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.
