It’s been 10 years since the friends stumbled into our lives. Here’s a look back at who they are, what they’ve done and what we expect to befall them next:
The friend: Ross Geller.
Ross is: The very model of an intellectual geek. A smarty who’s expert in his field – paleontology – but flubs everything else. Goes to a hockey game, takes a puck in the face. Goes to a funeral, falls into an open grave. Tries to find love and tumbles into three divorces. No surprise there, since Rachel has owned his heart since high school. Fools rush in, and so does this wise man. The professor and the princess, living happily ever after? At least Ross will always have his dinosaurs – and his hair.
Played by: David Schwimmer.
Why we love Ross: Trips and falls over his love for Rachel. Trips and falls again. Keeps getting back up.
Highlight: Puts aside his pain over losing his first wife to another woman and agrees to give her away in marriage when her father won’t.
Lowlight: Struggles mightily to get into a pair of tight, sweaty leather pants.
Hookups: Unexpectedly, a host of lovelies played by Lauren Tom; Morgan Fairchild; Christine Taylor; Rebecca Romijn-Stamos; Helen Baxendale; Alexandra Holden; Bonnie Somerville; Aisha Tyler and, more than once and forever, Jennifer Aniston’s Rachel. Platonic but heartfelt relationship with Marcel the monkey.
10 years from now: Promoted to museum director after writing a breakthrough book on the mating practices of dinosaurs, widely available on bookstore remainder tables. Still has a teenage crush on Rachel, after all these years.
The friend: Phoebe Buffay.
She is: A hippie chick a few decades after Woodstock. And she’s been on some bad trips: Her mother killed herself, her stepfather went to prison, she lived on the streets. But obladi, oblada, life goes on, and no one knows better than Phoebe. Or sings about it worse, in her own oddball, out-of-key folk songs. Phoebe is sweet, big-hearted, liberated and uncensored.
Played by: Lisa Kudrow.
Why we love Phoebe: She keeps the ’60s alive!
Highlight: Scores a $7,000 settlement from the soda company after finding a thumb in her soda can.
Lowlight: Composes and performs a song called “Smelly Cat.”
Hookups: Characters played by Hank Azaria; Alec Baldwin; Chris Isaak; Sean Penn; Michael Rapaport; Charlie Sheen; and Fisher Stevens. Plus Robert, whose gym shorts were way too short. And, of course, her eventual husband, Mike.
10 years from now: Through a crazy succession of events we won’t get into here, Phoebe will enter “American Idol” and move on to the finals. Then, one memorable night, she unexpectedly sings one of her own weird songs. She is scratched from the competition, and the FCC, deciding her lyrics are obscene, sues the Fox network for millions. Phoebe returns to Greenwich Village, hanging out as a sidewalk musician.
The friend: Joey Tribbiani.
He is: Broad-shouldered, wide-eyed and thick-headed. New York through-and-through, but with sugar on top. A lover, not a fighter, to which countless New York ladies can attest, while his steadiest partner was his beloved apartment mate Chandler. A not-so-good actor who never has to play-act being a good guy or a better friend. What are his chances of hitting the big time? Joey doesn’t worry.
Played by: Matt LeBlanc.
Why we love Joey: No matter how much he may want to be an actor, the only role he can convincingly play is himself.
Highlight: When Rachel wrongly thought he was proposing marriage – and she accepted.
Lowlight: When he got his head stuck in the Thanksgiving turkey.
Hookups: Honeys played by Kristin Davis; Elle Macpherson; Emily Procter; Brooke Shields; and Aisha Tyler – plus Phoebe’s identical twin, Ursula; Kate, his leading lady in a play, who hurt his feelings by treating him as a one-night-stand; and his dry-cleaner’s wife.
10 years from now: After landing a hit TV series, Joey will enjoy huge success through its 2013-14 season, when he will decide to return to his first love, the thea-tuh.
The friend: Monica Geller Bing.
