Friends: The Poll

No!

fuck this show

Phoebe is the least annoying.

joey

HOW YOU DOIN

<3 this poll

i went for rachel cuz i'm weird now. loved phoebe tho, and she's a fellow alum. but a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do.

I remember first time round I hated (hated is too strong a word though) Joey. But now he brings the most laughs for sure. Ross, on the other hand, is rarely funny. And a real asshole when Rachel and Joey try to get it together.

obviously phoebe

Ross is horrible. Chandler probably least annoying overall, though once Rachel stopped being whiney self-entitlement princess, she was OK as well. Phoebe way too self-consciously wacky on too many occasions and appallingly written, without an actual coherent character at all.

Whodini

Chandler.

Monica is the worst. By the later series she had developed into a seriously grating, unattractive character. Ross is just this dopey guy you could probably stand to be around in real life.

Not me, I can't imagine ever wanting to hang around the guy. Caught an old one on E4 the other day where he was in a furniture store telling everyone how many times he'd "done it with her" (Rachel). Also, there was that whole weird thing where it turned out his first kiss was with his sister, ick ick ick. Dude's a grade-A jizzbucket.

Rachel least annoying by massive distance, but Joey probably funniest

For a long time I would have said Chandler, but now I think maybe Ross.

Phoebe is the least annoying.

― redmond, Tuesday, January 6, 2009 9:53 AM (47 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

how someone could think this is such a gigantic mystery to me that it kind of reawakens my sense of wonder at the incredible diversity of life on this planet

chandler sucks. i shocked myself by voting for joey.

(never watched this while it was on btw, but the reruns they are unavoidable)

fuck this show

― There was even a brief period when I preferred Sally Forth. (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, January 5, 2009 5:52 PM (51 minutes ago) Bookmark

^^^^^^^^^^^^^

i went about 2-3 years without seeing an episode until recently. good to get some distance.

I remember saying to one girl that "Friends" was quite interesting in that none of the characters are meant to be sympathetic at all.

She immediately smiled and asked which character I thought she was most like.

I answered "Rachel"

I was right, wasn't I?

joey is the least annoying

one of my fave funny moments is with just Ross, Rachel and Phoebe when they're in UNG's old apartment and he decides to take it but then Rachel and Phoebe prevent him from seeing Chandler and Monica making out from the window by jumping up and down excitedly so much that he ends up joining in. can't find it on youtube tho.

i hate the living shit out of this show, but when i do get stuck watching it, Chandler is the only one who ever makes me laugh. i like him more in the later episodes when he has trouble w/ smoking and he's starting to get a little chubby.

I swear to god I was going to start this poll today after seeing an early episode of "Friends" that was actually really funny (I'd forgotten how awesome Phoebe was as a character compared to all of the others). Said episode contained an extended subplot where Phoebe told Ross she didn't believe in evolution that was really, really awesomely resolved.

(Phoebe and Joey are the most consistently funny.)

i think they should've all just disowned her for not buying evolution

Chandler is a funny guy. The only one in the show.

xxp, laughing at or with? Or near?

The show really found its groove in the middle of the first season, and peaked in the second when Tom Selleck made his appearance. Basically, you can trace the decline of the show in the curious decision to switch Joey's hair from floppy locks to late nineties fade.

Joey, because he's adorably dumb and also very cute.

honestly ross's monkey from the first season had the most charisma out of all of these tools and even he had the god sense to bail.

god sense

har

i think they should've all just disowned her for not buying evolution

Well, the thing was she basically just said it and kept running with it because Ross, as a Man of Science, wouldn't let it go. When she hit him with "scientists used to think the Earth was flat; surely you can admit there is a possibility that evidence later on might prove evolution wrong...?" and he grudgingly agreed, she hit him with "omg how can you just abandon your scientific principles like that; how will you face your colleagues?" and sent him slinking out of the apartment. Then she turned to Rachel and Monica and said, "Well, that was fun!" and continued the conversation re: the main plot point (which I think was their awful downstairs neighbor).

The line where I lost my shit was when Ross presented a bunch of fossil research, to which she said, "Wow, I didn't know all of this. But the interesting question is 'Who put these fossils there?'"

alfred otm, i liked the first 2 seasons, lost interest pretty quickly afterward. i like phoebe, but i'm gonna say rachel because i think jennifer aniston hit the best balance of being funny and actual acting that went beyond bug-eyed reaction shots or courtney cox grimaces. she and lisa kudrow are by far the most talented people on the show, but i think the fact that she was a pretty gifted tv performer has sort of been lost in the endless soap opera of her life (and of course her middling film career).

ross

^^ otm

this show is funny. like stevem, hadn't seen it for aeons but when it's on e4 1) it's funny 2) schwimmer is funny as balls.

they all became insufferable self-parodies after series four when, or so it seemed, the writing became painfully forced and almost every bit of dialogue was an obvious setup to a punchline.

that being said, like steve I caught a few of the early episodes recently and there were times when it was really good.

umm, chandler. but only for S1&2.

Phoebe is the least annoying.

This is a misprint?

they all became insufferable self-parodies after series four when, or so it seemed, the writing became painfully forced and almost every bit of dialogue was an obvious setup to a punchline.

wtf it's sitcom.

you can't get precious about 'friends'. i thought it got funnier as it got more self-parodic tbh.

wtf it's sitcom.

you can't get precious about 'friends'.

I'm not precious about it, I just think there was a major dip in quality when the show became really successful and, presumably, the writers felt the need to repeat the trick. In the early series they were amusing but, at least moderately, believable characters. Later they were just caricatures and I found the show to be pretty unwatchable.

first season or two pretty unwatchably unfunny. got way funnier mid to late run

ross or joey but everyone has their share of funny bits which often ends up being down to the acting rather than the characters or lines

Ross is best. I always enjoy Schwimmer's acting, even more so because he runs with the gag even when it makes the character look stupid, when you just know that the others insist on getting the smart line or showing their best side or whatever

Phoebe - totally, totally awful. She was irritating enough as the quirky one, but at some point the writers forgot even about that, and just turned her into a nasty, whining asshole. One time the others arrange a picnic in the park for her, and her reaction is 'The park? That sucks! That's a crap surprise!' She's like that, every bloody line.

*kills self*

you NEVER run on a barge

"Space Cowboy."

The most irritating thing about Ross is that he doesn't get his comeuppance. Dude does not deserve Rachel at the end no way, sir.

Rachel and Joey - ahhhhhhh...
Monica and Chandler - meh...
Pheobe and Ross - now you're talking. They could whine together for all eternity.

rachel's pretty dreadful in her own ways too, ned.

