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[Seth C]

The Brad Pitt Thanksgiving episode was and always will be amazing.

 

[viciouskillersquirrel]

For me, it was Aniston.

In fact, IMO Jennifer Aniston in her prime on Friends is one of the top 5 hottest chicks ever to grace a television screen.

Man chin. Massive man chin with great hair. Never did it for me, I'm afraid.

 

[Harry Potter]

For me, it was Aniston.

In fact, IMO Jennifer Aniston in her prime on Friends is one of the top 5 hottest chicks ever to grace a television screen.

Ya, she was.

 

[DevelopmentArrested]

If by hold up you mean still suck then yes

 

[Brazil]

GAF will say "boo, it sucks" because it has awful taste, but it's still the best sit com that has come out of American TV.

To this day I watch two episodes every single day, and I always laugh out loud.

 

[Complex Shadow]

are you sure?

not really no =/

It would have been horribly unfunny. Some of the jokes and punch lines were god awful.

i only watched 2 ep a long time ago. all i remember is the laugh track every 5 secs. =/

 

[JLG-]

Never got into friends, seinfeld 4lyfe.

 

[pompidu]

Ya, she was.

Her right elbow looks like its really hairy thanks to that shadow.

 

[viciouskillersquirrel]

http://i.imgur.com/Xyq9u.jpg[ /IMG]

Ya, she was.[/QUOTE]
Notice that her hair is draping the sides of her face and covering her man chin?

 

[Krowley]

There's nothing wrong with liking Seinfeld and Friends both. There doesn't have to be a war between the two.

I like them both for totally different reasons.

Friends had an ongoing storyline, and more likable characters with great character chemistry.

Seinfeld was incredibly cynical, and played purely for laughs all the time, but it did that very well. Seinfeld was probably more revolutionary in some ways, but friends established the template for the major soap opera elements that are seen in most modern sitcoms. It wasn't the first sitcom that did it (I guess Soap would get that award, but I'm not a historian). Still, even if it wasn't first, Friends did it right, and everybody copied it.

 

[rogue74]

I caught an episode in syndication the other night and was surprised at how poorly it held up.

Seinfeld and Everybody Loves Raymond hold up very well.

 

[vicissitudes]

Friends was great until about S6 or so. Still holds up for me because of nostalgia, I can see it not being as good for someone watching it for the first time today.

 

[Like the hat?]

Hey now, The Nanny was great

 

[jim-jam bongs]

Friends has always been pretty middle-of-the-road. It's generally amusing, occasionally funny and almost completely inoffensive, which is probably why it was so popular.

 

[viciouskillersquirrel]

Hey now, The Nanny was great

Have you watched an episode lately? It still gets some laughs but you really notice things like the laugh track at lame jokes these days. HIMYM and BBT both have laugh tracks, but it's done much more subtly (i.e. they get a real audience in to watch the episode once it's completed) so the laughter sounds quite natural whereas on the Nanny, it sharply cuts in and out whenever they make a joke, regardless of how lame it is.

Which might've been fine in the 90s. It's jarring nowadays.

 

[Laughing Banana]

Friends was/is great.

How I Met Your Mother, on the other hand, sucks.

There.

 

[Ezalc]

I watched it mainly because Chandler and Joey had an awesome bromance.

 

[StinkFist]

I don't wanna be that guy, but for it to be New York, where are the black people, Jewish people, spanish speaking people, northern and eastern Europeans? Sorry, but every time I see Friends is on, I can't help but to roll my eyes. Its the little things.

 

[Combichristoffersen]

First five seasons were gold, seasons six and seven were ok, but anything after that is running on fumes.

 

[dudeworld]

whenever how I met your mother is on, I always switch it to 2 and a half men

 

[viciouskillersquirrel]

I don't wanna be that guy, but for it to be New York, where are the black people, Jewish people, spanish speaking people, northern and eastern Europeans? Sorry, but every time I see Friends is on, I can't help but to roll my eyes. Its the little things.

Wasn't Ross Jewish? I also remember there was an asian chick Ross dated.

But yeah, other than that, it presented a very whitewashed version of New York. Also, wasn't their apartment huge (and expensive)? It always seemed to me that these guys couldn't have afforded the place they lived in.

 

[Sapiens]

That show had some really good writing and it was perfectly fine for its era.









And jennifer aniston in the mid to late nineties. She kind of aged horribly.

 

[Misanthropy]

There was this one video online where they showed a standard episode of Friends but removed the laughtrack. It looks really awkward. In fact if you laughed at any of their episodes you weren't laughing because it was funny but because they just had a really good laughtrack.

