Author Topic: The Friends Appreciation Thread  (Read 34370 times)

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Re: The Friends Appreciation Thread
« Reply #280 on: April 19, 2022, 09:15:56 PM »
Night Court is an all timer for me, loved it. It is free to watch on IMDBtv and I’ve begun a re-watch and am currently almost through season 2.  No way this show makes it in todays world and I almost cringe at some of the stuff they were getting away with. With that said, I still find it entertaining. As of where I am in the series it hasn’t hit its full stride, but there have been moments. I just saw the episode with Michael Richards (Kramer) in which he thought he was invisible.

The best episodes were always the ones where they had to get through as many cases as they could by midnight. Rapid fire stupidity at its finest.
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Re: The Friends Appreciation Thread
« Reply #281 on: April 20, 2022, 05:48:46 AM »
Paul... your history of the 8:30 and 9:30 times lots kinda proves my point. No show lasted there in the Friends/Seinfeld era for more than 2 seasons.

I loved Frazier. Very intelligent writing, and flawless delivery.
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Online Stadler

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Re: The Friends Appreciation Thread
« Reply #282 on: April 20, 2022, 07:48:50 AM »
Tea Leoni's show, The Naked Truth, was he #4 show during the '96-'97 season (tied with s3 of Friends). 

She was one of those people that seemed to me someone WANTED to be in a hit show but never was.  There were a couple people like that, that seemed to recycle into vehicles that perpetually failed. 

For its first season, Friends aired in every Thursday evening slot except 9:00, which was occupied by Seinfeld for the entirety of the time the two shows aired together.  Caroline in the City did pretty well, but that's probably only because it was sandwiched between Seinfeld and E.R.  Brooke Shields got Suddenly Susan on the strength of her Friends guest starring role and did pretty well.  Third Rock from the Sun started out in the 9:30 slot.  Tea Leoni's show, The Naked Truth, was he #4 show during the '96-'97 season (tied with s3 of Friends).  Again, though, that's probably a result of being the bridge between Seinfeld and E.R.  That was really the function of that 9:30 slot (and, to a lesser extent, the 8:30 slot).  The slot got HUGE ratings regardless of what the show was, and then NBC would move the show to see if it could fly on its own.  Probably the most successful show from the 8:30 and 9:30 slots was Will & Grace, which premiered the season after Seinfeld ended and eventually took over the 9:00 time slot (which was occupied by Frasier for a year after Seinfeld ended).  Just Shoot Me was another.  One that I thought was really good but didn't catch on was Stark Raving Mad, with Tony Shaloub and Neil Patrick Harris (also never crossed over with Seinfeld).

Great summary. And a good thing you included ER, since that was the bookend that kept people on NBC till 11p. Without that, the 9:30p slot wouldn't have meant a thing.

I didn't watch any of those shows, except for some of Just Shoot Me. I remember liking Stark Raving Mad but never committed to it, which apparently so few people did.

I don't know why I never liked Frasier. I liked Cheers, liked the character, it was smart and witty which is usually right up my alley, and it was set in Seattle. I just never found it laugh out loud funny, and the whimsy I could appreciate wasn't enough to hold my interest.

I didn't think Night Court went that route - though I never watched ig Bang Theory so maybe I am missing your point. It evolved over time, but still held true to what it was. I always said Dan Fielding was one of my top 3 TV characters of all time. That list might have changed over the years, but he is still up there.

Watch a season 1 episode of BBT and an episode from, say, season 10.   In the first season, Sheldon is rude to everyone, unceasingly.  Leonard can barely talk to a woman, and Raj literally CANNOT talk to a woman.   Howard is a letch, and early on Penny is repulsed by him.  Fast forward, and Sheldon is in touch with his feelings, Leonard is married to the hottest girl in the building, Howard's married to the second hottest girl in the building and has two kids and everyone is in everyone else's wedding party.  I know life evolves, but I'm not watching sitcoms for real-life experiences.    M*A*S*H was another one; Radar was what we would likely today call "on the spectrum".  Blake was an idiot, as was Frank Burns.  Klinger was a wierdo, full stop. Trapper and Hawkeye literally could not give a f--- and drank their way through the experience.  Fast forward six years and BJ is talking about his feelings, they're friends with Major Charles Emerson Winchester, Potter is like "DAD", Radar and Klinger are both now lovable oddballs who can be counted on in a pinch because they are solid human beings.