Oh yeah, but I loved the stupid J & R plotline for some reason.

Joey and Rachel? That was unbearable, talk about running out of plots.

I think the fact I am watching all this in reverse order may have affected my opinions. I can't wait to see Joey in floppy hair though.

Really, many of these are funny in isolation but watching too many of them at once can make you homicidal.

one more for Ross, he's the funniest nuff said

Chandler. Pill addiction.

Chandler. Unhealthy fluctuations in weight.

No Chandler, No " .... omg!"

We should poll funniest Chandler: normal Chandler, big fat orange Chandler, back to kinda normal Chandler with glasses?

Big Fat Orange ftw

my favorite Chandler was early Chandler (but I'm indie like that)

i saw the thanksgiving episode with rachel's meat trifle the other day and it was still funny and I surprised myself by remembering everything about it, despite having not seen it in years.

I wonder what became of Joey's daft leather waistcoat.

It got a pilot but the network didn't think it had enough potential

fave ep 4 sure

We should poll funniest Chandler: normal Chandler, big fat orange Chandler, back to kinda normal Chandler with glasses?

You forgot ultra-skinny from too much drugs Chandler

that chandler's just upsetting

never got past the fucking theme song!

was thinking today, the theme tunes kind of a riff upon 'pleasant valley sunday', no?

Crust Punk Chandler

kathleen turner as chandlers transexual dad is the only sensible answer here

rachael because she is annoying. i mean wasnt that the point? annoying, neurotic, single manhattanites fucking up their jobs and relationships because they are annoying and neurotic? and she looks good in a mini skirt + mock turtleneck + boots.

Ross because he was on fire for the last couple of seasons.

Joey a close second for consistent greatness.

I love this show.

Ross' playing the keyboard is the best moment of the whole show.

I have to mute the tv for the duration of the theme tune if I ever watch Friends.

she looks good in a mini skirt + mock turtleneck + bootbs.

the theme song makes me embarrassed for wisconsin

wait are you thinking of "That 70's Show"?

Early cynical IT-skivvy Chandler kind of "spoke" to me at the time. And again when he took up smoking. So, him then.

Several shark-jumps over the years - but an equal number were in reverse, so I kept getting pulled back into it. Give it another four or five years, and I suspect it'll be viewed as a canonical consensus classic.

How I Met Your Mother is like a FRIENDS that is funny and awesome. This show bores me. That said, I voted Phoebe because I liked that character.. didn't her character date one played by Paul Rudd at some point? The last few years of Apatow movies have made me love him.

Phoebe eventually married the Paul Rudd guy. But she was also married to Steve Zahn, and dated Michael Rapaport until he shot a bird.

HIMYM is charming but so very minor

How I Met Your Mother is like a FRIENDS that is funny and awesome

hmm, i've must've been watching the wrong episodes. US sitcoms are DEAD to me now tho.

but i do like Paul Rudd

HIMYM is odd in that the writing is often good but the execution is really flat and uninvolving. I've enjoyed it when I've watched it but gotten many more genuine laughs out of "The Big Bang Theory" and "Two and a Half Men".

are these all very zingcentric? i need more surreal bait and switch

HIMYM can be awesome.

the band that did the friends theme is from waukesha, wi.

embed me a funny HIMYM clip dudez

I can't video at work, but I hear you on thinking HIMYM is a snoozefest, once I finally gave it a shot though it hooked me fully and completely. Some great episodes: Slutty Pumpkin, Slapsgiving, the Pineapple Incident, and Wait For It are all great episodes. Little Minesota from this season is great if you are Canadian or a northern American. I guess you have to have enjoyed Pineapple Express, Dr. Horrible's sing-a-long blog, Freaks & Geeks or Forgetting Sarah Marshall because it's essentially the Jason Segal & Friends happy hour. Josh Radnor (lead guy) is okay but outshined by his supporting actors..

Phoebe is the least annoying.

― redmond, Tuesday, January 6, 2009 9:53 AM (47 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

how someone could think this is such a gigantic mystery to me that it kind of reawakens my sense of wonder at the incredible diversity of life on this planet

― dugong.jpg (jabba hands), Monday, 5 January 2009 23:43 (Yesterday) Permalink

this is too hilarious

Lisa Kudrow RIP

Unless you hold a gun to my head, I ain't playing this game. They are all pretty appalling when considered as people. They are only slightly less vomitous when considered as largish hand puppets.

That particular argument never really made sense to me; why do you have to like the "Friends" characters to find them funny? Since when is likability a necessary component of being funny?

Are we supposed to take the question of who is best as meaning who is funniest? This is easier, but easier still would be to take best as meaning the most inane, which rather twists the word "best" unduly hard.

they don't have to be likeable to be funny but it helps?

voted for Joey anyway because he has to be the only character on tv who became more enjoyable the stupider he got.

the band that did the friends theme is from waukesha, wi.

― Tracy Michael Jordan Catalano (Jordan)

wait waht? at least one of them is a prodigal son of MN.

barney is CRUCIAL to himym. it would be an absolute bore otherwise.

no wai, robin is everything. barney used to be amazing but there are only so many inane 'this week the writers tried to think of a clever way of saying something about how to sleep with a girl' episodes i can take.

friends sucks. voted phoebe because she's the least evil.

Grotesque characters can be funniest of all, but I'm pretty sure that's not what Friends was aiming for

a hoy hoy: you can't deny dirty Lily though, I think I find her least predictable on the show and love it.

Since when is likability a necessary component of being funny?

Better to laugh with than laugh at imo, or at least balance it so characters redeem themselves well while still bringing lols. Friends characters were never downright hateful tho, just an acceptable level of routinely annoying.

The Seinfeld characters were downright hateful yet still all managed to be really, really funny!

I put some HIMYM quotes into i know i'm one of the only people on ilx who watches *how i met your mother* on a regular basis, but did anyone else see the robin sparkles episode? where robin didn't want people to know that she had so as to not totally spam this thread with How I Met Your Mother stuff, but what scene is above? (still at work)

If you mean the YouTube embed above, it's Adam & Joe's parody of Friends, using stuffed toys instead of actors.

ah cool cool, I'll check it out at home

Ross was insufferable boring whiney "straight guy" character in the first few series esp with that whole Rachel storyline. I think you were supposed to like him or identify with him though. The later episodes where they just let him be a bit of an arse and took the piss out of him for it were way better and actually made me think he was a decent comedy actor.

Rachel also got better later on.

