So no one told you life was gonna be this way...
Oh... My... God... I really, really cannot believe that this year marks twenty five years since the first episode of Friends was aired. That's right, the hit American sit-com about the lives of a close-knit group of six New Yorkers first aired on American screens on 22 September 1994. My goodness where has the time gone? Since then, we've been glued to the antics of Joey, Rachel, Phoebe and co. And incidentally it's been over fifteen years since the last episode aired in May 1994.
I can't put into words how special Friends is to me. Some might even think that's weird. I mean it's a television sit-com. Who gets sentimental over a TV sit-com? Well, I do! Friends brings back great memories of school days, teenage years, and family moments. Plus it's as funny as hell! What's there not to like?
I first started watching Friends when I was in my mid-teens. Thursday night was treat night, so after a hard night hitting the books (or pretending to!) as I studied for my A levels, I'd grab a ready meal and settle down in front of the telly to watch my fave TV show... Channel 4's Whose Line Is It Anyway? But before Whose Line began, I'd manage to catch the last few minutes of a new American comedy. At first I didn't pay much attention to it - I was just waiting to watch Whose Line! But I soon realized how funny this sitcom was and started to pay more attention to it...
It wasn't long before I started taking my study breaks a little earlier on a Thursday night so I could catch this new American comedy right from the beginning of each episode. It was really funny and thoroughly enjoyable... but even as I sat there chuckling away, I didn't realize that this new comedy series would one day be the hottest thing on television and a global phenomenon. It was going to be HUGE!!! The cast consisted of a group of virtually unknown actors but little did they know that life as they knew it was about to come to an end...
It wasn't long before the rest of my family got in on the act. By then Friends had moved from the near-enough graveyard slot to prime time viewing on a Friday evening, so that was when our family would be gathered around the telly after dinner, laughing our heads off. While we all loved Friends, I'd say that my little brother and I were probably the two biggest Friends fans in our house. We never missed an episode, and it in fact became known as 'our tradition.' And every Christmas, my brother would get a new Friends video (yes, it was videos back then) which he would practically watch on repeat. It wasn't long before we knew every bit of dialogue from the show - and used to quote the characters to the point where it both amused and annoyed our sisters.
Over the last twenty years, we've all lost count of how many times Friends has been repeated on the telly. But the thing is that it never gets old. Every time you tune in to each episode, you laugh like you've never heard the gags before - and I guess that's the beauty of the show. In all these years, I've only met three people who have said that they can't stand Friends. This admission has left me wondering... what on earth is wrong with them? Could they be any more sad???
So in honour of Friends' twenty fifth year, check out our post for a look at things closely associated with the show that made Friends so unique; this includes our favourite memories and things about the show that - without wanting to be dramatic - actually changed our lives and the way we live... Forever!
Friends... Whatever would we do without them???
Photos from YouTube
Word Cloud by Angel Noire
And apparently I was a cross between Rachel and Phoebe. I think there might be some truth to that!
My friends and me were huge fans of the show when we were teenagers. We often compared ourselves to the Friends crew and tried to figure out who we were similar to. Apparently I was Phoebe :)