Thank you so much for sharing that, Lisa! While deleted scenes would have been great, I would have also liked to see cast commentaries. They got along so well, and had real opinions on their characters (as we see DM and MK improvising Jackie/Hyde scenes) that I would have loved to hear them. I tried to listen to a couple of David Trainer's commentaries and they were really slow. He falls into the trap of a lot of commentators of having awkward pauses and just describing what's happening on-screen instead of saying something really insightful. I also loved seeing Topher talk about the show in that clip. It makes me happy to see that because he seems to have this unfair reputation among some fans as not loving his co-stars or time on the show because of that stupid E! True Hollywood special. I loved the Top 10 Episode countdown.
When I first started watching the series, I only ever really saw most of S1-S4. I don't why, but I rarely saw episodes from later seasons, and I'll never forget the experience of flipping the channel and catching a S7 episode and wondering why the hell Donna was blonde and why Jackie was sitting on Hyde's lap, and then learning T7S went on a LOT longer than I had thought. So watching that 100th episode special reminded me of how much I LOVED the Eric/Donna relationship when I first started watching before they were overshadowed by my later love for Jackie/Hyde. The reason I loved Eric/Donna so much and the reason Eric is my favorite character (well, along with Jackie) is because I was, and still am, Eric. I'm a smart-mouth, skinny white kid with tiny wrists.
My best friend was similar to Hyde in the sense that his home life wasn't stellar, and he was a honorary member of my family (and later an official one when he married my sister). So I always identified with Eric and the Eric/Donna relationship was a wonderful wish fulfillment thing for me. I WISH I had had a girl-next-door love interest who looked like Laura Prepon when I was 17, but alas, I didn't.
So I'm extremely happy "The Promise Ring" was on that list because it's one of my favorite episodes of the show, and my #1 favorite episode for Donna's character. While I'm not one of those fans who hate Donna for getting mad at Eric, I do understand why fans would be frustrated because the writers didn't really do much with her in S3 besides have her get mad at him nearly every episode. "Too Old To Trick or Treat, Too Young to Die", "Hyde's Father", "Baby Fever", "Eric's Panties", "Jackie Bags Hyde", "Ice Shack", "Donna's Panties", "Radio Daze", "Who Wants It More", "Romantic Weekend" and "Backstage Pass" all feature Donna getting really upset with Eric. Her reasons for getting mad at Eric range from unjustified ("Backstage Pass") , totally justified ("Donna's Panties") to hilarious ("Eric's Panties"), but it is a big portion of the season. So while I don't agree with fans who hate Donna with a passion and I think they exaggerate things, I do understand why fans would be tired of her. That's why I'm glad for the break-up at the end of S3 because it seemed like the writers had been in sort of a holding pattern with the Eric/Donna relationship and with Donna herself. I'm grateful for "The Promise Ring" because I feel like it's one of the few episodes that really explores things from Donna's point of view. I love the parallel with the Bob/Midge relationship as Donna clearly loves and wants to be with Eric but at the same time, she's only 17. She doesn't know what'll happen and she's still trying to figure out what she wants for HERSELF, and he doesn't know how to handle it. So even though their break-up at the end of the episode breaks my heart, I still love the scene because it is completely true to the characters and I don't blame Donna one bit. It's interesting that Hyde and Jackie face essentially the same problem in S7 but the writers completely drop the ball with it. So I'm glad "The Promise Ring" made it on there because it never struck me as an episode that was extremely beloved even though I really love it. I don't know why, maybe it's Jackie/Hyde being a more interesting couple or just the quality of the writing in later seasons, but the Eric/Donna relationship isn't as interesting or dear to me in S5-S7 as it was in S1-S4. I mean, I still enjoy them together in S5-S7, it just doesn't touch me or pull at my heartstrings like it did in S1-S4. Though I do love the ending scene with them in "The Seeker" (despite hating Eric standing her at the wedding) and another reason I am able to tolerate the S8 finale is because I also love the reunion scene between them due to the way Topher and Laura play it.
Oh wow, that was really rambly. I didn't intend to go on that long. But there were some good picks for that list. But... "A New Hope"! Really? "A New Hope" is a least favorite episode of mine because of the ending scene where Eric just totally disrespects Donna by saying that the only reason he's with her is to get into her pants. It's an incredibly disgusting scene and reminiscent of S8's character assassinations. I don't know Donna didn't just break up with him on the spot, but the writers did a good thing by totally ignoring it because I don't know if Eric could have came back from saying that.