Paul Rudd ftw...

really i never forgave this show for the London/Baxendale episodes

i liked how Baxendale clearly was hating it as much as the viewers.

Since when is likability a necessary component of being funny?

It depends on the style of humour that is being aimed for. I don't buy Friends as some kind of nihilistic 'people are cunts, haha' thing (which, BTW, many comedies I enjoy are going for, Curb or The Thick of It, for example). The programme makers were always intending the audience to sympathise with the characters to some extent, IMHO. This is why I've always found Chandler and Joey the most successful characters in the context of the show, because I can generally relate to them even if supposed to be laughing at rather than with them.

wasn't baxendale supposed to be a more long-term character, and because she didn't gel with the crew the whole, say-rachel's-name-at-the-altar plot was cooked up?

i had definitely heard she didn't gel with 'em, yeah.

I have deliberately skipped the London episodes. Are they like the Frasier episodes which feature the "English Pub"? Because if so I would hate them.

The London episodes really are fucking awful. Don't remember the English pub episodes of Frasier, but I remember Daphne's "English" brother.

Joey annoys Chandler by saying "London, baby," over and over. Ross is annoyed that Rachel won't come. In London, Chandler is embarrassed about touring with Joey. Emily worries about the wedding and Ross reassures her. Rachel tries taking care of Phoebe but Phoebe clues her in to her feelings for Ross. Joey buys an ugly hat and Chandler goes back to the hotel. Monica gives Emily advice, so Emily decides to postpone the wedding and she and Ross argue. Phoebe tries to help Rachel get over Ross. Joey shows Chandler highlights of his trip on videocamera, including his meeting with the Duchess of York.

his meeting with the Duchess of York is all you really need to read there.

and Richard Branson..

think I'll stop there.

Don't remember the English pub episodes of Frasier, but I remember Daphne's "English" brother.

Poor old Anthony LaPaglia playing her Londoner brother. Painful.

The Frasier episode was called "Where Every Bloke Knows Your Name" - seewhattheydidthere?
It was extra odd because they had (iirc) some actual English actors who seemed to doing terrible English accents. Plus Frasier plays darts! Frasier drinks pints of ale! Hilarity ensues!

Poor old Anthony LaPaglia playing her Londoner brother. Painful.

Isn't she supposed to be Mancunian? Why would she have a Londoner brother.

Late period Ross ftw. He used to annoy the shit out of me but as time went on and his role changed I realised Schwimmer is the best comedy actor in the show. Also for some reason he reminds me of Kermit the Frog.

Well, quite. But I'm sure his accent was more London. Maybe I misrember?

And then, IMDB tells me, in the last episodes Robbie Coltrane and Richard E Grant turn up as other brothers? What accents do they do? The mind boggles at the Moon family's British heritage.

hugh laurie on the plane in the friends london episode tho

Definitely supposed to be a Londoner I think.

I hope it's explained somehow that they were separated at birth and raised hundreds of miles apart.

Maybe American audiences just hear "Brit" and don't give a shit about regional accents.

I think that's it. Robbie Coltrane just burbles nonsensically, like his character from A Kick Up The Eighties (was that what it was from, I can't remember now?). I don't even want to attempt to explain Richard E Grant's accent. I don't even want to attempt to explain Jane Leeves', tbh.

They put Antony LaPaglia in a Man Utd shirt, like that was supposed to convey Mancuniann-ess :-) Perhaps it was an in-joke that no-one in America was likely to get.

Maybe American audiences just hear "Brit" and don't give a shit about regional accents.

same thing happened in Lost with Dom Monaghan's character (manc accent) and his brother (home counties from what i could tell). Brit culture refs in Lost are v funny tho.

speaking for all americans--we couldnt possibly care less about "regional accents"--your country is the size of delaware and its retarded of you to have so many accents anyway

Yee-haw.

Also:

Delaware: 2,490 sq mi
GBR: 80,823 sq mi

dom i imagine your accent is something like mario + the beatles

http://www.soulstrut.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/GetOnMyComp_gm.jpg

Fucking English people can't work out my accent, Americans would have no chance. Like Estuary English backed in on itself.

I have a horrible accent. Born in Plaistow then out to Essex - best friend a Liverpudlian who I copied all the time - then to the midlands - where I was forced to have speech training because I said "gull" for "girl". I sound a bit like Jools Holland if he less articulate. I probably sound like someone from Spinal Tap.

Fuck alone knows how I sound. Posh northern, I think, with increasing Scotticisms. A "good radio voice", apparently (which I'd hope, given that I used to work in radio). Best summary was probably at the end of a tutorial last year when a fellow (much younger) student said: "OK, I've been wanting to ask you this for ages. Are you really posh, or just English?"

I'm also aware that I assimilate very quickly, especially when talking to people with pronounced regional accents, so ... really, I've no idea.

(Dom: FWIW, you sounded exactly like I thought you would.)

Dom's voice is disappointingly bland in real life. Not the heady mix of Alan Moore and Super Mario I had been hoping for.

― blueski, Tuesday, 11 December 2007 14:28 (11 months ago)

i imagine dom sounding like a british version of necro

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

oh monicapaws...

I'm stunned and disappointed that Phoebe even got one vote.

this is bs. real headz voted ross.

Fat, greying and struggling for work - would you be Friends with them now?

Me!

Am loving this show more now than I ever did when it was on, it's ridiculous. Am actually excited that there might be a film. Really, I'm pathetic.

Or rather my answer to the stupid question would be "Yes!". Christ, I can't even read any more.

friends is still better, as a rerun, than any american sitcom since.

and though i didn't think so that much at the time,- wow, aniston before she stopped eating was some kinda perfect mix of funny and gorgeous that maybe only sandra bullock could even approach during the same time span.

she was and is hotter than sandy imo.

and friends was and is funny as balls.

she's hotter, not funnier imo

tbqh i haven't seen the bulls in anything since 'speed'. not even that one where she plays the undercover agent with chandler.

Some day, when the pricepoint drops really low, I'm going to buy the complete dvd series on ebay. It's still as funny to me when I catch it in reruns as it was when it originally aired.

re: Aniston. In the years since, via various tv and print interviews, I've decided she's absolutely the coolest member of the cast by far. She's funny and gorgeous, yeah, but I'd jump at the opportunity to just go eat pizza and talk with her for a couple hours. A totally engaging way about her, that one.

