In the season finale of That ’90s Show, a familiar scene plays out: Red Forman (Kurtwood Smith) sits at his kitchen table in front of a powder-blue bookcase of plates and knickknacks. He’s reading a newspaper with his glasses sliding down the bridge of his nose. His wife, Kitty Forman (Debra Jo Rupp), stands at the counter spreading Hellman’s mayonnaise on Wonder bread, layering bologna and American cheese slices, as she explains to Red that they have absolutely nothing to worry about — their granddaughter might be heading back to Chicago after a summer in Point Place, Wisconsin, but she’ll be back. “She loves my potato salad,” Kitty says, her head bobbing side to side.

That Kitty Forman hair-bounce strikes a deeply nostalgic chord for fans of That ’70s Show — after all, those hairsprayed locks were almost burned in a sultry dance by candlelight once upon a time. And now it’s back — as are Kitty and Red, who are now hosting a new generation of teens at their home in Point Place. “I have found that when it works for you, you don’t give it up,” Rupp tells the live audience of Kitty’s signature ’do between takes.

That’s sort of the charm of That ’90s Show: The old magic of the original That ’70s Show, which premiered nearly 25 years ago, starting to work again — original set designers, producers and writers in tow — only this time with a new, modern cast and plot. Well, a ’90s-based cast and plot, anyway. That ’90s Show picks up in 1995, with Donna Pinciotti and Eric Forman now the married parents of a teenage daughter, Leia (named after the Star Wars Leia, of course), who chooses to spend the summer with her grandparents instead of at her home in Chicago, where she feels friendless and outcast. In the cozier confines of Wisconsin, Leia quickly strikes up a bond with Gwen, the girl next door, and her entire circle: Gwen’s half-brother Nate, Nate’s girlfriend Nikki, the ever-snarky Ozzy, and of course, the local charmer, Jay. In fact, Jay comes from a long line of local charmers — or dumbasses, if you ask Red — better known as the Kelsos: He is the son of Michael Kelso and Jackie Burkhart, who make their brief but memorable appearance in Episode 1. 

Over the course of the season, Leia navigates new friendships, relationships and her first keg, discovering the new sensations of adolescence in Red and Kitty Forman’s iconic basement, just like her parents did. 

“There’s a great dichotomy there that preserved the soul of the show,” says Lindsey Turner, an executive producer and writer on both the original and new series, along with her parents. “It was so organic, the marriage between things that were from the old show and this new universe — the way [the new cast] would crawl all over the furniture and get excited about whose turn it was to do scenes with Red and Kitty.”

While the rest of the That ’90s Show’s ensemble is fresh faces, Smith and Rupp remain the only That ’70s Show actors to appear in every episode, as Red and Kitty face down the same challenges as grandparents that they once did as parents, albeit with a changed attitude. 

“I remember some young guy on Twitter said, ‘I’m watching That ’70s Show, but I keep waiting for Red to kill all the kids.’ Which I thought was pretty funny,” Smith tells Tudum. “But that’s what Red’s been missing — that third person in the family, whether it’s a son or a granddaughter.”

Although Red makes one of his “foot in ass” threats not five minutes into the first episode of the series — a veritable madeleine du Proust for returning ’70s Show viewers — his character’s evolution in this new era is quite striking. Smith, who Rupp describes as “a piece of Jell-O,” has made Red just a little bit softer this decade around. He obsesses over his new massage chair, (begrudgingly) lets the new neighbor use his shower and gifts Leia the Vista Cruiser — though he still manages to show up at a rave to personally embarrass her and escort her home.

“She’s a granddaughter instead of a son, so he feels less responsibility toward how she’s going to turn out — that’s her parents’ job,” Smith says of the more irreverent grandpa Red. “So he’s able to just enjoy her for her own sake.”

Meanwhile, Rupp has kicked Kitty’s natural effervescence up a notch. “She’s been alone with Red for a while now, and she’s over that,” she tells Tudum. “All this new, young energy coming in is just great for her — it’s her joyful place.”

Rupp’s relationship with That ’70s Show was always sentimental — her character was, in so many ways, the show’s heart and moral center. While Red ran the household, Kitty created the home. Which is why the actor’s favorite moment from this new season was between her and Wren, a gay character who decides that Kitty is the adult he wants to come out to. “That opened the show up kind of for me, for Kitty,” she said. “And then I had a scene with Kurtwood where I said I needed the energy — I needed to have the house open up again.”

For both actors, coming home to each other was a big factor in returning to the franchise. Without Kitty, there is no Red, and vice versa. According to Smith, it was filming the first episode, where he and Rupp bump butts while dancing in the kitchen, when he really realized they were back. For Rupp, it was returning mementos that she took from the original set (“I took everything — everything,” she declares), including some of Red’s old flannel shirts and Kitty’s school nurse uniform. “The glass grapes, the cheese grater lights,” Rupp says as she lists out her ’70s Show set loot. 

“She had to rent a van to bring it all back,” Smith adds. 

Rupp isn’t having it. “See?” she exclaims. “Now he’s lying — he’s lying.” 

Behind the Scenes of That ’90s Show

According to co-creator / executive producer Bonnie Turner, many of the new cast would open their scripts week to week just to brag over who would get to shoot scenes with Smith and Rupp. 

“Red and Kitty have never missed a step — they’re still Red and Kitty,” Lindsay Turner says. “They fell right back into it because Debra Jo and Kurtwood came in with the characters in their bones and knew what had gone on for them in the intervening years, which was... it was incredible.”

“When you give them material, they add subtlety and elevate it and find laughs that you didn’t even know existed,” showrunner Gregg Mettler, who was a writer on the original series, says of Rupp and Smith. “[We were] live in front of an audience and Debra Jo had a raw chicken on her hand, and [I was] trying to just sort out, ‘What’s the last laugh we can get from the audience here?’ And she says, ‘I feel like there’s one more thing that Kitty can do.’”

But Rupp and Smith aren’t so interested in bragging, or even humblebragging, about Red and Kitty. In fact, they shrug off compliments in lieu of looking forward to what comes next. “I have had so many people say to me that they watched That ’70s Show with their kids, and a communication formed that wasn’t previously there. And so I’m hoping that’s found again with That ’90s Show, that there’s a different generation and new kids, and that it has that same kind of effect. That’s really what I hope for,” Rupp says. 

“I just don’t know what she was going to do with that nurse’s uniform. That’s all,” Smith says.

The Grooviest That '70s Show Easter Eggs in That '90s ShowThe more things change in the Forman house, the more they stay the same.