The Day Friends Died

this video is sponsored by atlas vpn use my specific link below to get atlas vpn for 139 a month before the deal expires [Music] everyone knows the tv show friends it's iconic and considered one of the best tv comedies of all time even if you've never watched the show you've no doubt been bombarded with references quotes and conversations by those who have the simple concept of following six friends traversing the highs and lows of early adulthood in new york city gave the writers plenty of opportunities to explore the simple yet profound moments of that time in life warren littlefield former nbc president during friends run says this about the show's 10 seasons and 235 episodes one of the greatest tributes you can say about the show is that it never jumped the shark for 10 years they never lowered their bar it holds up really well today and there's a reason it's the most successful half hour comedy in the world now there's a lot to unpack here a lot that i personally disagree with so let's dive into the history of friends pinpointing the moment it jumped the shark or in this case watch the shark porn in this episode the one where the show dies i talked about this a little bit in my the day community died video but back in the 80s and 90s thursday night was the most fought over night of the week by the networks that's because advertisers knew that thursday night was the most watched night of the week by affluent viewers in the desirable 18-34 age demographic and so nbc put its best block of programming together on thursday night and called it must-see tv consisting of shows like seinfeld mad about you wings and fraser with a major reshuffling of shows due to cancellations endings and network retooling nbc was looking for something to add to their must-see tv lineup in the early 90s writers marta kaufman and david crane began developing a show then called insomnia cafe in 1993. in their pitch to nbc they said it's about sex love relationships careers a time in your life when everything's possible it's about friendship because when you're single and in the city your friends are your family nbc picked up the show and added it to their thursday night lineup in the fall of 1994 it was pretty much a hit from the very beginning and it's pretty easy to see why it starred a young ensemble of attractive people and the very demographic advertisers were targeting there was a charm in its simplicity and even in authenticity in some of the subject matter the writers tried to be honest and real with what young people were going through at that time well as honest as a show about sick straight middle-class white people could allow friends sitting in a cafe talking about everything from sex to dead-end jobs in great detail reflected that there were obvious plot lines in every episode but the conflicts were relatively small what drew people to the show was the dynamic of the friendships it became almost aspirational in a way a small tight-knit group of friends who were reliable would be there through everything content just to sit and talk it was very intimate in that way and younger audiences responded to that the popularity of friends launched hairstyles catchphrases and the will they won't they dynamic of rachel and ross became this pop culture talking point that kept audiences tuning in the rachel ross dynamic was planned from the pilot episode the one where monica gets a roommate you know you probably didn't know this but back in high school i had a major crush on you i knew but the writers of friends had a strong track record in the early half of the series of tackling all kinds of plot lines and incorporating them into the show in interesting ways like lisa kudrow's real-life pregnancy in season 4 and pairing up monica and chandler in the season 4 finale the one with ross's wedding i better get going absolutely could you not look i don't want to look a random plotline that was supposed to be short-lived but ended up being one of the most interesting relationships and happy accidents of the entire series and their wedding in the season seven finale the one with monica and chandler's wedding would have actually been the perfect moment to end the series i pronounce you husband and wife now kiss her again there's a recurring theme that kept popping up throughout season seven there's a focus on growing up taking the coming-of-age story that we've explored in the show up to this point now shifting to our characters finally arriving at age in the season 7 premiere the one with monica's thunder joey struggles coming to terms with the idea that he can't audition for the same acting roles he used to when he was younger seriously no okay you can play your own age with just 31. i'm 30. rachel breaks up with tag because she's ready to get married and have kids and everyone else reflects on their own 30th birthdays in the episode the one where they all turn 30. and then there's monica and chandler's wedding in the season finale where we also find out that rachel is pregnant the show about young adults struggling together to make it in the world seemed to be gone the dynamic had shifted and in the last few seasons it's pretty clear that the writers were out of ideas a main character getting pregnant is usually a desperate sign for any show clip shows became more common the characters weren't all together as often usually paired off with their romantic partners in season 9 chandler takes a new job in tulsa don't get me started on the episode the one with the sharks where monica thinks that chandler watches shark porn possibly the dumbest moment in the entire series he was getting off to a shark attack show no yes chandler watches shark porn but it was in season eight when the writers began the most frustrating in tone deaf storyline that bled across the last three seasons in the episode the one where joey dates rachel the day friends died it was a storyline that came out of nowhere didn't ring true to the characters introduced for the sole purpose of prolonging the series another season the through line of the entire series was the ross and rachel relationship everyone knew that they were going to end up together it was inevitable but the writers needed to keep the audience invested which is why after finally getting together in the middle of season 2 they broke up in the middle of season 3. i would say initially when ross and rachel was planned it wasn't planned that way that came a little bit later that allowed us to have fun with the show and give people something to root for we were well aware the audience wanted to keep them together but everything was keeping them apart we realized when we got them together when the first kiss happened we go wow the air has kind of gone out of the balloon there wasn't that sexual tension anymore i thought what marta and david did which was such a brilliant and brave move with their relationship as soon as everyone got their wish the wish was taken away it made it so much better when they did get together i can see how that makes sense the tension of their relationship was one of the most consistently dynamic parts of the show it reminds me of jim and pam on the office the moment they finally got together their characters immediately became less interesting and the show suffered in a way because that tension and conflict that was so integral to the show was gone so the writers needed to keep ross and rachel apart as long as possible until the very end with only hints of their lingering romance sprinkled throughout and after doing that for so many years now with rachel pregnant with ross's baby they still needed to find a way to keep them apart and that's when they came up with the terrible idea of joey and rachel in her book i'll be