This...
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2010/01/20/article-1244843-07D8AB53000005DC-190_224x423.jpg
... would seriously be my answer to...
It's the 1p3 What Do You WISH You Looked Like Thread

great daily mail article "man gets older", written by discredited former ilxor acrobat, no less.

matt leblanc should really open up a can on george clooney for stealing of all his good film roles tbh.

would watch him in a police movie, tbh

friends is still better, as a rerun, than any american sitcom since.

friends is also so much better - funnier, better written, and much better performed - than the woeful how i met your mother, its insance.

*insane

also that daily mail feature is crazy badly written.

friends is well written and expertly performed yet i hate it

^^^^^^^^^ otm

respectfully, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBlMrGgpwXE

lolling hard @

Exception: Only Jennifer Aniston has managed to have a successful film career and hasn't aged since her time on Friends

hasnt aged

http://film.virtual-history.com/photo/06/large/06738.jpg

the portrait of jennifer a

friends is also so much better - funnier, better written, and much better performed - than the woeful how i met your mother, its insance.

― anyways when I'm chopped, dip always kicks my ass lol (stevie), Thursday, January 21, 2010 7:43 AM (35 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i love friends but... *smh*

anyway yes friends seasons 1-4 is one of the best sitcom runs in history--seasons 5-10 are still consistently funny and engaging though not great--but is it surprising to anyone that jennifer aniston is the only one who had a career? she and kudrow are by a long shot the two best comic actors on the show

no ross

^^^ ross

i think it was funnier after the first few seasons.

I was reading about the episode in which Brooke Shields plays a stalker. Andre Agassi apparently ran off cause he couldn't face Joey (?) licking Brooke's hand. lol

This is something I'd love to hate and, honestly, I come quite close to it, But I can't fully hate it. It's terribly dated but also there's something really feelgood about this. I hate most of the actors on it (especially Anniston - what an annoying person, godalmighty) but fuck it I can't help liking it in a fucked up masochistic way. And this is why I can't fucking pick a fave cause they are all my least fave. lol

xpost

the really early seasons like 1-3 are enjoyable in a different way - stories are genuinely relatable - tone and pacing are warm and slow and the characters are the main reason to watch. jokes mostly serve them.

s1-3 = they all have really weird hair

also stupid shit like ross pet monkey

the last few seasons have better jokes tho - sharper and better timed - but i kinda disliked them becoming brittle, selfish yuppie terrors

i have opinions abt friends idk

I think they evolved alongside the actors. I can't express how much I detest Anniston. lol

chandler's character was totally destroyed and neutered the minute he hooked up w/monica tho

I'm kinda terrified my future wife is gonna have a personality like monicas

I think my mom in law resembles Monica in some weird way.

ross/chandler better than phoebe definitely and rachel probably.

ross series 1-3 great, then awful awful for a few years then last 2 seasons schwimmer just kills tbh.

monica would be found in a bin liner outside day 2 of my own personal friends timeline

No way, you keep her on the side in case you need a clean flat or some good cooking. lolol

later on paul rudd was in it and paul rudd is funny.

ross series 1-3 great, then awful awful for a few years then last 2 seasons schwimmer just kills tbh.

i love this show but really have no idea if this is true: apart from the early fugliness (i'm not saying it became super-stylish later, just...), i can't tell 'em apart.

ross from monkey onwards was just a kind of hateful side-thought for the writers i think. and he's always been about the only of the male characters that they could actually pin any long story arc on.

Chandler gradually learning to be a grown-up was a pretty important story arc. Pity he had to get together with the increasingly repulsive Monica in order to do so.

Joey doesn't make any kind of notable transformation throughout the series, which is kind of the point of his character.

I concur with the general feeling that the earlier seasons were warmer, and the later ones sharper and tighter.

woah why does no one love monica?

Because from about the fourth season onwards she's absolutely awful.

And too skinny.

Yeah, she's got that hideous ribs poking out above the boobs thing going on.

right

but what is the "awful" thing about? i'm just curious!

is she like whiny and unfunny?

And shrill and self-centred.

Some day, when the pricepoint drops really low, I'm going to buy the complete dvd series on ebay.

Did this last year when Target had the sucker on sale for $99. It really was a treat, working my way through those first two seasons. They held up quite well and I larfed pretty regularly. More than I can say for most sitcoms. But then I got the complete NewsRadio for Christmas, so Friends seasons 3-10 have naturally been backburnered until I'm through with all of that.

"but what is the "awful" thing about? i'm just curious!"

Uh, she's way too disciplined, controlling,... On the manic side.

lady in the streets but a freak in the bed IMO

looool

lady? she's a manic hygiene freak. i very much doubt she's a freak in bed: too many germs.

We've been watching these again lately and, while not quite Cheers-level classic (to pick the last classic sitcom we recently revisited), I've been surprised at how long the show stayed solid for, as I'd somehow remembered the drop off in quality occurring a lot earlier. Season 9 does get quite painful, though--the episode where Monica thinks that she catches Chandler jerking off to shark videos may be the show's nadir (though I remember one from during the original run where Phoebe meets Paul Rudd's parents and compliments them on raising such a fantastic lover).

I still like Phoebe and Joey the best, probably because they are the characters who get least bogged down in the show's conventional notions of "growth" (plus I did and still do find Joey as a character--though not necessarily Matt LeBlanc the actor--adorable). Ross grates the most for me, now; Schwimmer's increasingly overplayed quirks irritate me far more than Cox's late-period tendency towards shrillness.

Ross is not only grating. A lot of his behavior is stalkerish and predatory, something that sort of went over my head during the original run. He's a terrible friend (and human being).

Rachel is far more likable to me now, but she's probably the most "growth"-heavy character in the series. ymmv

The funniest thing about this show was when they ran with "Ross and Rachel are having a baby" for a while but then they realised that babies are boring so they phased out the baby

They did milk it for a few episodes with different nannies.

But upon rewatching earlier this year, it turns out Rachel was pregnant for a full year. Chandler and Monica were married in May, which is when it was revealed Rachel was pregnant, and Joey's movie premiere was Memorial Day the following year, which is also when Rachel had her baby. Not just a tv irregularity. It was written into the script that way.

yeah, a forever pregnancy and then like 2 episodes of "we have a baby now" and then it's like, we're done with that

thereafter you are vaguely aware that two of the characters are supposed to have a daughter in the same way you are vaguely aware that two of the characters are supposed to own a duck

I can't like this show tbh but I think I might have seen every episode

I was hoping when I rewatched it that there might have been ONE episode I missed before, but nope. I'd seen every single one. I do like it, though, so watching it all beginning to end was fun for me.

