Kurtwood Smith is clearing up a rumor about Chuck Norris being offered Red Forman before he was in That 70s Show.
Smith, along with fellow actor Debra Jo Rupp, played the beloved characters of Red and Kitty Forman on Fox Television’s hit sitcom That ‘70s Show for eight seasons, from 1998 to 2006. Most of the action in the series, of course, took place in Red and Kitty’s basement in the fictional town of Point Place, Wisconsin, where their teen son, Eric (Topher) and his friends hung out.
Smith and Rupp have since returned to their Point Place abode for the Netflix sitcom That ‘90s Show, where their granddaughter, Leia (Callie Haverda) spends her summers. Like her mom and dad Eric and Donna (Laura Prepon), Leia spends a lot of time in the Forman’s basement with a group of teen friends—which includes her boyfriend Jay Kelso (Mace Coronel)—the son of Michael (Ashton Kutcher) and Jackie’s (Mila Kunis).
Smith, of course, became a TV icon with his portrayal of the brutally honest Red Forman, who often referred to Eric and his friends as “dumbasses.”
However, a rumor has persisted about the casting of Smith in That ‘70s Show over the years that famed action star Chuck Norris was first offered the role.
The Internet Movie Database has the rumor listed in the trivia section of Smith’s page, which reads that the actor “Won the role of Red Forman on That ’70s Show (1998) when the original choice, Chuck Norris, was unavailable because of his commitment to filming Walker, Texas Ranger (1993).” CBR and Screen Rant also noted that Norris considered playing Red.
But in a recent Zoom conversation with Smith and Rupp about the debut of That 90s Show Part 3 on Netflix, Smith said of the Norris casting rumor, “No, it’s not true at all. It certainly was a well-spread rumor. I remember asking the producers about it at one point and they were, ‘No, who told you that?’ That was all pretty much made up.”
Rupp doubled down on the falsehood of the rumor by adding, “No, noooo. There’s no way I would have let that happen. No.”
Smith Continues With A ‘That ‘70s Show’ Tradition On ‘That ‘90s Show’
Fans who have streamed That ’90s Show have undoubtedly realized that Kurtwood Smith is as blunt as he was in That ‘70s Show with his sharp, hard-nosed observations.
However, one of Red’s famous insults—calling different people a “dumbass”—has been virtually absent from the follow-up series. Rest assured, Smith more than makes up for it with the mother of all “dumbass” lines in That ‘90s Show Part 3 season finale.
“It didn’t occur to me until we were all the way through the first season that I never actually called anybody a dumbass,” Smith recalled. “I’m so used to calling people dumbasses when we’re not on television that it really hasn’t registered with me.”
Those people, of course, are fans, and Smith said he’s happy to playfully oblige their requests if they see him in public.
“People come up to me and ask me to call them a ‘dumbass.’ I don’t understand why people want to be called a ‘dumbass,’ but there it is,” Smith said with a laugh. “So, it hadn’t really registered with me that we didn’t use it on the show. I think the writers were waiting for an appropriate moment.”
All three parts of That ‘90s Show are streaming on Netflix.
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