The Big Picture
- Laurie Forman, played by Lisa Robin Kelly, was an integral and beloved character in That ’70s Show, known for her sociopathic personality and venomous love triangle with Kelso and Jackie.
- Kelly’s portrayal of Laurie was immersive and relatable, making her departure and subsequent recasting with Christina Moore a disappointment for fans.
- Kelly faced personal struggles with alcohol addiction and ultimately passed away in 2013, leaving a void in the show and a lasting impact on her co-stars and fans.
That ‘70s Show was one of the biggest shows that Fox had to offer back in the ‘90s. A hit from its very first season in 1998, it would launch a number of its young cast to stardom, and become one of the most beloved and talked about shows of its era. It had so much going for it: an absolutely perfect cast who bounced off each other as only real friends can do, sharp, witty writing, and a delicious nostalgia which by modern standards is an industry in itself. While its six young leads formed the backbone of the show, it also stood out for its brilliant cast of supporting characters: Tommy Chong’s Leo is a firm fan favorite, while the endless marital woes of the Pinciottis and Fez’s hilarious ongoing feud with Fenton provide very amusing background noise to the kids’ antics. But easily one of the most enjoyable, and most integral, side characters is Laurie Forman, the manipulative, older sister of main protagonist Eric.
Laurie was played by Lisa Robin Kelly, who had been consistently working in television and film by the time she landed the gig on That ‘70s Show. Her early filmography boasted a laundry list of hit shows, from Married…With Children and The X-Files to Days of Our Lives and Fantasy Island, so surely it was just a matter of time before her big break came. As a working actor, she could probably never have dreamed that her breakout role would end up being on such a popular and influential piece of media as That ‘70s Show, and when it took off, it seemed that the only way was up for this talented young performer.
Laurie Was Integral To ‘That ’70s Show’
The character of Laurie had a great warm-up introduction with the first season of the show, showing up here and there to impart her sociopathic wisdom and ruin Eric’s (Topher Grace) life piece by piece. As the show gained momentum, Laurie became more prominent, playing a more central role to the various plot lines, including the venomous love triangle with Kelso (Ashton Kutcher) and Jackie (Mila Kunis). By Season 2, she was a core component of the main cast, with Kelly’s name and image appearing in the beloved opening credits sequence in the Vista Cruiser. Midway through the third season, however, Laurie’s lack of direction in life is getting to her parents, and they encourage her to pursue a trade. It is at this point that she enrolls in beauty school, leaving Point Place and the show itself for more than a whole season. She is certainly missed for the duration of season four, but thankfully, her return is right around the corner.
Season 5 is where things get messy with Laurie. She returns to the show in Episode 8, and although she has been somewhat changed by her experiences away from the comfort of the Forman home, it is a welcome pleasure to see Laurie back in this familiar setting and interacting with the gang again. And if anything, it looks like her role in the show is more concrete than ever, with the season finale revealing that she has married Fez so that he can remain in the country. Naturally, her father Red (Kurtwood Smith) is far from amused that his darling little girl has shackled herself to “the foreign kid,” and this turn of events causes a rage-induced heart attack. It’s quite the cliffhanger for the season finale, and one that promises a lot of drama and laughs when it picks up.
Christina Moore Takes Over the Role of Laurie Forman
But then, something happens: Laurie returns for Season 6 completely different. For one, she is no longer played by the cat-like Kelly, but by the more typical valley-girl-looking Christina Moore, then known for her work on MADtv. For another, her energy is all different, with a calmer and less emotional approach to her delivery and interactions and a more standard sitcom feeling of waiting for her turn to speak scripted lines. To put it bluntly, that evil spark that Laurie Forman so embodied was gone. Kelly’s portrayal of Laurie was so immersive and believable that she never felt like a character, but a real person. She was the kind of girl that everybody has had the displeasure of knowing at some point in their lives, and it was this relatability that made her such a joy to watch. Among some fans, this recasting signaled the beginning of the end for That ‘70s Show, which would later culminate in the introduction of the widely-loathed character of Randy.
Laurie would last just six further episodes, before being written out completely and only getting the odd mention from other characters for the remainder of the show’s run. Her presence was sorely missed, and the Laurie that everyone remembered fondly, the one played by Lisa Robin Kelly, was the version of the character that fans love to this day. As difficult a job as Moore had, and as much as she gave her all to it, her contribution to That ‘70s Show is a mere footnote these days, and one that a lot of viewers tend to willingly forget.
Why Did Kelly Leave the Show?
So what was going on behind the scenes? What could explain this sudden and unexpected shakeup of such a beloved character? Well, years after Kelly’s disappearance from the show, a few differing explanations were offered. Kelly herself explained in a heartbreaking interview with ABC News’ Abbie Boudreau in 2012 that during the show’s early seasons, she had suffered a miscarriage, which caused a rapid decline in her mental health. She developed an alcohol issue as a result which devastated her professional and personal lives, and in the end, she “lost it.” “With the ‘70s Show, I was guilty of a drinking problem, and I ran,” she told Boudreau.
After Kelly’s tragic alcohol-related death just a year later in 2013, co-star Tanya Roberts, who played Donna’s lovably airheaded mom Midge, told OMG! Insider that Kelly’s drinking problem impeded her work, and show producers sent her to rehab twice in order to help her and save her job, something she deemed “a hell of a lot for producers to do.” It would appear that those working on the show recognized just how valuable Kelly was to That ‘70s Show, and were willing to go to considerable lengths to get her through her struggles. However, Roberts claimed that “they brought her back to the show and then they weren’t happy with her performance so they let her go, which was probably a tremendous hardship for her.” This would explain Laurie’s absence for Season 4 and welcome return in Season 5. Between Kelly’s and Roberts’ accounts of this troubled time, it seems likely that everybody involved decided that Kelly’s personal struggles were not conducive to the pressure of working on a popular long-running series, and that she couldn’t continue as she was.
What Happened After Kelly Left ‘That ’70s Show’?
The saddest part of it all is that Kelly never seemed to recover what she lost. OMG! Insider reports that from 2010 to the time of her death in 2013, she was arrested four times on various DUI and assault charges, all the while battling a crippling alcohol addiction that would land her in the California rehab center where she died on August 15. Her filmography from the early 2000s onwards is empty but for a short film titled SUX2BME, which she and many others had hoped would be the start of her redemption arc. Her death shook ‘70s Show fans and co-stars alike, with Debra Jo Rupp telling OMG! Insider, “I just know that when people have trouble like that there’s a lot of sadness. I loved her, I loved her, she was so good in that part.”
It is truly saddening to see the vicious downfall that Kelly experienced after the glittering heights of her work on That ‘70s Show. She was an immensely talented actor, who brought so much wit and light to her role and to the show as a whole. She was irreplaceable, as Moore’s short stint quickly proved, and the unfortunate truth is that Kelly was so brilliant that the character probably should have just been written off once Kelly left the show. Despite her long term troubles, Lisa Robin Kelly was an absolute asset to a fantastic show, and she left her mark on it firmly. Laurie will always be remembered by fans as an integral cog in the ‘70s machine that the show would never really function properly without.
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Khushi Patel is a science fiction author who lives in Austin, Texas. She has published three novels, and her work has been praised for its originality and imagination. Khushi is a graduate of Rice University, and she has worked as a software engineer. She is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, and her books have been nominated for several awards.
