Fans of the popular sitcom That 70’s Show can rejoice this week, because Netflix just announced a brand new show that will essentially function as an ongoing That 70’s Show reunion. Ashton Kutcher and Danny Masterson, who played Kelso and Hyde respectively, will be teaming up for the new Netflix original series The Ranch . And Ashton Kutcher’s wife and former That 70’s Show co-star Mila Kunis could also be joining the cast.
According to Refinery 29 , The Ranch is a multi-camera sitcom that stars Ashton Kutcher and Danny Masterson as brothers who work together on their family’s ranch in Colorado. Sam Elliot has been cast to play the boys’ right-wing father and Debra Winger will be their strong-willed mother. The show will be produced by co-creators Don Reo and Jim Patterson who both worked with Ashton Kutcher on Two and a Half Men.
According to Deadline , Ashton Kutcher’s new show will tamper with the traditional sitcom format a bit. Some comedy shows use the multi-angle, multi-camera shooting method, but typically don’t film in front of a live studio audience. The Ranch will attempt to have the best of both worlds. Netflix will also give the show freedom to vary episode lengths, rely less on standard sitcom joke formula and worry less about censorship.
“We’re doing a very traditional format, with a live audience, but because we’re working with Netflix we get to explore,” Ashton Kutcher explained. “We don’t have to pump a comedic joke at the end of every scene, don’t have a 22-minute time capsule.”
Ashton Kutcher’s character has been described as a failed football player who has to leave his career as an athlete to return home to Colorado to help on the family ranch. According to Ashton Kutcher, the show is about “conservative hard-working people…in middle America,” but with the intention of showing a raw and realistic side to middle class families.
“I grew up in that family. I grew up in a really small town. It was God, church, America, and my grandfather went to church every Sunday and would drop an F-bomb here and there. It’s just real. It’s just honest. The thing we’re trying to do, as best as we possibly know, is to reflect the honesty of this world, without disrespect.”
Both Ashton Kutcher and Danny Masterson are executive producers for the show, so it may actually be within their power to get fellow That 70’s Show alum Mila Kunis on board for The Ranch. According to ET Online , Ashton Kutcher is hoping to convince other 70’s show actors join the cast, or at least pop up for a cameo.
“That is a hope for the future,” Kutcher said.
The actors joked that Masterson would have an easier time convincing Ashton Kutcher’s wife to play a part in The Ranch than he would.
“She’d do it for me if I asked her nicely,” Masterson said.
“Not for me, not so much,” Kutcher joked.
Ashton Kutcher does still keep in touchwith his former co-stars, according to E Online.
“I have a bonafide reunion every single day,” Ashton Kutcher said.
And you can see him and Masterson meeting up with another former That 70’s Show star, Wilmer Valderrama, in the Instagram photo below.
The Ranchis planned to release two seasons per year in groups of the traditional Netflix 10-episode pack. You can expect to see Ashton Kutcher, Danny Masterson and maybe some other That 70’s Showstars when the Netflix original premieres on April 1.
For more on the rocky relationship of Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis, click here .
[Photo courtesy of Ashton Kutcher/Instragram]