Episode no. Season 1
Episode 18 | Original air date February 28, 1999 | |
"Career Day" is the eighteenth episode of the first season of That '70s Show. The episode aired on February 28, 1999. This is the only episode in the entire series where you see Steven Hyde's mother and Michael Kelso's father.
Contents
Plot
It is Career Day for Eric and his friends (minus Jackie) at school, where students spend the day with their parents at work. With Red only working half-days at his job, Eric decides to go to the hospital with his mother. While there, Eric witnesses the head doctor being strict to Kitty and her co-workers, as well as almost giving a patient a medication he was allergic to. Eric also witnesses a woman give birth, and finds out that a person Kitty talked about for weeks died that day at the hospital. On the way home from the hospital, Eric tries to ask Kitty how she handles the stress of working there, but Kitty drowns him out with the song "Bad Blood" by Neil Sedaka and Eric eventually gives up and sings with her.
Having only foster parents, Fez spends the day with Hyde, who spends the day with his mother Edna, the lunch lady in the school's cafeteria. Edna's unsanitary habits in the cafeteria earned her the nickname "Gross Edna". Things are going well until Hyde brings up that he ruined his mother's life when she got pregnant with him while she was a water skier, and also bringing up that the smartest thing his dad did was walk out on her. Hyde leaves frustrated, but does come back later to apologize after talking to Red. Edna then takes Hyde out to get a beer, assuring that he has his fake ID on him.
Donna spends her day with her dad at his self-owned and operated retail store Bargain Bob's, which just happens to be running a big sale with several wacky antics being used as selling points, such as a monkey in a tutu. Donna is embarrassed by this and by the answers Bob gives her to the questions asked, but soon feels bad when Bob explains that everything he does is for Donna's future.
Kelso spends the day with his father John, who is a specialized statistician. John spends the entire episode trying to explain to Kelso what he does for a living, but eventually Kelso gives up and says he's just going to write that his dad is a farmer. At the end of the episode, Hyde, Kelso, Donna, and Eric reflect back on what they've learned, while Fez says he wants to go back to his home country and rule with an iron fist.
Finally, Jackie, who is only a sophomore, stumbles across Red working on the Vista Cruiser. She agrees to help Red out by holding the flashlight so he can work. This winds up impressing Red, as Jackie winds up to be a better helper than Eric. The two bond over the experience, as Red not only teaches her how to change a tire, but also tells her to avoid buying a Mustang. During the credits, Red tells Eric that he's finally found one of Eric's friends to not be useless, referring to Jackie. When Eric says Jackie's not really a friend, Jackie scolds him the same way Red did at the beginning of the episode, to Red's approval.