 

[JLG-]

whenever how I met your mother is on, I always switch it to 2 and a half men

Is HIMYM that bad?

 

[Zoe]

I think it holds up until they became caricatures of themselves--basically when Monica and Chandler started fooling around.

 

[Salmonax]

Also, wasn't their apartment huge (and expensive)? It always seemed to me that these guys couldn't have afforded the place they lived in.

It had something to do with rent control after taking over from a dead relative.

 

[Combichristoffersen]

Is HIMYM that bad?

No, but it's still pretty mediocre. Still, 2 and a Half Men is miles ahead of According to Jim. That series is so bad I'm sure even Hitler would consider it too cruel to be inflicted upon humanity.

Edit: Come to think of it, Yes, Dear might actually have been even worse than According to Jim

 

[Narag]

Wasn't Ross Jewish? I also remember there was an asian chick Ross dated.

But yeah, other than that, it presented a very whitewashed version of New York. Also, wasn't their apartment huge (and expensive)? It always seemed to me that these guys couldn't have afforded the place they lived in.

Handwaved with Chandler having a high paying job and Monica illegally subletting.

I wish I could remember the humor article covering just this though. A bit out of it though and can't recall where I read it.

 

[Deadly]

I used to love Friends and used to watch like 4 different episodes on different channels every night during weekdays but ever since I discovered HIMYM I haven't watched a single episode. It's become more of a memory now. I'd probably watch it if it was still on TV though.

 

[Kuro Madoushi]

Some episodes were fantastic

Jumped the shark pretty quickly though

 

[elrechazado]

but it's still the best sit com that has come out of American TV.

wut

I don't think it's shit, but I've never heard even big fans say it's the best sitcom on american TV ever...

mash, seinfeld, cheers, simpsons, and about 2 dozen others might beg to differ.

 

[livestOne]

There was this one video online where they showed a standard episode of Friends but removed the laughtrack. It looks really awkward. In fact if you laughed at any of their episodes you weren't laughing because it was funny but because they just had a really good laughtrack.

Why does that sound so creepy? I gotta check it out

 

[viciouskillersquirrel]

There was this one video online where they showed a standard episode of Friends but removed the laughtrack. It looks really awkward. In fact if you laughed at any of their episodes you weren't laughing because it was funny but because they just had a really good laughtrack.

Happens to a lot of shows, actually, even live shows. If you sat down and watched a comedy show where you were the only person in the place, you wouldn't laugh nearly as hard as you would if you were in a crowded room. It's a psychological thing - if you hear laughter around you, you're more likely to find something funny (it upgrades amusing to hilarious in some circumstances). Curiously, while the presence of male voices makes everyone laugh harder, whereas if it's just female laughter, men are far less affected.

Find some clip of Eddie Murphy or Louis CK with the audience laughter removed and play it to a series of people (sitting alone) who have never seen the show and measure how much they laugh compared to people who watch it with the laughter intact. You'll notice a big difference.

So, often, laugh tracks alone aren't the sign of a bad show. It's usually so that the group laughter effect impacts people watching the show by themselves. If the track was recorded in front of a live audience, you're probably still getting good comedy. If the track was pre-recorded and superimposed onto the soundtrack, then you have a bad comedy.

 

[Misanthropy]

Happens to a lot of shows, actually, even live shows. If you sat down and watched a comedy show where you were the only person in the place, you wouldn't laugh nearly as hard as you would if you were in a crowded room. It's a psychological thing - if you hear laughter around you, you're more likely to find something funny (it upgrades amusing to hilarious in some circumstances). Curiously, while the presence of male voices makes everyone laugh harder, whereas if it's just female laughter, men are far less affected.

Find some clip of Eddie Murphy or Louis CK with the audience laughter removed and play it to a series of people (sitting alone) who have never seen the show and measure how much they laugh compared to people who watch it with the laughter intact. You'll notice a big difference.

So, often, laugh tracks alone aren't the sign of a bad show. It's usually so that the group laughter effect impacts people watching the show by themselves. If the track was recorded in front of a live audience, you're probably still getting good comedy. If the track was pre-recorded and superimposed onto the soundtrack, then you have a bad comedy.

It's just that I measure a truly hilarious show by when they don't have any soundtrack and I can't stop laughing. Peep show is a very good example. It's perhaps this decade's finest comedy show for Britain. As for America I can't say the same. There's nothing really here that's unique. Even the kids shows like iCarly and Victorious aren't funny. It's just a bunch of stereotypes put together using elmers glue. You start to question your existence when you see "those" type of shows. And friends was one of them.

