FRIENDS: THE ONE WITH WHY IT WAS ALWAYS A GREAT SITCOM

FRIENDS: THE ONE WITH WHY IT WAS ALWAYS A GREAT SITCOM

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Only 56 million viewers tuned into the Friends season finale in 2002. Oh what a pitty, only 56 million! However, the last time I checked, one of the most famous shows today, Breaking Bad, only received 10.3 million viewers for its season finale.  Breaking Bad may not be a sitcom and may be on cable television, but that does not negate the fact that the characters in both series were large reasons as to why people would bite their nails waiting for the next episode or scream “NOOOOO” when the episode ended. Let's take a more personal and closer look at the characters of Friends.

PHOEBE BUFFAY

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Let’s start with your average “ditsy” character who is an awful musician and an even worse poet. From telling you it’s not your fault if you have a smelly cat to using her graceful good looks and comical charm while giving sensual massages, Phoebe Buffay, played by Lisa Kudrow, sure is a natural “one of a kind” talent with biggest heart... Especially if it means carrying her brother’s babies. 

CHANDLER BING

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He may not be the best at giving advice or cracking a sexy smile, but joke cracking Chandler Bing, played by Matthew Perry, surely had a great following during his time on Friends. Chandler Bing is the quick-witted comedian of the group of friends and graduated top of his class in sarcasm school.


JOEY TRIBIANNI

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“How you doin’?” Coming from a family of eight siblings and being the only male, how can Joey Tribbiani, played by Matt Leblanc, not love woman as much as he does? From being the hunky Dr. Drake Remoray actor, to the smooth-talking ladies man, Joey certainly loves his subs and sandwiches. Although he may not be the smartest in the bunch, Joey has the best heart and is always there for his friends... even if he does try to cop a feel here and there. 

ROSS GELLER

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If you are ever interested in having an hour long conversation in a coffee shop about prehistoric dinosaurs, Ross Geller, played by David Schwimmer, is your paleontologist pal. Just because Ross may be all brains, that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have the charm...to marry three woman and divorce them all. When he’s not battling for Rachel Green’s love, he can be found in a tanning booth or in a dentist’s chair whitening his teeth, just waiting for his next love to come around. 

MONICA GELLER

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She may defend her impeccable cooking and neurotic cleanliness before she would her own family, but Monica Geller, played by Courtney Cox, sure has come a long way since her pizza pounding days. Now a head chef and a tidy tyrant, Monica is able to find the love of her life just right under her bossy nose... or perhaps right across the spotless room. 

RACHEL GREEN

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Putting her princess and popularity high school days aside, Rachel Green, is your typical gorgeous “daddy’s girl” who eventually gets her dream job working at Ralph Lauren. Managing to still stay grounded, Rachel maintains a sense of humor while still skipping around from sexy Italian men to hunky doctors. But somewhere, under that glorious Rachel Greene haircut, does she hold a special place for that one passionate paleontologist. 

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So nobody told you life was going to be this way? Well, as the name of the sitcom exemplifies, “Friends” was a way for the average American to escape their daily lives and flop onto that brown couch every Thursday night with their favorite friends: Phoebe, Chandler, Joey, Ross, Monica, and Rachel. 

For this assignment I decided to mimic the style of Chris Suellentrop especially in this article that he wrote. http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/assessment/2004/05/friends.html . 
Because I completely disagree with almost everything he wrote in this critique of Friends, I thought it would be a good experience to write in the same style as him: witty and sarcastic. Instead of writing negative aspects of Friends and how it was not a great sitcom, I decided to use the same sense of humor but go into depth about each character and analyze them. Hopefully by doing this, I am able to exemplify how their characters were the reason as to why the show thrived so much. Chris Suellentrop is the deputy editor for blogs at Yahoo News and a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine. He has reviewed video games for Slate, Rolling Stone, and NewYorker.com.