Friends - General Discussion

[VCRTracking]

On 3/24/2020 at 9:26 PM, kariyaki said:

True. For instance, I’m not really interested in watching most of the last two seasons of Friends. But The Big Bang Theory ran for 12 years and I’ll watch any episode of any season of that show. 

I'm the weirdo who likes the latter seasons and the characters. I like married Monica and Chandler, single mom Rachel, dumb but sweet Joey, asshole Phoebe and three times divorced Ross. I reached the age where I can't watch a bunch of carefree twentysomethings joke about pop culture anymore! Give me thirtysomethings with problems!

 

On 3/24/2020 at 7:27 PM, Ms Blue Jay said:

I personally think that the writers just forgot the first one, and they fucked that up.  That mistake always looks so stupid on rewatch.  

The one with all the Thanksgivings:

Written by Gregory S. Malins:  Aired November 19, 1998

The one where everybody finds out:

Written by Alexa Junge:  Aired February 11, 1999

Personally, I think it's a dumb continuity mistake.  People make mistakes, so I don't think it's so outlandish to believe that it is one.

Some shows don't have trouble with it, even ones with many seasons.

Not in a single season. Especially when they were planning each step of that relationship.

On 3/20/2020 at 7:37 PM, WendyCR72 said:

No. Chandler did blurt out "ILY" during the turkey thing in real time, but then immediately tried to deny and walk it back. I think the second time was such a big deal because it was in front of most of the gang and Chandler felt confident enough to trust in it that time, no longer afraid.

I always took it that Chandler admitted offscreen later he loved her. Monica wasn't surprised or went "Finally!" in TOW Everyone Finds Out because she already knew from Thanksgiving. The surprise was on everyone else. As Phoebe said she thought they were just "fooling around". It's funny how them being in love makes such a difference. Ross was ready to kill Chandler when he thought it was just sex!

Edited March 29, 2020 by VCRTracking

[Guest]

On 3/27/2020 at 4:44 PM, Hiyo said:

I'll take Friends at it's worst over...well, any season of The Bing Bang Theory.

Freudian slip? 😛

[Hiyo]

Who knows? You know what I meant 😛

[Rockstar99435]

I saw a meme the other day using Phoebe teaching Joey French, but the dialogue was changed to Joey thinking "Stay home" means "Go have a picnic in a public park" and it made me wonder, how does Phoebe know French? With the last name "Buffay," I'd imagine her dad's family spoke French, but he left when she was a baby. So did her mom teach her French?

Also, Phoebe ended up a homeless prostitute when she was 14.  So how did she keep up her French skills? A lot of my students spoke Spanish when they were kids, but as they grew up in an English speaking country and stopped spending large amounts of time around people who only spoke Spanish, they lost those skills.

[Bort]

47 minutes ago, Rockstar99435 said:

I saw a meme the other day using Phoebe teaching Joey French, but the dialogue was changed to Joey thinking "Stay home" means "Go have a picnic in a public park" and it made me wonder, how does Phoebe know French? With the last name "Buffay," I'd imagine her dad's family spoke French, but he left when she was a baby. So did her mom teach her French?

Also, Phoebe ended up a homeless prostitute when she was 14.  So how did she keep up her French skills? A lot of my students spoke Spanish when they were kids, but as they grew up in an English speaking country and stopped spending large amounts of time around people who only spoke Spanish, they lost those skills.

Well, one, Phoebe wasn’t a prostitute, she was a panhandler. Ursula maybe…

Second, some people just have an ear for languages and don’t need to practice. Phoebe also spoke Italian and didn’t even know it until she conversed with Joey’s grandmother.

[Rockstar99435]

18 minutes ago, kariyaki said:

Well, one, Phoebe wasn’t a prostitute, she was a panhandler. Ursula maybe…

Second, some people just have an ear for languages and don’t need to practice. Phoebe also spoke Italian and didn’t even know it until she conversed with Joey’s grandmother.

Didn't she tell Mike's parents a story about her pimp? Am I making that up? Because of syndication, I've seen some episodes a dozen times and others only a couple.

You're probably right about Phoebe just having an ear for language.

