A Friendship lasting twenty years

This year is both the 20^th anniversary of the pilot and the 10^th anniversary of the finale of Friends. The names of the show’s six main characters almost write themselves: Rachel Green, Phoebe Buffay, Joey Tribbiani, Chandler Bing, Ross Geller, and his sister Monica. There was also that unforgettable theme tune, the love-sick manager of Central Perk Gunther (a real life version of this café recently opened in New York) and the immediately recognisable apartments where most of the love-fest took place. These, and guest appearances from, among others, Hugh Laurie, Brad Pitt, Bruce Willis and Charlie Sheen, meant that they packed a lot into ten years.

Whenever I think of the show, the hundreds of small moments of comic genius still catch me off guard. There is the “Pivot” scene, in which moving a sofa up a staircase proves more difficult than anyone could imagine. Or the time Ross tried to provide his son with an alternative to Christian traditions by  making up the Jewish holiday armadillo (who Chandler later dubs the “weird… turtle man”). I also treasure thetime Chandler convinced Joey to take on “Joseph Stalin” as his audition stage name, which later causes Joey to barge in to announce to the group “You know there already is a Joseph Stalin”. Another highlight is the time Ross and Rachel discover that their daughter, Emma, starts to laugh whenever the song “Baby got back” is sung. This leads to an awkward encounter with the rest of the cast

source: wikipedia

I think one reason Friends was such a hitwas that despite the long stretches of hilarity and playfulness, the writers managed to intersperse, very carefully and sparingly, moments of poignancy that elevated itfrom a comedy into a drama. I am thinking of Ross’s “Don’t I get a goodbye?” speech before Rachel’s departure,  or the moment Phoebe says goodbye to her triplets. And finally, if I haven’t made fans of the show  squirm in recognition of these and other emotional moments, there is that perfect final scene: the six friends all hand over their keys to Monica and Chandler’s apartment and walk out, each with their own separate plans. They do what all close-knit friendship groups do and make plans and promises to keep in touch, and whether you believe they managed this in the hypothetical 11^th season is a good indication of where you stand on the cup half empty or full question.

Friends has a strong hold on popular culture even today, and it clearly still has a grasp on the imagination of the people who make such shows as Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory and How I Met Your Mother. The jokes, which with other shows often become dated and stale with time, still resonate with a young audience, which is another sign of how much comedy television (and, most interestingly, its viewers) as a whole has been shaped and moulded by the success of the show. Ultimately, Friends was and is the one of the best fictional testaments to the importance of friendship, and is a televised representation of Anaïs Nin’s claim that “Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born”.