Kitty Forman

Infobox character


color = #E8D878
name = Kitty Forman
first = "That '70s Pilot"
last = "That '70s Finale"
alias =
species = Human
gender = Female
age = 43-46
born = birth date and age|1933|10|13
death =
occupation = Housewife, Nurse
title =
callsign =
family = Red Forman (husband)
Laurie Forman (daughter)
Eric Forman (son)
Paula Sigurdson (sister)
Bea and Burt Sigurdson (parents)
Bernice Forman (mother-in-law)
Fez (son-in-law)
spouse = Red Forman
portrayer = Debra Jo Rupp
Ashley Peldon (Young Kitty)
creator = Mark Brazill
children =
relatives =
residence =

Kitty Forman (née Sigurdson) (born October 13, 1933) is a fictional character on the FOX Network's "That '70s Show". She is played by comic actress Debra Jo Rupp. Kitty is a nurse but sometimes takes a break from her career to make peace in the family. She also has a very recognizable laugh (an accident on Debra Jo Rupp's part) and a fondness for square dancing. Kitty is in very many ways a typical 1970's wife and mother, putting her family first and always trying to smooth over the many conflicts within her household, although her efforts usually fail. She is a foster mother to the entire gang, and is a source of comfort and advice for them all.

About Kitty Forman

Kitty is married to Red Forman (Kurtwood Smith). She is mother to daughter Laurie (Lisa Robin Kelly) with whom she has a stressful relationship, and son Eric (Topher Grace) whom she has a habit of overprotecting, even to the point of saying that his girlfriend Donna Pinciotti seduced the "poor boy and tricked him into having sex with her," a statement that could not be further from the truth. Unlike Red, Kitty also seems to enjoy Eric's friends hanging around the house, sometimes smothering them. One of Kitty's favorite pastimes is being a mother — making sandwiches, baking cookies, and looking after children. She does not want Eric to move out, fearing that if he does, she will have no one to take care of.

She was the one who convinced Red for the family to take in Steven Hyde (Danny Masterson) when his mother left him. Like many fictional mothers, Kitty puts on a facade of a vacuous, cheerful, doting mother, yet has huge problems of her own. She likes to give off the appearance of goodness and be everyone's favorite mom in the neighborhood despite the fact that she is somewhat of an alcoholic, with a passion for kahlua. Despite being a nurse and knowing the consequences of her actions, she is also a smoker, and has tried to quit more than once, but to no avail (Kitty's cigarette smoking was slowly phased out after season three, due to Debra Jo Rupp kicking the habit in real life). Her mood swings are usually attributed to her menopause storyline. As Red puts down Eric and favors Laurie, Kitty puts down Laurie and favors Eric, mainly because Laurie is known to be loose and cares little, if at all, about school. In clichéd fashion, she and her late mother-in-law, Bernice Forman, have a rocky relationship, throwing insults at each other in the guise of friendly, formal conversation, a "tradition" Kitty almost passed down to her would-be daughter-in-law, Donna. Though they mutually hate each other, Kitty does feel guilty about antagonizing her mother-in-law after she dies.

Kitty's parents are Bea and Burt Sigurdson (played by Betty White and Tom Poston). They live in Arizona but have appeared in a few episodes of the series that takes place in fictional Point Place, Wisconsin. Burt is a kind, laid back man who frequently tries to avoid his wife Bea, an aggressive, loud nightmare, (usually by indulging in alcohol). Eric sums up their relationship as "Grandma yells, Grandpa drinks." To get away from Bea, Burt will occasionally step outside to have a cigarette, though he doesn't smoke. Whenever Bea is looking for Burt or trying to get his attention she will call his name soft and sweetly twice, to which Burt will ignore as if he hasn't heard her, Bea will then scream his name in a shrill blast of fury. She teaches this method to her grandson's girlfriend Donna but admonishes her for using it later saying "Donna, you catch more flies with sugar". Laurie proves to have inherited her grandmother's talent for shrill yelling. Kitty confirms this by stating that "evil skips a generation."

In the episode "Your Time Is Gonna Come (a.k.a. Get Off My Boyfriend)" (which premiered on January 29, 2003), Burt and Bea arrive at the Forman's doorstep flat broke after Burt makes a financial blunder buying an ostrich farm next door to a coyote farm. At the end of the episode Burt is found by Eric unconscious on the drive way (having suffered a coronary after accidentally seeing Donna, Jackie in pyjamas and Kelso's then girlfriend Annette in her underwear through Donna's bedroom window) and later dies in the hospital. Unusually for a television mother, the aftermath of her father's death delves into Kitty's role as a daughter; after the funeral she feels unloved by her mother for a brief period of time.

In season five, Kitty told Red that she was pregnant, only to go to the doctor who told her the reason why her periods had stopped was because she was beginning menopause. To help his wife through menopausal mood swings, Red got Kitty a Dachshund dog she named Schatzi (German for Little Treasure), who was phased out very early on only to be revealed to have been "under the porch" for months. A notable consequence of her menopause is that she drinks considerably more than she used to.

