F.R.I.E.N.D.S.

why Friends, was and only is one of the best sitcoms on television ever.

1. everyone could relate with at least one of the characters, everyone could refer to themselves as a "rachel" or a "monica" or "i'm a mix of rachel and phoebe" few shows have this oppurtunity

2. and thats because most shows and sitcoms don't have 6 main characters, more often than not the cast is a family (king of queens, according to jim, grounded for life, george lopez, yes dear) occasionally an office (spin city, the drew carrey show, the office) but the show is just about 6 friends and they are such completely different characters that it really reaches audiences

3. there was so much reality to the show, there were scenes when the cast was just watching tv, something that real people really do, and most shows the tv is an after thought its what the actor turns off when someone else walks in the room. They were eating breakfast, not as a scene but just because the scene was taking place in the morning and thats what people would be doing.

4. they approached many different topics, I always loved that they could talk about sex in a funny way, in a way that was appropriate for kids (apart from sex and the city or any other HBO or cable show) i remember some adult made a comment once about how friends is a dirty show because they have pre-marital sex, as a kid, i never even noticed it.

5. they fought, theres two parts about this that i love the first part is that they would have real fights and they wouldnt talk and they would be over issues that real people would fight over whether it was a valid reason or something ridiculous. and the second is that they could say real and almost hurtful things to each other and they could laugh it off, something that REAL friends can do, when they are close enough.

6. it wasnt the kind of show that was against change (for instance gilmore girls could never seem to marry off Lorelai, they coudnt change the theme of the show) they put two of their main characters together and it exploded into a marriage (and theres always someone who ends up getting together or getting married in a group, no group of friends stays single forever) they married outside (phoebe, ross) but they also didnt think "of they all need to be married off, and joey stays single by the last episode)

7. they had great special apperances from julia roberts, bruce willis, paul rudd, robin williams, christina applegate, brad pitt, resse witherspoon, billy crystal, and more. most shows get lucky if they can even get a special apperance and if they do its no where near as good as the ones friends was able to achieve

8. they don't play a laugh track after every sentence, the new shows drive me crazy with that. friends is shot in front of a live audience, sometimes its a real laugh but sometimes the crowd laughs too hard and they have to edit it and put in a fake shorter laugh (but that means they are putting in laugh tracks when its not funny.)

9. they always had more than one thing going on in the show. joey has a story happening and ross and rachel have a story and monica has a story, theres some episodes that i dont really care for the story that involves chandler but the story with phoebe is hilarious and i think thats a really smart way to always keep everyone interest, they really have 6 chances for you to like a story.

10. their characters grew. from promotions, to children, to marriage, its pretty complicated. Rachel started with no job, worked at the coffee shop, got a job at a horrible fashion place, bloomingdales, ralph lauren and then had a toss up between gucci and louis vuitton. ross worked at the museum, went on sabatical, started teaching. none of them stayed with the exact same job for the whole 10 years and that was the smartest thing because most people don't stay in the same job for 10 years.