Top 10 TV Hangouts

7. The Formans’ Basement – That '70s Show

Unlike most of the hangouts on this list, the iconic hangout on That '70s Show isn’t a bar or restaurant, though, sometimes, it may just as well have been. Their hangout was far more personal, lived in, and served many functions. The Formans’ basement was where the show’s characters gathered to discuss the hilarious dramas unfolding in their lives and served as the primary setting for all those substance-assisted discussions around The Circle that the show was known for. It was a place hidden away from responsibilities and adult influences – though Mrs. Forman often had a way of breaking things up, as mothers tend to do. In the fourth season episode “Bye-Bye Basement,” Eric defended his claim on the basement when his mother proposed redoing it by referring to it as his “Batcave,” and sabotaged her contractors’ judgment by inviting them into The Circle, resulting in Leo’s cousin’s artistic masterpiece, Basement… Two Inches to the Left, which preserved the basement as it was originally… only with everything moved two inches to the left. Unlike Batman’s base of operations, though, the basement was a hub for characters of the regular, recurring, and one-timer varieties, and the basement even played host to the characters’ debauched parties. The basement on That '70s Show was the setting where many of the show’s most hilarious moments took place, and served as a means to gather the characters together. If there were ever better proof of this, it would be the fact that the basement even became the dwelling place of the show’s second most acerbic character, Steven Hyde – an arrangement that not even Red, the show’s most acerbic character, seemed to mind! Even after the departure of Topher Grace, who played Eric, the writers still worked the basement into the final season of the show, despite nobody in the main cast of characters having any blood relations with the Formans.