F.R.I.E.N.D.S

Friends is an American situation comedy about a group of six friends living in the New York City borough of Manhattan that was originally broadcast from 1994 to 2004. It was created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, and produced by Kevin S. Bright, Marta Kauffman and David Crane. One of the most popular television series of all time, the show has been broadcast in over one hundred countries and still continues to attract good ratings for its episodes in syndication. The final episode of the show remains one of the largest in terms of television audience numbers in the U.S.

Season One (1994-1995)

Phoebe, performing at the Central Perk.The first episode opens with Phoebe, Monica, Chandler, Joey and Ross in Central Perk where we learn Ross's wife Carol has recently realised she is a lesbian and divorces him. Monica and Ross are both living alone; Chandler and Joey live together and Phoebe lives with her grandmother. Monica's old high school friend, Rachel, enters Central Perk wearing a wedding dress, having just run away from her wedding to would-be husband Barry Farber. She moves in with Monica, gets a job as a waitress at Central Perk but struggles to work for a living, having previously lived a pampered life with her parents. Ross discovers his ex-wife is pregnant and she gives birth to a boy, named Ben, who is subsequently raised by Carol and her lesbian partner, Susan.

Joey and Chandler have many flings with different women throughout the first season. Most notable is Chandler's on-off girlfriend Janice who repeatedly shows up throughout the ten seasons. She is most known for her catchphrase "oh...my...God!".

Phoebe meets a scientist named David, with whom she falls in love, but the relationship ends with his move to Minsk, to continue with his scientific research. She is left heart-broken by this move.

Ross reveals he had a crush on Rachel in high school and he still has feelings for her. Throughout the season, he fails to make his feelings known to her and Chandler and Joey eventually persuade him to move on. On Rachel's birthday, Ross leaves for a palaeontology conference in China. While he is gone, Chandler accidentally reveals to Rachel that Ross is in love with her when Rachel is surprised about how precious the cameo Ross bought from an antique shop for her. At the time Rachel is not sure what to do exactly but she just wants to meet Ross immediately but fails. Soon after, Rachel decides she would like to start a romantic relationship with Ross, and goes to meet him at the airport when he returns from China, unaware that he is getting off the plane with another woman named Julie.


Season Two (1995-1996)
Unaware that Rachel is interested in him, Ross starts a relationship with Julie, with whom he studied together in New York and then met in China during the conference. Rachel does not like Julie because she is jealous of her involvement with Ross. After drinking too much one night, Rachel leaves a message on Ross' answering machine telling him that she's over him and she wants a closure. Ross hears the message and becomes confused over Rachel's feelings, and in turn, his own. Not long after Rachel's revelation, the pair give in to their feelings and kiss. Ross is unable to choose between Rachel and Julie, and decides to make a pro and con list of both women. He decides he loves Rachel and breaks up with Julie. Unfortunately, Rachel discovers the list, becomes angry at the things from the negative column, and rejects Ross. However, the friends eventually watch a video from Rachel and Monica's prom where it seems Rachel's prom date, Chip, has stood her up. The teenage Ross decides he will take her. While Ross is coming down the stairs in a tuxedo, Rachel runs off with Chip, who has arrived late. Ross looks distraught. Back in the present day, Rachel, overwhelmed by the gesture, kisses Ross and they start dating.

Joey gets an acting job as Dr. Drake Ramoray on the soap opera Days of our Lives and earns enough money to move into his own apartment, leaving Chandler behind. Left on his own, Chandler gets a new roommate, Eddie, who is insane and easy-to-forget. When Joey states in an interview that he writes his own lines, the show's writers kill off his character by making him fall down an elevator shaft. With no income, Joey moves back into Chandler's apartment, helping Chandler to get rid of the psychotic Eddie.

While trying to find her birth father, Phoebe finds out she has a half brother named Frank Jr.

Monica dates Richard Burke (guest star Tom Selleck), an ophthalmologist and friend of her parents, who is twenty-one years older than she, but they break up when Richard tells her he does not want to have children. When Chandler meets the woman he's been talking to online he discovers to his great surprise it is his ex, Janice. The season culminates in them engaging in a kiss.


