Where Have All My Friends Gone?

[Seabishop]

A chapter of my life is closing.
Is a new one yet to begin?
The Friends who have laughed with me,
cried with me,
and loved with me
are sailing away forever.
into seas uncharted and paths unknown
Never again will I see Joey's confident smile,
Chandlers witty reparte,
or Monica's endearing guile.
Goodbye my Friends
Goodbye.
Somehow I will survive this . . . blah blah blah

I AM SO SICK OF PEOPLE MAKING SUCH A BIG DEAL OVER THE END OF THIS STUPID TV SHOW!!!!! GET ON WITH IT AND THROW THE CHARACTERS OVER A CLIFF ALREADY!!! THEY'RE NOT REALLY YOUR FRIENDS!!!

Sorry, I had to rant to somebody and you're all a captive audience.

 

[Zoning Goddess]

I've never seen the show so I don't care, either.

Our newspaper had an article in its food section yesterday about recipes for the final episode parties people are allegedly having.

 

[Repo Man]

Friends is one of the most overrated sitcoms ever. The first few seasons it was laugh-out-loud funny. Then it quickly got dull. The last few seasons have been more soap opera than sitcom. I wonder if Marcel the monkey will come back for the final episode ;-) I'll take Scrubs over Friends anyday. The Andy Richter show was much better than Friends too. To bad only 12 people tuned in to watch it.

I have a softball game so I will not be watching.

 

[NHPlanner]

I'll be watching....my SO is a bit of a fanatic for the show.....

 

[SGB]

I dislike most sitcoms.

There. I've said it. |-)

 

[JNA]

Who cares about that TV show, I sure didn't.
Even worse is reruns :-c

 

[Downtown]

Some of the women on another message board i'm on are seriously distraught at this finale - they've made comments along the lines "I grew up with Friends - I feel like I know them and they're a part of my family."

This just strikes me as soooo sad, that people are so lonely that they emotionally invest in a television show !!!

 

[michaelskis]

My sister does not like GW Bush, so I told her that he was going to be on TV from 8:30 to 9:30 tonight to give an update on the progress of the war... I thought that she was going to start throughing things. Then I told her it was a joke... I am now worried that she will hurt me.

 

[Planderella]

The lack of ethnicity among the characters was enough incentive for me to never watch it.

But, I don't watch network television anyway.

 

[Dan]

The show should have been renamed "****buddies" a long time ago.

Friends jumped the shark the moment Ross admitted is love for Rachel ... don't know how many years ago that was, but the whole premise of the show changed dramatically in that one epiosde. Haven't cared about it since.

Planderella beat me to the comment about diversity. I don't expect a token Latifa or Chen among the friends, but you think they would have encountered at least one non-white person during ten-plus years of living in New York? There was more interaction between the races in apartheid-era Johannesburg than in the New York of Friends.

 

[BKM]

Some of the women on another message board i'm on are seriously distraught at this finale - they've made comments along the lines "I grew up with Friends - I feel like I know them and they're a part of my family."

This just strikes me as soooo sad, that people are so lonely that they emotionally invest in a television show !!!

Amen.

Slightly Off Topic:

I would add to this something that equally annoys me-people who shout things like "We won the Superbowl. (Now lets go out and trash the City!)"

YOU didn't win the Superbowl, the Millionaire Celebrity-Athletes did. I don't understand spectator sports fanaticism.

 

[nerudite]

I actually liked Friends for the first few seasons. My brother really loved it, so I ended up watching it with him. I usually think that most of the Joey/Phoebe jokes are fairly funny... but it's almost painful to watch David Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston and Courtney Cox. I won't be missing the show... especially if the episode I saw last night was any indication of the quality of the writing in recent years. Bleh. :-#

 

[SlaveToTheGrind]

I only watched friends a few times. Such an unreal show, and yes, the show was such unethnically diverse. Aisha (sp?) Tyler came in the last season or two, I think, but what did that accomplish?

 

[Floridays]

A 2 hour season finale? I don't think so.
The older re-runs are pretty good and I'll watch them occassionally. But I really haven't kept up with the show over the years. Every other week one of them have partnered off with another one.
I think I'll watch the Chappelle's Show that I taped from the other night....he is a riot!

 

[Richmond Jake]

[Cyburbian sarcism on] I don't even own a TV. [Cyburbian sarcism off] ;-)

 

[prudence]

I agree with Repo...

Whoever thought I'd mumble those words...

Friends "jumped the shark" long ago. I fail to see the facination with it. Scrubs is brilliant.

 

[boiker]

My sister does not like GW Bush, so I told her that he was going to be on TV from 8:30 to 9:30 tonight to give an update on the progress of the war... I thought that she was going to start throughing things. Then I told her it was a joke... I am now worried that she will hurt me.