You can run this scenario through almost any sitcom that last for more than 6, 7 years, even my beloved Cheers.  Seinfeld might be the only exception, but only because that was the conceit of the show (and Larry David took a LOT - a TON - of shit for playing that card in the series finale).
« Last Edit: April 20, 2022, 08:08:12 AM by Stadler »

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Re: The Friends Appreciation Thread
« Reply #283 on: April 20, 2022, 07:53:28 AM »
You can run this scenario through almost any sitcom that last for more than 6, 7 years, even my beloved Cheers.  Seinfeld might be the only exception, but only because that was the conceit of the show (and Larry David took a LOT - a TON - of shit for playing that card in the series finale).

Ever think that might be the reason some shows don't last past 6-7 seasons??  Their lack of 'real-ness'?  Just musing.
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Re: The Friends Appreciation Thread
« Reply #284 on: April 20, 2022, 08:12:53 AM »
You can run this scenario through almost any sitcom that last for more than 6, 7 years, even my beloved Cheers.  Seinfeld might be the only exception, but only because that was the conceit of the show (and Larry David took a LOT - a TON - of shit for playing that card in the series finale).

Ever think that might be the reason some shows don't last past 6-7 seasons??  Their lack of 'real-ness'?  Just musing.

Well, you make it sound like that's a bad thing.   Maybe these aren't meant to last that long. 

I know it's not a sitcom, but I'm watching This Is Us now, in it's final season, and it's simply amazing television.  It's so friggin' good.   Other shows I like - NCIS for one - are getting stale now, because you have to sort of keep recreating the formula.  Quirky nerdy lab tech leaves? Let's bring in a quirky nerdy lab tech; she's not a tall white punk chick, so we'll tweak it and make her a short, African American lesbian, but it's still close enough.   Hot former CIA person leaves? Bring in a hot former Mossad agent.  She leaves? Bring in a hot former NSA agent.  She leaves? Bring in a hot former FBI agent.  Patriarch character decides he's had enough? Bring in another patriarch character who makes it clear he's "not replacing" the former, but does anyway.  Intellectual, curious medical examiner with a heart of gold leaves?  Replace him with the young intellectual curious medical examiner with a heart of gold.  And in all cases - ALL cases - they are immediately FAMILY, with the requisite care, concern and love we reserve for those we've known for decades.

Offline pg1067

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Re: The Friends Appreciation Thread
« Reply #285 on: April 20, 2022, 10:19:43 AM »
Great summary. And a good thing you included ER, since that was the bookend that kept people on NBC till 11p. Without that, the 9:30p slot wouldn't have meant a thing.

I didn't watch any of those shows, except for some of Just Shoot Me. I remember liking Stark Raving Mad but never committed to it, which apparently so few people did.

I don't know why I never liked Frasier. I liked Cheers, liked the character, it was smart and witty which is usually right up my alley, and it was set in Seattle. I just never found it laugh out loud funny, and the whimsy I could appreciate wasn't enough to hold my interest.

It was actually interesting looking at the schedules from those years and seeing just how many shows cycled through the 8:30 and 9:30 slots.  Madman of the People anyone?   :lol

I remember liking Stark Raving Mad, but there's one scene that became a part of my wife's and my personal lexicon to this day - at 9:15 of this clip:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7qjaprTKy4 (keep in mind that NPH's character was a HUGE suck-up and was trying to impress the host).

I'm of roughly the same mind about Frasier.  Any time I turned it on, I thought it was funny, but I never devoted time to it.


Tea Leoni's show, The Naked Truth, was he #4 show during the '96-'97 season (tied with s3 of Friends). 

