Why was "Friends" so popular?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:These plot elements wouldn't play today:

Fat Monica
Ross's ex-wife lesbian Carol
Chandler's Trans father
Joey's experience being molested by his taylor (Chandler told him)
Monica's OCD cleaning
Monica's boyfriends like alcoholic Fun Bobby

Because we somehow lost the ability to laugh at anything, everything is taken just a bit too seriously.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It’s a show about white people living safely in the Big Apple.

The vast majority of the audience for the show at that time lived in homogeneous, car-dominated suburbs.

So they show played to white peoples’ fantasies about urbanization.

Gen X who totally disagrees.

Friends really wasn’t about NYC at all. SATC clearly was.

Friends was about that in between time where you’re single and trying to figure out your future. It was also about the friends themselves, and they focused on the ensemble quite well. But most of all, it was just about the weekly storyline that propelled the relationships and the group forward through comedic plots.

It was the Three’s Company for Gen X.

Was it sanitized? Absolutely. NBC and other tv networks have always been vanilla and geared towards the masses. The fact that it remains popular in syndication decades later proves it was a great show.

It was a show for white women. The male characters were kind of weird but reflect what women thought men were like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My teens binged it this summer and they love it.

Teens don’t randomly binge on 25 year old multi-billion dollar TV series. There is so much fake marketing to brainwash them to pump views on streaming sites.

I know you posted that two days ago but I'm just seeing this now. I remember as a tween in the late 80's, watching "Nick at nite" and the (then) 25+ year old shows they used to play--Dennis the Menace, Patty Duke, the Donna Reed show, etc. Actually just this morning I couldn't get the theme song from Patty Duke out of my head.
So I don't think it's that unusual or unnatural for teens to watch shows from their parents generation.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I loved the acting, especially David Schwimmer. I especially loved the episodes where he gets his teeth whitened, tries wearing leather pants, and plays his keyboard "compositions". I haven't watched it in a while so I'm sure there are others. He could make me laugh really hard. And I can't forget Chandler. He was hilarious too.

+1

Everyone hates on Ross and Phoebe, but they were the real stars of the show.

[Anonymous]

Remember the "they don't know that we know" episode? It was one of the greatest!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These plot elements wouldn't play today:

Fat Monica
Ross's ex-wife lesbian Carol
Chandler's Trans father
Joey's experience being molested by his taylor (Chandler told him)
Monica's OCD cleaning
Monica's boyfriends like alcoholic Fun Bobby

Because we somehow lost the ability to laugh at anything, everything is taken just a bit too seriously.

This is what made Friends different from the show Living Single. Friends had a lot of self-deprecating humor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:These plot elements wouldn't play today:

Fat Monica
Ross's ex-wife lesbian Carol
Chandler's Trans father
Joey's experience being molested by his taylor (Chandler told him)
Monica's OCD cleaning
Monica's boyfriends like alcoholic Fun Bobby

Because we somehow lost the ability to laugh at anything, everything is taken just a bit too seriously.

We have also lost the perspective that Friends was progressive for the time in having a gay wedding!

[Anonymous]

It was entertainment! Pretty much all we had. We didn't have internet (other than slow dial up for emails) and no cable TV. Movies cost money. TV was our fun, our entertainment, a mindless escape from everyday life. Options now for entertainment are endless but back then you appreciated what was on because there wasn't much else!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m with you, OP. I didn’t like it then and I don’t like it now!

'

Another +1.

But I'll add that I do see why it was a hit (though don't see why it was a hit for SO long--it seems really to have gone on and on and on....). I think there was nothing quite like it when it premiered, it sold an escapist image of Big City Life (those apartments! Cute relationships! Every conflict will get resolved!), many folks found the cast appealingly funny even when the plots and scripts were meh. It was about the cast, chemistry, rather than the plots. I haven't ever been able to sit through a whole episode but talking with friends who were big fans in the day and who watch it sometimes now, those seem to be their takes on it.

So I kind of get why it was a big deal for a long time. I just never could get into it. I like some very goofy sitcoms, too, so honestly I don't have a stick up my backside, I just wasn't susceptible to the chemistry of the beautifuls in the impossiibly cool NY setting. And I'm not saying that to be superior or whatever--my most intelligent friend is a Friends fan (ha), and I've got to respect it!

I will say, the Friends cast did one very smart thing that influenced other casts. They negotiated as a group for their pay as the show went on and they realized how massively popular they were as an ensemble. They could have all negotiated separately but they chose to do it as a united front. I don't think any other cast was doing that at the time. That was incredibly savvy of them as actors, protecting their careers and incomes like that. It's a business, after all, and none of them was massively popular or hugely known before the show began.

what apartments? it was clearly shot in a studio. it had zero NYC vibe.

