To think Ross was a jealous control freak and Joey was a sex pest?

[Cerseirys]

I was watching a Friends marathon last night as I had insomnia, and thought bloody hell, Joey was actually pretty creepy the way he would pursue women with his "how YOU doin'" line and do things like take down the shower curtain when he had a female roommate and ask her sex-related questions when interviewing for a new flatmate.

And Ross was bordering on psychotic with his sandwich fixation and jealousy of just about any guy Rachel interacted with. And also that weird overprotective thing when he first found out about Monica and Chandler. She was his sister, not his possession!

Agreed - Roz being a single mum was integrated well, and a lot of her subsequent storylines focused on how much her life changed after Alice was born. In Friends they had to constantly remind you some of the characters were parents, otherwise you'd never have known.

I love the ski-lodge episode.

I think the characterisation in Frasier is one of its strong points. I want to re-watch it now I've started thinking about it.

Bit of trivia for you all, Lisa Kudrow was originally offered the part of Roz on Frasier but was dropped because she wasn't right.

Theydontknow

True, although often the characters are shown like this purely to be brought down a peg or two. I often thought Friends took that too far, and could come across as anti-intellectual (I.e.

Just a random musing about Friends that always puzzles me - if Joey was a successful soap actor, how come he never got recognised when they were out and about? Surely this would happen on a daily basis in reality?

It always annoys me how Ross's children were invisible until it suited the storyline

They were all insufferable.

Sorry but I can't have a word said against Frasier. If I'm home in the morning I HAVE to watch it on Channel 4, even if it's an episode I've seen a million times. It's aged really well, I think.

There are LOTS of intellectual women in Frasier. Most only come into it for an episode and then leave when they realise what an idiot Frasier really is.

Niles setting the sofa on fire is my favourite episode.

Puppy

It has aged really well (I suspect it has aged better than The Big Bang Theory will...)

roguishpuffin there are many clips on YouTube of Lisa Kudrow cracking up while trying to deliver a line or making the others laugh during a scene. The clips are funny to watch but she must've driven everyone nuts.

I HATE the "shark porn" episode. What a crock of shit.

What about Seinfeld? Now that was a sitcom where the joke was how abhorrent all the main characters were, and they knew it.

do you expect from these writers [[http://www.thesmokinggun.com/file/friends-writers-lewd-talk-about-aniston-cox]]

www.thesmokinggun.com/file/friends-writers-lewd-talk-about-aniston-cox

Wow, that makes for some really grim reading.

Cheesymonster just watched and weirdly the YouTube clips made me smile!

theimpossibledream wow that's just awful

If we are talking about Frasier - it's got to be the Niles and the Ironing sketch where he sets fire to Frasier's apartment for me; or maybe the one where Martin's chairs sets on fires and falls off the balcony!

oh, oh, Niles and the exploding shaving foam! I remember laughing so hard at that one the first time I watched it. It's still funny even when I know it's coming now.

This is the one!

Oh, this thread makes me sad. I adore Friends and all the characters in it. I have all 10 seasons on DVD, know every scene of every episode and still never fail to laugh out loud at every one. They have kept me going through many a bout of insomnia and nervous breakdown!

You're probably all right re their flaws and the sexism, homophobia, fat shaming etc. But I don't care, I still love it.

quite often when Phoebe was delivering a so-called funny line she would visibly smirk and you could tell she wasn't supposed to.

YY to this. There are several scenes where she is grinning away and tries to hide it behind her hand or a coffee cup. She also really ballsed up a line in the episode where Monica and Chandler tell the group that they're moving out of the city but they kept it in

Oh good god. If the characters were all bland and had none of the traits that made them themselves we would've all thought it was boring and stopped watching.

They're characters ffs.

It's unfortunate that there are creeps, control freaks, misogynistic males and females, ditzy fruit loops in real life but that's life.
If you knew a Joey in real life you prob wouldn't go near him. Or would you? Some women are attracted to that

At no point does it say in the show, hey be like these people, they're all examples of perfect human beings...

Their flaws are mostly addressed in the show as well. Joey says he's unfulfilled with meaningless relationships, when he sees Monica and Chandler in one. Ross goes to anger management/counseling, Monica is actually messy and her tidiness is just a front (secret room).

I get that you think they're glorifying their actions/behavioural traits by making a joke out of it and therefore validating them but geez if someone is going to decide to behave a certain way based on a tv show they probably had it in them to be like that in first place no?

Plus, I'm with manicinsomniac. I love it and I always will . . . now stop ruining it for me you fuckers!

Classic Will

I'd forgotten about Ben! Was he even seen or mentioned in the last couple of seasons?

Ben disappeared when Emma was born . . . but ssssshhh! We don't talk about that! ;)

Not role models?

Was it only in my high school that it was easier to count the girls that didn't have a Rachel hair cut?

Wasn't that just a long bob?

No, no. There were all kinds of layering and feathering going on :)