She was one of those people that seemed to me someone WANTED to be in a hit show but never was.  There were a couple people like that, that seemed to recycle into vehicles that perpetually failed. 

Yeah...we were repeatedly told that she was THE "it girl" and the next big thing (Tia Carrera was another one like that), and everything she was in was at least pretty good, but she really never hit.


Paul... your history of the 8:30 and 9:30 times lots kinda proves my point. No show lasted there in the Friends/Seinfeld era for more than 2 seasons.

Not to be overly Stadlery, but you wrote that most of the country didn't watch, but people did watch.  I agree that (except for Will & Grace) the shows in those slots didn't last (mostly because they got moved to sink or swim on their own, and most sank).


Watch a season 1 episode of BBT and an episode from, say, season 10.   In the first season, Sheldon is rude to everyone, unceasingly.  Leonard can barely talk to a woman, and Raj literally CANNOT talk to a woman.   Howard is a letch, and early on Penny is repulsed by him.  Fast forward, and Sheldon is in touch with his feelings, Leonard is married to the hottest girl in the building, Howard's married to the second hottest girl in the building and has two kids and everyone is in everyone else's wedding party.

I feel like we've had this discussion, but feel like TBBT evolved pretty naturally, except for Amy.  Also, it's worth pointing out that season 1 Sheldon was rather different from even season 2 Sheldon.  Season 1 Sheldon (especially early in the season) absolutely understood sarcasm and used it regularly.  They regressed Sheldon and evolved him from that.  By the way, if you've never seen the original, unaired TBBT pilot, it's worth watching:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q31GQ97RTao&list=PL-SOlcxKAXcJKlXC19sZXS3tEPgZeMr5I


Other shows I like - NCIS for one - are getting stale now

My wife and I used to watch NCIS-LA (we gave up on it a couple years ago), and she also watched the original (which I referred to as "NCIS-Cranky Pants") and NOLA.
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Offline pg1067

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Re: The Friends Appreciation Thread
« Reply #286 on: April 20, 2022, 10:20:38 AM »
Also, circling back to Friends (sort of), here's a pre-Friends Courteney Cox that you probably don't remember:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOHCtQfFn7E
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Re: The Friends Appreciation Thread
« Reply #287 on: April 20, 2022, 11:01:53 AM »
We need a Top 50 Shows From the 80s/90s That Aired on NBC Thursday Nights At Either 8:30p or 9:30p thread.
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Re: The Friends Appreciation Thread
« Reply #288 on: April 20, 2022, 11:31:53 AM »
Also, circling back to Friends (sort of), here's a pre-Friends Courteney Cox that you probably don't remember:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOHCtQfFn7E

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Re: The Friends Appreciation Thread
« Reply #289 on: April 20, 2022, 11:51:18 AM »
We need a Top 50 Shows From the 80s/90s That Aired on NBC Thursday Nights At Either 8:30p or 9:30p thread.

1984-87:  Cosby, Family Ties, Cheers and Night Court.  Damn!  Other years....













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Re: The Friends Appreciation Thread
« Reply #290 on: April 20, 2022, 03:53:57 PM »
Dear, John is the only thing I recognize out of that.  Watched a few episodes of it.  Judd Hirsch was ok.
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Offline pg1067

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Re: The Friends Appreciation Thread
« Reply #291 on: April 20, 2022, 04:34:08 PM »
Yeah...I vaguely recall Madman of the People (second pic from the bottom), but I had ZERO recollection of any of the others before googling to find pictures.
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Re: The Friends Appreciation Thread
« Reply #292 on: April 20, 2022, 06:18:00 PM »
Also, circling back to Friends (sort of), here's a pre-Friends Courteney Cox that you probably don't remember:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOHCtQfFn7E

Wow, I had never seen that.  The only pre-90s things I ever saw her in were the Springsteen video and Family Ties.  She did have one helluva smile back in the day.  :hat :hat

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Re: The Friends Appreciation Thread
« Reply #293 on: April 20, 2022, 08:44:12 PM »
I only recognized 3 of those people, and none of those shows. I do remember Dear John now that someone said it.
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Re: The Friends Appreciation Thread
« Reply #294 on: April 21, 2022, 05:04:36 AM »
Dear, John is the only thing I recognize out of that.  Watched a few episodes of it.  Judd Hirsch was ok.