I'm actually working on Cheers now, and there are episodes I'd never seen before. I was too young to watch it during the Shelley Long years, so it's kind of a revelation that the show started with a slower pace with more room for dialogue to breathe. By the time Kirsty Alley arrived, it was moving along at an I Love Lucy pace.

oops, Kirstie

Never got into cheers growing up it didn't seem joke-packed enough, think I would appreciate that now

In terms of American situation comedies of this time (that actually made it over here) I really like Roseanne

Paul Rudd was great in friends cause his character was kind of an extension of Hugh laurie's cameo, his whole deal seemed to be "wow all your friends are dicks"

Never got into cheers growing up it didn't seem joke-packed enough, think I would appreciate that now

jfc remedy that now

roseanne is great.

but cheers is the alpha and omega.

Cosmic slop sometimes quotes from it on Facebook & I think that sounds good I should get into that

It's weird tho I was too young for the original broadcast, later they showed it on Saturday morning as tho it was a cartoon (frasier has that slot now which is apt), meanwhile Seinfeld was planked where nobody could find it and I distinctly remember some random piece of crap called Caroline in the city getting the 9pm Friday slot on c4

nowadays of course it's easy to know what the actual good and popular us stuff is but back then it was easy to get a skewed sense

Seinfeld was never shown where people could find it, and neither was Larry Sanders Show. These shows (and the Kids In The Hall) were what VCR timers were made for.

Cheers is on US Netflix now, and I think on Gold or something like that. It is the greatest series ever imo.

Larry Sanders and Roseanne are the best sitcoms ever, Friends and Seinfeld somewhere on a 'quite good' mid-tier, still need to properly watch Cheers as an adult to assess but liked it as a kid but then I also liked Growing Pains as a kid.

Roseanne and The Cosby Show tied imo

Larry Sanders and Roseanne are the best sitcoms ever
― Party Your Body (Old Lunch), Saturday, July 25, 2015

On behalf of the Judd and myself, we thank you.

Nice little Hank touch on the italicization there.

I have historically ranked Cosby Show very high but man it's like watching the heartwarming home movies of a serial killer at this point.

^ this

If I could save one episode of TCS before casting it in a fire, it would be the Gordon Gartrelle shirt episode. That was perfection in television.

its hard to state how much i loathe ross the monstrous friend from friends

I realize this is a Friends thread.

I had to decide whether to show The Cosby Show to my class this year (3-4 episodes as part of media--I do it every year). I went ahead. We talked about why he was in the news, using language that was a little more on the general side (one or two of them obviously knew all the specifics).

The show was as great as ever. In this case--it's case-by-case for me--a wall went up. The class loved the show, as always, and wanted to see more episodes than I had time to show them.

I know some people will find this appalling. Just being honest.

i think yr confusing 'appalling' and 'boring'

cosby show was great great great but i have no desire to watch it again right now. thankfully cos is rarely in a different world, which i also love and which is all over netflix.

this is the friends thread so i should add that friends is great too.

Just got to the episode with Danny DeVito as the stripper, which is strangely torn between a rather shocking meanness towards the character's height/weight/age/appearance and the obvious joy that DeVito is taking in his performance.

There was a New York mag piece about Friends being the hot show on Netflix and it occurred to me that I have never seen an episode of the show. I went to college in 1994, then moved to New York in 2000 and fumbled around for the better part of five years trying to find my footing so for the entire run of Friends, I didn't have a television for most of the decade and i only very rarely had cable. So tonight I watched the first episode of Friends. It was really bad. Then I watched the last episode of Friends. I got to the part where the guy ran after the girl at the airport but he went to the wrong airport and then i accidentally hit the remote and it exited netflix and that felt like that was more than i really needed to see so I stopped there. That's my Friends story.

with my 94 to '05 teevee blindspot i think there might be a market for "this guy has never watched law and order" gawker pieces a'la jordan's "what's a raisin" schtick.

I hated this show but I thought Chandler was a secretly sometimes funny and cool dude.

I used to frequently quote "You must be funny's cousin: not funny!"

Go watch the first season, soldier through the episode where they're all really excited to attend a Hootie & the Blowfish concert, you'll be glad you did. It's nothing earth-shattering but, if you have affection for the format (which admittedly feels more than a little dated these days), it's a very solid and fairly funny three-camera sitcom that benefits greatly from watching the episodes in order.

tbrr, and it's okay if you don't feel the same way, i have zero affection for sitcoms. laughtracks are the worst, period.

i hated this show when it was first out, now i can appreciate the top 3 finishers in this poll in that order m/l. i'd put ross at the bottom except when he's getting shit on by others, thats the best. would be a great show without the relationship hijinx tbh.

this show hasn't added much to my life but it hasn't taken away much either.

Yeah. It's like eating a bag of Doritos. I certainly don't need it, and it's not the most memorable experience after the fact, but I sure enjoy it in the moment.

Soooo true about the interfriend romances

was phoebe the only one who was totally left out of that? did chandler sleep with ursula at one point?

it happens less now but it used to annoy me just how often scenarios from friends came to mind as a reference point for things that happened to me, like half-watching the constant repeats allowed it to colonise my consciousness.

though one line that has stuck with me is "some of us have to get up early and go to work! (Monica looks at him) (To Monica) He does not know that I am not some of us."

was phoebe the only one who was totally left out of that? did chandler sleep with ursula at one point?

There was that one episode which had a "what if?" theme (though it was still canon), where Ross is depressed after his wife left her, and Phoebe comes on to him, and they almost have sex, but then they decide not to go all the way after all. That episode also has Monica lusting after Joey and Chandler hitting on Rachel, though none of these things are ever mentioned again, since the whole episode was just a device for teasing alternate romantic plotlines without committing to them. I'm glad they didn't return to those plotlines, because having had close female friends for most of my life, while attraction and romance between friends is certainly something that can happen, I hate the idea that everyone is secrely lusting after everyone else. It just doesn't ring true.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2015/01/22/friends_chandler_bing_and_his_homophobia_are_the_worst_thing_about_watching.html

We rewatched the whole show on Netflix a couple of years ago, and that article is totally OTM. Kahtleen Turner does do the best she can with the role of Chandler's dad, adding a lot of sadness and between-the-lines anger to Helena, but the fact still remains that for several seasons before she actually appeared onscreen, and even after that (as the article points out) the series treats the idea that Chandler has a trans parent as a big joke.

To a lesser degree, the same applies to Carol and Susan. While it certainly feels like Friends was trying to break new ground with its depiction of queer characters, even showing Carol and Susan's wedding in the first season (was that the first gay wedding in a mainstream American TV show?), and some of it was fairly progressive compared to other sitcoms of the era (like the idea that a child could have more than two straight parents without it being problematic), the show does treat them in an oddly passive-aggressive way. Carol is sympathetic most of the times, but Susan is often depicted as unlikable rival to Ross, someone who "stole" Carol from him, as if she could've continued to be in a happy, straight relationship if she'd never met Susan.

