Can Friends please go away now.

[Mantle2600]

Originally Posted by Neuqua

I've heard caucasian people in high school say that it was a "white people thing" back in its heyday but I dunno.

Let me tell you something, I'm white, have been all my life, but I still dont get that damn show. Seinfeld's as overrated as... um... well its in a league of its own.

[Desnudo]

No soup for you! I heard Joey's sitcom is going to be about an Italian from Brooklyn who moves to a toney Connecticut neighborhood with his daughter to be a housekeeper for a single woman and her young boy. Hijinks ensue.

[rkmsuf]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

It's like the difference between Letterman and Leno.

That's fair analogy. I do think the people that get Seinfeld LOVE it while the people the get Friends think it's a good show or like it.

[scooper]

Originally Posted by rkmsuf

Friends is a McSitcom.

This I don't get. Granted, there have been countless "mcsitcoms" like it in the past 10 years, most of which have failed. But exactly which group of cookie-cutter fast-food variety sitcoms did it fit into 10 years ago when it debuted? IMO, the McSitcoms of that time were all centered on a family household or a workplace. Outside of Seinfeld, there weren't many about a bunch of single people.

[Samdari]

Originally Posted by rkmsuf

Friends is a McSitcom.

Perfect

[rkmsuf]

Originally Posted by scooper

This I don't get. Granted, there have been countless "mcsitcoms" like it in the past 10 years, most of which have failed. But exactly which group of cookie-cutter fast-food variety sitcoms did it fit into 10 years ago when it debuted? IMO, the McSitcoms of that time were all centered on a family household or a workplace. Outside of Seinfeld, there weren't many about a bunch of single people.

I'd be shocked if the ending wasn't pure vanilla.

Sure the show has offered some yucks and cultural vernacular but overall it was nothing ground breaking. I maintain without Seinfeld it would never have done as well.

[scooper]

I'm sure the ending will be vanilla. Most long-running shows with a linear story line do end up vanilla and predictable. At that point, they're not trying to win any new fans, but moreso giving something to the long time fans of the show who want some closure for the characters they've been following. Sometimes, you'll see a show end with some odd twists. Seinfeld did, but then again, that show didn't have a linear storyline. That's a big difference. And the Seinfeld finale was panned by a lot of fans, at least the fans I know.

In a situation like this, it really is just best to tie up the loose ends, say some tearful goodbyes and end the thing. Just like they did with the last MASH, one of the most watched and talked about TV episodes ever. That episode was certainly predictable and vanilla, but it gave the fans closure.

It's the last show. If you're not a fan, you're never going to be. Tonight's show serves a much different purpose than most TV shows. It's not for people that don't watch or long ago stopped watching the show.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by scooper

This I don't get. Granted, there have been countless "mcsitcoms" like it in the past 10 years, most of which have failed. But exactly which group of cookie-cutter fast-food variety sitcoms did it fit into 10 years ago when it debuted? IMO, the McSitcoms of that time were all centered on a family household or a workplace. Outside of Seinfeld, there weren't many about a bunch of single people.

The structure - 6 single "stars," all on equal footing and of equal prominence - was unique. The jokes and general execution of the show was about as cookie-cutter as you can get.

[Neuqua]

I think you are right on scooper. I'm almost sure that after tonight's episode the same people who are criticizing the show now are going to be posting how the ending was so predictable and lame. But tonight's show is not for those folks. It is the last chapter for those fans who have enjoyed the series for 10 years and want to see the characters they have watched over the last decade complete the circle.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Neuqua

It is the last chapter for those fans who have enjoyed the series for 10 years and want to see the characters they have watched over the last decade complete the circle.

If you are referrring to the Circle of Life, does this mean there are lions in tonight's episode? If so, count me in...

[Suicane75]

Spoiler....














I heard that the finale is that they all get high and try to find their way to White Castle.

[rkmsuf]

Originally Posted by Neuqua

I think you are right on scooper. I'm almost sure that after tonight's episode the same people who are criticizing the show now are going to be posting how the ending was so predictable and lame. But tonight's show is not for those folks. It is the last chapter for those fans who have enjoyed the series for 10 years and want to see the characters they have watched over the last decade complete the circle.

This is where types of fans digress. Cookie cutter ending to cookie cutter show. Those who panned the Seinfeld finale were likely "non-fans" or people who tuned in for the event. It wasn't genius but a very good and fitting last episode which is what Friends will be, geared toward their audience.

[scooper]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

The structure - 6 single "stars," all on equal footing and of equal prominence - was unique. The jokes and general execution of the show was about as cookie-cutter as you can get.

It's a sitcom. Outside of Seinfeld, most long standing, successful sitcoms have had cookie-cutter jokes and execution. There aren't many risks that can be taken given only 20 minutes a week to work with and a genre that is expected to succeed within half a season or have the plug pulled by the network.

