FRIENDS

I finished watching FRIENDS, sequentially and in correct order for the first time last month. Yeah, I know what you must be thinking. How it's a crime to have watched that show in a haphazard irresponsible manner. In my defence, all I can say is that I was too young to understand it when it was first aired and then multiple TV channels started broadcasting different seasons at the same time and I was just too greedy. Blasphemy, I know.
So here I am a month later, feeling nostalgic about the show and remembering all the wonderful episodes, Chandler's crackers and Phoebe's songs. I hunt for some behind the scenes, bloopers, interviews, basically any new material related to the show. I came across a lot of stuff that showed me how the show became one of the longest running sitcoms of all times. I laughed so hard watching the bloopers, I had to watch a few episodes to top it off. So, I decided to begin from the beginning and went to my FRIENDS folder. And lo! surprise surprise! I did not have the pilot episode! I had watched the whole series but missed the pilot! Ha ha!


Anyway, this post is not about establishing myself as an ignorant idiot (that matter is already settled), but to share what I think contributes to the making of a great show.


Could it be any funnier?


The FRIENDS ensemble has tickled our funny-bones right from the word go with Chandler's witty punches obviously taking the cake. But the rest of them are not far behind, whether it be Joey's dimness, Phoebe's bizarre take on things, Monica's freakishness, Rachel's crazy antics and Ross' well, Ross in general.They really are like pieces of a puzzle falling together, complementing each other. But there are a lot of comedy sitcoms doing the rounds all the time, why FRIENDS?What made this show achieve this kind of popularity and fan following? I think it's the fact that all the actors are somehow inseparable and indistinguishable from their characters on the show. They have, each of them, brought so much credibility to their on-screen persona that it's difficult to imagine them otherwise. A huge amount of credit goes to the show's producers and writers here. A team of twelve people was hired to write down the scripts for each episode. It's not that the work was so demanding, it's just that, logic says, you cannot expect one person to be at his/her funniest best throughout the day. So, they had this whole group sitting at the writing desk, writing down dialogues, deciding if they were funny enough or not and perennially reworking to enhance the comic and sense quotient. Not only that, even the actors were given full freedom to discuss their dialogues with the writers if they had a problem. Now, with this kind of creative independence and value for perfection, what is the scope for failure? They shot their episodes in front of live audiences, continuously asking them for reviews and making last-second amends to the script as suggested. The actors clicked together, becoming best friends off-screen too, adding to the magic on-screen. Just one look at the image of the cast together takes me back to my happy place (with Phoebe's 'lalalalala' in the background :P).

Every season, with every new episode, they delivered us the best. They made us laugh, they made us cry, they made us draw parallels with our lives. I cannot truly understand what it is about this show that makes it so addictive. Maybe it's because it truly connects with the audience, especially the youth. You can see yourself in Joey's struggles to earn himself a name, never backing down, you can find hope in Chandler and Monica's relationship as best-friends-turned-lovers, derive courage from Rachel's journey from a runaway bride to a working mother, learn to appreciate the little things in life from Phoebe and that even geeks like Ross could eventually wind up with the woman of their dreams. But the most heartwarming message I go from this show was that no matter who you are and what you want to do with your life, if you've found those special people that have always got your back, the world will be a happy, sunny place for you.

Oh, the cow in the meadow goes moo,
Oh, the cow in the meadow goes moo.
Then the farmer hits him on the head and grinds him up,
And that's how we get hamburgers.