Kurtwood Smith And Debra Jo Rupp On Red, Kitty And ‘That ‘90s Show’ Part 3

Talking with Kurtwood Smith and Debra Jo Rupp about That ‘90s Show and its predecessor is like talking with old friends.

After all, the beloved actors played the classic Point Place, Wisconsin, couple Red and Kitty Forman from 1998 to 2006 on Fox Television’s That ‘70s Show. In their return with That ‘90s Show on Netflix in 2023, it feels like Red and Kitty are still there, waiting for you to drop by for a nice visit.

If there are any differences, it’s only that funniest parents in in television have turned into the funniest grandparents in television.

Fans will get a lot more of Smith and Rupp’s indelible sense of humor with the debut of That ‘90s Show Part 3 on Netflix on Thursday. Appropriately, the ending of Part 3 includes a line of dialogue that features Red’s famous insult, combined with a creative variation of said famous insult.

While the context of the line won’t be revealed, Red says, “That is the most dumbass thing that has ever been … dumbassed!”

“We certainly made good use of the word, didn’t we?” Smith said, smiling, during a Zoom conversation Tuesday.

Forbes‘That ‘90s Show’ Star On Playing Red And Kitty’s Granddaughter And Acting In A Time WarpBy Tim Lammers

The D-word, of course, has largely been absent from That ‘90s Show to date, but Part 3 more than makes up for it.

“It didn’t occur to me until we were all the way through the first season that I never actually called anybody a dumbass,” Smith recalled. “I’m so used to calling people dumbasses when we’re not on television that it really hasn’t registered with me.”

Among the people Smith has called a “dumbass” in real life are fans of the shows, but of course, it’s never done in a mean-spirited sort of way. In fact, Smith said, it’s what fans want to hear from him.

“People come up to me and ask me to call them a ‘dumbass.’ I don’t understand why people want to be called a ‘dumbass,’ but there it is,” Smith said with a laugh. “So, it hadn’t really registered with me that we didn’t use it on the show. I think the writers were waiting for an appropriate moment.”

In the same Zoom conversation, Rupp feels the reason Red’s famous insult has largely been absent from the series to this point stems from the way Red and Kitty have subtly changed since That ‘70s Show.

That ‘90s Show, after all, begins in 1995, and fans of the original series may have noticed that some of Rupp’s Kitty-isms have largely been absent, too.

“We’re in different places now than we were in That ‘70s Show. We’re not parents, so we don’t have the same kind of rules that parents have now. We’re grandparents, so it’s very freeing,” Rupp observed. “So, with Kitty’s laugh, we don’t use it as much in That ‘90s Show because it’s a nervous thing for Kitty and I’m not put in that position that often as a grandparent right now. But when I am, I will use it.”

That ‘90s Show, of course, is appropriately still set in the fictional That ‘70s Show town of Point Place, Wisconsin, but many of the teens featured in the original series have grown up and moved away.

Instead, the series features a whole new generation of teenagers for Red and Kitty to deal with, beginning with their granddaughter Leia Forman (Callie Haverda)—the daughter of Eric and Donna (Topher Grace and Laura Prepon)—who spends summers with her grandparents.

Leia quickly makes new friends in Point Place, including two teens Gwen (Ashley Aufderheide) and her brother, Nate (Maxwell Acee Donovan), as well as Ozzie (Reyn Doi) and Kikki (Sam Morelos). Rounding out the group is Leia’s boyfriend Jay Kelso (Mace Coronel), who much to Red’s chagrin is the son of Michael and Jackie (Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis).

Part 3 of That ‘90s Show finds Leia and her friends doing what teens do in Point Place, which means hanging out in Red and Kitty’s basement. But in addition to smoking weed and getting into more trouble than they have ever been before, the hormone count in the teens has been turned up to 11, leading to some unforeseen responsibilities that they need to deal with.

In addition to reprising Donna in That ‘90s Show Part 3, Prepon does double duty and directs some of the episodes.

Rupp And Smith Have More Say On ‘That ‘90s Show’ As Executive Producers

Behind the scenes, perhaps the biggest difference between That ‘70s Show and That ‘90s Show is that creatively, both Debra Rupp and Kurtwood Smith have a bigger stake in the series as executive producers.

As a result, Rupp’s already indelible voices as Kitty and Red have more resonance when it comes to maintaining the integrity of the original series.

“We both knew [co-creator/showrunner] Greg Mettler coming it and I trusted Greg, but in the same token, whatever piece of reassurance you can get, you take it,” Smith said. “So, for me, it allowed for me to ask questions I might not normally ask as an actor, like, ‘Where are we going with this?’ That’s not always my business. But as an executive producer you’re entitled to that information, so I thought that was a better way to start out.”

Before Rupp could talk about her new behind-the-scenes responsibility on That ‘90’s Show, Smith jokingly added, “Debra Jo doesn’t realize she’s an executive producer, don’t tell her. It will make her all kinds of bananas. It will be terrible.”

Truth be told, however, Rupp said the transition from an actor on That ‘70s Show to actor-producer on That ‘90s Show has been so smooth that she really hasn’t noticed.

“I don’t think it makes any kind of big difference because I think they would have shared anything we wanted to know anyway,” Rupp said. “They put a great deal of trust into Kurtwood and me and we know the characters really well.”

Then, returning a playful jab at her co-star, Rupp added with a laugh, “Kurtwood loves the idea that he’s an executive producer. I, frankly, am not sure what that means, so I just go about my business and do my acting and have a great time.”

ForbesDog Documentary Debuts Big On Netflix Global Top 10 Movies ChartBy Tim Lammers

Rupp said one of the things she’s been conscious of as an executive producer of That ‘90s Show is how the series needs to accurately reflect 1990s.

“For a while, there, I was the ‘90s police because we have some young writers,” Rupp said. “We have a wide range of writers but for the younger ones who didn’t live in the ‘90s, they would write words that are very modern to me and I would have to go, ‘No, we did not say that.’ I have to say that toward the end, though, I kind of gave up doing it because what they wrote was really funny. It’s a hard thing to do, to stay within the decade. “

Part of staying in the 1990s also means That ‘90s Show needs to maintain the humor of the decade. As such, That ‘90s Show lets funny be funny without worrying about offending anybody in today’s overly-sensitive times. Besides, if Smith or Rupp think things go too far, their roles as executive producers allow for them to press on the brakes whenever it is needed.

“I think if Debra Jo or I were uncomfortable with anything we had to say for any reason, whether we thought it was out of date for that particular episode, we would feel a lot freer about going to them and saying, ‘Maybe we dropped too many F-bombs this season, maybe we want to tone that down a little bit,’ Smith said. “I don’t think any of us would feel shy about doing that.”

If you’re wondering about how That ‘90s Show uses F-bombs in Part 3, just remember the 1990s gave rise to writer-director Quentin Tarantino with his movie classic Pulp Fiction.

As such, it gave Rupp and Smith the perfect opportunity to recreate an iconic scene where they channeled John Travolta’s Vincent Vega and Samuel L. Jackson’s Jules Winnfield, respectively. The scene allows them to drop a couple F-bombs, which are bleeped for comedic effect.

“It was pretty hard to keep a straight face with that scene,” Smith said, smiling.” That was lots of fun.”

All eight episodes of That ‘90s Show Part 3 are streaming on Netflix.

ForbesMark Wahlberg On Becoming ‘The Jersey James Bond’ For ‘The Union’By Tim Lammers