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| - Randy Pearson (born September 17, 1959) is a fictional character introduced during the eighth and final season of That '70s Show. He was played by Josh Meyers. He is hired by Steven Hyde to help run the record store, and also becomes a love interest for Donna Pinciotti (Laura Prepon). The Randy character was introduced primarily as a replacement for Eric Forman and Michael Kelso, as the actors who played them, Topher Grace and Ashton Kutcher, chose to leave the series after the seventh season. The writers originally hired Josh Meyers to play Eric. The difference in appearance would have been explained by claiming he had returned home from Africa "a changed man". They eventually thought better of this idea, and the character Randy Pearson was created. Randy's character seems to be a mixture of Eric and Kelso. He has Eric's sense of humor and, like Eric, is often the ringleader. On the other hand, he has Kelso's good looks and success with women. Despite (or maybe because of) this Randy was widely disliked by fans, and viewed as another sign of the series having jumped the shark. Randy plays a very minor role in the series finale episodes which are "Love of My Life" and "That '70s Finale". In the former he is only seen twice, and in the latter he has one scene with one line. He is seen one last time in a scene transition doing a weird dance and afterwards, he is never seen or mentioned again. He is the only character absent at the Formans' New Year's Eve party and the only teen not in the group's final '70s Circle. This may be due to the fact that he was a very unpopular character, and the fact since the episode featured the return of Eric, it would probably get awkward.
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