She is: A chef-foodie, before it was really cool and after trimming down from high school fatty. That’s the kind of boldness Monica can muster despite neuroses that cling to her like plastic wrap. When this neat freak has a Hoover in hand, watch out. But she’s a steady soul and a good sister to Ross, friend to all and the beauty who helped Chandler affirm his heterosexual appeal and, maybe, maturity.
Played by: Courteney Cox.
Why we love Monica: She’s the high school outcast who made good – and who would never let us go hungry.
Highlight: Becomes a roller-skating waitress at a ’50s diner.
Lowlight: Oops, she did it by mistake: bedded a 17-year-old boy.
Hookups: Fun Bobby, who was not much fun when sober (Vincent Ventresca); millionaire-with-a-wild streak Pete (Jon Favreau); hunky older man Richard (Tom Selleck); and Chandler, who proved he had the stuff to follow Magnum, P.I.
10 years from now: Living in the ‘burbs with Chandler and their kids, putting the other moms to shame at PTA bake sales – and a mini-mogul with her healthy snack line, Monica’s Munchies.
The friend: Chandler Bing.
He is: So smart – so why isn’t he rich? Or even a hit with the ladies? Tough luck for Chandler, fated to make do with rapier-sharp zingers guarding his sensitive psyche and many insecurities. He spent much of the “Friends” run overqualified at work (whatever it was he did in that office) and underqualified in the bedroom (at least judging by his self-deprecating wisecracks). But all isn’t lost: He has five friends who love him, and one of them, Monica, became his wife.
Played by: Matthew Perry.
Why we love Chandler: He inspires every one-liner-spinning case of arrested development: You, too, can find happiness and love with a beautiful girl.
Highlight: When he invented a betting game he could lose while playing with Joey, so he could give his cash-strapped friend needed money without injuring Joey’s pride.
Lowlight: When he stumbled naked in a steam room and landed in the nude lap of his future father-in-law.
Hookups: Other than his eventual lovemate Monica, none too successfully. There’s Janice, his awful former girlfriend who keeps returning like a rash. Victoria’s Secret model Jill Goodacre, with whom he was trapped in an ATM booth during a blackout – but was incapable of making sparks fly. Julia Roberts played an all-grown-up former fourth-grade schoolmate with a score to settle. He clicked with one of Joey’s eight sisters (but Chandler, drunk when he made out with her, afterward couldn’t remember which one she was). And preparing him for Monica, he fell in love with Kathy – but so did Joey.
10 years from now: Happily married with Monica and a couple of kids up in Westchester. And there, contented in the suburbs, he will wonder, every now and then, if the Central Perk down in Greenwich Village is still in business.
The friend: Rachel Green.
She is: A sweetheart of an American princess, whose perfection inspired an “I Hate Rachel Green Club” in high school. Began unfinished journey toward independence and adulthood in the pilot episode, when the friends forced her to lose her father’s credit cards and gain a backbone. Always managed to look fabulous and sport trendsetting hairstyles despite lack of capital. A heartbreaker for sure but a victim, too, of her own dithering, she’s the It Girl who doesn’t always get it – Daddy’s little girl, almost grown up.
Played by: Jennifer Aniston.
Why we love Rachel: That hair, those eyes, that pout.
Highlight: Tries to force an ex-sorority sister to admit they made out.
Lowlight: Shows up at Ross’ wedding to reveal her love for him, ruin event.
Hookups: Paolo (Cosimo Fusco), the Italian hunk whose lips did the talking; ex-fiance Barry (Mitchell Whitfield); mad screamer Tommy (Ben Stiller); customer-turned-beau Joshua (Tate Donovan); neighbor Danny (George Newbern); hunky older man Paul (Bruce Willis); assistant Tag (Eddie Cahill); co-worker Gavin (Dermot Mulroney); and, more than once and forever, Ross.
10 years from now: In 10th year of counseling with Ross, but still going strong. Executive vice president of a fashion house and grooming her daughter, Emma, for a design career – or law school.
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