Donna Pinciotti

Donna Pinciotti (played by Laura Prepon) is the girlfriend of Eric Forman in the TV sitcom, That '70s Show.

Donna has been life long friends with Eric, having grown up next door to each other in the fictional Wisconsin suburb of Point Place. Their relationship has been tumultous at times, having suffered two break ups since the show began. However during the majority of the time since the show aired, Eric and Donna are in a serious relationship. Her relationship with Eric is sometimes threatened by the fact that he feels inferior to her, especially during the second series when she gets a job as a radio personality named "Hot Donna."

Donna, the character, is an intelligent, witty, red haired, tall (5'10"), strapping, athletic teenager with feminist ideals, who is outwardly confident and strong, sometimes to the point of coming across as arrogant or self-righteous, though usually laid back and easy going. She calls upon these personal qualities to deal with her personal issues, such as the shaky relationship of her father and mother, Midge and Bob Pinciotti, who may or may not have had her when they were still in high school. However, she has some difficulty expressing her feminine side, for she views traditional feminine traits as restraining and out-dated. She dislikes skirts, make up, and dresses and insists on wearing jeans at all times, but she took a stab at "being pretty" for her prom and for a trip to a night club, where the bouncer judged her "foxy".

Jackie appoints herself as Donna's best friend early on, often giving her advice that sounds superficial and useless but often turns out to be unnervingly true (example: Eric would never want Donna to be his girlfriend if she kept beating him at everything). The haughty Jackie genuinely thinks that she's better looking than Donna and that Donna is in general not attractive, yet still thinks Donna could do better than Eric, and when someone points out to Jackie that Donna is actually much more beautiful than her, Jackie tries to demean Donna by calling her "moose" or "lumberjack". Donna usually retaliates by calling Jackie a midget and making fun of her lack of people skills. When Jackie says "Donna, don't hate me because I'm beautiful." Donna replies "Jackie, I pity you because you're dumb." Though they're as different as night and day, Donna eventually accepts Jackie and decides to keep an eye on her and keep her out of trouble, since Jackie doesn't always show the best common sense.

Donna was very reluctant to have sex, but after a few false starts, she finally lost her virginity to Eric in season 2. At first she found it awkward, but Eric persuaded her to give it another try and with "practice" she found subsequent sex more pleasant and even enjoyable.

Towards the end of season 3 Donna's job as a radio DJ was taking first seat before her relationship with Eric, causing her to blow him and their dates off. While Donna genuinely felt that she was right to do this and was simply following her goals through to their logical conclusion with wanting to be a writer and a news woman, her actions provoked a bad response in the normally even-keeled Eric, who felt that Donna was not taking him and/or their relationship seriously. Unable to resolve the conflict, she broke up with him and throughout season 4 much awkwardness ensued over rights to the basement and trying to find new relationships. Donna was a bit annoyed at just how many girls were interested in Eric and happily mocked him when his attempts at finding a new girlfriend backfired.

Her mother Midge leaving her father and moving to California, followed by her father's relationship with Joanne Stupac, did not help matters.

In season 4 she started dating Casey Kelso (Luke Wilson), older brother of Kelso. Though a little flaky, Donna thought Casey was a real winner of a boyfriend, for he seemed to be sensitive, good natured, laid back and easy going. She thought she'd hit the jackpot with Casey and everyone else agreed - except Eric, who saw Casey for what he was: an oversexed frat boy who just wanted to nail Donna and move on to the next girl. Eric tried to warn Donna but she ignored him, and he then threatened Casey that he would hurt him if he hurt Donna.

When Kitty saw Donna drunk in the middle of a school day at the Hub with Casey, warning bells went off in her head and she rallied together with Red and Bob to bring the relationship to an end with Eric overseeing the proceedings while Hyde, Kelso, Jackie and Fez listened from the kitchen. Donna was more than ready and willing to fight for Casey, whom she thought truly loved her, but Casey was not ready or willing to fight for her and he readily agreed to break up with her when Red put the pressure on. Casey lazily said that Donna was a great girl and fun to hang out with but he stated that their relationship had gotten to be too much of a hassle and dumped her in front of her friends and family. The realizations of her own over-confidence, poor judgement and being dumped in front of the people who meant the most to her came as quite a shock to Donna, who regarded herself as an ideal feminist, but who'd fallen for the exact kind of jerk she always swore she'd never look twice at.

Hurt, humiliated and heart broken, Donna turned to the one person she thought still truly cared for her - old boyfriend Eric Forman. Eric offered his sympathy, but when a shook up, crying Donna told him she wanted to be his girlfriend again, he refused, believing that she did not really want him for who he was but simply wanted a way to feel better about herself and would most likely dump him when someone better came along. A tearful Donna pleaded with him to take her back but he refused to be her "second choice". Eric was unwavering in his choice, despite the pleading of his father: "What makes you think you'll do any better? The only thing smart about you is your mouth ..." (Red Forman)

Unable to handle being rejected by her first love, an emotionaly wrecked Donna fled Point Place for California, where she crashed with her mother and tried to sort out her feelings. She decided she truly did love Eric and tried to call him but couldn't get ahold of him; she suspected he no longer wanted her and moved on to another girlfriend and became slightly depressed. But then Eric showed up in California looking for her, and the two reunited and returned to Point Place. In Season 5, Eric proposed to her at the Water Tower and Donna accepted.