Flashback to the groovy '70s

Show makes it seem pretty funny now

Tune in, turn on, drop off the couch laughing.

My favorite series of the new TV season premieres Sunday night at 8:30 on Fox and Global: That '70s Show, brought to you by the cultural fun-pokers behind those Brady Bunch and Wayne's World movies and TV's 3rd Rock From The Sun.

Forget what you've heard.

To mistake this show for a sort of Dazed And Confused: The Series just because it has drug elements would do an injustice to its underlying intelligence and its stylistic ambition. Think of it as the sitcom equivalent to The Ice Storm. You know, same human behavior ripe for mockery -- but without that nasty electrocution business.

The nostalgia runs deeper than the kitschy stuff that we all remember, like lava lamps, fake wood panelling and wide pants, to what we may have forgotten, like that it was considered virtual treason to drive a foreign car.

Scene-breaks are signalled by yellow smileys or the famous Farrah Fawcett pink swimsuit poster coming to life to belt out a rock song.

A coming-of-age story about 17-year-olds in 1976 suburban Wisconsin, the show focuses on four good but desperately bored teens: Eric (Topher Grace) is a basically conservative kid who calls his father "Sir" or, if Dad is in an especially formidable mood, "God." Donna (Laura Prepon) is Eric's neighbor, a little more mature than the boys in the group. Hyde (Danny Masterson) is one of those kids who won't really come into his own until adulthood and so is settling for being a wiseacre. Kelso (Anton Kutcher) is the David Cassidy-maned gullible one.

Satellites to their circle are Kelso's spoiled, whiny girlfriend Jackie (Mila Kunis) and foreign exchange student Fez (Wilmer Valderrama, a potential break-out star).

These six strong newcomers are backed up by great casting in the parental roles: Debra Jo Rupp and the inimitable Kurtwood Smith as Eric's folks, Don Stark and Tanya Roberts -- Tanya Roberts, ladies and gentlemen! -- as Donna's mom and dad.

Nothing much happens in the first episode, another accurate reflection of suburban teenagehood. Eric and his friends sneak off to a Todd Rundgren concert. Kelso almost breaks up with Jackie.

It manages anyway to be very, very funny, the comedy fuelled by behavioral details that ring true: Girls who must go to the ladies' room in pairs, lighters held aloft at concerts, non-sequitur post pot-smoking conversations that seem cutting-edge to the participants.

As for the issue of drug use, yes, these teens do smoke pot -- off-screen -- in the first episode and there is a stoner-eye view scene in which Eric sees the kitchen walls move while his parents lecture him on responsible driving. (He doesn't, note, drive under the influence.)

The kids suck helium, too. You think that's good for your brain cells? Adults did a lot more social drinking back then, too, and that's in there as well.

Not only is it funny, it's also accurate. How much credibility could a series about teens in the '70s keep if it was totally drug-free?

Besides, if we hadn't done some stuff back then that makes us shake our heads now, this wouldn't be so funny.