I like to laugh and I like stories, so sitcoms are naturally my favorite creative TV genre and it is dying out.

[Samdari]

Originally Posted by scooper

the last MASH, one of the most watched and talked about TV episodes ever. That episode was certainly predictable and vanilla, but it gave the fans closure.

The first half of it was a bit of a new plot, with Hawkeye in the looney bin from seeing a woman smother her child to save a busfull of people from being discovered. The second half was indeed about an hour of vanilla goodbye type stuff.

It is actually still the highest rated show ever. With ratings for just about anything in decline, due to fracturing of audiences with ever-increasing viewing options, I doubt it will ever be topped.

[Neuqua]

Just wondering Ksyrup, what are your favorite all time revolutionary shows besides Seinfeld?

[scooper]

Originally Posted by rkmsuf

This is where types of fans digress. Cookie cutter ending to cookie cutter show. Those who panned the Seinfeld finale were likely "non-fans" or people who tuned in for the event. It wasn't genius but a very good and fitting last episode which is what Friends will be, geared toward their audience.

No, if I remember correctly, many fans of Seinfeld panned it. I was a fan. I really enjoyed Seinfeld, but I was dissapointed in the final episode. Many of my friends were the same way. Although, to be fair, I'm not exactly sure what I wanted.

I think the final Seinfeld fell into the trap of trying to be too "Seinfeld", meaning they tried again to reiterate the characters quirks and ingorant selfishness while throwing some unpredictable story line in there.

Honestly, if I were to write a finale for Seinfeld, I wouldn't have had them leave the city and the story would not have been as major as an arrest or trial. I also would not have tried to cram in all the cameos from past characters. A true "Seinfeld" ending would have been just another episode, with maybe them sitting around the diner bitching about something.

[rkmsuf]

Originally Posted by scooper

No, if I remember correctly, many fans of Seinfeld panned it. I was a fan. I really enjoyed Seinfeld, but I was dissapointed in the final episode. Many of my friends were the same way. Although, to be fair, I'm not exactly sure what I wanted.

I think the final Seinfeld fell into the trap of trying to be too "Seinfeld", meaning they tried again to reiterate the characters quirks and ingorant selfishness while throwing some unpredictable story line in there.

Honestly, if I were to write a finale for Seinfeld, I wouldn't have had them leave the city and the story would not have been as major as an arrest or trial. I also would not have tried to cram in all the cameos from past characters. A true "Seinfeld" ending would have been just another episode, with maybe them sitting around the diner bitching about something.

I liked it based on the fact that what made the show so good were the supporting characters. It was a tribute to those story lines, somewhat of an inside joke that they'd be back in a year and something you'd never think of off the top of your head which is in line with the overall theme of the show.

It was better than Jerry moving to Paris or something

[scooper]

Originally Posted by Samdari

The first half of it was a bit of a new plot, with Hawkeye in the looney bin from seeing a woman smother her child to save a busfull of people from being discovered. The second half was indeed about an hour of vanilla goodbye type stuff.

It is actually still the highest rated show ever. With ratings for just about anything in decline, due to fracturing of audiences with ever-increasing viewing options, I doubt it will ever be topped.

The first half was a new plot, but it was in no way a new concept for the show. The life of the show included many episodes with deep introspection or Hawkeye or another character flipping out. The story was new, the execution wasn't.

[MrBug708]

Originally Posted by Kodos

Friends certainly doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as classics like M*A*S*H, The Simpsons, and Seinfeld, but it is better than most other sitcoms out these days. I do agree that the first season was better than anything that followed.

I never found the humor on Seinfeld very notewrothy, yet it got tons of play. Been watchign Friends for a while and am looking forward to the finale, but it's time to end the show.

Then again, I watched Days of our Lives

[scooper]

Originally Posted by rkmsuf

I liked it based on the fact that what made the show so good were the supporting characters. It was a tribute to those story lines, somewhat of an inside joke that they'd be back in a year and something you'd never think of off the top of your head which is in line with the overall theme of the show.

It was better than Jerry moving to Paris or something

They're different shows, so the Paris comparison doesn't work. The Paris thing is part of a linear on again/off again story.

Seinfeld never really had any type of story so what works for either finale would not work for the other, so who is to say which is better?

The shows were built on completely different concepts. It just happens that the linear nature of Friends calls for some sort of closure or ending while the randomness of Seinfeld demanded no such thing.

[Ksyrup]

Originally Posted by Neuqua

Just wondering Ksyrup, what are your favorite all time revolutionary shows besides Seinfeld?