Season Three (1996-1997)
Rachel quits her job at Central Perk to find a job in fashion, only to find that all she is doing is making coffee at her new job, so she takes a job at Bloomingdale's offered to her by a stranger, Mark. Ross becomes convinced that her new co-worker wants to date her, and becomes increasingly jealous. Tensions between Ross and Rachel culminate on their anniversary and Rachel suggests they take "a break". After hearing Rachel's co-worker in the background during a phone call, Ross assumes she is now with him. Depressed and under the influence of alcohol, he sleeps with another woman (Chloe, the "hot girl from the copy place"). When Rachel indicates that she still wants Ross, he tries to resume their relationship without telling her about his fling, but she finds out from Gunther and after a long emotional night (throughout which the rest of the gang are stuck in Monica's room), they break up.

While working at a fifties diner, Monica is asked out by a customer named Pete, who, unknown to Monica, is a millionaire. Eventually, she agrees to go on a date with him. Monica avoids kissing him for a while because she doesn't feel attracted to him, but after they kiss she instantly finds him attractive. Eventually, Pete becomes obsessed with becoming the Ultimate Fighting Champion, but gets severely injured in every fight, and says he won't stop fighting until he wins. Monica can't stand to see him keep hurting himself, so they break up.

Chandler continues seeing Janice, although Joey cannot stand her. He sees Janice kissing her husband (they are separated) and Chandler decided to let her go so she can make things right for her children. Joey buys a baby chick as a pet. Joey and Chandler soon begin to fight over the chick as if they were married. Chandler decides to take it back, but the shop won't take it so he goes to a shelter where he learns that they kill the animals that can't place in homes. He takes the chick back home along with a duck. Joey's acting career continues to go badly. Phoebe finds a woman, also named Phoebe, who knew her parents. She invites the group to go with her to the beach and meet her.

Joey lands a role in a play and is immediately taken aback by his co-star, Kate Miller, who portrays his wife in the play. Although he's attracted to her, she is condescending towards him and is dating the director, much to Joey's chagrin. To work on their roles, they end up sleeping together. She dismisses it as "just getting into the role" while he wanted it to be more. When her director-boyfriend dumps her following a bad review of the play, Joey is there to comfort her, having "the night," as Monica puts it. However, she lands a role on "General Hospital" and must leave Joey behind to move to Los Angeles.

Phoebe sets Ross up on a blind date with an old friend Bonnie, whom Rachel thought was bald when she agreed it was okay for Ross to date her. Rachel becomes upset when Ross starts dating Bonnie, who unexpectedly comes with them to the beach. Rachel persuades Bonnie to shave her head again with the aim of making Ross less attracted to her. Ross and Rachel argue about this and realize they still have feelings for one another. Meanwhile, it is revealed that the older Phoebe is Phoebe's birth mother. The season ends with Ross having to decide between Rachel and Bonnie.


Season Four (1997-1998)
Ross decides to get back together with Rachel and breaks up with Bonnie. However, Rachel wants him to take full responsibility for "cheating" on her, whereas Ross insists that they were on a break. Unable to agree on whether or not Ross cheated, they break up again. Throughout most of the season the pair frequently bicker, snipe at one another and date other people to make the other jealous. After Phoebe learns the older Phoebe is her real mother, she tells her twin sister, Ursula, who knew all along because she had their "mother's" suicide note, which she had not shared with Phoebe. Phoebe agrees to be a surrogate mother for her half-brother Frank and his wife Alice (who was his home economics teacher). Luckily, after having fertility treatment she becomes pregnant. Though to everybody's surprise, she is pregnant with triplets.

Joey begins dating an actress, Kathy, but Chandler likes her as well. Joey and Kathy break up after Kathy kisses Chandler. Joey is angry, but forgives Chandler when he sees that Chandler and Kathy genuinely love each other. Chandler suspects that Kathy is sleeping with a fellow cast member after watching one of her plays. He then proceeds to confront and accuse her. She is insulted and later does sleep with the cast member, so she and Chandler break up.

Monica and Rachel have to switch apartments with Joey and Chandler after losing a bet. The girls hate their new apartment, and try to convince Joey and Chandler to switch apartments in exchange for season passes to the Knicks. Instead, they agree to an all or nothing bet. The guys win, but while they're at the game, the girls switch the apartments back. They negotiate with the angry Joey and Chandler by offering them an opportunity to watch Monica and Rachel kiss for one minute, thus winning back their apartment.