I think Carol and Susan and Helena are all part of the same problem: the writers using the lives and choices non-heteronormative characters as something that's inherently funny without acknowledging the pain and struggle that you have to go through to be able to live like you want.

Truo story

Susan is often depicted as unlikable rival to Ross, someone who "stole" Carol from him

the flipside of this obviously that a new male straight partner of carol's in the same dynamic with ross whereby a relationship and interaction is made necessary by a child might as likely be depicted as an unlikable rival to Ross, someone who "stole" Carol so why not a new female gay partner

Because coming out as gay and starting to live accordingly is not the same thing as being straight and finding a new straight lover.

should it be?

Don't Ross and Susan end up becoming sort of friends (before Susan, Carol and Ben all vanished), to the extent that he's happy to talk them round when they get the jitters and he gives Carol away at her wedding? Susan's totally likeable, just not to Ross (and you can see why, surely - the mother of his child and his only real girlfriend ever at the time left him for her).

Also I don't read Chandler's issues with his father as being transphobic so much as him just having issues with his dad who happens to be trans. He has issues with his mother too. Also it's a big joke because *everything* is a big joke to Chandler. It's kind of his thing.

Monica lusting after Joey is totally referenced again - that whole thing where her and Chandler nearly break up because Chandler finds out that Monica was actually looking for Joey when they hooked up in London?

I used to watch this far too much.

I like the slate article and it's definitely on the right track wrt the show's overall treatment of lgbtq characters and gender in general, which is absolutely regressive. I think it coms down to hard on chandler by ascribing to him the sort of seething bitterness one finds in like, the hostile dudes on okcupid. H is romantically desperate, especially compared to the womanizing Joey, but I don't really remember seeing him treat any women in the show with disdain or resentment, even Janice. My impression was he kept getting back together with her because there was something about her he really liked. I guess he might also retreat back i to her arms when he feels too lonely or down on himself so she is a kind of eternal second choice. That's shitty -- I've been "Janice" to people in this way before, and it feels bad -- but it's also understandable: we all make bad romantic choices. Chandler's lack of confidence doesn't make him a monster. I don't remember him being worse to his girlfriends than Joey or, my god, the whiny, manipulative Ross.

His gay panic, however, does make him a monster. He treated his father apallingly.

Sorry for the typos.

It's backwards by today's standards, but I don't know if I'd use 'regressive' to describe a 20-year-old sitcom that depicted gay relationships in a relatively favorable light when things like that weren't exactly the norm on broadcast TV.

The concerns in the Slate article are certainly valid. But honestly, you're often going to find a lot of things that don't align with modern-day mores when you're revisiting cultural products several decades later.

Eh. When Susan leaves Ross for Carol it is depicted as this slight on his masculinity and becomes a big punchline. I think a depiction like that is worse than no depiction at all.

Yeah and that's exactly how it seemed even at the time when we were all horrible

i swear Friends had a few of the best TV jokes of all time in it. seeing it again recently and this one really stuck out, much better watching it first time when you had no idea there was a gag coming at the end of what at first appeared to be a straight-up moment of real 'break up' drama.

(To Janice) "I think you should go back with Gary. I don't wanna be the guy that breaks up a family. Ya know when my parents split up.. it was *because* of that guy. Whenever I would see him I was always think.. ya know "You're the reason, you are the reason why they're not together." and I hated that guy. And it didn't matter how nice he was, or how happy he made my Dad.. "

and that's just the women!

That joke is homophobic though piscex

"heteronormative" more like

Idk. The joke is "my dad's gay"

hm maybe so. it was the inversion of where you thought the story was going that made it funny. rather than 'ha let's laugh at his gay Dad'.
i dunno, didn't seem particularly mean.

i always thought of Carol as a sort of hip character, Ross always came off as a bit of a dick to her and we were often, i thought, meant to be laughing at him with Carol and Susan. i may have mis-remembered.

crut's take is correct. The joke hinges on the reversal of the audience's expectations of heteronormativity in the story Chandler's relating. That construction may or may not work for you but there's nothing homophobic about it.

Why I have 2 explain how joeks work lately.

Yeah it's p standard hack gender flip pull-back-&-reveal

Revisiting this show in 2016 seems like an odd thing to want to do

Or even visiting

What about "rescreening"?

I only watch episodes of Friends that have been split up into 250 separate Vines.

It is curious to think about how huge it was. Def horrible in a lot of ways but I find it hard to hate from this distance as long as I never have to see it again

(Re the homophobia, it was definitely there but I agree we were supposed to think Ross was a homophobic dickhead)

Like most sitcom characters, they were all dickheads of one stripe or another.

I haven't read that Slate piece yet, but my husband and I did rewatch most of the series (I think I bailed somewhere during season 9) a year or two ago and I would say that the homophobia, such as it is, is pretty tame and standard, limited mostly to "my wife is a lesbian" and "my dad is gay" being used as punchlines. This is obnoxious, and not funny, but both Carol/Susan and Chandler's father are given a few scenes throughout the series where they get to act like real people and not just be treated as jokes. It's basically the Kevin Smith tactic of having it both ways, "LOL at homos" while still getting to be all like "...whom I support," but I dunno, the relative sobriety with which Carol and Susan's wedding was treated, and at least Kathleen Turner getting it at least a shred of poignancy during her appearances speaks a little but louder, for me, than a bunch of lazy recurring jokes that were of the exact same sort that basically every other comedy on TV at the time was already making.

this show really shines when it comes to interior design. you could say that monica's apartment is a bit tacky/eclectic, but i've never seen a purple room pulled together so effectively.

fuck this show

― There was even a brief period when I preferred Sally Forth. (Shakey Mo Collier), Monday, January 5, 2009 10:52 PM (7 years ago)

^^^^

imagine having to hang out with monica

or chandler. oh, or ross! i guess phoebe and joey would be alright. i can't remember a single thing that rachel ever did

She did Ross, IIRC.

did marcel ever make another appearance after the first season? the show's best character imo

Yes, there was a big tearful hourlong episode where Ross said farewell to his monkey, and Jean-Claude Van Damme and Julia Roberts were also there.

And I realize that surely sounds like total bullshit to anyone who is not aware of said episode.

