Friends
Friends is an American television sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting ten seasons.[1] With an ensemble cast starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer, the show revolves around six friends in their 20s and early 30s who live in Manhattan, New York City. The original executive producers were Kevin S. Bright, Kauffman, and Crane.
This article is about the television sitcom. For the social concept, see Friendship. For other uses, see Friends (disambiguation).Friends
Sitcom
- Michael Skloff
- Allee Willis
United States
English
10
236 (list of episodes)
- David Crane
- Marta Kauffman
- Kevin S. Bright
- Michael Borkow (season 4)
- Michael Curtis (season 5)
- Adam Chase (seasons 5–6)
- Greg Malins (seasons 5–7)
- Wil Calhoun (season 7)
- Scott Silveri (seasons 8–10)
- Shana Goldberg-Meehan (seasons 8–10)
- Andrew Reich (seasons 8–10)
- Ted Cohen (seasons 8–10)
20–22 minutes (per episode)
22–65 minutes (extended international TV & DVD episodes)
September 22, 1994 –
May 6, 2004
Kauffman and Crane began developing Friends under the working title Insomnia Cafe between November and December 1993. They presented the idea to Bright, and together they pitched a seven-page treatment of the show to NBC. After several script rewrites and changes, including title changes to Six of One[2] and Friends Like Us, the series was finally named Friends.[3] Filming took place at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions and Warner Bros. Television.
The show ranked within the top ten of the final television season ratings; it ultimately reached the number-one spot in its eighth season. The series finale aired on May 6, 2004, and was watched by around 52.5 million American viewers, making it the fifth-most-watched series finale in television history[4][5][6] and the most-watched television episode of the 2000s.[7][8] Friends received acclaim throughout its run, becoming one of the most popular television shows of all time.[9] The series was nominated for 62 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning the Outstanding Comedy Series award in 2002 for its eighth season.[10] The show ranked no. 21 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time,[11] and no. 5 on Empire magazine's The 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.[12] In 1997, the episode "The One with the Prom Video" was ranked no. 100 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All-Time.[13] In 2013, Friends ranked no. 24 on the Writers Guild of America's 101 Best Written TV Series of All Time,[14] and no. 28 on TV Guide's 60 Best TV Series of All Time.[15] The sitcom's cast members returned for Friends: The Reunion, a reunion special which was released on HBO Max on May 27, 2021.
James Michael Tyler appears as Gunther, a barista at Central Perk, in every season of the show, but is only ever credited as a guest star. Gunther has a mostly secret profound love for Rachel throughout the entire series. At one point he becomes the manager of the coffee house. It is revealed that Gunther speaks Dutch in addition to English, as well as being a former soap opera actor.
In their original contracts for the first season, cast members were paid $22,500 per episode.[23] The cast members received different salaries in the second season, beginning from the $20,000 range to $40,000 per episode.[23][24] Before their salary negotiations for the third season, the cast decided to enter collective negotiations, despite Warner Bros.' preference for individual deals.[25] The actors were given the salary of the least paid cast member. The stars were each paid $75,000 per episode in season three, $85,000 in season four, $100,000 in season five, $125,000 in season six, $750,000 in seasons seven and eight, and $1 million in seasons nine and ten, making Aniston, Cox, and Kudrow the highest-paid TV actresses of all time.[26][27][28] The cast also received syndication royalties beginning in 2000 after renegotiations. At the time, that financial benefit of a piece of the show's lucrative back-end profits had only been given out to stars who had ownership rights in a show, like Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Cosby.[29]
Series creator David Crane wanted all six actors to be equally prominent,[30] and the series was lauded as being "the first true 'ensemble' show."[31] The cast members made efforts to keep the ensemble format and not allow one member to dominate;[31] they entered themselves in the same acting categories for awards,[32] opted for collective salary negotiations,[31] and asked to appear together on magazine cover photos in the first season.[33] The cast members also became best friends off-screen,[34] so much so that recurring guest star Tom Selleck reported that he sometimes felt left out.[35]
The cast remained good friends after the series run, most notably Cox and Aniston, with Aniston being godmother to Cox and David Arquette's daughter, Coco.[36] In the official farewell commemorative book Friends 'Til the End, each separately acknowledged in interviews that the cast had become their family.[37][38]
Reception
Critical reception
Early reviews of the series were mixed; the first season holds a Metacritic score of 65 out of 100, based on 24 sampled reviews, indicating "generally favourable reviews".[87] Tom Feran of The Plain Dealer wrote that the series traded "vaguely and less successfully on the hanging-out style of Seinfeld",[88] while Ann Hodges of the Houston Chronicle called it "the new Seinfeld wannabe, but it will never be as funny as Seinfeld."[89] In the Los Angeles Daily News, Ray Richmond named the series as "one of the brighter comedies of the new season",[90] and the Los Angeles Times called it "flat-out the best comedy series of the new season."[91]
The Chicago Sun-Times' Ginny Holbert found Joey and Rachel's characters to be underdeveloped,[92] while Richmond commended the cast as a "likeable youth ensemble" with "good chemistry."[90] Robert Bianco of USA Today was complimentary of Schwimmer, calling him "terrific." He also praised the female leads, but was concerned that Perry's role as Chandler was "undefined" and that LeBlanc was "relying too much on the same brain-dead stud routine that was already tired the last two times he tried it."[93] The authors of Friends Like Us: The Unofficial Guide to Friends thought that the cast was "trying just a little too hard"; in particular, Perry and Schwimmer.[94]