I haven't mentioned that I even like Seinfeld...but I do. I don't really watch much network TV. I'd throw the Simpsons in there in a heartbeat, and I loved Family Guy. As far as live action sitcoms - I can't think of one I watched in the past 10 years that was really good. I thought Frazier was well-written for a period of years and enjoyed that - maybe I'd add that one to the list, but it became a caricature of itself pretty quickly. I loved Flying Blind, but that was only because Tea Leoni is the hottest woman alive.

These days, I check out L&O and CSI and that's about it. Sitcoms are all a bunch of George Lopez shows to me. When my wife is watching them, I like to finish their sentences. That's a sure sign of crap.

[JasonC23]

Since "Friends" is the only sitcom I watch on a regular basis (more for sentimental reasons than anything else at this point)...can anyone recommend a funny show on TV that's worth my time?

[Radii]

Originally Posted by Ksyrup

Tea Leoni is the hottest woman alive.

Doesn't this discount any other opinion you might have?


I liked Seinfeld, and I like Friends, though I never watch(ed) either one religiously in their normal time slots, I enjoy catching them in syndication when nothing else is on(that's a glowing review for a show huh?).


South Park/Simpsons/Family Guy/Daily Show/PTI were the only shows in the last number of years that I have ever watched religiously. Outside of the Daily Show(not a sitcom, I know), I wouldn't pretend to consider any of the others "great" by any standard, just entertaining as hell, which is all that matters to me.

[GrantDawg]

Seinfield was a brilliant show with the second worse ending in history (MASH wins the worst hands down).

Friends was a good to great show that I will miss. The ending will probably be vanilla, but that would be best type ending for this show.

[Suicane75]

Originally Posted by JasonC23

Since "Friends" is the only sitcom I watch on a regular basis (more for sentimental reasons than anything else at this point)...can anyone recommend a funny show on TV that's worth my time?

Bernie Mac show is a real good show in the vein of a classic family sitcom.
Scrubs is really funny as well.
Those are the only 2 sitcoms on nowadays than I enjoy when I see them, unfortunatly they both have been yanked around the schedule recently and I havn't seen them as much as i'd like.

[Ksyrup]

I wrote about the Rembrandts in the "worst song of all time" thread, and here's a nice article summing up the reservations the band had about recording this song. I didn't even realize they had a great hits album out, which is a re-recording of fans' favorite songs, not just the same old greatest hits package.


DULUTH, Minnesota (AP) -- Phil Solem didn't want to be known as a one-hit wonder, but it'll be hard to think otherwise when the final episode of "Friends" airs Thursday and viewers hear him sing the show's theme song.

Solem and his band, The Rembrandts, were approached by a "Friends" producer in 1994. They wrote 45 seconds of material with five other writers, intending to stay anonymous.

But fans of "I'll Be There for You" had different ideas.

"A radio guy in Nashville -- I don't know if I love him or hate him -- looped the 45 seconds into a three-minute song, and people were all over it," Solem, a native of Duluth, said from his home in Sherman Oaks, Calif.

"Our record label said we had to finish the song and record it. There was no way to get out of it," said Solem, who has written reams of music in his 47 years.

Without the song, The Rembrandts may not have sold as many albums, Solem said. But there was a downside: "We lost a lot of hard-core, original fans because they thought we'd decided to take the easy way, but we felt forced to be press monkeys."

After the "Friends" buzz waned for The Rembrandts, the band broke up. When they reunited, the music industry wasn't interested. But the "Friends" finale put them back in the spotlight. On Tuesday, the band released a compact disc of rerecorded greatest hits, "Choice Picks," on Solem's label, Akee Records.

[korme]

Jason, watch Scrubs.

[Celeval]

Personally, my favorite last episode (I think it was an arc of a couple episodes) was the Wonder Years.

[Suicane75]

Wonder years was good, as was Cheers. I think the worst "somewhat big" finale that I've ever seen was the last episode of Night Court, man, that was a great show that went down the tubes real fast.

[Maple Leafs]

Not sure about last episodes, but has there ever been a sitcom with a better last scene than Newhart?

[Calis]

Originally Posted by JasonC23

Since "Friends" is the only sitcom I watch on a regular basis (more for sentimental reasons than anything else at this point)...can anyone recommend a funny show on TV that's worth my time?

Well it's off the air now, but if you have BBC America I believe they still play reruns of it, and if they don't go get the DVDs.

The Office is the best show on TV since Seinfeld imo. It'll show you also that originality isn't dead when it comes to "sitcoms" either. Great, great show.

It's being remade for the States and I shudder to think of the bad impression it'll give to folks over here. I'm fearing it'll go over about as well as bringing Coupling over here did.

I can't recommend the original enough though.

[korme]

Rece Davis: How you doin?

[Nyarlahotep]

Originally Posted by Samdari

With all the attention being given to the Friends finale, who else is ready for everyone to stop talking about it. I don't think it belongs in the pantheon of great sitcoms which have previously gotten similar treatment (Mash, Cheers, Seinfeld). Do people really think it is that good?

