8th Season and Series Finale
The character of Eric Forman was written out of the series at the end of the seventh season, as Topher Grace desired to move on with his career. Ashton Kutcher switched to a recurring guest role when he also chose to depart following the seventh season. However, Kelso hadn't been written out yet; so to give better closure to the character, Kutcher appeared in the first four episodes of the eighth season (credited as a special guest star) and later returned for the finale. Tommy Chong (who began reappearing by late season 7 after a long absence) became a regular again to help fill Kelso's job as group idiot. Jackie and Hyde became the show's new central characters focusing on their relationships and jobs (Jackie with Fez and Hyde with Samantha). Eric was originally supposed to be replaced by his new friend Charlie, played by Bret Harrison, who proved fairly popular with audiences, but the character was killed off after Harrison was offered a lead role in the series The Loop. A new character named Randy Pearson, played by Josh Meyers, was introduced to take Eric's place. Another new character, Samantha, a stripper played by Judy Tylor, was added as Hyde's wife for nine episodes. Both Eric and Kelso returned for the series' final episode, though Grace's role was uncredited. The location of the show's introduction was also changed from the Vista Cruiser to The Circle.
The eighth season was announced as the final season of the show on January 17, 2006, and "That '70s Finale" was filmed a month later on February 17, 2006, first airing on May 18, 2006.
According to the DVD commentary of episode 25 of season 7 by director Trainer, Harrison's character Charlie was considered as a possible replacement for Foreman, an "innocent character". A pilot including him as a main character for season 8 was filmed at the end of 2005 but was never aired because Harrison wanted to leave the show for other projects. His character was then written out of the series in episode 1 of season 8, and Pearson was added as a new character.
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