As the series progressed, reviews became more positive, and Friends became one of the most popular sitcoms of its time. It is now often ranked among the all-time best TV shows.[9][11][12] Critics commended the series for having consistently sharp writing and for the chemistry between the main actors.[95] Noel Holston of Newsday, who had dismissed the pilot as a "so-so Seinfeld wannabe" in 1994, repudiated his earlier review after rewatching the episode and felt like writing an apology to the writers.[63] Heather Havrilesky of Salon.com thought that the series "hit its stride" in the second season. Havrilesky found the character-specific jokes and situations "could reliably make you laugh out loud a few times each episode", and the quality of writing allowed the stories to be "original and innovative."[96]
Bill Carter of The New York Times called the eighth season a "truly stunning comeback." Carter found that by "generating new hot storylines and high-decibel laughs", the series made its way "back into the hearts of its fans."[97] However, Liane Bonin of Entertainment Weekly felt that the direction of the ninth season was a "disappointing buzzkill", criticizing it for the non-stop celebrity guest spots and going into jump the shark territory. Although disappointed with the season, Bonin noted that "the writing [was] still sharp."[98] Havrilesky thought that the tenth season was "alarmingly awful, far worse than you would ever imagine a show that was once so good could be."[96] Friends was featured on Time's list of "The 100 Best TV Shows of All-Time", saying, "the well-hidden secret of this show was that it called itself Friends, and was really about family."[99]
Reviews of the series finale were mostly positive. USA Today's Robert Bianco described the finale as entertaining and satisfying and praised it for deftly mixing emotion and humor while highlighting each of the stars.[100] Sarah Rodman of the Boston Herald praised Aniston and Schwimmer for their acting, but felt that their characters' reunion was "a bit too neat, even if it was what most of the show's legions of fans wanted."[101] Roger Catlin of the Hartford Courant felt that newcomers to the series would be "surprised at how laughless the affair could be, and how nearly every strained gag depends on the sheer stupidity of its characters."[102] Ken Parish Perkins, writing for Fort Worth Star-Telegram, pointed out that the finale was "more touching than comical, more satisfying in terms of closure than knee-slappingly funny."[103]
Home media
Streaming
In October 2014, Warner Bros. chairman and chief executive officer, Kevin Tsujihara, announced that the company had licensed the North American streaming rights of all ten seasons of Friends to Netflix,[188][189] in a deal said to be worth around $500,000 an episode,[190] or about $120 million in total. The show became available on Netflix from January 1, 2015.[191] The Netflix airings are the versions aired on NBC rather than the longer international versions, as discussed below. The series left Netflix in the US on January 1, 2020, as it began streaming on HBO Max on May 27, 2020.[192] The series left Netflix in Canada for Crave on December 31, 2020.[193]
Blu-ray and DVD
All ten seasons have been released on DVD individually and as a box set. Each Region 1 season release contains special features and are presented in their aforementioned original international broadcast versions, although Region 2 releases are as originally aired domestically. For the first season, each episode is updated with color correction and sound enhancement.[58] A wide range of Friends merchandise has been produced by various companies. In September 1995, WEA Records released the first album of music from Friends, the Friends Original TV Soundtrack, containing music featured in previous and future episodes. The soundtrack debuted on the Billboard 200 at number 46,[194] and sold 500,000 copies in November 1995.[195]
In 1999, a second soundtrack album entitled Friends Again was released.[196] Other merchandise includes a Friends version of the DVD game "Scene It?", and a quiz video game for PlayStation 2 and PC entitled Friends: The One with All the Trivia.[197][198] On September 28, 2009, a box set was released in the UK celebrating the show's 15th anniversary. The box set contained extended episodes, an episode guide, and original special features.[199]
Warner Home Video released a complete series collection on Blu-ray on November 13, 2012.[200] The collection does not feature the extra deleted scenes and jokes that were included on prior DVD releases, and are therefore presented in their NBC broadcast versions.
In Australia, the original DVD releases were fold out box sets which contained three discs, and released as follows: Season 1 and Season 2 on March 13, 2002, Season 3 and Season 4 on July 9, 2002, Season 5, 6 and 7 on July 29, 2002, Season 8 on March 18, 2003, Season 9 on February 11, 2004, and Season 10 on November 24, 2004. Repackaged sets, slimmed into regular DVD cases also containing three discs were released from 2003 to 2004. Collector's Edition sets were released from September 9, 2003, through to February 1, 2006, these sets contains 4 discs, in fat DVD cases, with extra bonus material.
On October 4, 2006, the individual seasons were repackaged into regular DVD case sets and marked as "Including Brand New Bonus Disc". Once again each individual season were repackaged with new artwork on March 31, 2010. The first complete series boxset on DVD was released around 2004 or 2005, this was titled 'The One With All Ten Seasons" and the packaging was a black box with a lift up lid and contains exclusive packaging for all ten seasons.
The second complete series boxset was released August 21, 2013 and was a red box which contained the 2010 individual season sets inside. On October 1, 2014, was the 20th Anniversary boxset, this was a white box and contained the same 2010 individual releases inside. On October 7, 2015, another boxset was released 'The One With All Ten Seasons", the same name used on the original boxset, however this time slimmed down and contains the 2010 individual releases inside. The outer box is open on insert side for the cases to slide in and out, more of a budget release. In 2016, a repackaged 'The Complete Series' Blu-ray boxset was issued, containing the same 10 individual seasons in the original set, however the box is more cut down and is opened on one side, and also does not include the book that contained the episode guide.
Articles concerning the cultural influence of the program:
