Character Details of Interest

Fez

He wasn’t originally written as a skeevy perv. Early on, especially in seasons one and two, he was quite complex. The skeevy perv part grew out of two aspects of his character:

1) Because he came from a different culture, he didn’t know the limit of a joke, and he often pushed it too far, as evidenced by the shocked stares his friends gave him in response

2) His normal, teenage horniness. He wasn’t any more or less horny than Eric. He wasn’t any more or less a virgin than Eric. But his horniness was colored by his unfamiliarity with Amedican culture.

To balance out his cultural naivety, he was was also given a strong romantic and noble streak — along with an insight into general human behavior.

Romantically:

He was very smooth on the dance floor, as evidenced in “That Disco Episode” (107). He wrote poetry to his first girlfriend, Patty, who seemed quite happy to have him as her boyfriend (in 218 “Kitty and Eric’s Night Out”). He gave Jackie the best kiss of her life (before she ever kissed Hyde *lol*) in 201 “Garage Sale”. He also serenaded her quite nicely in 221 “Kelso’s Serenade”. 

Noble behavior:

In “That Disco Episode,” he claims he could steal Jackie from Kelso, but he wouldn’t. In 205 “Halloween,” he’s the one who shielded Jackie when the window slammed shut in their burned-out middle school. In “Roller Disco,” he had the opportunity to take advantage of a very drunk Jackie — to the point of losing his virginity to her — and he didn’t.

Insightfulness:

He knew from the very start of the series that Eric had “stuff” for Donna. He also surmised, quite correctly, that Donna was attracted to Eric partly because Eric was noble and trustworthy. He saw through Hyde’s veiled attempts at snaking Donna away from Eric, too. He analyzed Kelso’s behavior in 215 “Burning Down the House” accurately, “He loves you. He’s just — he’s just stupid” as well as being the one to tell Kelso, “She didn’t want a good party. She wanted her party.”

Besides being romantic, noble, and insightful — or, perhaps, because of it — he served as a foil to the un-romantic, ignoble, kettlehead Kelso. Long before their bromance, Fez and Kelso didn’t get along too well. In fact, Fez didn’t like Kelso much at all, often calling him “whore” and pointing out his mistreatment of Jackie.

Fez’s running joke used to be that he didn’t understand Amedican culture. There was a lot of material to mine here, and Hyde served as his guide.

Unfortunately, as the series went on, Fez was stripped of his complex characteristics. His virginity became his running joke. Forgotten was his ability to make Jackie feel beautiful on the dance floor. Forgotten was the fact he was probably the most romantic out of his group of friends. In a way, he was the most suave of them.

But he became a too-horny-to-talk bumbler. His romance, nobility, and insightfulness gave way to a crude, obsessive need for physical pleasure (sex and candy). No wonder his friendship with Hyde — essentially, the most noble guy of the bunch, despite how he tried to hide it — waned, and his friendship with Kelso grew so strong as to lead to Fez’s sex dream about him.

Though later!Fez is funny and often lightened the mood of tense scenes, early!Fez was a far more interesting character. Who knows what storylines might have resulted had the showrunners insisted Fez’s original, fundamental character be kept intact, respected, and explored?