Friends: a few thoughts and a miscellany
Interesting events:
Smoking:
- Chandler: episode 1.3 -
because he's an ex-addict
- Joey: episode 2.20 - to
be like Richard
- Monica: episode 3.1 -
devastated after her break-up with Richard
- Rachel: episode 5.18
- to fit in at work
Favourite characters: everyone seems to like Chandler,
Phoebe or Joey, in that order. My favourite's Monica.
The start of life...
- Ross and Carol's son Ben is born in episode
1.23
- Alice and Frank Jr's children Frank Jr Jr, Leslie and
Chandler are born in episode 5.3
...and the end of it.
- Carol and Susan marry in episode
2.11
- Barry and Mindy marry in episode
2.24
- Ross and Emily marry in episode
4.24
- and in season 5: I'm saying nothing
Death
- Phoebe's adoptive mother Lily commits suicide (in 1984?
(bit of a guess)). She returns in the form of a cat in episode
4.2.
- Ross and Monica's grandmother - episode
1.8
- Fun Bobby's grandfather - episode
1.10
- Mr Heckles - episode 2.3
- Mrs Adelman - episode 2.11. Her spirit goes into Phoebe
temporarily.
- Phoebe's grandmother - episode 5.13
Pets/animals:
- Fluffy Miawington (?????)
- Paolo's cat - episode 1.7
- Ross and Julie almost get a cat
- Marcel
- Rachel's Sphinx cat
- Duck
- The vicious dog. It appears in episode
2.21 and is hell bent on attacking Phoebe until
she runs it over.
- The zoo keeper in episode 2.12 enjoys talking
to his charges.
- Turkeys: Phoebe suggests Ross puts a turkey on his head
to demonstrate that Ben can hear things in the womb. Joey, attempting to
scare Chandler, gets his head stuck in a turkey in a flashback to 1992 in
episode 5.8. In the same episode Monica
deliberately sticks a turkey on her head to apologise to Chandler for cutting
off his toe, and terrifies Joey in the process.
Literature:
- Chandler's mother (Nora Tyler Bing) is an erotic
novelist, who inspires Rachel to write a book herself.
- Phoebe goes to a literary class in episode
5.9
- Joey's play
- Ross's sandwich note
Birthdays:
Parties:
- episode 1.8 - wake for Ross
and Monica's grandmother. Ross is drugged up on valium.
- episode 1.10 - New Year's
Eve Party. Chandler has trouble with Janice.
- episode 2.9 - Monica's
Christmas party. Swelteringly hot due to a broken radiator.
- episode 2.16 - Jack
Geller's birthday party, somewhat spoiled by the revelation of Monica and
Richard's relationship
- episode 2.22 (for
Rachel's birthday) Held in separate rooms for each of her parents.
- episode 2.24 - Barry and
Mindy's wedding. Monica and Richard play with their food and Rachel sings
Copacabana.
- episode 5.1 - reception
for Ross and Emily, with the bride locked in the bathroom.
- episode 5.15
Chandler makes no wisecracks:
- in episode 2.23 when
his mouth's full of muffin.
- in episode 2.24 when
emailing Janice.
- in episode 5.11 when
he tries to win a bet with Ross who says he can't last a week not making fun of
his friends.
Twins:
- Phoebe's twin sister Ursula is a bit mean,
really.
- Ross exposes Dr Drake Ramoray's evil twin, Hans, in
episode 2.12
- Joey finds his hand twin in Las Vegas in episode
5.23
Games:
- Fireball - invented by Chandler and Joey. Later modified
to Ultimate Fireball.
- Football - they all play, and some are better than
others in episode 3.9
- Rugby - Ross plays to impress Emily in episode
4.15
- Chandler and Joey reluctantly go with Richard to a
Knicks game in episode 2.20
Jobs: (under construction)
- Rachel:
- Central Perk waitress. Terry: "Rachel, Rachel, sweetheart, you're a
terrible terrible waitress, really really awful."
- Phoebe:
- fired from her job as a masseuse in episode 4.4
- Monica:
- fired for accepting some steaks in episode 2.5
I had a signed photo of Jennifer through the post
yesterday (24 May 97), so that's better than a kick in the teeth.
Part of the attraction of Friends is that it's set in a
safe (fictional) NYC where everyone is beautiful and there's no violence
(unless you count the bullies, and Rachel getting knocked down at the airport)
or swearing, and there's no nudity on the show. It's not unlike the NYC in
When Harry met Sally. It's ironic in a way that people over here in
England complained about episodes 4.23 and
4.24 (which are set in London) for showing a
typical Hollywood view of England i.e. a London where all the locals are
extremely eccentric and have servants and you are actually likely to meet the
Duchess of York on the streets. Unfortunately the only people you are likely to
meet in London are hoards of Japanese tourists. London is as different from
this as New York is from Friends, so it may not come as too much of a surprise
to know that Friends is filmed entirely in a studio outside Los Angeles. But
I'm not complaining by any means, television is not reality. Still I have to be
fair, I was only in New York for four days and I didn't
go to Greenwich Village, where the Friends apartments are.
The show does deal with sex and relationships (obviously), and unpleasant
topics such as Phoebe's mother's suicide are dealt with in a humorous way (My Mother's ashes).
I've read a few newspaper articles now criticising
Friends for encouraging people to have a very small circle of close friends and
few others, and for portraying parents as the enemy, with whom none of the
characters has a very good relationship. My reaction to that would have to be
"So?".
The six main characters are hopeless with relationships:
Ross and Phoebe have been married, him to Carol, who turned out to be a lesbian
and her to Duncan, who turned out not to be gay. Chandler "rejects
anyone who's mad enough to go out with him, and then complains there're no good
women out there." And yet they keep asking each other for advice:
- Ross learns from Joey 1.15
- M,R,P learn from book 2.19
- Chandler learns from Monica ??
The Future/ The End (well it can't go on for ever) - Ross
should end up with Rachel, Chandler with Monica, and Joey with Phoebe. Phoebe's
always been closest to Joey. She kisses him in 1.17 and 2.24.
There's no real passion in it, but still.
Friends
Trivia