After she's demoted to being a personal shopper at Bloomingdale's, Rachel meets Joshua, a recent divorcee who needs a whole new wardrobe. She is immediately attracted to him and tries to concoct ways to go on a date with him, including throwing Emily (see below) a bon voyage party and taking advice from Joey about hitting on people. (This would mark the first time Joey's "how you doin'?" catchphrase is used.) Although Joshua is attracted to her, he is reluctant to hasten the relationship because of his very recent divorce. He leaves her when he shows up to her apartment, and Rachel answers the door wearing a wedding dress.

Rachel's British boss asks her to take his niece Emily to the theatre; however, Ross ends up taking her, as Rachel is more interested in getting a date with a good looking customer. Ross and Emily hit it off and they quickly get engaged. The group travels to London for the wedding, except Phoebe, who is in her last trimester of pregnancy, and Rachel, who doesn't want to see Ross get married. At the wedding rehearsal dinner, Monica becomes depressed because she is mistaken as Ross' mom, and bothered by the fact that she isn't married. Chandler comforts her, and they unexpectedly end up sleeping together. Rachel realizes that she still loves Ross and goes to London to tell him. When she gets there, she sees him with Emily and decides it would not be right to ruin the wedding. The wedding goes ahead, but comes to an abrupt halt when Ross says "I, Ross, take thee, Rachel" instead of Emily. The season ends with the preacher asking whether to continue the ceremony.


Season Five (1998-1999)
Ross and Emily's wedding continues despite Ross' faux pas and they are married, but Emily is furious with Ross and she slips away during the reception. The group goes back to New York where Emily calls Ross and tells him that she will only stay married if he promises he will never see Rachel again. Ross is torn, but Rachel, who is unaware of what Emily wants of Ross, persuades Ross to agree to whatever Emily desires. However, Emily continues to make unreasonable demands, making him move out of his apartment, as Rachel had been there. She also makes him sell all of his things and purchase replacements, as Rachel had touched everything. Ross begins to see that she is asking too much of him and proceeds to have dinner with all of his friends. When Emily finds out he is in Rachel's company, she is angry but Ross assures her that nothing is going on between them and that they are just friends. He says she has to trust him and asks if she can do that, but Emily feels too threatened and says no, and they decide to get a divorce.

Ross moves in with Joey and Chandler because he sold his apartment, but later moves into Ugly Naked Guy's apartment (after Ugly Naked Guy moves out), across the street from Monica and Rachel's apartment building.

Phoebe gives birth to triplets (incidentally in the show's one hundredth episode): Frank Jr. Jr. (a boy), Leslie (a girl) and Chandler (a girl). Phoebe originally chose to name a triplet after Chandler, assuming that the baby was going to be a boy, but after the baby turned out to be a girl, Frank and Alice still kept the name. She found giving the children up hard but ultimately realizes that Frank and Alice are happy parents.

Phoebe writes a threatening note to keep people away from Ross' lunch after someone eats his sandwich. However, the note is very threatening and people at work become scared of Ross. In addition, Ross (still messed up from his recent divorce) shouts at his boss, who ate the sandwich. This leads to Ross' sabbatical due to anger issues.

Chandler and Monica continue an intimate relationship in secret, a story arc that continues through the most of first half of the season. Joey figures out about their relationship first after Chandler and Monica go on a "secret" vacation, but he agrees to keep quiet. Rachel discovers the relationship when she hears Chandler and Monica talking suggestively on the phone. Phoebe finds out when she sees Monica and Chandler "doing it up against the window" from Ugly Naked Guy's for sale apartment, during a viewing with Ross. Chandler and Monica don't know that Rachel and Phoebe know about their relationship, and the girls decide to play around with them and confront them. To Joey's dismay they play a series of tricks on Monica and Chandler, who find out and respond with some tricks of their own, which leads to Chandler and Phoebe starting a "relationship" and having a competition to see who will cave first and reveal the secret. Finally, after Chandler caves and admits he can't take the game any further because he is in love with Monica, as opposed to merely having sex with her, Monica and Chandler reveal their secret affair to everyone but Ross. Later that night, Ross sees Monica and Chandler kissing through his window. He was planning to get his job back, but his employer sees him shouting and is not convinced that Ross has overcome his "anger problems". Ross is furious, but once he finds out they aren't just fooling around he is fine with it.

