Review


Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer star in this hit comedy about six close-knit young friends living in New York City. As the leadoff series on NBC's enormously popular "Must See TV" Thursday night lineup, Friends continues to garner critical acclaim and ratings success. Now in its fifth season, Friends continues to rank among television's top five series in all key demographics and among total viewers. In addition, Friends has been the top-rated 8 p.m. show on any network for the past three seasons, reaching an average audience of 25 million people each week. Since its debut season (1994-95), Friends has received 14 Emmy nominations, including two for Outstanding Comedy Series. Additionally, the cast won a Screen Actors Guild Award in 1996 for Outstanding Ensemble Performance in a Comedy Series and has been nominated three times (1996, 1997, 1998) for a Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series, Musical or Comedy. The series focuses on the friendship of three men and three women who frequently gather at each other's apartments and share sofa space at Greenwich Village's Central Perk coffeehouse. Monica Geller (Cox) is a restaurant chef with an obsession for neatness and order in her life. Her roommate, Rachel Green (Aniston), is Monica's pampered best friend from high school who works at a department store. Rachel recently ended a year-long romance with her longtime admirer Ross (Schwimmer), Monica's older brother, who in a rebound relationship, quickly married his British girlfriend. Living across the hall from Monica and Rachel are roommates Chandler Bing (Perry) and Joey Tribbiani (LeBlanc). Chandler, a dry wit who is never at a loss for words, is a lovable wiseguy who works as a corporate office worker. Joey is a struggling actor who loves women, sports, New York and, most of all, himself. Rounding out the circle of friends is Monica's ex-roommate, Phoebe Buffay (Kudrow), an offbeat, eternally optimistic folk singer and massage therapist, who recently became pregnant with triplets as a surrogate mother for her half-brother and his wife. The series was created by the writing team of Marta Kauffman & David Crane. Emmy and CableACE Award-winning producer Kevin Bright is executive producer with Kauffman and Crane. Adam Chase, Michael Curtis (Dream On) and Greg Malins (Dream On) also serve as executive producers. Friends is a Bright/Kauffman/Crane Production in association with Warner Bros. Television.

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