Young Ashton Kutcher & Mila Kunis Pics Make Us Nostalgic For Their That 70s Show Days

Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis have quietly racking up more years together than most marriages survive in their tax bracket despite all the weird things people say about them on the internet, including their rather eyebrow-raising hygiene habits, among other things. When you see past the controversies, it might hit you that this version of Kutcher and Kunis, who glide down a red carpet as polished, gala-headlining celebrities have become, is a far cry from the chaotic dum-dums they once portrayed in "That '70s Show," Jackie and Kelso.

Photos from "That '70s Show" are like a portal back to a sillier era. Both Kutcher and Kunis looked like doe-eyed teenagers pretending they were old enough to be there, and despite the palpable chemistry between the two, romance was still a decade away from clicking into place. That original spark was more "annoying older brother does your homework" than star-crossed lovers. After all, Kutcher was 20 when he sauntered onto the set as Michael Kelso, and Kunis was 14, lying about her age to land the role of Jackie. That age gap made Kutcher and Kunis' first kiss incredibly awkward, and the proof of that unique chemistry — which was sibling-coded before morphing into romance — is in the pictures, with shots from the era capturing them mid-goof, years before marriage, kids, and all the drama.

By the time this photo was taken during the FOX Television Critics Association Press Tour in 2004, "That '70s Show" was well into its sixth season, and Kelso and Jackie had spent the better part of that tenure breaking up, getting back together, and breaking up again. Off-camera, however, things were a little different. Mila Kunis was 20 and dating Macaulay Culkin, while Ashton Kutcher was 25 and a few months into his high-profile romance with Demi Moore. Whatever chemistry the camera was catching here — and there's plenty of it — was the chemistry of two co-workers who genuinely liked each other.

This one is from the Beverly Hills premiere of "Traffic" on December 14, 2000. At the time, it was nothing but an unremarkable group shot from any "That '70s Show" cast outing. Kutcher, 22, was shaggy-haired and laughing in a nonchalant manner. Kunis, 17, was tucked between her two co-stars in a red blouse. Danny Masterson (who played Steven Hyde) was 24 and smiling.

In two decades' time, Masterson would be sentenced to 30 years to life in prison for the 2003 sexual abuse and rape of two women, and Kutcher and Kunis' reputation would take an unrecoverable hit for writing letters asking the judge for leniency. What this photo captures is a moment where none of that had happened. It's not exactly innocence, but has the eerie absence of what was coming.

This photo from 2008, featuring Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis at the 7th Annual Chrysalis Butterfly Ball in Los Angeles, shows the former in a striped suit and full beard (a rarity) while Kunis is in a red dress, head tipped against his shoulder in a gesture that feels rehearsed. Except, this wasn't a date night.

In May 2008, when this photo was taken, Kutcher was three years into his marriage to Demi Moore, while Kunis was on the sixth year into her eight-year relationship with Macaulay Culkin. The romance with Kutcher was still four years away, but looking at photos like this, one can't help but feel that it would be the inevitable aftermath of the breakups to come.

By January 2001, when this photo was taken on the red carpet of Guy Ritchie's "Snatch," Mila Kunis had been on "That '70s Show" for nearly three years. Kunis showed up in a striped satin blouse, paired with low-rise jeans, creating the perfect image of the unofficial uniform of every American teenager from that time.

For people who know her from later roles, this version of Kunis might look unrecognizable. The actor is grinning at the photographer like someone who genuinely can't believe she's at a Guy Ritchie premiere, and that makes it all the more adorable.

In this photo, taken in January 1999 at the Fox Network Party, Ashton Kutcher was 21 and only getting started on "That '70s Show." It's frankly easy to forget just how good-looking Kutcher was in this period. He hadn't exactly been recognized as a heartthrob just yet, and his cultural memory was dominated by the Kelso of it all — the goofball who always managed to say the most foolish thing in every scenario.

Yet before he even began on the show, he was a Calvin Klein and Abercrombie model who had walked runways in cities around Europe. This pic shows why.

The setting for this photo of Mila Kunis is, fittingly, the 2nd Annual Hollywood Makeup Artist and Hair Stylist Guild Awards, which took place on March 17, 2001. Kunis, 17, showed up looking like a one-woman exhibition of every signifier of early 2000s trends. The close-up shows her unmistakable small mouth and half-smile that her face always defaults to, even in newer photos.

Notice the slightly heavy hand with the gloss, or the shadow laid in a thick band of frosted lavender. Kunis was only just getting started in showbiz, but her baby-face here couldn't be further from the mature version we know now.

The last throwback we are going to land on is from August 1999, at the 1st Teen Choice Awards in Santa Monica. There, on the carpet in a cream suit with his hair doing that lazy, just-out-of-bed thing that basically defined the male heartthrob look for the next decade, Ashton Kutcher was 21 and fresh off the first season of "That '70s Show," and he looked visibly thrilled to be there.

If you somehow manage to forget all the controversial Ashton Kutcher moments that have piled up over the past two decades, you can see the version of him that existed before the drama and the stardom. Here, he was still close to being the kid from Iowa who had his whole life ahead of him.