That show blew, except there was one scene, I don't know the setup or anything like that, but Jere Burns kept spraying himself in the face and it was hilarious.  Everything else, forgettable.

Is that Jim Carrey in the second photo? EDIT: Yes. :)   Actors look so ridiculous in their posed group shots.  There's like four poses that consistently get recycled.  My "favorite" is the arms crossed with the smug smile, like the dude in the Carrey picture.

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Re: The Friends Appreciation Thread
« Reply #295 on: April 21, 2022, 06:51:35 AM »
Is the guy on the other side of the duck the guy who played the basketball coach in Teen Wolf?
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Offline pg1067

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Re: The Friends Appreciation Thread
« Reply #296 on: April 21, 2022, 10:38:55 AM »
I only recognized 3 of those people, and none of those shows. I do remember Dear John now that someone said it.

From top to bottom:

1. Lewis & Clark (Gabe Kaplan - 13 episodes in '81 and '82)

2. The Duck Factory (Jim Carrey - 13 episodes in '84)

3. The Days & Nights of Molly Dodd (65 episodes from '87-'91)

4. Nothing in Common (7 episodes in '87)

5. Dear John (Judd Hirsch (90 episodes from '88-'92)

6. Madman of the People (Dabney Coleman and the smoldering Cynthia Gibb - 16 episodes in '94 and '95)

7. Jesse (Christina Applegate - 42 episodes from '98-'00)


Is the guy on the other side of the duck the guy who played the basketball coach in Teen Wolf?

He looked to me like Jay Thomas, but it's apparently a guy named Jay Tarses, who, while apparently being more well-known for behind-the-camera work, was, in fact, the actor who played Coach Finstock in Teen Wolf.
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Re: The Friends Appreciation Thread
« Reply #297 on: April 21, 2022, 05:14:20 PM »
Funny, cause Jay Thomas (Eddie LeBec!) did look a lot like the guy who played the coach in Teen Wolf.

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Re: The Friends Appreciation Thread
« Reply #298 on: April 21, 2022, 05:17:52 PM »
I only recognized 3 of those people, and none of those shows. I do remember Dear John now that someone said it.

From top to bottom:

1. Lewis & Clark (Gabe Kaplan - 13 episodes in '81 and '82)

2. The Duck Factory (Jim Carrey - 13 episodes in '84)

3. The Days & Nights of Molly Dodd (65 episodes from '87-'91)

4. Nothing in Common (7 episodes in '87)

5. Dear John (Judd Hirsch (90 episodes from '88-'92)

6. Madman of the People (Dabney Coleman and the smoldering Cynthia Gibb - 16 episodes in '94 and '95)

7. Jesse (Christina Applegate - 42 episodes from '98-'00)


Is the guy on the other side of the duck the guy who played the basketball coach in Teen Wolf?

He looked to me like Jay Thomas, but it's apparently a guy named Jay Tarses, who, while apparently being more well-known for behind-the-camera work, was, in fact, the actor who played Coach Finstock in Teen Wolf.

Sometimes I cringe at the amount of stupidity I remember.  ;D
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Re: The Friends Appreciation Thread
« Reply #299 on: April 21, 2022, 06:05:11 PM »

He looked to me like Jay Thomas, but it's apparently a guy named Jay Tarses, who, while apparently being more well-known for behind-the-camera work, was, in fact, the actor who played Coach Finstock in Teen Wolf.

He created the show that was replaced by the Jim Carrey show, and he created the Molly Dodd show. Blair Brown looks gorgeous in that picture. 

