Point Place

Point Place is a small suburban fictional town in Wisconsin, located near Kenosha, in which the television sitcom That '70s Show takes place. The town is depicted as being very small, and the recurring joke is the town having a dismally low population. It's also small enough not to have a poor area as Hyde pointed out to Jackie "there's only that one house that needs to be painted" this is contradicted as Hyde is seen as being below the poverty line, although this is sometimes contradicted by other occurrences, such as the town having its own mall, library, courtyard, hotel (and a motel) and police and fire department. According to the episode "Hey Hey What Can I Do," Point Place's economy seems to be largely built around slaughtering (a later episode reveals a roadway named "Slaughterhouse Drive" due to the fact it leads to a slaughterhouse).

Over the course of the series, Point Place is depicted as the most populated city to have ever been built from a small industrial and suburban town into a growing city during the economic downturn of the mid-to-late '70s. During the period between 1976 and 1980, small, locally-owned businesses are forced to close as aggressive chain stores move in and rust belt factories are shut down due to the fall in consumer demand. Other closings include the auto parts manufacturing plant (where Red Forman was a supervisor), a local appliance and electronics store, Bargain Bob's,(owned and operated by Bob Pinciotti), the local Foto Hut chain (owned by Leo) and the Forman & Son muffler and auto repair shop (itself built in a former local muffler business). In their stead, large chain stores such as Price Mart and Muffler Master (who purchased the Forman & Son business) moved in and opened. The eighth and final season depicted a subtle turnaround in this trend with the William Barnett-owned music chain Grooves being sold and closed, with the sole remaining store becoming the privately-owned business of Barnett’s son, Steven Hyde.

The town is depicted as a somewhat rich town. It is not really liked by most of the characters. Though Jackie thought it looks like Paris, France, a recurring gag is that the town is lightheartedly verbally bashed by some characters.

Although the location of Point Place within Wisconsin was never fixed on the program itself, the "FAQ" on the program's official Web site says, "Point Place is a fictional suburb of Green Bay, Wisconsin. This is why many Wisconsinites may recognize names of nearby towns such as Kenosha."[1] This seemed to be directly contradicted by concrete information given in several episodes,[2] such as the fact in one episode ("The Velvet Rope") it was possible to drive to Chicago, attend a party, and drive back in the course of a few hours; and in another Kelso explicitly states that Chicago is a two hour drive from Point Place. Over the course of the series many local businesses and events were identified as being in or taking place in Kenosha (Kenosha is actually 155 miles, or 249 km, from Green Bay). The name Point Place was chosen for the town because co-creator Bonnie Turner is from Toledo, Ohio where there is a section of town called Point Place. Additionally, The State of Wisconsin Department of Transportation updated a Highway Sign on I-94 to reflect an exit for Point Place outside of Kenosha. Whether or not this was done as a joke is unknown, although they removed another city from the Highway sign.

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