Friends

Friends
Genre	Sitcom
Created by	David Crane Marta Kauffman
Showrunners	David Crane Marta Kauffman
Starring	Jennifer Aniston Courteney Cox Lisa Kudrow Matt LeBlanc Matthew Perry David Schwimmer
Theme music composer	Michael Skloff Allee Willis
Opening theme	"I'll Be There for You" by the Rembrandts
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	10
No. of episodes	236 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producers	David Crane Marta Kauffman Kevin S. Bright Michael Borkow (season 4) Michael Curtis (season 5) Adam Chase (seasons 5–6) Greg Malins (seasons 5–7) Wil Calhoun (season 7) Scott Silveri (seasons 8–10) Shana Goldberg-Meehan (seasons 8–10) Andrew Reich (seasons 8–10) Ted Cohen (seasons 8–10)
Production locations	Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, California
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	20–22 minutes (per episode) 22–65 minutes (extended international TV & DVD episodes)
Production companies	Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions Warner Bros. Television
Original release
Network	NBC
Release	September 22, 1994 (1994-09-22) – May 6, 2004 (2004-05-06)
Related
Joey (2004–06) Friends: The Reunion (2021)

Friends is an American television sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting ten seasons.^[1] With an ensemble cast starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer, the show revolves around six friends in their 20s and early 30s who live in Manhattan, New York City. The original executive producers were Kevin S. Bright, Kauffman, and Crane.

Kauffman and Crane began developing Friends under the working title Insomnia Cafe between November and December 1993. They presented the idea to Bright, and together they pitched a seven-page treatment of the show to NBC. After several script rewrites and changes, including title changes to Six of One^[2] and Friends Like Us, the series was finally named Friends.^[3] Filming took place at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions and Warner Bros. Television.

The show ranked within the top ten of the final television season ratings; it ultimately reached the number-one spot in its eighth season. The series finale aired on May 6, 2004, and was watched by around 52.5 million American viewers, making it the fifth-most-watched series finale in television history^[4][5][6] and the most-watched television episode of the 2000s.^[7][8] Friends received acclaim throughout its run, becoming one of the most popular television shows of all time.^[9] The series was nominated for 62 Primetime Emmy Awards, winning the Outstanding Comedy Series award in 2002 for its eighth season.^[10] The show ranked no. 21 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time,^[11] and no. 5 on Empire magazine's The 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time.^[12] In 1997, the episode "The One with the Prom Video" was ranked no. 100 on TV Guide's 100 Greatest Episodes of All-Time.^[13] In 2013, Friends ranked no. 24 on the Writers Guild of America's 101 Best Written TV Series of All Time,^[14] and no. 28 on TV Guide's 60 Best TV Series of All Time.^[15] The sitcom's cast members returned for Friends: The Reunion, a reunion special which was released on HBO Max on May 27, 2021.

Cast and characters[edit]

• Main cast
• 
  Jennifer Aniston as
  Rachel Green
• 
  Courteney Cox as
  Monica Geller
• 
  Lisa Kudrow as
  Phoebe Buffay
• 
  Matt LeBlanc as
  Joey Tribbiani
• 
  Matthew Perry as
  Chandler Bing
• 
  David Schwimmer as
  Ross Geller

• Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Green:
  A fashion enthusiast and Monica Geller's best friend from childhood. Rachel first moves in with Monica in season one after nearly marrying Barry Farber. Rachel and Ross Geller are later involved in an on-again, off-again relationship throughout the series. Rachel dates other men during the series, such as Italian neighbor, Paolo, in season one; Joshua Bergin, a client from Bloomingdale's, in season four; Tag Jones, her assistant, in season seven; and Joey Tribbiani, one of her close friends, in season ten. Rachel's first job is as a waitress at the coffee house Central Perk, but she later becomes an assistant buyer at Bloomingdale's in season three, and a buyer at Ralph Lauren in season five. Rachel and Ross have a daughter named Emma in "The One Where Rachel Has a Baby, Part Two" at the end of season eight. In the final episode of the series, Ross and Rachel confess their love for each other, and Rachel gives up a dream fashion job at Louis Vuitton in Paris to be with him. It is heavily implied in the spin-off series, Joey, that Rachel married Ross after the series finale.
• Courteney Cox as Monica Geller:
  The "mother hen" of the group and a chef,^[16] known for her perfectionist, bossy, competitive, and obsessive-compulsive nature.^[17][18] Monica was overweight as a child. She works as a chef in various restaurants throughout the show. Monica's first serious relationship is with a long-time family friend Richard Burke, who is 21 years her senior. The two maintain a strong relationship for some time until Richard expresses that he does not want to have children. Monica and Chandler, one of her best friends, later start a relationship after spending a night with each other in London in the season four finale, leading to their marriage in season seven and the adoption of twins at the end of the series.
• Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay:
  A masseuse and self-taught musician. As a child, Phoebe lived in upstate New York with her mother, until her mother committed suicide and Phoebe took to the streets. She writes and sings her own strange songs, accompanying herself on the guitar. She has an identical twin named Ursula, who shares few of Phoebe's traits. Phoebe has three serious relationships over the show's run: David, a scientist, in season one, with whom she breaks up when he moves to Minsk on a research grant; Gary, a police officer whose badge she finds, in season five; and an on-and-off relationship with Mike Hannigan in seasons nine and ten. In season nine, Phoebe and Mike break up due to his desire not to marry. David returns from Minsk, leading to the two getting back together, but she eventually rejects him for Mike when both of them propose to her. Phoebe and Mike marry in season ten.^[19][20]
• Matt LeBlanc as Joey Tribbiani:
  A struggling actor and food lover who becomes famous for his role on soap opera Days of Our Lives as Dr. Drake Ramoray. Joey has many short-term girlfriends. Despite his womanizing, Joey is innocent, caring, and well-intentioned.^[21] Joey often uses the catchphrase pick-up line "How you doin'?" in his attempts to win over most of the women he meets. Joey rooms with his best friend Chandler for years, and later with Rachel. He falls in love with Rachel in season eight, but Rachel politely tells Joey that she does not share his feelings. They eventually date briefly in season ten, but after realizing it will not work due to their friendship and Rachel's complicated relationship with Ross, they return to being friends. At the end of the series, he is the only remaining single member of the group, and becomes the main protagonist of the sequel series Joey.
• Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing:
  An executive in statistical analysis and data reconfiguration for a large, multinational corporation. Chandler hates this job, although it pays well. He attempts to quit during season one but is lured back with a new office and a pay raise. He eventually quits this job in season nine due to a transfer to Tulsa, Oklahoma. He becomes a junior copywriter at an advertising agency later that season. Chandler has a peculiar family history being the son of an erotic novelist mother and a gay, cross-dressing Las Vegas star father. Chandler is known for his sarcastic sense of humor and bad luck in relationships.^[22] Chandler marries Monica, one of his best friends, in season seven, and they adopt twins at the end of the series. Before his relationship with Monica, Chandler dated Janice Hosenstein in season one and subsequently broke up with her many times.
• David Schwimmer as Ross Geller:
  Monica's "geeky" older brother, a PhD-carrying palaeontologist working at the American Museum of Natural History, and later a tenured professor of palaeontology at New York University. Ross is involved in an on-again, off-again relationship with Rachel throughout the series. He has three failed marriages during the series: Carol Willick, a lesbian who is also the mother of his son, Ben Geller; Emily Waltham, who divorces him after he accidentally says Rachel's name instead of hers during their wedding vows; and Rachel, as the two drunkenly marry in Las Vegas. His divorces become a running joke within the series. Following a one-night stand, he and Rachel have a daughter, Emma, by the end of season eight. They finally confess that they are still in love with each other in the series finale. It is heavily implied in the spin-off series, Joey, that Ross married Rachel after the series finale.