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Re: The Friends Appreciation Thread
« Reply #300 on: April 22, 2022, 09:49:55 AM »
Sometimes I cringe at the amount of stupidity I remember.  ;D

Right there with you.  Sometimes I love it because it's kind of a "super power," but there are a lot of times I really wish I could do a data dump.
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Re: The Friends Appreciation Thread
« Reply #301 on: April 22, 2022, 10:17:53 AM »
Dear, John is the only thing I recognize out of that.  Watched a few episodes of it.  Judd Hirsch was ok.

That show blew, except there was one scene, I don't know the setup or anything like that, but Jere Burns kept spraying himself in the face and it was hilarious.  Everything else, forgettable.

Is that Jim Carrey in the second photo? EDIT: Yes. :)   Actors look so ridiculous in their posed group shots.  There's like four poses that consistently get recycled.  My "favorite" is the arms crossed with the smug smile, like the dude in the Carrey picture.

Jere Burns is an excellent actor.  I liked him in Dear John, Angie Tribeca  & Justified.
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Offline pg1067

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Re: The Friends Appreciation Thread
« Reply #302 on: June 03, 2022, 01:45:13 PM »
First off, I just now noticed how much "madness" was in NBC's "Must See TV" lineup:  Mad About You, Stark Raving Mad and Madman of the People.

Anyway, I just finished my re-watch of Mad About You (I watched the original series finale and the first episode of the "reboot" last night).  I may or may not post my thoughts, but I wanted to post here about a lot of the Friends related stuff.

Everyone knows that Phoebe from Friends had a twin sister named Ursula.  Ursula first appeared as a character in MAY.  She first appeared in season 2 of MAY (after Lisa Kudrow appeared as a different character in season 1), which was the season before Friends premiered.  Ursula ultimately appeared in 24 of MAY's 176 episodes, always as a side character.  After Friends premiered, the producers of Friends -- particularly David Crane -- conferred with the producers of MAY -- particularly co-producer Jeffrey Klarik, who was, at the time, Crane's boyfriend (and now husband) -- and agreed that Phoebe and Ursula would be twins.  In the second episode of Friends, Phoebe made a vague allusion to a twin who was a waitress, so they had either made the deal by that time or were hoping for it.

While Phoebe never appeared on MAY, Ursula appeared in 8 episodes of Friends.  Also, in season 3 of MAY, there is a blackout in NYC, which was also a plot point of the season 1 episode of Friends that aired the same night.  In a later season 1 episode of Friends, Jamie (Helen Hunt) and Fran from MAY walk into Central Perk and mistake Phoebe for Ursula (assuming that Ursula was also working there).

I think I mentioned this previously, but in her first appearance in MAY, Ursula was working as a tour guide at the Museum of Natural History, which is where Ross worked for the first several seasons of Friends.  Unfortunately, they never did anything with this connection (even when Joey took a job as a tour guide at the museum in season 4 of Friends).

Less known than Friends and MAY sharing a universe, the two shows also existed in the same universe as Seinfeld.  In season 1 of MAY, we found out that Paul had sublet his "bachelor pad" to Kramer.  Paul visited Kramer and, toward the end of the conversation, asked about "that Jerry guy" who lived down the hall.  In the season 7 premiere of MAY, Paul ran into Jerry on the street.  In season 5 of Seinfeld (the season that aired immediately prior to the premiere of Friends), Courteney Cox played Jerry's girlfriend.  What that means is that, in the same universe, Monica had a doppelganger.  Unfortunately, they never took advantage of this by having Monica meet Cox's "Meryl" character.

Beyond all that, Friends and MAY had in common tons of actors who played minor roles.  Not sure if this is interesting to anyone but me, but there it is.


Thanks to this thread I just watched the pilot to Mad About You. Not Great but charming and has potential. Will keep watching for now.