Terrorist could wage another attack an the USA and NBC probably won't break out of Friends...or the 10 minutes of advertising that goes along with your 20 minutes of crappy tv.

 

[jresta]

Seinfeld and Friends. Two shows i've never understood and i think the world is a better place without either of them.

There's a cult movie called "Whiteboyz" in which the main character often fantasizes that he's a rap star. In one scene he is fantasizing that he's being interviewed by Jay Leno and laments his Iowa roots:

"I ain't like these people Jay, all they do is go to the mall and walk back and forth from Foot Locker to Chi-Chi's, Chi-Chi's to Foot Locker. Then they go home and watch damn . . . Friends. What the hell i wanna be white for Jay? That s*** is stupid."

 

[mendelman]

David Schwimmer should not act ever again. Everytime I see the "Ross" character, I want to slit his throat. :-\ :-0 |-) :-#

 

[Michele Zone]

I was a "big fan" of "friends"...while stuck in a hotel room for 8 weeks with about 3 channels and on about 8 different drugs to keep breathing, in spite of the smog. But I also watched "Just Shoot Me" during that time. They came on back to back from 11pm to midnight and that was what I did to wind down before lights out. "Just Shoot Me" is a much better show. My kids never took to "Friends". They did like "Just shoot me".

 

[NHPlanner]

Planner Groupie just won tix to see Van Helsing by answering a radio contest of Friends trivia.

Needed to get 3 out of 5 right.....got three straight. Guess her never missing an episode paid off. lol

 

[nerudite]

Planner Groupie just won tix to see Van Helsing by answering a radio contest of Friends trivia.

Needed to get 3 out of 5 right.....got three straight. Guess her never missing an episode paid off. lol

It's good to know that something good has come out of her watching so much t.v.

 

[Michele Zone]

Now sounds like good time for Planner Groupie to have a snit fit about our biased views and then blame it on hormones.

I plead "short of sleep". :-D

 

[Repo Man]

Seinfeld and Friends. Two shows i've never understood and i think the world is a better place without either of them.

Ripping Seinfeld!!!??!??!! Blasphemy! If I was a mod I would ban you for those comments ;-)

As for nerudite's comment about it baing painful to watch Cox, Schwimmer and Aniston. It is NEVER painful to watch Jennifer Aniston if you are a straight male!

 

[plankton]

Seinfeld and Friends. Two shows i've never understood and i think the world is a better place without either of them.

There's a cult movie called "Whiteboyz" in which the main character often fantasizes that he's a rap star. In one scene he is fantasizing that he's being interviewed by Jay Leno and laments his Iowa roots:

"I ain't like these people Jay, all they do is go to the mall and walk back and forth from Foot Locker to Chi-Chi's, Chi-Chi's to Foot Locker. Then they go home and watch damn . . . Friends. What the hell i wanna be white for Jay? That s*** is stupid."

A great movie. I watch it every time it's on IFC.

As for the loss of Friends....you mean that show is still on.

 

[BKM]

I was a "big fan" of "friends"...while stuck in a hotel room for 8 weeks with about 3 channels and on about 8 different drugs to keep breathing, in spite of the smog. But I also watched "Just Shoot Me" during that time. They came on back to back from 11pm to midnight and that was what I did to wind down before lights out. "Just Shoot Me" is a much better show. My kids never took to "Friends". They did like "Just shoot me".

Just Shoot Me rocked! Just like a pug is so ugly that it's cute, that show was so annoying that I liked it (for some strange reason).

 

[Hceux]

Friends isn't all that bad, if you're a television viewer, that is. Why not watch it to share a small understanding of the show with others who talk about it in the future? Also wouldn't it be nice to have said that "I've watched the last Friends show" to the future generations?

C'mon chill out. It's only a television program. Enjoy it, ignore it, or ditch it.

Looking for any one who is watching it, count me in!

 

[Michele Zone]

It is NEVER painful to watch Jennifer Aniston if you are a straight male!

I am sorry but that sounds counter-intuitive to me. Isn't it supposed to be more like "she looks so good it Hurts".

 

[Zoning Goddess]

There was so much hype over the MASH finale and it was such a bore. I still think the best one was MTM, short, sweet, and with the spirit of the series.

 

[DecaturHawk]

All right, next week we can do all of this again for Frasier.

 

[Seabishop]

...It's only a television program...

That's what brings out my frustration - the media obsession over a tv show. Local news last night had a live interview with an Entertainment Tonight correspondent about it, like there's nothing else going on in the world to talk about.

I can't wait for the spin-offs! How about "Fogetaboutit!" featuring Joey eating lots of spaghetti, combing his hair and being stupid! :-\

 

[Gedunker]

I do not lament the end of Friends,as Dan and others have said, it was way past its time.