Edited March 29, 2020 by Rockstar99435

[Ms Blue Jay]

Maybe a pimp spit in her mouth, but Phoebe was never a prostitute!

From scripts online:

Quote

Phoebe: (no accent) Uhm... Okay, well, allright, uhm... Originally I'm from upstate, but uhm... then my mom killed herself and my stepdad went to prison, so... I just moved to the city where uhm... I actually lived in a burned out Buick LeSabre for a while... (frowns are received) which was okay, that was okay, until uhm... I got hepatitis, you know, 'cause this pimp spit in my mouth and... but I... I got over it and uhm... anyway, now I'm uhm... a freelance massage therapist, uhm... which, you know, isn't always steady money but at least I don't pay taxes, huh... (everyone in the room finds it a bit surreal, which Phoebe realises and starts to talk in the accent again) So... where does everyone summer?

 

Edited March 29, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay

[Guest]

I really, really hate the Tag storyline. It is one of the reasons that Rachel is probably my least favorite of the Friends. 
 

She’s not only unprofessional but she’s creepy. If Ross had been hiring an assistant, and passed over a qualified man for an unqualified woman, taken pictures of her during the interview, etc it wouldn’t be seen as funny. Then it just continued once she hired him.

[supposebly]

I'm currently cringing my way through the story with Ross dating his student. It's also creepy, unprofessional and, oh! so! wrong! And then he follows her to spring break! Ugh.

Both of these story lines are just terrible. I hope that something like this would not be written as comedic these days.

Edited April 6, 2020 by supposebly

[Chas411]

Re Phoebe learning French didn’t she tell Brad Pitt’s character Will that she never went to high school but a few of them used to meet behind a dumpster to learn French.. “Bonjour”..

[Ms Blue Jay]

10 hours ago, supposebly said:

I'm currently cringing my way through the story with Ross dating his student. It's also creepy, unprofessional and, oh! so! wrong! And then he follows her to spring break! Ugh.

Both of these story lines are just terrible. I hope that something like this would not be written as comedic these days.

Ew, I don't like that storyline.

I don't mind Rachel with Tag, but I agree, it's unprofessional.  She should have hired Hilda, if that was her name, and tried to meet Tag casually to try to give him career advice and see where it goes from there.  But actually, that would also be really creepy.  LOL.

[Guest]

She also probably shouldn’t have started a rumor he was gay just so other women wouldn’t be interested in him.

[Thalia]

This afternoon I was watching part one of the Finale, and noticed something I'd never seen before.  Joey told  Phoebe he sat on the red paint of the "Welcome Home Baby" sign -- THAT I'd noticed.  But I had never noticed the red paint on the back of his jeans OR, more importantly, that he'd gotten a big red splash of paint on Monica's white couch.  In any other episode that would have been an entire plot point on its own!  🙂 

[mojoween]

What *is* a five letter word for heating device?  

[Bort]

It’s not RDITR?

Google suggests “stove.”

[FormerMod-a1]

Stove is the only thing I could thing of.  Well, maybe "flame" but less likely.  Ooh!  Maybe also "sterno" 🙂 

[Bort]

39 minutes ago, aquarian1 said:

Maybe also "sterno"

That’s six.

[voiceover]

On 4/6/2020 at 3:42 AM, Chas411 said:

Re Phoebe learning French didn’t she tell Brad Pitt’s character Will that she never went to high school but a few of them used to meet behind a dumpster to learn French.. “Bonjour”..

Yes!  It's one of my favorite episodes.  That was the time I discovered Brad Pitt was funny AF.

Lisa Kudrow married a Frenchman, and I always thought it was a cute way to tie that to her character ("You Americans always butcher the French!").

[VagueDisclaimer]

You know those little actor tics you pick up on and once you do, it’s all you can notice for a while? Like how Aniston and Schwimmer always do that throat clearing thing? 

I noticed another Schwimmer tic recently. When he kisses people, he punctuates them with a “Mwah!” Not with long, romantic kisses, but like when he kisses Ben or Monica. 

Edited April 21, 2020 by VagueDisclaimer

[mojoween]

My son is 22 so basically has watched Friends off and on his whole life.

He walked in from work the other day and it was on in the living room and he pauses for a few minutes and then says “I forget just how funny this show was.”

