msstock87

I can see that being the case!

officialgamora

Personally I thought teaching wasnt too far off but maybe that's bc i dont know what I would see him doing other than that

MistyMountainHop

Ooh, interesting! The T7S fandom seems to be split on whether or not Eric would actually be into teaching.

The main reasons I don't think teaching is his passion that we're not given any indication throughout the course of the series that this is the case. He's not super into school and learning. In "Who Wants It More" (3x11), his enthusiasm for his joint essay with Donna stems from his ego and feeling competitive with her.

He seems to be consistently passionate about three things on the show: 1) Donna (and adjunct to this: sex with Donna ), 2) Star Wars, and 3) action figures. But career-wise, we get nada.

Colleen, cool! It's not just meeeee.

Grazzhopper

He could open up his own comic slash collectible shop.

MistyMountainHop

A Jackie/Eric fic by Marla's Lost has Eric do just that!

Grazzhopper

I can see that, at least he'd deal in stuff that he likes all day.

MistyMountainHop

Eric's Diary Entry: #11

---

You Must Be This Tall to Eat Here

I've had it! I´m not working weekend afternoons at the restaurant anymore. I´m telling Roy, my manager, to take me off the Saturday and Sunday lunch shifts. I´m a good waiter, and I can handle the difficult customers, but I cannot handle the most difficult customers of all: the ones under twelve. They are the messiest, loudest most demanding bunch of customers I've ever met.

And, really, their parents aren't much better. It would never even cross my mind to order something that´s not on the menu. That´s the point of a menu: to let you know what´s available in this restaurant. Yet these parents continue to try and order peanut butter and jelly. It says very distinctly on the kids´ menu: hamburger, grilled cheese, or fish sticks. That´s it! There´s no little note at the bottom that says, "Oh, by the way, we have peanut butter and jelly. We just don´t tell you because it's more fun to make you guess." Yet they continue to ask, and I don´t even know why since ninety percent of whatever they order ends up on the floor.

There ought to be a law that says children aren't allowed to go out to eat until they're thirteen. In fact, I'm going to vote for the next candidate who runs on that platform. Hey, maybe I should run for office. I´m sure every waiter in the state of Wisconsin would vote for me. I could be the first governor/waiter -- passing legislation and refilling your coffee across the state. But I´m getting ahead of myself. Right now I need to focus on getting off the afternoon schedule ... and making sure the ketchups get refilled at the beginning of my shift.

---

That ‘70s Show diary entries copyright The Carsey-Werner Company, LLC and Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment, LLC.

Grazzhopper

I feel you, Eric...

MistyMountainHop

I had a feeling you would.

Grazzhopper

Yes, very much. Children! In public places!

MistyMountainHop

Guess you and Eric would have more than Star Wars to talk about.

Dr.PP

Do you think Eric's insecurity would've been any different if the gang & parents & strangers weren't always ribbing him about his looks or interests? True everyone took shots at eachother, but often other factors & events in the characters lives would contradict said shots. While for some characters like Eric, were rarely validated against such shots.

Some of the unflattering characterization seems to come from his jealousy & clinginess with Donna, which might've been different if his looks were like Casey, Kelso or even Hyde. I'm not saying the criticism is without merit, but think about the times like when he couldn't get into the club with Donna, or backstage & could you imagine him being called "Hot Eric" at a radio station promotional booth? The friends in the gang were always playfully pawing at Donna, but Jackie never had much of a compliment for Eric. I guess within the framework of being the dynamic set up in T7S regarding archetypes & it reflecting actual culture, I see less empathy for him by viewers than critcisms.

I think the Mitch was a good foil for Eric, as Mitch's petiness, spiteful one-ups-manship & pervertedness were magnified exagerations of some of Eric's immature traits for Eric to see reflected back. I think Eric saw through his bratty facade though & tried to give him a chance numerous times because he saw this.

MistyMountainHop

Definitely. His friends (and experiences with other people) often exacerbated his insecurities. If, instead, his friends had supported him in that sense -- as Donna usually does -- he might've accepted the kind of man he is, and Donna wouldn't have had to suffer the brunt of his insecurity about himself and their relationship.