I think Friends is a crap show, but then again I also think the three you listed are some of the of the worst shows to ever be on television.

[Ksyrup]

OK, I just saw the commerical for the 434th time, and I have to ask...is it too much to ask that post-9/11, TV shows give up on the "run up to the gate to catch the love of your life leaving for Paris" scene? Or, if they're going to use it, can we at least see the guy get carted away by the cops, the terminal shut down, flights delayed, and thousands of pissed off travelers being shuttled outside? Would he not achieve the same goal?

[SFL Cat]

Okay, I did the "sheep" thing and watched the last episodes of Friends...lamest thing I've ever seen.

It is my new worst ending to a TV show ever.

[RPI-Fan]

Originally Posted by SFL Cat

Okay, I did the "sheep" thing and watched the last episodes of Friends...lamest thing I've ever seen.

It is my new worst ending to a TV show ever.

Tell me about it.

And people complained about Seinfeld's last episode?!?!

[Neuqua]

I thought it was fine, don't know what exactly you guys were expecting to see.

[korme]

I liked it..

[Pumpy Tudors]

So, uh, what happened?

[Tigercat]

Glad to see some Scrubs talk on this thread.

I don't know why so many want to live in the past with Seinfield, when Scrubs continues to be a unique and funny commedy thats on TV TODAY.(Well I suppose Seinfield is on today too if you count reruns.)

[Neuqua]

Actually Scrubs and Friends were the only sitcoms I tried to make sure to watch every week.

[Suicane75]

Finale was fine for me,nothing great but nothing bad.
The problem I think is that the entire past 2 seasons have been going in the wrong direction, it's funny as hell to see a "barren" Courtney Cox have to adopt twins when she's obviously pregnant as hell.

[Young Drachma]

Will there ever be a sitcom that successfully pulls off the dynamics of real-life folks who aren't all of the same race? I mean, it says something that there hasn't been a sitcom since The Jeffersons and All In The Family (with apologies to Good Times) to deal with "real life" white and colored folks who discussed real life issues. I mean, sure..its PC world and all that.

But I could even tolerate Cosby, who skirted most of it and just tried to be above the board. But, the only black sitcoms on TV basically all revolve around colored folks moving to the suburbs and how they're "tryin' to keep it real."

Bernie Mac's show is different all together, but FOX is sorta exempt from this discussion for myraid reasons. Friends, Seinfield? Whatever. They were in New York, but looked more like the OC or Dawson's Creek. Not that I watch any of them. But all the hoopla over this stuff seems a bit much.

'course, I'm the one that's up at 4am talking about this crap. Time to play Madden..or sleep.

[FrogMan]

As someone said earlier in this thread, this episode was not for new fan to come and start loving the show, simply bring closure for longtime fans...

I have followed Friends since the middles of season 1 and I've not missed many episodes. I liked the finale, although I will agree that it wasn't the funniest or best ever episode, just a end to their era...

FM

[Ksyrup]

It was exactly what most people figured it would be, and what most people wanted to see, so I can't see how they could go wrong with that formula. The twins things was stupid, and precisely the reason I don't watch sitcoms anymore. And the Ross/Rachel thing had to end that way, or they would have gotten blasted.

One thing I know...Matthew Perry has never held a baby in his life.

[scooper]

The twins thing was kind of stupid but it did bring about a couple good jokes:

Do these look like the faces of people in the know?

We could give each of them half a medallion....

[Ben E Lou]

Haven't read this thread. Don't intend to. However, I am proud to say that I've never watched more than about 45 seconds of Friends, and that has been when walking past the TV when someone else was watching.

90's and 00's shows are stupid.

[Ben E Lou]

Dola:

With the exception of Cops, I haven't watched more than two episodes of any show in probably 15 years. The last show I watched regularly was either The Cosby Show, In Living Color, or A Different World--whichever one of those was cancelled last. I think I watched The Hugheleys twice.

[cthomer5000]

Originally Posted by Calis

Well it's off the air now, but if you have BBC America I believe they still play reruns of it, and if they don't go get the DVDs.

The Office is the best show on TV since Seinfeld imo. It'll show you also that originality isn't dead when it comes to "sitcoms" either. Great, great show.

It's being remade for the States and I shudder to think of the bad impression it'll give to folks over here. I'm fearing it'll go over about as well as bringing Coupling over here did.

I can't recommend the original enough though.

My girlfriend bought me the first season (or the first "series" in the UK apparently) of The Office when it came out - purely on word of mouth. I can easily say the show is one of my 5 favorites of all-time. The first and second seasons combined is just 12 episodes, but the show pretty much leaves while right on top (though I have not seen the subsequent christmas special which is the absolute finish to the show).

I highly recommend The Office.

[sachmo71]

Ding dong, the witch is dead!