Red Forman
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| Reginald Albert Forman | |
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| That '70s Show character | |
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| First appearance | That '70s Show Pilot |
| Created by | Mark Brazill |
| Portrayed by | Kurtwood Smith |
| Information | |
| Nickname(s) | Red |
| Gender | Male |
| Age | 49-52 |
| Date of birth | December 7, 1927 |
| Occupation | Retired |
| Family | Eric Forman (son) Laurie Forman (daughter) Bernice Forman (mother) Marty Forman (brother) Bea and Burt Sigurdson (in-laws) Paula Sigurdson (sister-in-law) |
| Spouse(s) | Kitty Forman |
Reginald Albert Forman (born December 7, 1927), commonly known as Red, is a fictional character on The FOX Network's That '70s Show. Red Forman is played by Kurtwood Smith.
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[edit] Military service
Red enlisted in the Navy sometime after the United States entered World War II, apparently lying about his age (he would have been roughly fifteen years old at the time of his enlistment; also, Pearl Harbor was bombed on his fourteenth birthday). He apparently reached the ranking of Chief Petty Officer, as he is seen wearing the insignia on his uniform during a cookout. During the course of his service, he survived the sinking of his destroyer and fought at the Battle of Guadalcanal. He often boasts about "driving a gunboat around Okinawa." Red also saw action at Iwo Jima as implied in the pilot episode when expressing his disgust for driving a Toyota by saying, "The last time I was that close to a Japanese machine, it was shooting at me." Red also revealed that he had killed a man in combat when telling Kitty that he "once showed a Japanese soldier the inside of his own stomach." He has also seen service in Korea, and cites this as the reason for his ironclad Cold War anti-communism
[edit] Biography and personality
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He is a tough, no-nonsense father and tends to favor his daughter Laurie (Lisa Robin Kelly & Christina Moore) over his son Eric (Topher Grace), whom he considers soft, skinny, twitchy, and wimpy. He always sees Laurie as "a giant apple" instead of the mean-spirited, promiscuous person she truly is, but becomes wiser to her in the second season after finding out she lied to him about moving in with a friend when she was really living with a young man.
In one episode Kitty asks Red why he is so tough on Eric, only to have Red respond "The same reason my old man was so tough on me," indicating that he went through a similar childhood to Eric's.
Most of the time, Red treats Eric's friend Hyde (Danny Masterson), who moved in with the Formans' at the end of the first season, better than he treats his own son; perhaps this is because Red thinks Hyde is a better example of what a real young man should be, despite Hyde's anti-authority attitude. Red also shows appreciation to Hyde for his mechanical skills, evident from when he opened his own muffler store. Hyde quickly assembled muffler displays, while Eric was putting up decorations. On the other hand, a few instances have shown that Red still cares about Eric, and it is clear that Red's being hard on him is Red's way of trying to toughen Eric up to prepare him for the real world (he once stated that, as Eric's father, it was his job to make Eric a man, "which he's not"). In the final episode of season seven, as Eric was leaving for Africa, Red had a real heart-to-heart with Eric, in which he admitted he loved him and that he would miss him, culminating in a hug between father and son.
Red's hobbies include working with his power tools, drinking beer, watching television (especially sports events involving Wisconsin teams), reading the newspaper, hunting, and fishing. In general Red enjoys being left alone, and doesn't care that he has few real friends besides Kitty. He dislikes talking to his neighbors, the Pinciottis, because he might end up having to spend time with them, something which happens more than he would like. Red also enjoys killing things, such as every new batch of squirrels that appears in the spring, and the chipmunks who steal the tomatoes Kitty grows in the garden. Red often goes away on solo hunting and fishing trips when he is very angry. Eric once noted that Red found gutting worms on a hook to be very therapeutic.
Red has very specific ideas about what men can and cannot do, believing that they should keep their emotions bottled up and be skilled at physical sports like hunting and football. He does not think they should hug or express "love" for each other; he once warned Eric that if Eric told him he loved him, Red's heart would explode. He also has a hard time expressing his own emotions except when he is angry; when he was grateful to Eric for staying home to help support the family after his heart attack and Kitty's menopause, he ordered Eric to go out and mow the lawn, adding awkwardly that "the...lawn...thanks you for staying home."
Though Red often puts his own son down because he wants him to "be a man like himself," it cannot be denied that Eric is merely a younger version of his father in the sense that both have a very dry sense of humor and tend to be the sanest persons in their respective circles of friends.
