The actress who played Janice was almost cast as one of the regulars. Monica, I think. I think I’d like to hear her normal voice.
Almost by accident my wife and I found ourselves watching an episode of Friends last week. It just happened to be on and after about ten minutes she turned to me and asked if she could turn it over as it was annoying her.
My reply was “Of course, we never liked this the first time round did we?” (My favourite US comedy of that period was “The Larry Sanders show”)
My fleeting impressions was that it hadn’t got any better with time. Not sure what it is about it that rubs me up the wrong way but it never raises a smile for me (or my wife).
I suspect it may be the seemingly desperate way in which everyone tries to shoehorn in a “funny” response. Too many writers trying to get their gags into the show perhaps?
They seem like they are in a competition rather than a comedy show.
She’s on a very early episode of “Seinfeld” as a girlfriend of George’s. They all think George got her pregnant because he used a defective blue condom Kramer gave him.
She was also on the very first season of Ellen Degeneres’ first sitcom when it was called “These Friends Of Mine” (and was a blatant “Friends” copy.) She uses her real voice in both.
I was inspired to re-watch a handful of first season episodes based on this thread. I remember thinking the show was actually fairly daring and “edgy” (how’s that for a 90’s cliche term?) when they first aired. Now…not so much.
One sure sign of changing times is the squeamishness the show has over homosexuality. I remember being actually very impressed that a prime time sitcom would dare bring up the topic of Chandler maybe being gay. Because that was a subject that TV shows NEVER broached - unless it was some one-off guest star ushered onstage for a Very Special Episode, and then promptly whisked away. But nowadays, watching the persistent gay panic that Chandler and Joey have in almost every other episode is just painful and forced. It’s like the show is determined to remind the audience “They’re NOT!!! GAY!!!”
Even worse is Ross’s ex-wife and her new girlfriend Carol and Susan in their few appearances. I can get that Ross would have some resentment towards them, but they seem to be written as castrating bitches who are out to make Ross miserable. Carol is the one going through a pregnancy and major life change, yet this is entirely Ross’s story and she is simply there as a difficulty for him to deal with.
In fact, the whole time-line of Carol’s pregnancy doesn’t even make sense when I think about it: I could buy her not realizing she was a lesbian until she met Susan, but when did she get pregnant??? It’s not like getting divorced can be done in a day - there must have been a transition period in which it could be assumed she and Ross were NOT having sex. The only way it could logically work is if she deliberately had sex with Ross one final time during their divorce proceedings with the intent of getting knocked up. And if so, that makes her a terrible, TERRIBLE person.
There’s a later episode where Ross says they had sex one last time to try and save the marriage. The show starts with his divorce just being finalized and Carol already being a couple months pregnant.
I find it unwatchable, mostly due to the over use of the canned laughter. Every. Single. Line.
gets a laugh. It’s cloying and annoying.
You will be surprised at how easily people can start “fornicating” (its a Friends reference figure it out :D), no matter how poor their relationship. Especially, when they are in close proximity.
Agree with those who say they are bothered by the continual jokes/laughing. There is no dialogue. The whole show consists of funny line/funny line/funny line. With canned laughter to follow.
If you actually bother to think about some of the lines that get the canned laugh - they are not funny at all. But the audience has been trained that ‘Canned Laugh on Friends = Joke’. Therefore ‘Friends Has the Most Jokes And Is The Funniest Show Ever’.
/Grumpy Old Fart Mode Off/
I’ve been thinking of finally watching Friends. I’ve seen exactly one (1) episode, and that was while staying in a hotel room in Kuala Lumpur in 1999. But the wife and I are going through The Big Bang Theory now, and that show is so good that I wondered if it might make earlier shows like Friends pale in comparison.
These Friends of Mine actually predates Friends by several months. IIRC, there was even a joke in a later Ellen episode where someone mentions Friends and she says something like “We were here first”.
I know this thread is a few months old, but I saw a link to it in another thread and figured it wasn’t too old to comment on. I definitely agree. I started watching the show as a teenager and remember thinking the same thing about Carol/Susan. Half the time the joke seemed to be “They’re lesbians! Teehee! Lesbian wedding!” Even then, I found it juvenile. The Joey/Chandler stuff didn’t seem as dumb, but it doesn’t sound like it’s aged well, either.
It’s a time capsule. Just think about how Chandler’s transvestite dad is handled.
I loved Friends when it was first on, and have seen a few episodes since then, and I think it holds up pretty well.
Chandler was always my favorite - his sense of humor is most like mine, but I could never be as funny as him. Phoebe got my all-time favorite Friends line, though. Talking to her annoyingly over-cheery boyfriend (played by Alex Baldwin) she says, “You’re like Santa Claus… in Vegas… on Prozac… getting laid!”
The what-if episode - where Monica is still fat and Joey is a very successful actor - is one of my favorites, as is the one where Ross writes and hosts a trivia quiz for the gang. Ooo, ooo, and the Hanukkah Armadillo!
And I must admit I had a serious crush on Courtney Cox back then.
I liked the one that had George from Seinfeld in it interacting with Phoebe and he was the exact same George character.
It’s interesting watching comedy shows with the laugh track removed. Here’s one of Big Bang Theory - it just sounds like a normal conversation we all might have rather than anything particularly funny (I know Big Bang has a live audience but the point remains)
Whenever I see an episode from one of the earlier seasons now, I’m struck by how every scene between Chandler and Monica seems to hint at their coming relationship. I doubt the writers had anything of that sort in mind at the time, but I find myself interpreting every scene between them as budding romance now.
Also, I agree Phoebe was by far the funniest character in that whole ensemble, and that Lisa Kudrow’s performance had a huge amount to do with that. “They were threefold” remains my favourite line from the whole show.
One thing Friends has taught me is my fashion sense ended in the 90s because just about everything they wear looks fine to me and looks like stuff I would wear.
She was also a recurring character on Everybody Loves Raymond and used her normal voice.
I loved Janice - thought she was hysterical. “Monica and Rachel had syrup - now I can get my man to cheer up!”
Whenever I think of Janice and her voice I hear “I love the way you look EVERY night, Chandler!” over The Way You Look Tonight.
Me and my daughter are Friends fans. In our house if anyone for any reason says, “I fell asleep” someone else will say incredulously, “You fell asleep?”
We were on a break!
Chandler was always the best character.
I’d have loved for more science-based jokes for Ross.
Joey’s descent into near mental reatardation was not nice.
Monica got better and then worse.
Rachel got better (and hotter)
Phoebe was the odd-one-out. As some have said, they could’ve lost her after a couple of seasons and nothing would’ve happened.
Janice would’ve been a good replacement for Phoebe. The show tried, unsuccessfully, to make her the bad guy, but aside from her voice, she was a OK.