HOLLYWOOD – As “Friends” – peerless sitcommernaut of the ’90s and beyond – rolls out the last installment in its 230-plus-episode, multibillion-dollar run, it’s funny to remember what a hesitant, conflicted latecomer to the Gen X-ploitstation genre it was way back in 1994.
But the show not only defied its own life expectancy, it outlived its original premise and the mostly media-manufactured “trend” that inspired it.
Within a few short years of its debut, David Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox Arquette, Matthew Perry, Lisa Kudrow and Matt LeBlanc would be canonized by Time Warner.
Entire magazines would spring fully formed from the head of Bonnie Fuller to track their various haircuts, drug addictions, weight fluctuations, romantic involvements and sweat-pants preferences. Canadian forests were felled in service to the subject of Aniston’s hair.
In no time, the sextet of buddies in their early 20s (remember way back when?) frolicking in a storybook Manhattan (remember way back never?) became pop idols in ways few sitcom stars before them had.
Other characters on other sitcoms had been popular, widely recognized, iconic, funny even. But fans of Ross, Rachel, Monica, Chandler, Phoebe and Joey wanted to copy their hair, wear their clothes, live in their town and mail them their underwear.
Love or hate it, the galactic influence of “Friends” has been undeniable. Even then-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani did what he could to make the city resemble a Warner Bros. backlot.
Whether Ross and Rachel get together once more for old times’ sake is immaterial at this point. Unless the “Friends” end on some really surprising note, like moving together to Utah or throwing a big Moonie-style wedding in Yankee stadium, it appears that the nuclear family will out in the end.
No matter how formulaic “Friends” got, the formula was always oddly satisfying – like a Big Mac, or a really sentimental wedding.
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