As we all know and as it's been discussed many times before, the timeline for the series is messed up because 3 and half years (spring 1976 to New Years' Eve 1979) is stretched over 8 seasons filmed from 1998 to 2006 which include 5 Christmas episodes with 2 of them taking place in 1978.

I read some articles which explored this issue but none of them seemed to propose any realistic or at least semi-realistic timeline if we pretend those 5 Christmas episodes never happened and instead we only had 3 (or 4 if we "pretend" there was one in Season 8 and half of Season 7 the whole of Season 8 takes place from December 25, 1978 to December 31, 1979 which of course makes no sense).

So that's my question: If we get "rid" of some of the Christmas episodes or pretend they never happened, can we make more sense of the timeline?

P.S. Yes I know about the fan theory that Eric allegedly died in Season 4, Episode 15 (Tornado Prom) and that this is why the timeline is messed up most notably afterwards because he is supposedly in a coma but I don't believe in this theory. I also know that the creators of the show did not believe the show would last that long hence the decision to start it in 1976 as opposed to 1974 or 1975.

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