there for you the one about friends author kelsey miller writes kaufman and crane understood that the joey relationship would end before it really began they would never have sex or say the l word that would be too much to recover from once they actually hooked up the characters like the audience would be too weirded out and preoccupied with ross she was pregnant with ross's baby we always knew this was doomed but in a hopefully really interesting moving and compelling way not only did the writers know it was doomed to fail but even the actors voiced their displeasure with the storyline in i'll be there for you the one about friends miller continues when creators mark hoffman and david crane first approached the cast in season 8 with the idea of joey falling in love with rachel everyone balked matt said it felt incestuous especially uncomfortable after so many years of cultivating a brotherly bond with the female characters in his book generation friends an inside look at the show that defined the tv era saul austerlitz writes you can't do that crane remembered their telling him united in their apathy toward the idea that's like having a crush on your sister they went on exercised by their displeasure it's like playing with fire crane agreed with them but believed playing with fire was exciting there was a reason children had to be warned away from doing it so the writers continued on with the joey rachel storyline and of course it didn't work like i said earlier it pops up out of the blue and doesn't ring true to the characters or the story world throughout the series joey occasionally flirts with rachel like in the one with joey's bag oh no joey you and i sex wow ain't gonna say no to that and the one with the cop how you doing but it's always harmless plus his flirtation was never specific to just rachel as he also flirts with monica and phoebe throughout the show joey and phoebe actually seem to have more chemistry and flirtation bubbling underneath the surface ross joey we should just switch yeah absolutely and even though joey is a womanizer we see how important loyalty and honesty is to him with his friends after the fallout of chandler and kathy's secret affair compare joey and rachel's relationship to monica and chandler's before they dated there were moments that displayed their especially close friendship like when monica tells him that he won't end up alone in the one where heckles dies she coaches him through commitment issues with janus and the one with the metaphorical tunnel comforts him with his breakup with kathy and the one with joey's dirty day and gives him sex advice in the one with phoebe's uterus and there's also moments that hinted at something romantic between the two like when chandler suggests they beat each other's backups in the one with the birth he repeatedly tries to convince her to date him in the one at the beach and the one with the jellyfish and they share a really sweet moment at the end of the one with the flashback you are one of my favorite people and the most beautiful woman i've ever known in real life when monica and chandler finally got together in the one with ross's wedding it was shocking and exciting in all the right ways that feel earned and also fit with the evolving characters and the story world the romance between joey and rachel never worked though it was stretched out across three seasons fizzling out in the one with ross's tan for such stupid reasons like rachel slapping joey whenever he kissed her and then joey not being able to take off her bra and after that the relationship was basically never mentioned again like it never happened the last few seasons trudged along with standout episodes becoming less and less frequent but the series finale the last one ended on a strong if slightly predictable and also melancholy note melancholy because it was reinforcing this idea that was a long time coming they were all drifting apart and i think that's the reason why the last few seasons didn't work as well for me in the beginning friends utilized the found family trope really well from the very first episode it was clear that these people were all coming out of complicated relationships ross's divorce rachel's wedding called off but they were also dealing with family issues both chandler and rachel's parents getting divorced joey's father having an affair with another woman ross and monica's parents favoring one child over the other and none of those even hold a candle to phoebe's tragic upbringing consisting of abandonment imprisonment suicide and homelessness the people these characters relied on to get through relationships jobs life and death or each other for example in the first thanksgiving episode the one where underdog gets away none of them want to spend the holiday together it's a last resort but as they continue to grow closer every subsequent thanksgiving is always spent together friends was always at its best when all six characters work together that's why some of my favorite episodes of the show are bottle episodes like the one where no one's ready the one where ross can't flirt the one where ross got high the one with monica's thunder the one with the videotape and the one with the rumor it didn't matter what they were doing the chemistry of all six characters and their found family really worked that was the whole premise of the show and what made it great again the writer's original pitch to nbc was it's about friendship because when you're single and in the city your friends are your family but in the last few seasons they started getting married having children taking jobs and buying homes that took them away from manhattan their priorities changed they started having their own families all of a sudden they weren't all coming of age anymore they had finally arrived one of the reasons there will never be a reunion is because the show was about that time in your life when your friends are your family and once you have your family it changes once rachel had her baby and monica and chandler had their babies life changes and the show is no longer the show [Music] the friends reunion is set to air on hbo max on may 27th and hbo max is also where you can stream the entire 10 season run of the show but if you're outside the united states it may not be available to you but using a vpn can change all that which is why i'm excited to say that this video was sponsored by atlas vpn atlas vpn was developed by top cyber security specialists and i.t engineers in 2020 with the aim of making the internet accessible and secure for everyone atlas vpn is a tool that encrypts your data and hides your virtual location it can also scan the internet to make sure that your email address doesn't turn up on any recorded data breaches or data dumps with your sensitive information with atlas vpn you'll have full speed connectivity a network kill switch and safe browse mode but like i mentioned earlier my favorite feature is how atlas vpn allows you to circumvent geo restrictions hbo netflix amazon prime and all streaming services have licensing rights which means that hundreds of exclusive shows and 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Channel: Entertain The Elk

Views: 460,094

Keywords: The Day Friends Died, Friends, Entertain The Elk, The Day Died, Friends Reunion, Friends full episodes, Friends reunion trailer, Friends bloopers, Friends best moments, Matthew Perry, Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer, Friends behind the scenes, Friends James Corden, Friends Reunion clip, Friends reunion interview, Friends tv show, Friends theme song, Friends episodes, Friends reunion best moments, Friends funny moments, bts, quote

Id: 1nuEK_UtnWs

Length: 16min 21sec (981 seconds)

Published: Wed May 26 2021