Rachel, Joey, and Phoebe seemed chill and easygoing. Monica, Ross, and Chandler are all, in their own ways, self absorbed and tormented.

the one after the super bowl

After seeing a monkey in a beer commercial that reminds him of his former pet monkey Marcel, Ross decides to pay a visit to his old pet at the San Diego Zoo during his business trip to California. When Ross cannot find the monkey, the zoo administrator (Fred Willard) tells him that Marcel has died. However, a janitor (Dan Castallaneta) later informs Ross that Marcel was kidnapped and forced into show business and is currently filming a movie in New York. Meanwhile, Joey has to contend with a stalker (Brooke Shields) who thinks that Joey is actually Dr. Drake Ramoray, the character he plays on Days of Our Lives. Despite this, Joey goes on a date with her. She dumps him when she suspects "Drake" is cheating on her with another woman (actually another character in the soap opera). Phoebe dates a man (Chris Isaak) who hired her to perform at a children's concert.

Ross, hoping for a reunion with Marcel, looks for him on the movie set. Joey meanwhile, sucks up to the production assistant to land a part in the movie. While on set, Chandler meets his old childhood friend Susie "Underpants" Moss (Julia Roberts) working on the production, with whom he has a colored history; when they were in elementary school, Chandler pulled up Susie's skirt when she was on stage, revealing her underwear to the entire school. They arrange a date, Chandler unsuspecting that it is a plot to get revenge. After convincing him to wear her panties, Susie leaves him wearing nothing but the panties in a bathroom stall in the restaurant where they were having dinner. Meanwhile, Monica (Courteney Cox) and Rachel meet the movie's star Jean-Claude Van Damme, and compete for his attention. This creates tension between them, as they both argue over who should get to date him. They both dump him when he tries to convince them to have a threesome with Drew Barrymore. Ross finally reunites with Marcel and Joey lands a small role in the movie, but loses his solitary line after overacting.

there is no god

Meanwhile, Monica (Courteney Cox) and Rachel meet the movie's star Jean-Claude Van Damme, and compete for his attention. This creates tension between them, as they both argue over who should get to date him. They both dump him when he tries to convince them to have a threesome with Drew Barrymore.

i take that back, i would watch a 3 hour that was about nothing but this

Joey has to contend with a stalker (Brooke Shields) who thinks that Joey is actually Dr. Drake Ramoray, the character he plays on Days of Our Lives

The hilarious* lolz at Brooke Shields' character's obvious mental illness is probably the worst thing about a truly terrible couple of episodes.

* not hilarious

Van Damme was so transparently smug and charmless in this episode, in a way that didn't seem like acting. Monica and Rachel falling for him was similar to the gang's enthusiasm for Hootie & the Blowfish inasmuch as it was either eye-rollingly unbelievable that the characters would behave in that fashion or really believable because they're gross people with repugnant taste. Take your pick.

Great show can't believe lots of ilx ppl dislike it in 2016 omg

I don't! I occasionally get teased irl for defending it. Whatevs, it makes me laugh.

Not u

Ross and the leather pants was just good physical comedy fuiud

Also basically anything where Ross was the butt of the joke, like Phoebe trolling him over evolution.

haha I was just reading my defense of the evolution trolling upthread

When Ross cannot find the monkey, the zoo administrator (Fred Willard) tells him that Marcel has died.

for some reason the line from that scene always sticks with me

There's an old saying: "sometimes monkeys die" - it's not a great saying, but it certainly is fitting today.

Ross and the leather pants was just good physical comedy fuiud

Sorry. It's not quite Joey speaks French but it's not great. Still, better than Ross and the fake tan and Ross and the teeth whitening. Man, the scriptwriters really hated Ross.

Or think that Schwimmer can pull off physical comedy better than he actually can, at least.

The unfortunate side effect of prolonging the "will they or won't they?" subplot with Ross and Rachel for the entirety of the series is that they both come across as immature commitment-phobics who cannot stop pining after someone they dated for a few months, even though that was years ago. At least the other characters got the chance to develop and grow, and even Chandler was shown to overcome his insecurity and stupid fears of emasculation by the end of the series. But Ross and Rachel remain the same lovesick puppies for 11 years.

With Ross, they at least they sorta acknowledge that being needy and short-tempered is part of his character, and he may not actually be as sympathetic as we'd like him to be. But Rachel was supposed to be the most "normal" and stable of the main characters, so it's kinda sad her character growth was hindered by the whole 11 year unresolved romance arc... At least when it comes to relationships, her career arc was actually quite nicely done - until the last episode, where she throws it all away to be with Ross! :(

Friends writers really should've taken their cue from Frasier... In that show they at least figured out that you can't keep an "will they or won't they?" plot going on for the entire series; viewers will get bored of it, and it makes the characters involved look stupid.

maybe you don't like friends a lot of your criticism of the writing characterisation and development may as well be criticism of the characters i.e. people also in real life can be equally and often even more stupid pathetic hateful illogical and crap

Always a delight to read finnfic disguised as criticism

It was a disaster for Frasier when Niles and Daphne got married

Why?

IMO they got a lot of good comedy out of their married life... And it was certainly better than stretching out and already over-stretched subplot for a few more seasons.

maybe you don't like friends a lot of your criticism of the writing characterisation and development may as well be criticism of the characters i.e. people also in real life can be equally and often even more stupid pathetic hateful illogical and crap

There are sitcoms that feature intentionally unlikable and stupid characters, but I kinda doubt Friends was supposed to be one...

I am not sure you understand the modern American situation comedy

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hDbpF4Mvkw

Man, the scriptwriters really hated Ross.

I remember some discussion at the time that he was the one of the cast who started the whole strike business, and that he said some stupid things about how the whole show lived and died with the cast, to which the writers took exception. After that, they made some significant changes to his character and made him a lot less sympathetic.

It was a disaster for Frasier when Niles and Daphne got married

Why?

Daphne's family, for a kickoff.

h8 phoebe can't believe she came in second place in this poll

Ha, I somehow never put together that this show was on for 10 years and stopped as late as 2004.

It's something that I've seen a bunch without ever going out of my way to see it.

Daphne's fucking family FFS, worse than anything Friends ever did

Only Daphne's mom was a regular supporting character, the brothers only appeared in a handful of episodes. And according to Wikipedia the mom appeared in 18 episodes, spread between four seasons. IMO she only became truly irritating when she moved in, which was mostly for season 10. There was almost two seasons of married Niles & Daphne without her appearing, and she only makes one appearance in season 11.

And let's not forget Friends had a pet monkey as a supporting character for most of the first season...