'

Sorry but you missed my entire point. I said it was escapist then I mentioned the apartments and the NYC stuff. It was escapism -- selling a fantasy of NYC and the characters affording those (Yes! I know, not real) apartments. Of course it wasn't shot in NY like many series are now -- that wasn't done as much then. And of course it was obviously a studio. Escapism, suspension of disbelief, etc., PP. The whole idea was that it was fantasy. And BTW I'm saying all this and i don't even like the show, but am pointing out that while it had zero real NYC vibe, the vast swaths of America watching it thought of it as their personal fantasy NY.

Wasn’t the largest of the apartments inherited by Courtney Cox’s character?

Yes -- it was rent-controlled (seems to be disappearing in NYC these days), originally inhabited by her grandmother. You were able to do that kind of thing back in NYC back in the day. There were discussions in my family how if I went to Fordham Law and we'd managed to hang on to my grandmother's apt after she went into nursing care, that I would have paid $250 a month for a 2 br apt with a terrace on the upper east side while I was in law school.

[Anonymous]

I enjoyed the show but agree I'm puzzled why it was such a huge hit, and I'm surprised that teens today are discovering it and watching it. I really don't know why. I even watched the "reunion" special last year which was not that great but there I was sitting through the whole thing.

The guys were not that good looking. Jen was super cute and I think very attainable to people - like she wasn't drop dead gorgeous so women could see themselves living that life and men could see themselves dating her. Lisa Kudrow was genuinely funny - there hadn't been a character quite like her. I like how the women were really into dating but weren't obsessed with getting married (like SATC Charlotte) or staying single and sleeping with everyone (like Samantha) or obsessing over an unattainable man (like Carrie). I liked how the Ross was a big nerd and Chandler was super sarcastic.

They had their struggles with boring careers and shattered dreams. It was light and fun, and like a PP said, there wasn't a lot else on! No streaming in the 90s and no one watched TV on their phone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I enjoyed the show but agree I'm puzzled why it was such a huge hit, and I'm surprised that teens today are discovering it and watching it. I really don't know why. I even watched the "reunion" special last year which was not that great but there I was sitting through the whole thing.

The guys were not that good looking. Jen was super cute and I think very attainable to people - like she wasn't drop dead gorgeous so women could see themselves living that life and men could see themselves dating her. Lisa Kudrow was genuinely funny - there hadn't been a character quite like her. I like how the women were really into dating but weren't obsessed with getting married (like SATC Charlotte) or staying single and sleeping with everyone (like Samantha) or obsessing over an unattainable man (like Carrie). I liked how the Ross was a big nerd and Chandler was super sarcastic.

They had their struggles with boring careers and shattered dreams. It was light and fun, and like a PP said, there wasn't a lot else on! No streaming in the 90s and no one watched TV on their phone.

I agree, the reunion special was really bad. I also thing the last two years were mostly fillers since the show was suppose to end in season 8. I assume with Rachel’s baby Ross and her would get married.

[Anonymous]

I was right within the target demographic for the show and never understood the appeal. I liked Mad About You before it and Seinfeld after, and I think it's main route to success was an excellent time slot. It was was I endured if I had nothing else to do and wanted to watch Seinfeld at 9--but most of the time I found something (anything) else to do.

[Anonymous]

It started while I was a college freshman. Everyone had viewing parties in the dorms. It was a big deal.

Threes company airs on IFC on Sundays. My Teenager seems to like that one too, along with Friends.

She also watched Cheers and Wings with me, as well as many episodes of Night Court (which I binged earlier this year)

Does anyone remember Courtney was actually the biggest name because she played Alex’s girlfriend on Family Ties?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My teens binged it this summer and they love it.

Teens don’t randomly binge on 25 year old multi-billion dollar TV series. There is so much fake marketing to brainwash them to pump views on streaming sites.

I know you posted that two days ago but I'm just seeing this now. I remember as a tween in the late 80's, watching "Nick at nite" and the (then) 25+ year old shows they used to play--Dennis the Menace, Patty Duke, the Donna Reed show, etc. Actually just this morning I couldn't get the theme song from Patty Duke out of my head.
So I don't think it's that unusual or unnatural for teens to watch shows from their parents generation.

Same here, except in the 90s! The Brady Bunch, I love Lucy, Cheers, Three’s Company, Cosby Show, the Jeffersons, Bewitched, Happy Days. Those shows basically raised me. And now my kids watch shows from the 90s and 2000s.

[Anonymous]

You have to remember that this was when TV was TV, and we watched it on a schedule. So this was a Thursday night, prime time, 8 p.m. TV thing people gathered together to watch. It was Friends or on the other channels, Murder She Wrote or Worlds Funniest Videos -- so, Friends was popular.

If you missed it you missed it until there were reruns on TV. There was no binge watching or watching on your own schedule and far fewer choices of what to watch. (Actually many of the shows other stations put opposite Friends were truly terrible and didn't last long). So it was more social -- everyone was watching the same thing on the same night (often in the same dorm lobby or living room) and then talked about it the next day.