As evidenced from a Halloween episode, Red was not always the "grumpy old man" he seems to be; in the early years of his and Kitty's marriage, Red was an immature man-child who spent most of his free time finding a hundred and one different ways to drink beer and would even dress up for Halloween. When he found out that Kitty was pregnant, he seemingly changed overnight, renouncing his childish ways and vowing to become a better person for his children. This is also the time where he "invented"/discovered the term "dumbass."
In general Red doesn't like Eric's friends hanging out in his home and, specifically, he dislikes Donna's parents, Bob and Midge Pinciotti. He also dislikes Kelso and Fez, though he actually likes Donna, mostly because he thinks that if Eric has a son with her he will be good at sports. Red showed some appreciation towards Jackie because she perfectly held a flashlight for him while he worked on his car while Eric was incapable of this simple task. His antagonism towards the teenagers is because Red prefers peace and quiet, believing that since he has worked hard and raised his children, he deserves time to himself to share with Kitty. In his dealings with Fez, he often refers to him as "foreign kid," and sometimes by the generic names of "Haji," "Sabu," "Ali Baba," or "Anwar." He even called Fez "Tarzan," despite Fez pointing out that Tarzan is white. It is revealed that he does know his name, calling him by it on occasions when he is drunk or very irritated at him, but simply chooses not to call him that.
Red met Kitty at a USO dance in the 1950s. Young and impetuous, he and a Navy buddy dropped their pants, showing shorts that read "Hello, Ladies" just as a younger, drunken Kitty was heading out; she bumped into Red as he was bent over. Slightly embarrassed, Red immediately corrected his pants and pulled Kitty to her feet, and fell in love with her at first sight. Years later they both had trouble remembering it, with Red insisting he punched out a Marine who was being overly rude to Kitty, but Kitty denied that. She claimed they met on a date that Red was actually on active duty. Later when they both had a drink, the memory came back, and an incredulous Red said "You bumped into my butt and fell down, and "that's" how we met?!" They both agreed to tell Eric the punching out a marine story if he ever asked, and to not mention Kitty drinking but instead say she was reading to the blind.
Red's mother Bernice Forman (Marion Ross in a guest starring role) appeared in four episodes early on in the series. She was a cantankerous old woman who constantly insulted and criticized Kitty. It turns out that when Red was younger he was dating a very wealthy woman but fell in love with Kitty and married her instead. Grandma Forman never forgave Kitty for this. In the episode rightly titled "Grandma's Dead", Eric yelled at Bernice for not treating his mother well. Consequently, and in an arguably cliched fashion, she dropped dead. We learn in this episode that "Red" is actually a nickname rather than Red's proper name, when Red says of his mother, "You know, she was the first one to call me Red."
Red is a diehard fan of the Green Bay Packers, and also supports the Milwaukee Bucks. His devotion to the Packers is matched only by his hatred of the team's NFL rivals and their fans. In one episode, Red was able to accept the homosexuality of his new neighbors (played by Brady Bunch stars Barry Williams and Christopher Knight), only to have their budding friendship turn into passionate hatred when he found out the neighbors were Minnesota Vikings fans. The joke was that Red's loathing had nothing to do with their sexual orientation, but rather the NFL team they supported. In another episode, while attending his first Packers game at Lambeau Field, he gave Eric money to go buy a souvenir, only to buy a Walter Payton jersey, much to the disdain of the Packers fans (and, of course, Red) in the stadium. The team Payton played for, the Chicago Bears, are the archrivals of the Packers.
In the fourth season, Red purchases a Corvette. He stated on numerous occasions that he had wanted one his whole life, even though he would have been already 26 by the time the first production Corvettes were introduced. In "The Good Son" he claims that he would have bought one, but he ended up with "a house and two kids instead." While on a trip, he designed a complex system to see if Eric stole it over the weekend. Eric succeeds in fooling Red, until the radio station plays. He has possession of the car until the fifth season, when he sells it thinking Kitty is pregnant.
At the beginning of the series, Red worked at a local auto parts plant, although his hours were being slashed from the start. After the plant's closure, he worked as a salesman in his neighbor Bob Pinciotti's store. After the store faced competition from the fictional "Price Mart," Red and Eric took jobs at Price Mart, although Red didn't approve of Eric working there. After recovering from his Season 5 heart attack, Red decided to open up his own muffler shop in Season 7, called "Forman and Son" (which is ironic since Eric does not work there). In Season 8, he retired, and thought about moving to Florida and "just wait around there, until I die."
Red has two brothers. His brother Jerry is mentioned by Bernice in "Sunday, Bloody Sunday." She says that Jerry has a Lincoln and is very wealthy. Red's other brother is named Marty whom Red dislikes because he is a hippie and is very in touch with his feelings. Marty was in the episode "Grandma's Dead." Marty offered to pay for Bernice's funeral in full. Red seems to be a Protestant--probably Lutheran, given the family's location in the midwest and Swedish background--based on the fact he attends the same church as Kitty (which appears to be Protestant, but no denomination is mentioned), however he is fairly non-religious.
Though Red is overbearing, old-fashioned, and tends to play favorites, he is still a good father, a loving husband, and overall a kind person at heart. He and his wife are the owners of a Wiener Dog, named Schatzi. It was revealed in the episode "Eric's Depression" that Red has at least partial Irish ancestry.
Red apparently has poor people skills, despite having an average smile and being able to fake kindness if he needed to. When Red is not angry or "typical," he is usually proud, where his best people skills shine out. Red managed to improve his skills during his time working for Bob, but later, when Bob brings it up in the seventh season Red claims they never really improved (this is when he is angry at Bob and may not be true.)
[edit] Health problems
Red's health has been the subject of humor on occasion. In the third and sixth seasons, he is briefly put on a diet that requires him to cut out red meat among other foods that he generally likes and, in stereotypical sitcom fashion, he is forced to eat "healthy" food that is good for him but tastes like garbage. On both occasions, he defied the diet by eating "real food" behind Kitty's back. When faced with mush, he comments "This isn't food - this is what food eats!" When faced with his diet in the sixth season, after his heart attack upon learning Laurie had married Fez (he has a problem with foreigners, a possible result of his time spent in the military), he throws the list of what he can't have away, explaining to Kitty that if he had known what he would be asked to give up, "I would have walked straight into that bright light and never looked back!"
At one point, shortly after finding out that Eric and Donna were engaged, Red went fishing to calm down, and comes back with the surprising news that he is proud of Eric for his initiative in moving away and becoming engaged, and even more so for his standing up to Red by insisting on marrying Donna despite Red's disapproval. A surprised Kitty and an overjoyed Eric listen while Red agrees to pay for both the wedding and Eric's college fund. He also shakes Eric's hand, proudly telling his son that he is now a man and he has his blessing. After his heart attack, which prompts Eric to stay home, as well as Eric leaving Donna at the altar, Red's attitude towards Eric does a complete reversal, and Red goes back to calling his son "dumbass," presumably due to his disappointment in Eric's failure to live up to his expectations yet again, although he told Eric that he was proud of him for deciding to stay and help the family instead of leaving for college. This reversal could be due to Eric leaving Donna at the altar and subsequently spending a year doing nothing, or the producers use of a "Reset Button" to get the status quo back.
[edit] Political leanings
Red is a blue collar conservative. In early episodes he appeared to be a conservative Democrat, but later seasons established him to be a die-hard Republican. Though he made a joke at Nixon's expense in the first season and expressed some disdain for Gerald Ford (when allowed to ask President Ford a question he said "I have a question for you, Jerry: how the hell could you pardon Nixon?") he would become annoyed with an anti-Nixon joke Eric made in the fifth season, which Eric tried to cover by replying "Nixon was framed and Kennedy was a commie," and later threw quite a diatribe at Hyde when he damned the government in hopes of distracting Red from noticing Eric was missing (who had just left for California in search of Donna). It is likely that, like many Republican voters in the 70s, Red was rather disappointed in Nixon and Ford, but afterwards leaned back to supporting the Republican Party.
Red feels strongly about the founding principles of the American government, owing to his service in the Navy. He also tries to live up to what are generally considered American "family values:" hard work, devotion to his family, and being faithful to his wife. He is disgusted by swinger sex clubs (which he considers immoral) and political corruption (on hearing that Jackie's wealthy father may be able to bribe his way out of jail, an appalled Red mutters "I'm so glad I took a piece of shrapnel to make that possible.")
Red also dislikes foreigners, which is the main reason he doesn't see eye-to-eye with Fez. One episode (Hunting) saw him taking small offense at Fez's remark of "Not everything in the Constitution makes sense" by saying, "What did you say?" However, Red's dislike stems not from racism but nationalism; he dislikes anyone and anything not from America, but has no problem with minorities who were born in the U.S. He once described Canada and France as "lesser countries," and was upset to find that his daughter Laurie's room had posters of "foreign cars" on her bedroom walls after Hyde moved into it, and generally refers to the rest of the world, apart from the United States, as "Not America." Along with Canada and France, Red also dislikes Germany, Japan and Great Britain, and though not explicitly stated, Italy (for their role in World War II). He also seems bitter about America not winning the Vietnam War, claiming "We didn't lose the war, it was a tie." In one episode while Hyde was stating a conspiracy theory about the government putting tracking devices in their brains, Red patriotically replied "If the government's putting tracking devices up your asses, you say thank you and God Bless America!"
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