Did you stick with it?  What did you think?  I think it improved greatly by season 2.
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Re: The Friends Appreciation Thread
« Reply #303 on: June 03, 2022, 01:46:54 PM »
I made it to season 2 and kind of feel like falling off. There's great moments, but they just seem to repeat the same routines/jokes a ton. I'll keep slowly watching it though. Hoping I get more hooked.
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Offline pg1067

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Re: The Friends Appreciation Thread
« Reply #304 on: June 03, 2022, 01:58:08 PM »
I made it to season 2 and kind of feel like falling off. There's great moments, but they just seem to repeat the same routines/jokes a ton. I'll keep slowly watching it though. Hoping I get more hooked.

I'd say give it until the end of season 2.  If it hasn't grabbed you by then, it probably won't.  Paul and Jamie had a kid at the end of season 5, and some critics didn't like how that changed things in season 6.  For the most part, I disagree, but there was one episode where they did a "real time" depiction of getting the kid to cry herself to sleep, which, while well acted, I found dreadful to watch.  There was also a short near-infidelity storyline (season 5) that I thought was too much drama for a sitcom, and there were a small handful of episodes with Mel Brooks as one of Paul's uncles that I found mostly over-the-top stupid.  Other than that, I'd say seasons 3-5 are the best of the show.
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Re: The Friends Appreciation Thread
« Reply #305 on: June 03, 2022, 03:06:51 PM »
There was also a short near-infidelity storyline (season 5) that I thought was too much drama for a sitcom


Like a lot of storylines on older shows, binge-watching can really change your perception of time.  When originally aired that storyline seemed to go on forever to me, but in reality it was only a few episodes.  But it aired over a month or so, rather than a couple of nights on the rewatch, so my perception of the time was much longer..

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Re: The Friends Appreciation Thread
« Reply #306 on: June 04, 2022, 05:12:41 PM »
There was also a short near-infidelity storyline (season 5) that I thought was too much drama for a sitcom


Like a lot of storylines on older shows, binge-watching can really change your perception of time.  When originally aired that storyline seemed to go on forever to me, but in reality it was only a few episodes.  But it aired over a month or so, rather than a couple of nights on the rewatch, so my perception of the time was much longer..

It was the last 4 episodes of season 4 (not season 5, as I had erroneously written previously), which aired over 4 consecutive weeks at the end of the season.  By the end of the season finale, Jamie took a pregnancy test that came up positive.

But you're absolutely right.  Friends aired a handful of "clips" episodes, which consisted primarily of clips from prior episodes.  At the time, I think most folks welcomed those episodes as a way to look back at episodes we hadn't seen for a long time.  However, I see a lot of people now complain about them, and it seems to be a result of the fact that people binge the show, so the episodes from which the clips came are very recent to binge viewers (a lot of whom are young and weren't around in the days before bingeing).
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Re: The Friends Appreciation Thread
« Reply #307 on: June 06, 2022, 12:31:42 PM »
There was also a short near-infidelity storyline (season 5) that I thought was too much drama for a sitcom


Like a lot of storylines on older shows, binge-watching can really change your perception of time.  When originally aired that storyline seemed to go on forever to me, but in reality it was only a few episodes.  But it aired over a month or so, rather than a couple of nights on the rewatch, so my perception of the time was much longer..

It was the last 4 episodes of season 4 (not season 5, as I had erroneously written previously), which aired over 4 consecutive weeks at the end of the season.  By the end of the season finale, Jamie took a pregnancy test that came up positive.

But you're absolutely right.  Friends aired a handful of "clips" episodes, which consisted primarily of clips from prior episodes.  At the time, I think most folks welcomed those episodes as a way to look back at episodes we hadn't seen for a long time.  However, I see a lot of people now complain about them, and it seems to be a result of the fact that people binge the show, so the episodes from which the clips came are very recent to binge viewers (a lot of whom are young and weren't around in the days before bingeing).


I'm currently doing a watch-through of Golden Girls, which I'd seen on occasion in the past, but never on a regular basis.  On that show, they have several of what I call "fake clip shows".  They're formatted like clip shows with the characters flashing back to things in the past, but they're not flashbacks to anything we've seen before.