ‘That Disco Episode’
Let’s say you were a teenager in the 1970s. For the sake of ease, let’s say you were born in 1960. You turned 13 in 1973. By 1993, you would be in your early thirties. By 1998, you would be 38, likely established in your career, possibly rife with disposable income, maybe you have a kid or two, and on a weeknight likely home and watching TV. It’s 1998, so you aren’t streaming anything. You aren’t running to Blockbuster on a weeknight, more than likely. There’s a show, and it is about being a teenager in the 1970s. Why wouldn’t you check it out? That logic train, plus generalized nostalgia, is the crux behind the creation of That 70s Show.
Fascination with bygone decades arrives in time over and over. In the 1970s, we got Happy Days. In the 1990s, we got That 70s Show. Granted, the bulk of That 70s Show aired in the 2000s, but the beginning of a nostalgia for/curiosity about the 1970s began in the 1990s, and hit the airwaves in 1998. It was created by Bonnie and Terry Turner, the husband-and-wife team that also created 3rd Rock from the Sun, as well as Mark Brazill, who had been a writer on 3rd Rock. I don’t know for sure, but I speculate that the Turners brought Brazill along because he was born in 1962, and was thus a teenager in the 1970s. The Turners, for their part, were both born in the 1940s.
The seventh episode of the show’s run, written by the Turners, is “That Disco Episode,” which aired on November 8, 1998. In making a show about 1970s nostalgia, and poking fun at the trappings of the 1970s that fell by the wayside, invariably there would have to be an episode centered on disco. Frankly, the only surprise is that it took That 70s Show until the seventh episode to get “That Disco Episode.”
Disco is a style of music long associated with the 1970s. It became a punching bag, and even a rallying cry. Fans of rock music would loudly proclaim that “Disco sucks,” and the ardor against disco would culminate in Disco Demolition Night at Comiskey Field in Chicago in 1979.
There would eventually be an overcorrection to the facile and easy jokes about disco that would posit that the driving force behind most people’s disdain for disco was that it was a musical subgenre populated by, and popular with, minorities and gay men. This strengthened disco as a weird touchstone of identity politics. It is very much possible not to like disco because you don’t enjoy the way it sounds. It is also entirely possible to declare that “Disco sucks” solely because you find that to be a signifier of the kind of “serious” music fan you consider yourself to be.

In “That Disco Episode,” the gang all decide to go to a discotheque in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and since this is a book steeped in ‘90s pop culture I must now reference the “Buddy Holly” video by Weezer, which is itself riffing on Happy Days.
Hyde, very much characterized as the kind of guy who would define himself as being against disco, only goes to try and get with Donna (who is not paired off with Eric fully at this point). First he has to learn to dance, which he does by taking lessons from Kitty, Eric’s mom. This leads to some traditional sitcom miscommunications that leads to a rumor that Hyde and Kitty are having an affair, which is then naturally smoothed over, as these things often are.
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So we have a triangle formed between Eric, Hyde, and Donna, but also Jackie, Kelso, and Fez. You see, Kelso can’t dance, but Fez turns out to be a marvelous dancer. This, in turn, leads Kelso to tell Fez to stay away from Jackie. Meanwhile, Hyde dances with Donna when Eric doesn’t want to, but when Hyde makes a move on her, she quickly declines.
I will say this for That 70s Show: It wasted no time mining the overwrought interpersonal dynamics of teenagers for intrigue and stakes. Nothing about these two love triangles feels forced or false. If you were a teenager watching this in the 1990s, the emotions on display in these teenagers from the 1970s would feel entirely relatable, by and large.
Are there easy jokes about disco? Of course! This is a multicam sitcom from the 1990s! On the other hand, I would frankly have been disappointed in a show in the vein of That 70s Show if it had not delivered on that front. We needed a disco episode as much as we needed an episode about trying to get alcohol when you are underage or going to see Star Wars.
Ultimately, That 70s Show would go on for too long, key actors would leave the show, Josh Meyers would show up, and apathy set in. I will admit I have never seen the eighth and final season of the show. There is no Topher Grace as Eric, so why bother?
While I was cognizant of disco when I watched “That Disco Episode,” I had no firsthand knowledge of the 1970s, or disco of the era, and I cannot view the episode through that prism. I will have to wait until a sitcom of the future weaponizes emo shows at Legion halls for humor to understand that perspective personally.
In an era where pop culture rarely stays buried, Netflix brought us a sequel series in 2023, That ‘90s Show. I have not seen it, and frankly I don’t know if I want to indulge. Not that I am begrudging any of the parties involved. This is my third book on 1990s television. I know when to bite my tongue.
Buy Chris Morgan’s 99 Episodes That Defined the ’90s: Television Milestones from Arsenio to Homer to Yada Yada Yada today:
Main image: Mila Kunis and Wilmer Valderrama in That 70s Show, “The Disco Episode.” Fox.