And you know what?  It WAS funny.  Did it have its flaws?  Of course.  We weren’t very enlightened in the 90’s.

But I posit that Matthew Perry is one of the top funniest actors in the history of television.  I’ve often noticed with flashbacks that the best lines, regardless who the flashback is spotlighting, are from Chandler.

[geauxaway]

@mojoween it’s funny you say that.  I’ve been flipping to TBS every afternoon after my soaps are over and I have Friends on from about 2-6 PM every day now while I’m working from home.  I’ve seen all the episodes too many times to count but on Friday I found myself laughing so hard and thinking dam this was (is) such a funny show.   It’s crazy, too, how many lines from the show I still use in conversation.  

[readster]

On 4/5/2020 at 10:23 PM, supposebly said:

I'm currently cringing my way through the story with Ross dating his student. It's also creepy, unprofessional and, oh! so! wrong! And then he follows her to spring break! Ugh.

Both of these story lines are just terrible. I hope that something like this would not be written as comedic these days.

Everything with Ross at the university was stupid and wrong. Let's list shall we:

1. Dating a student who acted like she was 16 and not 21
2. Not given a faculty parking area and took an HOUR to get to his classroom
3. NEVER writing any papers or doing research
4. He ended up at the university because his dumb ass director was eating half his lunch and throwing it away because he could
5. The student that tried to get out of a bad grade pretending he was "in love" with Ross
6. He only got the job because he was technically fired from the museum after he said he was trying to teach at college level before the series even started
7. Why did he NEVER grade any papers

Even seeing it on streaming or reruns, the really turn Ross into this guy who couldn't catch a break or wrote him as a moron instead of someone who won scholarships and got a PhD is a really, really hard field. Of course everyone else on the show was: "Who cares about your job Ross, it's stupid!" I would have liked to see them try it.

[Madding crowd]

We did see Ross grade papers a couple of times and they had the episode where he was guarding his PHD thesis. I was fine with the amount of time the friends were shown on their jobs.

[Crs97]

I wasn’t bothered by Ross not being shown writing or grading papers because he talked about his work enough that I figured it was happening off stage.  What I didn’t understand, if I want to get very nit-picky, was how many evenings Monica was not working the dinner shift at her restaurant.

[blondiec0332]

53 minutes ago, Crs97 said:

What I didn’t understand, if I want to get very nit-picky, was how many evenings Monica was not working the dinner shift at her restaurant.

That drove me nuts.  I could understand if she was chef at some chain restaurant where they different shifts but she was supposed to be head chef at some pretty nice restaurants.  There is no way she would be home most nights.

[readster]

2 hours ago, blondiec0332 said:

That drove me nuts.  I could understand if she was chef at some chain restaurant where they different shifts but she was supposed to be head chef at some pretty nice restaurants.  There is no way she would be home most nights.

Yeah, that's what I meant. I get that showing cast members at work would not only get annoying, but also expensive for sets and extra for shows. HOWEVER... there are ways to do it and make it realistic. I mean on Family Matters, you had it where Carl was working late shifts as a cop. You had Full House where Becky or Danny would be on a story and wouldn't be home until later or the next day. Hell, on Sienfeld you had George going on business trips now and again. They didn't ALL the time, but enough to where it balanced things out fine. It was also like on the Joey spin off with his filming. There SHOULD have been times he hate late shoots for things. Yet we were to think he had a 9 to 5 job

[mojoween]

In TOW Rachel Goes Back to Work I love Rachel’s black and white checked flannel but I super duper really love Phoebe’s hooded Christmas sweater.  I would wear that all year.

[geauxaway]

I love Paul Rudd / Mike Hannigan.  Today’s afternoon episodes were the ones where he was introduced.  He was such a great add.  He can do wrong in my opinion , tho.  

[mojoween]

Ross’s “but you left!” when Mike came back into the apartment makes me laugh every time.

[Ms Blue Jay]

LOL.  What does Mike call Ross's apartment?  "The land where time stops still"?

On 5/10/2020 at 9:13 AM, mojoween said:

But I posit that Matthew Perry is one of the top funniest actors in the history of television.  I’ve often noticed with flashbacks that the best lines, regardless who the flashback is spotlighting, are from Chandler.

Oh, absolutely.  Without a doubt.

[Ms Blue Jay]

On 4/21/2020 at 1:07 PM, VagueDisclaimer said:

You know those little actor tics you pick up on and once you do, it’s all you can notice for a while? Like how Aniston and Schwimmer always do that throat clearing thing? 

I noticed another Schwimmer tic recently. When he kisses people, he punctuates them with a “Mwah!” Not with long, romantic kisses, but like when he kisses Ben or Monica. 

Somebody once pointed out that David Schwimmer says "It REALLY was" or "It REALLY does" or some variation thereof with that same inflection numerous times throughout the series.

[VagueDisclaimer]

I’m also rewatching TOW Rachel Goes Back To Work and it reminds me that the storyline with Gavin Mitchell(Dermot Mulroney) always felt abrupt to me. Like it should’ve been more developed and lasted a little longer, but the writers were forced to rush it for some reason.

[readster]

1 minute ago, VagueDisclaimer said:

I’m also rewatching TOW Rachel Goes Back To Work and it reminds me that the storyline with Gavin Mitchell(Dermot Mulroney) always felt abrupt to me. Like it should’ve been more developed and lasted a little longer, but the writers were forced to rush it for some reason.

I know and I'm not sure if that was on Dermot's own acting roles or they were trying to make up some excuse to things. Never really made sense to me it was all of a sudden: "Hey, Gavin is here, Rachel needs to feel threaten and now in love with him." Huh? It was like Ross's jealousy that really just came out of nowhere when the writers wanted to break them up. Even when they brought him back and Ross immediately went back to: "he just wants to sleep with you." Chandler even goes: "Did I go back in time? My time machine works!" 

[Ms Blue Jay]

I think the whole storyline was ill-advised, but I could say that about a lot of things in the last 2 seasons.

[readster]

Just now, Ms Blue Jay said:

I think the whole storyline was ill-advised, but I could say that about a lot of things in the last 2 seasons.

I actually go back to season 7 to the end. The writers came up with some odd plots for characters and then just ran with it. Which I get, happens to a lot of shows, especially ones that are successful with: "We came up with the plot and just were going to see where it went." Yes, that can lead to some good stories, but at the same time some after the second episode were; "Why did you even THINK this was a good idea?" I know the cast have looked back and gone: "What were they thinking?"

[Ms Blue Jay]

Season 7 is one of my favourites.  I think it's funnier than Season 6, maybe a few others, like Season 1, or Season 3.  It's more wild, as that's how showrunners and writers tend to get as things go on.  Coupling Chandler and Monica kind of hinders what the show can do in terms of comedy, or at least, that's how it seemed to play out.

But I won't argue with you on Season 8.  I am absolutely not a Joey/Rachel fan.  I think Season 9 is better than Season 8 just because Season 8 gets so saccharine, but I think the writers were trying to help everyone post 9/11, hence Rachel becoming a mother, Joey falling in love with her, etc.  It's less a sitcom and more like a weird, confused soap opera.  Season 9 is back to fun hijinks again.  Some that make no sense, but at least it's fun.

Edited May 14, 2020 by Ms Blue Jay

[readster]

19 minutes ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

 

But I won't argue with you on Season 8.  I am absolutely not a Joey/Rachel fan.  I think Season 9 is better than Season 8 just because Season 8 gets so saccharine, but I think the writers were trying to help everyone post 9/11, hence Rachel becoming a mother, Joey falling in love with her, etc.  It's less a sitcom and more like a weird, confused soap opera.  Season 9 is back to fun hijinks again.  Some that make no sense, but at least it's fun.

I agree, post 9/11 a lot of shows were trying to get back into a new type of normal. Why things just seemed so out of place in season 8. I remember on Just Shoot Me when they were trying to do a joke with everyone showing American Flags and they had Wendi Malick's character basically insulting the American Flag because how "everyone was doing it" and George Segal's character went too far. The episode came off so distasteful and the writers and producers later apologized saying how EVERYONE was effected by 9/11 and writers on Friends like them were just trying to get people to laugh again and it was either a hit or major miss. Season 9 was a return to greatness and why they pretty much gave it a season 10 to wrap up the show by then. 

[Hiyo]

Quote

I know and I'm not sure if that was on Dermot's own acting roles or they were trying to make up some excuse to things. Never really made sense to me it was all of a sudden: "Hey, Gavin is here, Rachel needs to feel threaten and now in love with him." Huh? It was like Ross's jealousy that really just came out of nowhere when the writers wanted to break them up. Even when they brought him back and Ross immediately went back to: "he just wants to sleep with you." Chandler even goes: "Did I go back in time? My time machine works!" 

I think you are confusing 2 different characters...Dermot Mulroney's character, Gavin, who dated Rachel in the beginning of season 9, with Mark Robinson, who was played by Steven Eckholdt. Mark was the one involved in the break up of Ross and Rachel and came back at the end of season 10, telling Rachel about the job offer with Louis Vuitton in Paris (and yes, making Ross jealous again).

Quote

hence Rachel becoming a mother

But that was the cliffhanger for season 7 (the audience finding out Rachel was pregnant), which was filmed long before 9/11 happened.

I must be in the minority, but I loved season 8. After the meh season 7 (which is easily my least favorite season out of all of them), I thought season 8 was a return to fine form, and loved season 9 as well. Season 10 was ok.

Even more in the minority, I didn't hate Joey and Rachel as a couple...

Edited May 14, 2020 by Hiyo

[Irlandesa]

36 minutes ago, Hiyo said:

I must be in the minority, but I loved season 8. After the meh season 7 (which is easily my least favorite season out of all of them), I thought season 8 was a return to fine form, and loved season 9 as well. Season 10 was ok.

I loved Season 8.  In fact, when people talk about shows going on too long, one of the seasons I point to as "sometimes shows have a comedic rebirth" is Season 8 of Friends. I just remember loving that season after not loving a few of the previous seasons.

And I absolutely loathed Joey and Rachel as a couple but I didn't mind them in Season 8 where it was mostly one-sided on Joey's part.  Joey wasn't shown to have many "in love" relationships so him developing complicated feelings for a friend made sense to me from a growth perspective. 

Now when the show attempted to make it reciprocal in later seasons, well that was a hot mess. In fact, even though I loved Season 8, Season 9 and 10 were not great.  I wish the show didn't feel the need to undo any forward movement with its characters just because "oops, I guess the show isn't ending after all." 

On another note, I'm kind of laughing that the reunion special deal where the cast gets paid millions of dollars was negotiated before the Coronavirus.  Now it seems like every day, there's news that another cast of a beloved sitcom is virtually reuniting in some form or another---for charity so I would assume their appearances are free.  But here the Friends cast sits with multi-million paydays awaiting them to do a reunion which I suspect they might have done for free had HBO Max not wanted to have it for its launch.

Edited May 14, 2020 by Irlandesa

[Inquisitionist]

21 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Somebody once pointed out that David Schwimmer says "It REALLY was" or "It REALLY does" or some variation thereof with that same inflection numerous times throughout the series.

In my experience, lots of people do this, so why wouldn't Ross?  😉

[Ms Blue Jay]

Considering the show began 26 years ago, and there have been studies showing that "Friends" has had a major impact on how people speak, I could see that.  

[geauxaway]

7 hours ago, Ms Blue Jay said:

Considering the show began 26 years ago, and there have been studies showing that "Friends" has had a major impact on how people speak, I could see that.  

I can 100% say this is true for me and my circle of friends.  I have 1  friend in particular that we could probably have an entire conversation / exchange in just Friends speak.  

[chitowngirl]

Especially the emphasis on the BE in the sentence “Could our neighbors BE any louder?”.

[ifionlyknew]

19 hours ago, geauxaway said:

I can 100% say this is true for me and my circle of friends.  I have 1  friend in particular that we could probably have an entire conversation / exchange in just Friends speak.  

I KNOW!!

[DrSpaceman73]

On ‎3‎/‎25‎/‎2020 at 12:26 AM, kariyaki said:

True. For instance, I’m not really interested in watching most of the last two seasons of Friends. But The Big Bang Theory ran for 12 years and I’ll watch any episode of any season of that show. 

