All about Friends

The six stars of Friends, among the longest-running, most successful series ever hit the small screen, went their separate ways after 237 episodes and a decade together as flat mates, sharing the trials of their lives, loves, and careers in a trendy New York apartment. The last episode was seen by an estimated world audience of over 100 million viewers. Friends had a huge influence on America TV history.

This group of six reflected in their daily lives. Viewers related to them. The dream of all - the cool New York flat with table football and easy chairs, and the social circle of beautiful, supportive friends, the endless cappuccinos. Interestingly enough, the first New York Starbucks store opened in the same year that Friends started. The dual rise of coffee culture and Friends was one example of how to show captured the zeitgeist. At other times it defined it. The Rachel haircut was copied by millions of women. The series has even been credited with influencing how many of us speak. Researchers analyzed every episode to explore whether popular culture influenced how we speak. Prior to the series, the commonest way to intensify an adjective was by using very or really. On Friends, the most common intensifier was so. The show enjoyed a huge surge in ratings after the 11 September terrorist attacks as grieving new Yorkers struggled to make sense of the real horrors that had unfolded around them. In the familiar comforts of the show, they sought the return of a feel-good factor, according to Robert Thompson, professor of television and popular culture "Friends is set not in the real New York, but in the New York of some Utopian fantasy where the rooms in the apartments are huge, everybody leaves unlocked and people don't fly planes into buildings", he said. Ross has been in love with Rachel, the best friend of his sister Monica, since childhood and throughout the whole series they have an on-off romance. In the final episode they actually do get back together again. Ross is a bit of a bore and a geek. He’s always whining. Chandler, a computer programmer, used to share an apartment with Joey. He's constantly telling jokes and making everybody laugh. He had a few relationships throughout the series, mostly disastrous because he would always flaws in the women he dated, but then married Monica. Joey is a New York Italian. He's an actor who manages to spend most of the series unemployed. Nevertheless he has total belief in his talents. He's rather dense, but lovable and charming. He’s cheer himself with food or women. Either will do, but both at the same time are best. Rachel is a spoilt little rich girl who gets a job in the total coffee house, and later becomes a fashion consultant. She is terrible in crisis, and will throw her arms up in despair. Rachel and Ross get together so many times, but this keep going wrong,until they finally make it permanent in the last episode. Phoebe is the group hippy. She is wild and very eccentric, and she’s always smiling. She is a spiritual masseuse, who is always communicating with the dead and chanting about auras. She is best known for the unique guitar playing – her most famous song is Smelly Cat. Monica hard as it is to believe used to be fat. She is a deeply insecure character and is always tidying up. She's also bossy, and has to have her own way. Her desire is to find her dream man, get married and have babies. Eventually she settles down with Chandler.

Friends is more that just a sitcom. It's a way of life. Out attitudes to the Friends lives is a mixture of envy. How can they do nothing all the time? They were supposed to be in their mid-twenties with lives untroubled by work and responsibility. With the cast approaching forty, the show had to come to an end. But of course, Friends will last forever.