Rachel starts a new job at Ralph Lauren.

Joey gets the lead in a movie, but travels to Las Vegas to find production has shut down. Everyone goes to Las Vegas to visit him on set, but they find out that he is working as a gladiator for the Caesar's Palace casino. On the plane ride over, Ross and Rachel play pranks on each other; Ross starts it to prove Rachel is easily embarrassed, until it gets out of hand and Ross scribbles a goatee on the sleeping Rachel's face with a pen. Afterwards, Rachel finds out and becomes enraged when the markings won't come off. She keeps Ross in the hotel room, refusing to go out in public. They get drunk together and leave the room after Ross agrees to let her write on his face. They stumble through the casino and end up at a wedding chapel. Monica and Chandler are there too, planning to marry. The season ends with Ross and Rachel leaving the chapel, having married, much to the shock of Chandler and Monica.


Season Six (1999-2000)
When Chandler and Monica see Ross and Rachel at the chapel they decide not to get married. After finding out about their drunken mistake, Ross and Rachel agree to get an annulment so Ross doesn't have to get a third divorce, but he decides it is still a failed marriage. He lies to Rachel, telling her he has had the marriage annulled when he actually has not. Rachel finds out and forces Ross to go ahead with the annulment, but they are ineligible for one and file for divorce. Ross gets a new job teaching palaeontology at New York University. During season six Ross dates Rachel's sister Jill (guest star Reese Witherspoon) and afterwards one of his students named Elizabeth.

Chandler and Monica move in together, and Rachel moves in with Phoebe. Joey gets a female roommate, Janine (guest star Elle MacPherson, and they start dating, after a slow start. When Janine reveals she does not like Chandler and Monica, Joey breaks up with her. Out of a job and desperate for money, Joey gets a job at Central Perk and tries out other acting gigs until he lands the lead role in Mac and C.H.E.E.S.E., supposedly permanent, but actually short-lived.

A fire started by Rachel's hair straighteners ruins Phoebe and Rachel's apartment. Rachel moves in with Chandler and Monica, and Phoebe moves in with Joey. They eventually swap because they find out the fire was Rachel's fault, the two girls agree that Phoebe deserves the better apartment (Monica and Chandler's), so Rachel lives with Joey instead. However, Rachel ends up loving living with Joey and Monica is driving Phoebe crazy with her rules about cleanliness. When Phoebe offers to trade back she refuses. Bruce Willis makes a three episode cameo appearance as Elizabeth's father. He threatens to have Ross fired from his job at the university by revealing Ross' secret, and forbidden, relationship. Later he becomes Rachel's boyfriend but she dumps him after he is revealed to be much more emotional than she first thought.

Towards the end of the season, Chandler decides to propose to Monica, but wants it to be a surprise. After he buys a ring, he worries that she suspects something so he creates a plan to throw her off by pretending he is against marriage and everything to do with it. It seems to be working but things don't go smoothly as Monica's ex-boyfriend Richard turns up and announces to her that he is still in love with her. Richard offers her marriage and children and everything she's ever wanted. In a dramatic climax, Monica is torn between Chandler and Richard – a more mature relationship than Chandler is seemingly willing to give her – and doesn't know what to do. When Chandler finds out, he gets angry and distressed and confronts Richard, telling him he had intended to propose. Richard, who finally sees that Chandler had, in fact, been willing to give Monica everything all along, backs down. Meanwhile Joey tells Monica about Chandler's plan. When Chandler arrives, however, Joey tells him that Monica didn't believe it was all a plan and was so upset that she packed her things and told him not to call her. Chandler is heartbroken and goes into his apartment, only to find the lights out, candles everywhere, and Monica in the middle of the floor waiting to propose. In a tearful but romantic encounter, Chandler and Monica finally become engaged.


