Television Series of the week: Friends

Today, I will write about one of the famous television series of our time in this special weekly column "Television Series of the week". Friends is the one of most recognized television series of our generation. This column will try to throw some light on the details and the history behind this famous series. "Friends" was selected for this week's special column because of it's simplicity and the theme, the theme of Friendship.

Friends is an American comedy series created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman. It premiered on NBC on September 22, 1994 for the first time and was aired last time on May 6, 2004 with a record viewership of 52.5 million (Fourth most-watched series finale in television history). "Friends" revolved around the lives of six friends in the US city of New-York. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television.

"Friends" was 10 season series with 236 episodes with a duration of around 20-22 minutes. During it's telecast actors of the series became household names in USA. The main cast members of the series are:

1. "Jennifer Aniston" as a Rachel Green.
2. "Courteney Cox" as a Monica Geller.
3. "Lisa Kudrow" as a Phoebe Buffay.
4. "Matt LeBlanc" as a Joey Tribbiani.
5. "Matthew Perry" as a Chandler Bing.
6. "David Schwimmer" as a Ross Geller.

The main feature of the series is that each cast member is equally prominent, no one dominates the series. Early reviews of the series were mixed, with progress of the series it started getting positive reviews from the critics as well as from the audience, making it one of the most famous series of its time. "Friends" was a huge commercial success in both US as well as other countries.

Series won awards like Primetime Emmy Award, American Comedy Award, GLAAD Media Award, Golden Globe Award, Logie Award, People's Choice Award, Satellite Award and Screen Actors Guild Award in various categories.

Interesting facts about the series:

1. "Friends" is having rating of 8.9 on IMDB.
2. Courteney Cox originally auditioned for the part of Rachel Green (played by Jennifer Aniston).
3. The role of Monica was originally offered to Janeane Garofalo, but she turned it down.
4. The first line of dialogue in first pilot episode of Friends was "There's nothing to tell".
5. Sean Penn is the only guest star to win 2 Oscars after appearing in series.
6. A 30-second commercial during the break in the show in USA cost advertisers £500,000.
7. The famous "Rachel" hairdo was created by accident (No planning at all...Great).
8. The first thing Cox bought with her "Friends" salary was a brand new Porsche.
9. 30,000 feet of film reel is used to tape one episode of Friends.... Amazing !
10. The monkey was the first cast member to get a Hollywood movie role, appearing in the movie Outbreak.

Hope readers enjoyed this week's special column on "Television Series: Friends". Keep reading....

"It is good to be entertained"