I do lament the last few seasons of Northern Exposure that led to its timely demise. But the first 3-4 seasons were some of the best tv entertainment I've ever watched. (Anybody remember the episode where Chris wanted to fling the cow 8-! ?)

 

[ebeech121]

I loved Friends.

Agree about the Phoebe/Joey jokes. Joey got all the best lines.

And I agree that it was not diverse. I think diversity is a great thing. But be honest, would you admit to having a "token black friend"? I doubt it unless you want to receive cruel looks.

It was a popular show because it was fast, silly and pointless. Most people who watch television really don't expect much out of it except being quick and silly. There are alot of "drama" or "serious" shows like The West Wing or Law and Order (only ones I could think of right now) that have sensationalistic plots "ripped from the headlines." To me, sensationalizing a news story is a cheap way to make a show--not really a creative way either.

I am going to buy the boxed set of Friends, too.

 

[Repo Man]

Here in Milwaukee they had a huge friends finale party and decorated this bar to look like the central perk. They even had the actress who played Chandler's old girlfriend Janice as a guest. Anyhow the news station that sponsored it was also down there and they showed eveyones reaction when Rachel came into Ross' apartment at the end and there was a lady who threw her hands up in the air and screamed "yes...oh yes" and started crying. I know the ending was happy an all...but was it actually a surprise? Did anyone think that she was actually going to go to Paris...? Come on...its just a TV show! Oh and did anyone else notice the eerie similarities to the Sex and The City finale? Paris...ending up with their "true" love...friends with baby moving to burbs?

 

[Michele Zone]

To basically agree with ebeech121: My sister reads rags like "The Enquirer". She is an intelligent woman with an education and serious career. She calls it "junk food for the mind". And that was kind of what I needed during GIS school, which is when I watched "Friends" regularly: Something light and funny. God, I was in class 36 to 40 hours per week and going to the computer lab about another 20 hours per week to do homework. I did NOT need or want something Intellectual.

I think the media hoopla over it serves the same social purpose as gossip about famous people: we don't interact much these days with people that know most of the same mere mortals we know. But we ALL know Aaaahnold -- on a first name basis, so to speak. If you said "Yeah, it is kind of like Joe Blow who lives next door to me...." Er, I don't know Joe Blow and the reference is completely meaningless.

Also, there are different kinds of intelligence. Social intelligence is something that tends to be very much underrated in more geeky/academic circles. I do not think it is any coincidence that Planner Groupie made such a splash when she joined this forum AND is a fan of a show like Friends. Planner Groupie isn't even a planner -- yet she has had no problem being accepted here. Why is that? Because she has social intelligence. She knew how to stage her entrance, play to the crowd, keep it a little bit mysterious, be flirty without being trampy... and a whole lot more that a lot of folks couldn't pull off if their life depended upon it.

There tends to be a stereotype for what is "intelligent". It tends to paint folks with brains as all being Geeks and social losers, who don't know how to dress, etc. But Madonna made straight A's as a kid ... for the attention it got her. But you cannot DO that if you don't have the native intelligence to make the A's to begin with. She is very successful. But folks tend to dismiss her as not a Brain because she values all that social stuff more than your typical geeky stuff. But Hedi Lamar invented some code essential to national security (has to do with dropping bombs on people, I think). Lucille Ball and her husband invented TV as we know it. And there are many other examples. Lots of beautiful women (Lucille Ball was a model before she got over her need for that kind of validation and decided that Being Funny was Better -- and was still a stunner in her 70's) that have been wildly successful in film were also "closet" brainiacs. Sometimes keeping your mouth shut and NOT telling everyone that you have a brain is the Smart Choice.

But, enough of my meanderings.

 

[boiker]

Here in Milwaukee they had a huge friends finale party and decorated this bar to look like the central perk. They even had the actress who played Chandler's old girlfriend Janice as a guest. Anyhow the news station that sponsored it was also down there and they showed eveyones reaction when Rachel came into Ross' apartment at the end and there was a lady who threw her hands up in the air and screamed "yes...oh yes" and started crying. I know the ending was happy an all...but was it actually a surprise? Did anyone think that she was actually going to go to Paris...? Come on...its just a TV show! Oh and did anyone else notice the eerie similarities to the Sex and The City finale? Paris...ending up with their "true" love...friends with baby moving to burbs?

I noticed a predictable ending to an overrated sitcom.

 

[Habanero]

I would've liked to see Ross' kids mentioned, oh, maybe once. He was such a dead beat dad. :-\ And really, wtf leaves their newborn twins alone in an apartment? HELLLOOOOOO!?!?

 

[Zoning Goddess]

But Hedi Lamar invented some code essential to national security (has to do with dropping bombs on people, I think).

OT: she was also arrested for shoplifting just a few miles from where I live.