Why was "Friends" so popular?
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Anonymous
| The acting was painfully bad, the storylines hackneyed, the "humor" lacking and it has aged horribly. God I hate this show! |
Anonymous
|
It was awesome for its time.
Sorry you didn't get to enjoy it like the rest of us did. |
Anonymous
+1 genuinely sweet chemistry |
Anonymous
+2. It was funny, lighthearted, and had mass appeal. Unlike every woke virtue signaling or disturbing show these days. |
Anonymous
| I’m with you, OP. I didn’t like it then and I don’t like it now! |
Anonymous
| Never got into it either |
Anonymous
| I loved it! |
Anonymous
| Great theme song. |
Anonymous
| My teens binged it this summer and they love it. |
Anonymous
| Hot people, zeitgeist |
Anonymous
|
It was of it’s time. A lot of us were twenty-something then and living away from home after college and finding our way through life. They were characters who we enjoyed watching.
Things were so different then. Most people watched shows on the three main networks. There was really no internet, there weren’t shows about real people on tv like the real housewives. MTV’s “Real World” was just kicking off that genre. It was fun. We liked it. Most people watched it so you could say things like “we were on a break” and everyone knew what you meant. I miss those days. |
Anonymous
Same |
Anonymous
Please don't apologize! I'm so sorry you found it amusing. |
Anonymous
' 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. |
Anonymous
| I loved Friends and still do. Haters gonna hate..... |