Marcel >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Daphne's family

I don't recall Marcel ever being used particularly egregiously in a "close-up cute reaction shot > audience 'Awwww'-ing" way. He was just kinda there more as a prop to make Ross seem like a weirdo.

I had thought that hatred for daphne's family of cockney mancunians might be a purely uk phenomenon, glad to see that this isn't the case

never gave a shit about the soap opera plots and could never tell you who was fucking whom. what a waste of time.

i remember watching a late clip show of the best of the series. one of the jokes they included was that two of the guys were hanging onto each other from a ledge and the top one farts.

Cut both Frasier and Friends by 5 years - that's still only half the lifespan of either. Build up and complete the Ross/Rachel and Niles/Daphne thing during Season 5. End series.

I like Friends but in full disclosure I don't think I watched anything past the fifth or sixth season so that might be why I like Friends.

one of the jokes they included was that two of the guys were hanging onto each other from a ledge and the top one farts.

To be fair, this never happened

Thank you. He actually shit his pants iirc?

soref i'm british btw

https://scontent.fbed1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/19366306_10155983930407137_8392898616393170096_n.jpg?oh=67724a48a2d6f9d77e6c126138258734&oe=59D7FD87

https://scontent.fbed1-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/19366138_10155983929022137_1877488306073071584_n.jpg?oh=28e3a9434cec187f38ae1f09940fc02e&oe=59DF8D05

boy they really burried the failed Rachel/Joey thing quick didn't they.

I don’t have a source for this, but I seem to recall hearing that fan reaction to that plot was so negative that it was dropped as quickly as possible.

That dumb goddamn article says "Friends" had bad politics. I don't care. It didn't do its job. It wasn't funny. It was a soap opera full of smug assholes winking at the camera.

— Richard M. Nixon (@dick_nixon) August 30, 2019

Nixon died just before the show aired, but what's your excuse?

never made it past the theme song

you’re posting a tweet by a person who doesn’t exist about an article nobody has read about a show you’ve never seen

a perfect circle

(i def saw a few minutes now & then flipping thru and was properly revolted)

The purity of opinion untainted by experience, it's breathtaking to behold.

PS, regardless of how the interviewee feels about the show, you'll find few who'll argue the theme song isn't the worst part by a country mile.

(ITT I nudge Morbs ever closer to actually watching + enjoying the American sitcom entitled Friends. Join me, won't you.)

that twitter account is the most cursed gen x disphittery

a perfect circle

Mouroboros

https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/001/168/687/faf.jpg

Seasons Two and Three were the peak, especially when Tom Selleck played Monica's boyfriend.

The purity of opinion untainted by experience

one sip of milk tells you if it's sour

plus i hate Schwimmer's face

like Twitter Nixon i like Kudrow in the movies

it's fucking Friends and it has that homicidal theme song, fuck it forever

fucking yuppieporn coffeehouse fantasy of NYC

friends is better than f troop morbs

to whom?

it knocks the phil silvers show into a cocked hat

what the f is a f troop even (skateboards away)

every generation needs a tv show that ruined NYC for good.

yeah this show was atrocious, certainly morally much worse than oh say turning a racist war criminal into a cute fake twitter account full of "tellin' it like it is" bullshit

not ruined, made more assholes move here xp

see also S&tC, Girls

"these gen z pussies don't like the retrograde cultural politics of a show written by boomers, this gen z nerd is here to tell you that doesn't matter because the show was lame anyhow"

isn't assholes moving to NY basically what made NYC

Dutch East India Co were pretty big assholes

sounding a lil Trumpian there xp

xpost ha! I thought during my post about a poll of Friends, s&tC and Girls ruining nyc but I don't make polls.

I have a friend that used to get very very upset about the show Felicity ruining nyc.

I already did a poll for shows about young women "making it" in NYC, having trouble finding it tho

ok, not a poll but here it is TV Shows about single ladies living in NYC

I think Chris Noth has given interviews where he gets all grumbly about s&tc ruining nyc.

the idea that friends was some level of awful but seinfeld is worth shit is a venn diagram i could ignore all day

your opinion on seinfeld is worth similar to morb's on friends tho.

ive tried with seinfeld, i really have

hes ok in cars getting coffee, i mean i dig the unashamed asshole thing

boring show

larry storch is still living

I remember seeing a feature on Entertainment Tonight back in the day about the upcoming season of new 'Seinfeld clones', including Friends. The next year, they ran basically the same story about 'Friends clones'.

think I agree with darraghmac

also, hard to believe any of these shows ruined NY

sitcoms don't ever really feel like they're in the city they're supposed to be in and are generally filmed elsewhere afaict

it's mostly S&tC that gets the ruined ny treatment. xpost

I liked Seinfeld a lot. Friends was always mindless entertainment that I never understood the popularity or appeal of the actors. I have no desire to rewatch either.

S&tC and Girls did seem to show NY in a way that the earlier sitcoms didn't

also Broad City

i am sure there are tons of articles written about s&tC but it did encourage the popularity of boozy brunches, overpriced cupcake chains, move to nyc so it can be your very homogenous dream mall etc. etc.

Lol, Seinfeld knocks Friends out a the weigh in and Friends is so shook it never bothers showing at the match.

And I think Seinfeld has dated rather poorly in some respects.

Neither Seinfeld nor Friends takes place in NYC. Both are located in a dream world that exists nowhere on earth, inhabited by characters who are more homunculi than humans. You may as well say that Plautus 'ruined Rome' as that either one of these phantasms 'ruined NYC'.

I can't even explain why I found Friends far less insufferable than Seinfeld, on which it was ostensibly based.

Friends beat Seinfeld at its own game; it truly is a show about nothing

S&tC and Girls did seem to show NY in a way that the earlier sitcoms didn't

Friends and Seinfeld were filmed in Los Angeles

xpost Seinfeld is never in the running for ruining nyc. No white trustfund kid ever moved to nyc because of seinfeld.

this is a great time to bring up morbs' ny stand up career.

morbs moved to ny because of i love lucy

Good! As Jerry usta say, "One in a row."

however even as a kid I knew the Lucy apartment address (623 E 68 St) would be in the middle of the fucking East River.

Welcome Back Kotter ushered in the great sweathog migration to Brooklyn.

ed norton inspired a generation of youngsters to become sewer workers

xp lol

didn't realize you were a life-long NYer morbius!

NJ (Sopranos country) til age 30

tho I have gone to school or worked here since 18

however even as a kid I knew the Lucy apartment address (623 E 68 St) would be in the middle of the fucking East River.

Frasier's apartment is in a zeppelin floating hundreds of feet above Lake Union