Friends

About

Friends is an American sitcom television series that follows six friends in their twenties and thirties living in New York City. During its decade-long run from 1994 to 2004, the series enjoyed both mainstream success and critical acclaims as one of the most successful sitcoms in television history and its fanbase continued to grow through syndicated airings in the years following its series finale.

Premise

Friends follows six friends in their twenties- Rachel Greene (Jennifer Aniston), Monica Geller (Courteney Cox), Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow), Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc), Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry) and Ross Geller (David Schwimmer) as they move in and out of relationships and jobs. Threads throughout the series include Monica’s culinary aspirations, Joey’s acting career, Ross and Rachel’s on again, off again relationship, and Phobe’s eccentricity. Throughout the series the six characters live, in varying combinations, in two apartments across the hall from each other.

History

Friends^[1] premiered on NBC on September 22nd, 1994. It ran for ten seasons, airing its series finale on May 6th, 2004. Reruns of the series began airing on Nick at Nite in 2011.

Joey Spinoff

Joey, a Friends spinoff which followed Joey (Matt LeBlanc) to LA to pursue acting, premiered on NBC on September 9th, 2004. The series was renewed for a second season, and though the entire season was shot only 14 episodes aired, the last airing on March 7th, 2006.

Reception

Friends earned a rating of 9 on IMDB and a score of 59 on Metacritic^[3]. It was nominated for 10 Golden Globes, winning one in 2003 for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series – Musical or Comedy (Jennifer Aniston). The show also enjoyed a very high viewership. Its series premiere brought in over 21 million viewers^[4], while its series finale brought in over 52 million viewers.^[5]

Online Presence

As of May 2014, the official Friends Facebook Page^[6] has gained over 19 million likes. All 236 episodes are available for $1.99 each on the official Warner Brothers Television YouTube channel.^[7]

Fandom

The oldest Friends fansite predates the show’s official web presence. Friends-TV.org^[16] was created shortly after the show began^[17], the site’s FAQ page explains:

“This site first began on a server at Dartmouth University in Fall of 1994, when the show first aired. The internet boom was just getting underway. Neither Warner Bros. nor NBC had web pages dedicated to Friends when the show first began. There was no other Friends site of any kind.”

Older, now defunct fansites include friendsfan^[18] and friendsfansite^[19]. Still active Friends fansites include the Friends page of FanPop^[9] and the Friends page of Lives in a Box.^[11] There are numerous fan-run Tumblr blogs dedicated to the Friends fandom including fffriends^[10], fuckyeahfriends^[11] and f-r-i-e-n-d-s-confessions.^[13] As of May 2014, there are over 4,000 Friends fanfiction submissions on Fanfiction.net^[8].

Related Memes

Chandler Dances on Things

Chandler Dances on Things is a GIF animation series of one of the main cast members from Friends, Chandler Bing (played by actor Matthew Perry) dancing awkwardly atop a variety of objects or in humorous contexts.

Smelly Cat

“Smelly Cat,” is a song written and performed by Friends character Phobe (Lisa Kudrow). The song first appeared in an episode titled “The One With The Baby On The Bus,”^[14] which first aired on November 2nd, 1995. The music video created for the song appeared in an episode titled “The One Where Eddie Moves In,” which first aired on February 22nd, 1996. On March 16th, 2007, YouTuber lpss^[15] uploaded that music video to YouTube. As of May 2014, the video has gained over 2.4 million views.

External References