Throwback Thursday

Let’s go back to: Friends -- (How have I not done this yet?)
Friends was a classic sitcom that ran on NBC from 1994 - 2004.  It told the story of six 20-somethings learning about life in the bustling city of New York.  Everyone knows that iconic theme song, the orange couch at Central Perk, and of course, we ask sometimes, "How you doin'?"  In an effort to make the episodes more relatable, the writers named each episode starting with "The One With..." so that when viewers recounted the episode later, they could say, "Remember the one with the handcuffs?"  And it worked.  For 10 seasons, we tuned in every week to catch up with our favorite friends: Monica, Rachel, Phoebe, Ross, Chandler, and Joey and the sitcom made the actors who played those characters superstars. Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, Matthew Perry, and Matt LeBlanc went from unknowns to household names almost overnight.  Over the course of the show, we saw just about every combination of coupling possible (except for Monica and Ross who were siblings) and in the end, fans were delighted when Monica married Chandler and Phoebe married Mike (guest star Paul Rudd).  The show was a revolving door for celebrity guest stars like Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, Susan Sarandon, Hank Azaria, Rebecca Romijn, and Bruce Willis, just to name a few. 

Why it means something to you or to our podcast: I started watching Friends in its fourth season and immediately fell in love with it.  I don't know what it is about the show exactly, but I consider it one of my favorite shows of all time.  Friends defined a generation.  Everyone could see a little bit of themselves in the characters which made them all the more endearing.  They sometimes hated their jobs, they had failed and successful relationships, they had problems with their parents, but they always came back to that core group of six.  Since the show ended, there have been many times that writers have tried to recreate the magic of Friends, but nothing can ever really replace it.

Where can you find it now?  Starting on New Year's Day 2015, the entire series of Friends  is streaming on Netflix for a whole new generation to fall in love and it also plays in syndication on TBS and Nick at Nite.  So go watch it!!

-- Kelly Lee