In the episode, "Kitty's Birthday (Is That Today!?)" it is revealed that Kitty's birthday is the 13th of whatever month it was. Her maiden name implies that she is of Swedish descent. This is confirmed in "Streaking," where Kitty reveals that her grandmother was Swedish.

Kitty has a younger sister named Paula (Valerie Harper) who appeared in "Eric's Naughty No-No." Paula is a cosmetics sales-woman and very successful which makes Kitty jealous as Kitty was once the more successful one. After an argument about what each of them had that was better than the other, the sisters made up and Paula gave Kitty a make-over.

Kitty, despite being a kind, motherly figure to the gang, is still the subject of sexual attraction from Fez and Kelso. When fez first met Kitty, instead of shaking her hand, greeted her with a long kiss (and attempts to do the same to Red). Also, when Charlie says that he saw Kitty naked, Fez asks him what it looked like and said "and I am only asking because I find Miss Kitty attractive is a sexual way." Also, when Kelso and Brooke have a fight, Kelso comes to Eric, upset, telling him "I need a hug from your mom!". Eric finishes his conversation with Hyde and goes to "pull Kelso off my mother".

Relationship with the Teenagers

Unlike Red, Kitty enjoys having young people around her house. In way of her children, she plays favorites with Laurie and Eric. She thinks of Laurie as a screw-up and says she loves her "because I have to." She often tries to get through to Laurie, but most of the time has no luck and gives up. To her Eric is her baby, and she fears losing him to Donna, so she often babies him and is overprotective. Upon hearing of Eric losing his virginity (episode "The Parents Find Out") she stays in bed, depressed and angry at Donna, only leaving bed when Eric reminds her that he needs Kitty to protect him from Red. For a time she was sad that her children were growing up and expressed a desire for another baby, episode "Baby Fever", which Red was not happy about. She only resolved not having a baby when Red reminded her of grandchildren, which he has also forgotten. She proceeded to ask both Laurie and Eric about having kids, and decided that she wasn't excited for Laurie's children and couldn't wait for Eric's. When Eric and Donna announced that they were moving to Madison at the end of Season Five, Kitty suffered a nervous breakdown, exacerbated by Red's support of the plan. Later, when Eric planned to go to Africa in Season Seven, Kitty tried to sabotage his efforts by withholding food and information on immunizations. After he left at the start of Season Eight, Kitty briefly tried marijuana. Maybe even more than Eric, Kitty is fond of Hyde, whom they took in after his mother left, leaving him nowhere to go. In the episode "Kitty's Birthday (Is That Today!?)" Hyde is the only one who remembers her birthday, and in the episode "Jackie Bags Hyde" Kitty is the one who helps Hyde realize he likes Jackie. Kitty treats Hyde as a second son even after he moves out of the Forman basement. In the series finale, she referred to him as "my second son." Although Eric has occasionally expressed his jealousy of Hyde for the supposed better treatment Hyde receives from Kitty and Red, it has never been a major issue, and Hyde and Eric behave more like brothers than friends throughout the series . Kitty treats Eric's other friends Kelso, Fez and Jackie as her own children as well--she looks out for them and helps them out on numerous occasions throughout the series. For example, she taught the prenatal class Kelso and Brooke took before Betsy's birth, she attempted to teach Jackie how to bake on two occasions, and she behaves as a mother to Fez, who hasn't seen his real parents since his immigration. Being a nurse and a maternal figure, she is the one who treats the teenagers whenever they get physically injured (which happens quite often), especially Kelso. Kitty plays an active role in all the gang's private lives--for example, she is the one who orchestrated the talk between Jackie and her mother Pam in season 6. She is somewhat close to Donna, but as a competitor for Eric and as the daughter of her best friends. Kitty is astonished in how many times they "change partners" and is happy to have the people to care for, although she is not fond with the drama of having all of Eric's friends hang out at her house. Kitty seems to dislike anyone who questions her values, telling Jackie to "shut your dirty little mouth" when she referenced Kitty's drinking; and when Kelso asked if she'd ever smoked, she stared at him and Red made him leave.

Despite being a motherly figure to all of the teens, Kelso and Fez seem to have some sexual attraction towards her. Fez admits this to Charlie Richardson after he sees Kitty naked accidentally, asking what she looked like and saying "and I'm only asking this because I find Miss Kitty attractive in a sexual way." Also, after Kelso has a bad experience with his baby's mother, he tells Eric "I need a hug from your mom." Eric concludes his conversation with Hyde, leaving to "go pull Kelso off my mother". Also, Hyde, before his (technically not legal) adoption made him Kitty's son, demonstrated some attraction to Kitty, such as when she was teaching him dancing, he greatly enjoyed placing his hand in the small of her back, almost sexually so. As part of the plot of that episode, Bob sees them and assumes they are having an affair.

In Season 8, with Eric gone, she seemingly replaced him with Fez. Fez began dating a friend of hers and when she found out, snapped on him and demanded he break it off, to which he replied "you are not my mother!". Kitty took great offense to this and stormed off and made herself a blender full of alcohol. Donna and Jackie helped Fez realize that Kitty has been the closest thing he has to a mother, and she thinks of Fez as her own son. Fez makes up with Kitty afterward.

External links