DID YOU KNOW?
enid@khaleejtimes.com
MY FONDNESS for Friends began long after the series was first aired on September 22, 1994. Away at college in India at the time, I had no access to cable TV and had only heard of the show’s growing popularity through the media and friends who were in the U.S. who were lucky enough to watch it from its first airing date. I became a fan when someone gifted me the first few seasons on DVD.
It would be an understatement to say I was hooked, after binge-watching my DVD collection to get up-to-date. Since then there’s been no turning back.
It’s hard to explain why I am so attached to this series that has endured in the hearts and minds of so many fans for years after it ended in 2004.
Could it be because I identified with living with a set of BFFS who know you inside out and are always there for you no matter what? Or, on a less serious note, because the show always lifts me up with its hilarity, no matter how down in the dumps I am?
Having watched the same episodes so many times, I can understand why Friends reruns are so popular. You may have all the dialogues and jokes by heart, but you still end up laughing when you hear them again. So on the show’s 25th anniversary today, I couldn’t help but come up with these three top Friends moments:
1. Number one will always be ‘pivot’. For the uninitiated, this is the episode from Season 5 called The One With The Cop when Ross buys a new
Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry, Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston and Matt Le Blanc of sofa and tries to get it into his apartment with the help of Rachel and Chandler. I can’t hear the word ‘pivot’ now and keep a straight face.
2. When Joey finds his ‘identical hand twin’. This episode called The One in Vegas: Part 2, also from Season 5, saw Joey accosting blackjack dealer Randall (the very talented and funny Thomas Lennon) in a casino washroom after deciding the two have ‘identical hands’. A big high-five if ‘This Hand Is Your Hand’ is going on in your head right now.
3. “They don’t know that we know they know we know.” When Phoebe finds out about Monica and Chandler’s relationship, she and Rachel try and get them to confess. Titled The One Where Everyone Finds Out from Season 5, this episode had some of Phoebe’s funniest moments. • When Matt Leblanc auditioned for the role of Joey, he had $11 to his name. When the cast got their first paychecks, the first thing that Leblanc bought was a hot dinner. Courteney Cox bought a car.