BLOWING IT BY BLOWING GRASS?

PASADENA -- IN THE 1970s, it was routine to see comical scenes in movies
where hip young boys and girls were getting high smoking pot. Meanwhile, on
TV, Richie Cunningham and the kids down at Arnold's Drive-In were acting
out their retro-1950s ``happy days'' with soda pop and malts.

But now that TV is starting to do retro 1970s sitcoms, will America still
think doing dope is funny? We're about to find out.

Next month, the Fox network will premiere its new fall sitcom ``That '70s
Show,'' which includes a scene in which three of the show's main characters
are stoned from smoking marijuana in the basement. We don't actually see
them toking on a joint, but we see them trying to clear the air of smoke
when a grown-up appears.

More important is the fact we see them giddy and goofy from the pot,
obviously quite pleased with the rosy glow it has given them. When one
teenager talks to his parents a few minutes later, we see the wall shifting
around behind them because we're seeing them through his eyes.

We're not supposed to be shocked. We're supposed to be laughing ourselves
silly. Message: Smoking pot is cool, especially when your folks don't catch
on.

Though the general public hasn't seen ``That '70s Show'' yet, the buzz
about it already has Fox running slightly scared. Fox Entertainment Group
President Peter Roth has asked the producers to come up with a scene that
will amount to a ``cautionary note'' to soften the blow for the millions
who probably won't find the scene funny. The show's old title -- ``Feelin'
Alright'' -- also has been dropped, no doubt because it seemed like coded
language for ``That Getting Stoned Show.''

Executive Producer Bonnie Turner clearly doesn't like the idea: ``We're
still talking to Peter. The last thing we want to do is contrive a
situation, because then it won't look like an honest show. The show is not
about drugs.''

``We're still wrestling with it,'' her husband and fellow executive
producer, Terry Turner, told TV critics. The Turners and the other
executive producer, Mark Brazill, still don't quite know how they're going
to show the consequences of smoking marijuana on that same episode, which
is expected to be the premiere show, on Aug. 23. It airs right after ``The
Simpsons,'' the animated series loved by kids, teens and adults.

Why put such a scene in a situation comedy on a Sunday night, the night
that traditionally has the largest viewing audience, especially at a time
when millions of Americans are deeply concerned about the use of drugs by
their children?

The Turners, who do ``3rd Rock From the Sun'' for NBC, say it would be
ridiculous to try doing any kind of program about 1970s teenagers without
showing some of them smoking grass.

``If we had done a show that was strictly about the clothes and the hair,
it would be a very empty show indeed,'' Terry Turner said. ``It would be
like doing `The Untouchables' and never mentioning Prohibition.''

Much of the story material in the series comes from the producers' own
experiences in the 1970s. They expected the issue to provoke discussion.

``I think there's room for a comedy to create a dialogue,'' Terry Turner
said. ``That's been relegated strictly to dramas in recent years. This is a
historical piece. This is looking back at a set of values that was in
America at the time.''

Like so many shows about teens, this one spends lots of time showing how
the kids try to pull the wool over their parents' eyes. In that same pilot
episode, the main character, Eric Foreman (Topher Grace), is told not to
take the car out of town, so he takes the car out of town, pressured by his
pals into taking them to a rock concert. The prevailing attitude involves
winking at the naturally rebellious ways of 1970s teens because,
presumably, they'll all turn out all right. Terry Turner said he'd prefer
to have the kids in the show learn the disadvantages of smoking grass in a
more natural way, over a period of time, as he did in real life.

``I'll be very honest with you,'' says Turner. ``It showed up in my life
when a girl I was with said, `I wish you wouldn't do that. You're a
complete idiot when you do that.' It was the first time it ever dawned on
me that maybe this was not the right thing to do and it wasn't cool.''

Are we living in a more repressive time for writers because TV pressure
groups are so primed to fight programs that take the ``wrong'' attitude
about certain subjects?

``There's a tendency to blame popular entertainment for the ills of the
culture,'' says Terry Turner. ``I think we might be in one of those waves
right now.''

1997 - 1998 Mercury Center. .

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski