№ 756. Friends

Screenrant

It was on a night out in 1995 in Los Angeles that Friends writer Adam Chase realised the show had become a phenomenon. Out for dinner, while he was writing season two, he overheard a conversation. People weren’t just talking about Friends: they were quoting it. “It became a constant,” he says. “You would go out and you would hear at least one or two people quoting our jokes, arguing about whether they were a ‘Rachel’ or a ‘Monica’.”

That was just the start. Launched 30 years ago this month, the sitcom – which followed six twentysomethings living in New York, largely hanging out in the fictional coffee shop Central Perk – would become a cultural touchpoint for a generation. At its height, it was broadcast in 60 countries, each episode watched by 22 million viewers, all bewitched by sarcastic roommates Chandler (Matthew Perry) and Joey (Matt LeBlanc), uptight siblings Ross (David Schwimmer) and Monica (Courteney Cox), spoiled-but-sweet Rachel (Jennifer Aniston), and kooky Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow).

Catchphrases such as “We were on a break!” were repeated globally. Aniston’s haircut “the Rachel” became one of the most famous in history. Warner Bros started churning out Friends merchandise like they were Star Wars figurines. (It still sells caps embroidered with “Joey doesn’t share food”.) In total, the show ran for 10 seasons over a decade. But the journey from pilot to culture-shifting sensation wasn’t always smooth. As members of the cast and crew recall, the making of Friends was filled with as many twists, turns (and high jinks) as the show itself.

In 1994, the executives at NBC were not convinced that Friends would be a hit. Despite being sold on the concept – pitched by creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane – an internal report described the pilot, first known as Insomnia Cafe and then Six of One, as “not very entertaining, clever or original”.

In an era in which sitcoms tended to be family, colleague or romance-focused, executives were concerned about making a show with friends at its centre; that the cast was too young, the setting too urban, and that Monica’s decision to sleep with Paul the Wine Guy on their first date – a key storyline in the pilot – would make audiences dislike her. Todd Stevens, a line producer who worked on the show from creation to completion, describes their old-fashioned thinking: “Like, how was that supposed to make a character sympathetic and virtuous?” Producers handed out surveys to the first studio audiences to prove them wrong.