Season Seven (2000-2001)
Monica and Chandler begin planning their wedding. Rachel is promoted at her job at Ralph Lauren and hires a young and inexperienced but attractive assistant, Tag, whom she begins dating after she tells him her true feelings at Thanksgiving at Monica's. Rachel and Tag later break up when Rachel turns 30 and she feels she should be in a more serious relationship.

Phoebe's apartment is repaired, but is converted back into a one bedroom apartment after a wall that Phoebe's grandmother put up to divide it into a two bedroom apartment is torn down. Rachel continues to live with Joey.

Joey's new show Mac and C.H.E.E.S.E. is canceled but he is able to return to Days of Our Lives when his character, Dr. Drake Ramoray, gets a new brain from a character named Jessica Lockheart (guest star Susan Sarandon).

The night before his wedding, Chandler gets cold feet and runs away. While he is gone, Phoebe and Rachel find a pregnancy test, reading positive, in Monica's bathroom and Phoebe assumes Monica is pregnant. Rachel makes Phoebe promise to not tell anyone what they have found. Meanwhile, Joey is in the middle of filming a World War I film. Phoebe and Ross find Chandler at his office, while Rachel keeps Monica distracted, and persuade him to come back, but Chandler overhears Phoebe and Rachel talking about Monica's pregnancy and disappears again, returning shortly with a gift for the baby, to show support for Monica and the pregnancy. Chandler and Monica get married with Joey as the minister, courtesy of an internet church, though Joey is still in his costume from the film. When Chandler tells Monica he knows about the baby, she says she is not pregnant, and it was not her pregnancy test that they found. As Phoebe tells Rachel how excited she is about Monica's pregnancy, Rachel slowly agrees and the audience is left with the question of whether Rachel could be pregnant.


Season Eight (2001-2002)

Rachel and Ross,when they are looking at a sonogram of the unborn baby.Rachel confirms she is pregnant but doesn't tell anyone who the father is. Unfortunately for her, Joey finds a sweater that the baby's father left at his apartment. Phoebe suspects that it is Tag's sweater but Ross finds it and says, "Hey, my sweater!". After Rachel tells Ross he is the father, they tell everyone that they secretly slept together about a month before Chandler and Monica's wedding. After Ross meets Mona, a guest at Monica and Chandler's wedding, he goes out with her for a few months, but they break up because of complications arising from his impending fatherhood of Rachel's child.

As Rachel and Joey continue living together, Joey starts to develop feelings for her. However, sensing that Ross is missing out on his fatherly duties, Joey reluctantly suggests that Rachel move in with Ross, and she does so. Joey later reveals his feelings to Rachel, who gently lets him down.

After a passionate kiss with Ross to try to induce labor, because she is overdue, Rachel goes into labor, and while in the hospital, Ross' mother approaches him with a ring to give to Rachel. Ross keeps the ring in his coat pocket, even though he does not want to propose to Rachel. Rachel remains in labor for about 21 hours and shares her room with five different women, including Janice, Chandler's ex girlfriend, who all have their babies before her. Rachel eventually gives birth to their daughter, Emma. Joey finds the engagement ring after it falls out of Ross' coat, and bends down to pick it up. Rachel, seeing Joey on one knee with an engagement ring, presumes that he is proposing to her, and says "okay". Monica and Chandler decide to have a baby. Incidentally, this is the season that won Friends an Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series.


Season Nine (2002-2003)
Rachel finds out that Joey was not proposing to her, but neither was Ross. After Ross doesn't pass on a message to Rachel from a potential date, the two realize that having a child and living together while not actually in a relationship is too complicated and Rachel decides therefore to move back in with Joey, and takes Emma with her. Chandler's job requires him to be in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Monica decides not to go after she is offered her dream job in New York. He puts up with this for a while, but he begins to consider quitting when he finds he has to work in Tulsa over Christmas. When a female associate, Wendy (Selma Blair), a runner up Ms. Oklahoma, comes on to him over Christmas in Tulsa, he quits and starts a new job in advertising. After trying all season to get pregnant to no avail, fertility tests prove that Chandler and Monica cannot conceive a baby, so they decide to adopt. Phoebe starts dating Mike Hannigan, (Paul Rudd) after being set up on a double date by Joey, who lied to Phoebe about knowing someone called Mike, leaving him with no other option but to find a random 'Mike' in Central Perk. Phoebe and Mike date and eventually move in together, but when he tells Phoebe he does not want to get married, they break up. Rachel has a dream about Joey and develops a crush on him.

