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There are many TV shows that have tried to capture what it means to be a teenager. Some go for melodrama, while others are meant to be funny. That ’70s Show, a hilarious sitcom that aired on Fox, falls into the latter category. Many of the scenes in the show take place in the basement at the Forman residence in Point Place, Wisconsin. 17-year-old Eric Forman (Topher Grace) spends his time down there with his friends Michael Kelso (Ashton Kutcher), Steven Hyde (Danny Masterson), foreign-exchange student they call Fez (Wilmer Valderrama), and his girl next-door love interest Donna Pinciotti (Laura Prepon). One other frequent basement guest is Kelso’s on-again, off-again girlfriend Jackie Burkhart (Mila Kunis). This character is treated as an annoying nuisance at first, but eventually she ingratiates herself into the friend group.
That ’70s Show wouldn’t be the same without Jackie. She can turn the name «Michael» into a reprimand by the inflection of her voice and her posture, hands on hips and eyes narrowing. Donna comes to Jackie for love advice, albeit usually pretty bad and outdated. Jackie also ends up dating not only Michael but also Hyde and Fez. The character could be easily annoying, but through her performance, Mila Kunis makes her likable and genuinely funny. It’s incredible to think that she wasn’t technically old enough to be on the show. One lie changed the course of TV history forever when Kunis told the creators of the show, Mark Brazill and Bonnie and Terry Turner, that she was eighteen. In reality, the up-and-coming star was only fourteen when she landed the part of Jackie Burkhart.
The Creators of That '70s Show Already Loved Mila Kunis
Fox was asking only older teenagers to audition for parts on That ’70s Show. That little stipulation didn’t stop Mila Kunis from auditioning anyway when she was only fourteen years old. At the time, the actress was just getting started in her career. She had smaller roles in shows like Days of Our Lives, Hudson Street, Baywatch, and 7th Heaven. She also starred in the critically panned TV movie remake of Piranha in 1995. That ’70s Show was her big break.
Mila Kunis was born in Ukraine but moved to Los Angeles when she was seven years old. Two years later, her father heard about an acting class on the radio. Her father gave her the push she needed, but Kunis took her career into her own hands from there. She wasn’t going to let a pesky little thing like her age stop her from nabbing a life-changing role like the one she got as Jackie Burkhart on That ’70s Show.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Mila Kunis went into more detail about the audition process for That ’70s Show. She states:
There’s a rumor going around that I may or may not have lied about my age. I’d like to make it very clear now that I did lie. I did. However, by the time I went to what was then a producer’s network call…you have to sign a contract before you get the job and in my contract I had to put an asterisk for ‘studio teacher.’ They were like, ‘What do you mean?’ And I was like, ‘Oh P.S., I’m 14.’ But at that point if you talk to the creators, they were like, ‘We loved you at that point so what did we care?’”
Personality is what got Mila Kunis so far when auditioning for That ’70s Show. She made Jackie the character that she was, and the creators liked what they saw. They didn’t want to recast upon learning the truth of her age. It’s a good thing they didn’t, since Jackie is one of the most memorable TV characters of the early 2000s. Once the show’s creators and cast discovered that Mila Kunis was fourteen, they took great care to cultivate an appropriate environment for her. Kunis noted in the same interview that she didn’t do and still doesn’t do drugs because nobody on the set was doing them. She looked up to her older costars, and they acted as role models for her.
The writing of Jackie’s character, meanwhile, never branched into a territory that was too audacious for a fourteen-year-old. There’s even one episode in season one where she makes a point of telling Donna that she and Michael have never had sex. He was just pretending as though they had in order to seem cool in front of his friends. For the most part, the writers took care to make her character as age-appropriate as possible given the content.
Jackie Burkhart Is Still Mila Kunis's Most Iconic Role to Date
That ’70s Show ran for eight seasons, two-hundred episodes, making it Fox’s second-longest-running live action sitcom after Married with Children. It’s hard not to spend that much time in a role and not become famous for it. Mila Kunis has done great work since she first landed the role of Jackie Burkhart in 1998, but she will forever be known for the character. There are worse legacies to have as an actress. Jackie is one of the standout characters of That ’70s Show, and she has hilarious moments in some of the best episodes of the sitcom.
For instance, in the season five Halloween episode, the crew discovers that Jackie’s middle name is Beulah. As a vain girl who cares about her image, she gets fairly embarrassed. However, the moment is played for laughs because of her reaction to it. In another episode in season four, Jackie gives Donna «24 hours of Jackie Time,» which includes a sleepover. Jackie tells Donna that «books are for prisoners.» Jackie Burkhart was consistently unapologetic about who she was as a person. She even tells Eric’s mom Kitty (Debra Jo Rupp) in season seven:
Mrs Forman, I’m a beautiful girl with a shrill and demanding voice. I’m pretty hard to ignore.
That kind of confidence, self-awareness, and lack of insecurity was refreshing to see on TV in the 2000s, and it’s still just as incredible now, even all these years later. Jackie never became just the «girlfriend.» She was given more to do in the script of each episode of That ’70s Show. Any sitcom would do well to follow this lead when depicting a funny girlfriend character.
That '70s Show Wouldn't be the Same Without Jackie Burkhart
Mila Kunis was recently under fire for coming to co-star Danny Masterson’s defense after some serious allegations. Despite the controversy, she’s arguably an actress who deserved to rise to fame. After starring on That ’70s Show, Kunis landed a reoccurring voice-over role as the often-bullied Meg Griffin on Family Guy, which also aired on Fox. She also booked movie roles in comedies like Bad Moms, psychological thrillers like Black Swan, and action films like The Book of Eli. Kunis is an actress who can thrive in any genre, but she always shines the brightest in funny roles.
That ’70s Show would have been a different show if Mila Kunis hadn’t lied about her age. There’s a big difference between fourteen and eighteen in terms of emotional development, but she seems wise beyond her years in the role. The show’s creators never exploited her or overly sexualized her character. She fits right in with the rest of the friend group by seeming like a real teenager, one with excellent comedic timing.
When That ’90s Show made its debut on Netflix in 2023, many fans were thrilled to see Jackie Burkhart back in action. Mila Kunis made a cameo as Jay Kelso’s mother, and she slid right back into the role as if no time had gone by. The sequel show only lasted for only two seasons on Netflix because of low viewership, but the good news is that Jackie Burkhart lives on forever in That ’70s Show, which remains just as funny now as it was in the early 2000s. Fans and newcomers alike can currently watch the entire series on Peacock.
