HOLLYWOOD (Variety) - Fox is getting high on ``That '70s Show,'' the groovy teen comedy that's rating strongly in its second season.
The network Monday picked up two full years of the show, which will guarantee it a spot on the air until at least 2002. That also means producer Carsey-Werner will accrue enough episodes of the sitcom to sell it in off-network syndication.
``This is a show on the rise,'' said Doug Herzog, president of Fox Entertainment. ``It's a very important piece as we start to put ourselves back in the game.''
While not quite a disco inferno, ``That '70s Show'' is Fox's first live-action sitcom hit in years. With the half-hour rookie ``Ally'' a not-so-successful experiment and ``Party of Five'' quickly eroding, Fox has been staying alive on Tuesdays mostly because of ``That '70s Show's'' strong demographics.
The show stars Topher Grace, Mila Kunis, Ashton Kutcher, Danny Masterson, Laura Prepon and Wilmer Valderrama as bell-bottomed teen-agers in late 1970s Wisconsin suburbia.
Season to date, ``That '70s Show'' has averaged a 5.1 Nielsen rating and 13 share among adults 18-49, improving its 8:30 p.m. Tuesday period (which admittedly was inhabited last year by the quickly yanked ``Costello'') by 42%. But because it aired last fall in the primo post-''Simpsons'' Sunday time slot, the show is down from a 6.1/14 last year in that key demographic.
Fox hopes to use ``That '70s Show'' as a means to launch some of its new sitcoms. The network will test the series at 8 p.m. next Tuesday to gauge the possibility of the show leading off a night.
``For the longest time we felt we had nothing other than 'The Simpsons' to launch half-hours after,'' Herzog said. ``We certainly look forward to the day we can use 'That '70s Show'' to put us firmly back in the live action comedy business.''
Herzog said Fox will announce some of its midseason plans in the coming days. The centerpiece of those plans, the half-hour comedy ``Malcolm in the Middle,'' could possibly debut after ''The Simpsons'' at 8:30 p.m. Sundays in mid-January.
Also on the bench: the new claymation half-hour ``Gary and Mike,'' the new sitcom ``Titus,'' the new dramas ``Dark Angel'' and ``The Opposite Sex,'' the series version of game show ''Greed,'' and returning series ``Family Guy,'' ``The PJ's,'' ''Fox Files,'' ``Guinness World Records: Primetime'' and ''Beyond Belief.''