popular American television sitcom that aired on the NBC network from 1994 to 2004. It won six Emmy Awards, including outstanding comedy series and from its
second season until its conclusion. During its run, the series maintained Nielsen ratings in the top five or higher, reaching number one in its eighth season.
The cast of the television series Friends (1994) includes (from left) Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow and Matthew
Perry.
Friends was created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman and follows a group of six young adults who are roommates or neighbors in New York City’s Greenwich Village. Much of the show takes place in the friends’ apartments when they visit each other. The show revolves around the individual and collective search for sexuality, commitment and meaning. The friends include three men and three women, whose different personalities and detachments allow for both broad audience identification and rich comedic moments. At the beginning of the film, Monica Geller (played by Courteney Cox) is a chef who often changes jobs and boyfriends to find the perfect match. Her brother, Ross (David Schwimmer), is a paleontologist and is divorced (three times by the end of the series) and has a child. He has a long-standing crush on Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston), a fashion-forward woman who grew up in a wealthy family but worked (for a time) as a bartender at Central Perk, a coffee shop and a popular meeting place for the group. . She eventually found a job with Ralph Lauren. Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow) is a dashing masseuse and would-be musician with a quirky outlook on life. Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc) is a struggling actor and clown who often confides in Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry), a well-off data analyst and statistician who has terrible luck with women. and gradually laid eyes on Monica. Throughout the series, the friends live together or apart in varying combinations.
As the show continued, each character became a household name and each actor a celebrity; they moved on to careers with varying success in film and television. The cast is renowned for its intimacy and synchronized approach to their work on the series. The final episode of Friends was watched by more than 52 million people. Joey (2004–06), a spin-off film starring LeBlanc, was much less successful. The Friends theme song, “I’ll Be There for You,” performed by the Rembrandts, was itself a minor pop hit. In 2021, the cast returned for Friends: The Reunion, a television special in which they discussed the show.