The group goes to Barbados because Ross is giving a key-note speech there. Phoebe takes her old boyfriend David (Hank Azaria), whom she met in Season One and with whom she has been in love with since meeting him, and Joey takes his girlfriend, Charlie, Ross' new colleague and a person for whom Ross has feelings. Chandler accidentally gives David some bad advice about dating and David decides to propose to Phoebe. Monica finds out, and calls Mike to tell him to get back together with Phoebe. Mike comes to Barbados and proposes to Phoebe. She turns him down, but, knowing their relationship has a future, agrees to take him back, leaving David.

Joey and Charlie break up realising they have little in common. Joey learns Rachel likes him, but refuses her advances because he feels he would be betraying Ross. However, when Joey sees Charlie and Ross kissing he changes his mind and kisses Rachel in the final scene of the season.


Season Ten (2003-2004)
Joey and Rachel's relationship lasts only three episodes. Having been platonic for so long, they feel uncomfortable taking their relationship further, and because of that, they never have sex. Charlie goes back to an old boyfriend and Mike and Phoebe get married on the street right outside Central Perk on a cold, snowy day, after facing delays and cancellations from various people crucial to their wedding.

Chandler and Monica apply to adopt the baby of a pregnant young woman named Erica and decide to move out of their apartment to a house in the suburbs of New York, something not known to the rest of the friends, until Rachel and Phoebe see Chandler with another woman, and decide to confront the couple about it. Erica gives birth to twins, a boy and a girl, who are named Jack (after Monica's dad) and Erica (after the mother). Despite the fact Erica was expecting twins, it comes as a surprise to Monica and Chandler, who are happy with the outcome.

Rachel is offered a job in Paris with Louis Vuitton, with help from a previous colleague, Mark (from Season Three). Rachel is torn between staying in New York when Ralph Lauren offers her her job back with a pay raise and moving to France. She decides to accept the job offer in Paris and take Emma with her. The group holds a farewell party for her and she says goodbye to each of them in turn, except Ross. He is upset about this until Rachel tells him it was too hard to say goodbye to him. The dramatic confrontation culminates in them sleeping together.

In the final episode, Ross realizes that he still loves Rachel and, after she leaves for Paris, goes after her, driven by a reckless Phoebe to get to the airport before her flight leaves. Meanwhile, Joey buys Chandler a new chick and duck; (the other two are revealed to have died earlier in the series, unbeknownst to Joey, who thinks they went to live on a farm). The chick and duck get stuck in the foosball table, purchased by Joey and Chandler after their dining table broke in a very first season (which was replaced in episode 606 when joey broke it after losing a $1000 bet to Chandler, it is never shown to be bought but the colour of the table is different). They know they have to break it open but neither of them have the heart to do it – it was the first item that Chandler and Joey had bought together. Finally, Monica destroys it and the chick and duck are recovered. They decide to keep the birds at Joey's since animals aren't the most hygienic things to have around newborn babies.

Ross finds Rachel and tells her that he is in love with her and begs her not to go; however, she is overwhelmed by this new information on top of everything else and leaves. Ross was sure she would stay and is crushed. When he gets back to his apartment, he finds a message from Rachel on his answering machine, telling him she still loves him. She tries to get off the plane but is not allowed to leave. Ross listens intently as Rachel tries to explain to the flight attendant that she needs to get off the plane but the message ends before he can tell whether or not she got off. Ross frantically runs to the answering machine pressing buttons and screaming "Did she get off the plane?!" Suddenly a voice from behind Ross says "I got off the plane" and he turns to see Rachel at the door of his apartment. They kiss and assure each other that this is the real thing and they want to be together.

The finale ends with Chandler and Monica moving out of their apartment with their new twins, Mike and Phoebe deciding to have kids and Ross and Rachel becoming a family with Emma. As they look around their apartment one last time, Chandler and Monica remember that they need to leave their keys on the desk. One by one, each friend follows with his or her own key. Rachel then suggests that they all go for one last cup of coffee before Monica and Chandler move, and Chandler responds with the sarcastic last word of the show: "Where?".

**wikipedia.org