PEOPLE Online | FRESH FACES - Topher Grace 10/5/98

That '70s Show (FOX, Sun., 8:30 p.m.ET)

It's tough enough being the star of a new sitcom without being born two years after its 1976 setting. "I have to ask things like, `Who is Nipsey Russell?' and `What was Petticoat Junction?'" says That '70s Show's Grace, 20. He might never have found out had he not impressed the show's creators Bonnie and Terry Turner during his audition for the role of '70s high schooler Eric Foreman. "He just kept nailing it," says Terry. Despite a crash course in the '70s from studying such movies as Saturday Night Fever and Boogie Nights, Topher admits he still has a lot to learn. "Sometimes I look at the clothes," he says, "and I wonder, `What the hell were they thinking?'"

THE BUZZ "He has a likable quizzicality that helps make That '70s Show surprisingly funny," says Kelleher.