Completely disagree with this on TBBT.  They phoned it in, in my opinion, for at least a few years at the end with nothing new or original.  Certainly not any great writing better than Friends. 

TBBT, for one, did nothing with Penny after she married Leonard.  She drank wine and makes snarky comments about everyone else.  That's about it.  yes she had her job, once in awhile they make an episode or two around that, but not much. 

I wouldn't really consider Friends or TBBT examples of consistently great comedy writing.  I like them both, they are funny, I rewatch them when I run across them but I don't seek them out to watch online like other sitcoms. 

 

[Magnumfangirl]

Was Courtney filming something else during TOW the Ring?  She's only in one scene.

[VagueDisclaimer]

I’m just gonna say I was totally on Joey’s side regarding Hugsy, his bedtime penguin pal. Getting Emma her own was completely reasonable and a good solution. That she didn’t respond perfectly immediately was not a big deal, imo. She was a baby and would’ve adjusted eventually. Yes, it’s a stuffed animal, but it still was Joey’s and had personal value to him and Rachel acting as if Joey should give it up to Emma just because always annoyed me. 

That aside, when Rachel calls Hugsy a “stupid penguin” and Joey covers Hugsy’s ears and Rachel scolds him for it is easily one of the funniest moments. 

Edited May 16, 2020 by VagueDisclaimer

[geauxaway]

6 hours ago, ifionlyknew said:

I KNOW!!

☠️☠️☠️

[MadyGirl1987]

Unpopular opinion time; I’ve been watching a lot of reruns on TV and one thing I don’t get is why Ross gets all the hate. Yeah, he has his rotten moments, but he just doesn’t strike me as any worse then things the other friends did. I mean, yeah he was jealous and insecure in his relationship with Rachel, and sleeping with another woman(even though I contend they were on a break) and trying to hide it was awful, is that any worse then Rachel’s irrational hatred of Julie, getting Bonnie to shave her head so Ross would break up with her or going to London to tell Ross she loves him when marrying Julie? In fact, the reason I hate Ross and Rachel is that they both bring out the worst in each other. I just don’t see why Ross gets so much hate when all of the Friends have their bad moments.

[readster]

1 hour ago, MadyGirl1987 said:

Unpopular opinion time; I’ve been watching a lot of reruns on TV and one thing I don’t get is why Ross gets all the hate. Yeah, he has his rotten moments, but he just doesn’t strike me as any worse then things the other friends did. I mean, yeah he was jealous and insecure in his relationship with Rachel, and sleeping with another woman(even though I contend they were on a break) and trying to hide it was awful, is that any worse then Rachel’s irrational hatred of Julie, getting Bonnie to shave her head so Ross would break up with her or going to London to tell Ross she loves him when marrying Julie? In fact, the reason I hate Ross and Rachel is that they both bring out the worst in each other. I just don’t see why Ross gets so much hate when all of the Friends have their bad moments.

Honestly, outside of Chandler I believe all the Friends did rotten things in the course of the series. I mean how could they not, it was on a decade? I just don't like where they took Ross in the last few years of the show. They were also trying to really PUSH Ross and Rachel ending up together. Especially after Emma was born, if anything you get Joey's feelings towards Rachel during the pregnancy. However, afterwards after Emma, he was more of "Fun Uncle Joey" than really being any true positive role model or father figure to her. Ross filled that out fine. If anything, season 9 should have been Ross and Rachel falling back in love and ended season 10 with them getting married, Chandler and Monica moving, Phoebe marrying and Joey leaving for LA. Would have felt all well rounded. Season 10 had a great focus on Phoebe and Chandler and Monica. However, they kept spinning with everyone else. Then it was: "hey remember the guy that basically caused Ross and Rachel's break up, let's have him come back and be the reason how we get the last four episodes to finish. That felt so rushed by then and hell even how Rachel lost her job was stupid. She could have just told Brent Spinner: "That's my current boss over there, can we do this another time?" Of course all shows from 2002-2008 were OBSESSED with tying France into the last episodes from Friends to Sex in the City. I remember a few articles around 2010 about TV shows the first decade of the 21st century going: "Why were so many shows and movies obsessed with France?"