Why was "Friends" so popular?

[Anonymous]

Great cast chemistry, warm hearted, genuinely funny.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

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.

[Anonymous]

It’s funny. Don’t overthink it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think Friends being on Netflix found a new, young generation to watch it and made it popular again. It’s no longer on Netflix in US and now on HBOMAX. Time will tell if it remains popular. Something else will eventually surpass it. The cast were great on the show. Sadly their private life’s, except for Lisa, appear to have issues.

Isn't Matt LeBlanc doing fine? He was on Episodes and also just came across as really normal on the reunion show. Remember the Uncle Joey meme after that? I guess I take it as a good sign I have no idea about his life outside of that!

https://ew.com/tv/matt-leblanc-friends-reunion-irish-twitter-meme/

Lisa Kudrow is the only one who has maintained a marriage.

Perry never married.

The remaining have been married and divorced.

David married someone NINETEEN years his junior. I guess he was reliving The One with Elizabeth.

Courteney married, divorced and in a relationship with a guy who mostly lives in Ireland and she in Malibu. Engaged, broke up, back on and introduces him as her husband because she “feels” married.

Aniston keeps marrying cheaters.

Matt LeBlanc married and divorced but does seem truly happy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Now it may seem hackneyed but at the time there was nothing like it. It was the first show that spoke to young twentysometbings in a way that wasn’t condescending. and the characters/ actors were cool and we all wanted to be there or be friends with tbem. I remember thinking it was the first show “for me”

Also the first show with a true ensemble cast AND EACH cast member had a storyline in EACH episode. I think up until then the storyline usually was around 1 to 2 people and everyone else was filler.

Nope not the first, also Living Single did Friends better and a year earlier. That said, I watched and laughed. Monica with those beads and braids. WE WERE ON A BREAK!!

Living Single not listed on IMDB as ensemble show,.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow, the comic timing and chemistry of the actors was awesome. Friends was a great show! There were so many laugh out our moments — Ross with the leather pants? Gets me every time, it’s clean, unpretentious funny. Everything is so contrived now.

I laughed just reading your post. Love this episode!

Ross’s leather pants scene is total ripoff of “Dumb and Dumber’s” (1994) toilet scene. And Jeff Daniel’s didn’t require a laugh track.

So what? David Schwimmer was hilarious in that scene. You must be so much fun.

Don’t claim it has genius writing when your favorite scene is basically plagiarized from a 1994 movie. Makes you wonder what else was lifted. And the laugh track is REALLY cringe and distracting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was awesome for its time.

Sorry you didn't get to enjoy it like the rest of us did.

+1 genuinely sweet chemistry

+2. It was funny, lighthearted, and had mass appeal. Unlike every woke virtue signaling or disturbing show these days.

+1. Better times

[Anonymous]

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

[Anonymous]

Could this thread BE any more pedantic?

Love me some Friends.

[Anonymous]

It was weird. I went to college in NYC during the friends era and could not relate at all. Cheesy as hell.

[Anonymous]

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.

I don't know what you are talking about. What urbanization? It was just an imaginary setting with no real significance to what happened on the show.

[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.

I don't know what you are talking about. What urbanization? It was just an imaginary setting with no real significance to what happened on the show.

+1 Show could have taken place anywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It was awesome for its time.

Sorry you didn't get to enjoy it like the rest of us did.

+1 genuinely sweet chemistry

+2. It was funny, lighthearted, and had mass appeal. Unlike every woke virtue signaling or disturbing show these days.

Plus one

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PIVOT PIVOT PIVOT

We had one of those moments recently.

+2, anytime we have to move anything large both DH and I start shouting that. I liked it at the time and there are still lines that make me laugh out loud. But it does not hold up - really homophobic and so white.

Come ON. America is so white. I just came back from visiting friends and family in Europe, and someone remarked on this--how much whiter the US is in reality than what they thought based on watching TV. It is. And I say that as a POC (biracial, but still).