 

[Salsa]

It's cool to say you dont like it.

But Chandler was the bomb back in the day.

 

[_Alkaline_]

Oh yay, another GAF Friends thread.

You know, the place that likes overrated ass like Lady Gaga but can't admit that Friends had some decent humour?

I'm going to celebrate this melodramatic response with a Friends clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Dp78Kh94x4

 

[viciouskillersquirrel]

^^^

_Alkaline_, I thought you had my back :\

It's just that I measure a truly hilarious show by when they don't have any soundtrack and I can't stop laughing. Peep show is a very good example. It's perhaps this decade's finest comedy show for Britain. As for America I can't say the same. There's nothing really here that's unique. Even the kids shows like iCarly and Victorious aren't funny. It's just a bunch of stereotypes put together using elmers glue. You start to question your existence when you see "those" type of shows. And friends was one of them.

Arrested Development didn't have a laugh track and it was fantastic.

Seinfeld and Frasier both did and they were both great.

So yeah, when you get to the point where you don't *need* a laugh track, you're talking about some great comedy.

 

[Misanthropy]

This is how the show is without a laugh track in case anybody wanted to know what it was like.

 

[Salmonax]

This is how the show is without a laugh track in case anybody wanted to know what it was like.

I think I like that better.

 

[viciouskillersquirrel]

This is how the show is without a laugh track in case anybody wanted to know what it was like.

I laughed, but only because the fact that there is no laugh track makes the characters seem like total douchebags. Phoebe's "No thanks, I've already seen one." sounded really disrespectful in a "Why would I want to hang out with you losers?" kind of way, especially with the silence that follows.

 

[Narag]

This is how the show is without a laugh track in case anybody wanted to know what it was like.

Pauses to let the audience laugh are really distracting. That cut into a more natural flow of conversation would be interesting though.

 

[Zoe]

I'll always love this episode:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oENQjvY96dM

 

[_Alkaline_]

^^^

_Alkaline_, I thought you had my back :\

The typical responses to the thread are far more groan-inducing than your post.

Friends certainly couldn't touch the likes of Seinfeld even in its prime, but that didn't mean it wasn't an enjoyable show for the most part. It was only until about season 6 that it got progressively inconsistent in quality and some characters started playing themselves. People often refer to the ending of Season 4 where Chandler and Monica get together as being the turning point, but this arc was actually really funny until people found out about it.

The link above kind of shows where the series started going wrong. Phoebe for instance became almost unlikable by the end of the show.

Oh, and for the most part the first season of Friends is probably the worst of them all. That's the one that has aged badly.

 

[the_log_ride]

For me, it was Aniston.

In fact, IMO Jennifer Aniston in her prime on Friends is one of the top 5 hottest chicks ever to grace a television screen.

I agree with you. Had a major crush on her back in the day. But like others, I haven't watched an episode since it went off the air

 

[Salmonax]

Friends certainly couldn't touch the likes of Seinfeld even in its prime, but that didn't mean it wasn't an enjoyable show for the most part. It was only until about season 6 that it got progressively inconsistent in quality and some characters started playing themselves. People often refer to the ending of Season 4 where Chandler and Monica get together as being the turning point, but this arc was actually really funny until people found out about it.

I agree on both counts - that's when it started to decline for me, but the "I'm Joey. I'm disgusting." thing is still funny. Basically I'm generally okay with episodes before 2000 other than the first season.

 

[hyduK]

Friends didn't really hold up in its own time. Replace Jennifer Aniston with an average looking girl of similar talent, and the show is nothing.

 

[Koodo]

The people hating on the show post-mortem probably caught an episode from one of the latter seasons. They were not good. Being a long-running series meant that hype, attachment and routine probably made more than a few proclaim back then that those last seasons were good.

The first half of the show though? Hilarity then, hilarity today.

 

[Iced_Eagle]

Was and will always be hilarious.

 

[strasza]

Bah, I still like it and think it holds up. Some seasons were better than others, some episodes were better than others. It went downhill after a certain point, but most shows seem to in the end. It had it's moments, and they were pretty great. I'd rewatch it any time, same as Seinfeld/AD/etc.

Funny how your post (and subsequent posts) apply equally to HIMYM.

I never thought I'd say it, but this is sadly seeming true. :'(

 

[Captain_Spanky]

The people hating on the show post-mortem probably caught an episode from one of the latter seasons.

Patronizing!