In "Donna Dates a Kelso" (4x16), Eric is named the Most Eligible Viking at school. His confidence turns into arrogance, and he uses his new status to (try to) hurt Donna passive-aggressively. I think if Eric would've had true confidence in himself from the get-go, though, he wouldn't have been cocky about it. He would've just been confident/secure with himself.

I don't believe Donna takes that as "playful pawing". She doesn't like it. She -- rightfully -- feels disrespected because her supposed friends invade her boundaries. While she's Eric's girlfriend, Kelso puts his hand on her butt (Red Sees Red ["3x02"]), and he continues to do so after she tells him to knock it off. He also kisses her neck without her permission in "Roiller Disco" (3x05) in an attempt to make out with her (and possibly do more). He repeatedly tries to grope her breast in "Love, Wisconsin-Style" (4x27). Fez snaps a picture up Donna's skirt. And Hyde forces a kiss on her after she's repeatedly and consistently told him she's not interested in him that way.

Mitch. He's one character I would've preferred not to be on the show.

Dr.PP

It's unfortunate that Eric couldn't just know that Donna loves him & not second guess it. It's not like it was an elusive or more shifting dynamic like Winnie Cooper & Kevin Arnold where she wasn't sure exactly how she felt all the time. It reminds me of that Rolling Stone cover where John Lennon is naked with eyes closed & Yoko is clothed with open eyes. Kind of a 70's parallel regarding shifting paradigms.


Yeah, I wasn't crazy about Mitch either, as he was really abrasive with no resolved redeeming qualities or arc. I just mentioned him because he does exactly what Eric did with the most eligible viking thing all the time. He did that sort of throwing things in her face thing a few other times too if I remember. So I thought Eric could've learned that sometimes maybe that's how he acts toward his friends & why they don't like it anymore than he likes dealing with Mitch's self defeating pride.

Didn't Hyde make a pass at Donna at the disco? Didn't he know about how Eric & her felt? Then there's Fez, need I say more? I didn't mean to say Donna didn't mind, but the way it was depicted was that she tried to roll through it like being being friends with them is part of it, instead of just choosing different friends who respect her boundaries. On the show, like many sitcoms the audience laughs at the situational humor written as guy gets handsy or says things, woman physically retaliates or verbally humiliates as the punchline, numbskull guys learn nothing, rinse- repeat. I think it's kinda cheap like flatulance jokes. That formula is not flattering to characters of either gender.

I know it's a comedy, but I'm a sucker for when T7S had it's rare sincere moments. It's nice there wasn't a lot of heavy drama & it was interesting to watch naive characters have their coming of age moments & parents reconfiguring the relationships with their children as they're growing into adults amidst all the joking around.

MistyMountainHop

Yeah. Donna would've been a lot happier about that, too.

He's an antagonist, pure and simple. He bullies Fez. He bullies and manipulates Eric. He forces himself on Donna. He's overall an unpleasant character and unfunny.

If only. But Eric gets too caught up in Mitch's manipulations to think about that kind of thing.

Season-1 Hyde (pre-"Prom Night") is a mess. He repeatedly pursues Donna, ignoring her consistent nos, out of total selfishness. Her needs and desires don't matter. Only his do. He was being used as a villainous foil to Eric, to show how much of a good person Eric is (for Donna) in contrast. It's a good thing the writers did a total overhaul of his character(ization), turning him essentially into the opposite of who he is during the first episodes of the series.

It's a case of the writers not thinking very deeply about that situation. We rarely, if ever, see Donna's reaction about how her guy friends objectify her after the fact, only in the moment. Considering how Donna is characterized, I doubt she'd accept that behavior from anyone more than once. She would've laid down the law, said, "Not like that," and if her guy friends didn't respect her afterward, they wouldn't have been her friends anymore.

Agreed. It does a disservice to both women and men.

At its best, T7S is a show that is able to make us laugh while also giving us deep and thoughtful character development. When characterization is put first, the humor is generally better. When the punchline is put first, characterization suffers immensely.