James Michael Tyler appears as Gunther, a barista at Central Perk, in every season of the show, but is only ever credited as a guest star. Gunther has a mostly secret profound love for Rachel throughout the entire series. At one point he becomes the manager of the coffee house. It is revealed that Gunther speaks Dutch in addition to English, as well as being a former soap opera actor.

In their original contracts for the first season, cast members were paid $22,500 per episode.^[23] The cast members received different salaries in the second season, beginning from the $20,000 range to $40,000 per episode.^[23][24] Before their salary negotiations for the third season, the cast decided to enter collective negotiations, despite Warner Bros.' preference for individual deals.^[25] The actors were given the salary of the least paid cast member. The stars were each paid $75,000 per episode in season three, $85,000 in season four, $100,000 in season five, $125,000 in season six, $750,000 in seasons seven and eight, and $1 million in seasons nine and ten, making Aniston, Cox, and Kudrow the highest-paid TV actresses of all time.^[26][27][28] The cast also received syndication royalties beginning in 2000 after renegotiations. At the time, that financial benefit of a piece of the show's lucrative back-end profits had only been given out to stars who had ownership rights in a show, like Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Cosby.^[29]

Series creator David Crane wanted all six actors to be equally prominent,^[30] and the series was lauded as being "the first true 'ensemble' show."^[31] The cast members made efforts to keep the ensemble format and not allow one member to dominate;^[31] they entered themselves in the same acting categories for awards,^[32] opted for collective salary negotiations,^[31] and asked to appear together on magazine cover photos in the first season.^[33] The cast members also became best friends off-screen,^[34] so much so that recurring guest star Tom Selleck reported that he sometimes felt left out.^[35]

The cast remained good friends after the series run, most notably Cox and Aniston, with Aniston being godmother to Cox and David Arquette's daughter, Coco.^[36] In the official farewell commemorative book Friends 'Til the End, each separately acknowledged in interviews that the cast had become their family.^[37][38]

Episodes[edit]

Season 1[edit]

The first season introduces the six main characters who live in New York City: Rachel Green, a waitress; professional chef Monica Geller; her paleontologist brother, Ross Geller; free-spirited masseuse Phoebe Buffay; struggling actor Joey Tribbiani, and Ross's college friend, Chandler Bing, whose precise occupation at a corporation is unknown. Rachel arrives at Central Perk, wearing her wedding dress, after leaving her fiancé, Barry, an orthodontist, at the altar. She moves into her high school friend Monica's apartment, and gets a waitress job at Central Perk.

Ross, who has had a crush on Rachel since high school, often attempts to declare his feelings for her. However many obstacles stand in his way, including his insecurities, Rachel dating an Italian neighbor named Paolo, and the fact that he is expecting a baby with his lesbian ex-wife, Carol, who gives birth to Ben later in the season. Joey never has a steady girlfriend and constantly sleeps with a variety of women. Phoebe is rather odd and complex, mostly due to her mother's suicide when she was a child and having lived on the streets for a time. However, the gang loves her regardless.

Chandler breaks up with his girlfriend, Janice (Maggie Wheeler), only to find himself reconnecting with her throughout the series. Near the end of the season, while Ross is at a paleontology dig in China, Chandler accidentally lets slip that Ross loves Rachel, who then realizes that she also cares for him. The season ends with Rachel waiting at the airport for Ross, who is returning from China.

Season 2[edit]

Rachel greets Ross at the airport only to discover that he has returned with Julie (Lauren Tom), someone he knew from graduate school. Rachel's attempts to tell Ross that she loves him initially mirror his failed attempts in the first season. After he breaks up with Julie for Rachel, friction between them develops when Rachel discovers Ross's list of the cons of dating her. They eventually begin a relationship after Rachel sees an old home video from her and Monica's prom night and realizes Ross was going to stand in for her prom date who nearly stood her up.

Monica is promoted to head chef at the Iridium restaurant, then gets fired for accepting gifts from a supplier, which is against company policy. Needing money, she is forced to take an embarrassing job as a waitress at a 1950s-style diner. She begins dating Richard Burke (Tom Selleck), a recently divorced family friend who is 21 years her senior. They eventually break up when Monica rea