Friends

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Seasons: 10 
Years: 1994 - 2004 
Characters:  Rachel Green, Ross Geller, Joey Tribbiani, Chandler Bing and Phoebe Buffay 
Quick Synopsis: Follows the personal and professional lives of six 20 to 30 something year olds living in Manhattan. 
Creators: David Crane and Marta Kauffman

Pilot Episode

 Friends opens with 4 of the main characters in the now famous coffee shop Central Perk. Monica is discussing her date for the night with Joey making jokes and Chandler being sarcastic. Immediately the sitcom has established some personality trait of the characters with love, sarcasm, and sex. We are then introduced to Ross who miserably says Hi and Phoebe tries to cleanse his soul as he confesses that all he wants is to be married, which is when Rachel walks in wearing a wedding dress.

The next location we are introduced to is Monica's flat which also becomes Rachel's after she moves in. Joey and Chandler are eating Monica's food which is a reacquiring factor in the sitcom, Phoebe is singing a song for Rachel, which once again a major theme in the sitcom, and Monica is trying to calm Rachel down, portraying her as the mother figure of the group.

Throughout the pilot episode we see Phoebe being the truthful one who wont lie even if it would be common decency and Joey is the person in the group who makes sexual jokes with Chandler being the sarcastic one. It is also evident that the friends are very much involved in each others lives from their interest with Monica's date, 'Paul' with everyone cueing up to meet him and eavesdropping on their conversation. Furthermore, the love interest between Ross and Rachel, and the biggest love story in the 90s, with Ross wondering who he should ask out with a love song playing in the background and Rachel coming into shot.

The pilot episode ends where it began; in the coffee shop. The group of friends is sitting in their famous spot with Chandler discussing about another one of his dreams and Rachel serving them coffee.


Why was Friends so successful? 
It was the first sitcom which address what mattered most to its audience; relationships, career, settling done. It was not only for the 90s generation but also something which todays 20 something year olds can relate to.

Before Friends came about, sitcoms tended to focus on family life with parents being the main characters, it was something refreshing for the 90s. One of the key aspects of the sitcom was the group dynamic and the fact that our friends could count more than our family when we are young adults; which is something that is still powerful. Likewise, Friends wasn't afraid to show its main characters failing to succeed, in their careers and their relationships.

The humour of the show is gentle and kind yet topical, with the writers working together bouncing jokes back and forth on surrogacy, same sex marriage, infidelity and suicide in an attempt for it not offend people. Comedy needs to have a story and a heart to it for the audience to be able to connect to it.

Interestingly, the sitcom used 'intensifier' words to convey emotions, and a study by University of Toronto linguistics professor suggests that the characters repeated use of the words 'so' could be responsible for the prefix creeping into mainstream vernacular.

Main reason though the show was o successful was because of its characters.  Each character has a unique personality that viewers can fall in love with even though the characters may have been written as one note stereotypes; Joey the empty headed actor, Chandler the sarcastic one, Monica the uptight fun killer, Ross the dorky unlucky always in love guy, Phoebe the ditsy girl and Rachel the self-absorbed one. Yet, their personalties were also desirable to the viewers with Joey being attractive, Ross being smart, Monica being strong, Phoebe being carefree, Chandler being funny and Rachel being outgoing.  Furthermore, each character is featured equally with two story lines going on in each episode.

how-you-doinFriends also had a big cultural impact in the 90s, with its views rising after 9/11 and becoming a show for people to escape to. Rachel's hair also became very popular and was named 'The Rachel", also Joey's catch phrase "How you doing?" became v

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