Hi and welcome to English before going to bed, the only podcast out there that makes you have a ton of fun while you’re learning some English. Remember that our only goal is to help you learn English.

I’m your host and today we have a really special episode, today I wanted to tell you about one of our favourite series of all time. The series that mostly made us laugh, but sometimes it made us cry.

Today I want to talk about FRIENDS. Some say that FRIENDS is the greatest TV show ever created. It’s so great even millennials watch it.

The first thing I want to do today is tell you why I agree that Friends is the best sitcom that has ever been aired on TV and there are 6 reasons that back that up. The second thing I want to do is share with you the 6 funniest moments in the show. Moments I think we’ll all remember till the day we die. And lastly I’d like to talk about how all the series that came after Friends and tried to make us feel like friends failed.

So without much further ado, let me tell you why I think that Friends is/ was/has been the best TV show ever. There are 6 reasons that prove it.

Reason number 1:
I’ll be there for you! I’m not singing it today, but I’ve probably sung that intro theme about a thousand times. Not only did I sing it every time it was on, I danced to it every time I sang it at a karaoke. Actually, I came to know of the series back in 1994. Yes you heard right 25 years ago, while I was listening to the radio. They were playing the now immortal tune by the Rembrandts, which I think all of you know by now. BTW, there’s something I needed to ask you. In the song they say DOA, do you know what it means? If you can’t wait, find out in our blog.

Reason Number 2:
How you doin? Although my impression is simply horrible, this line has surely got most of us in trouble some time. By most of us, I mean all of us, girls and boys trying to talk to the girl or boy we fancied. This line which was made famous by Joey Tribiani, played by Matt Leblanc has become a signature line for the rest of TV history.

Reason Number 3:
We all tried to find out who we were on the show, didn’t we?. I think subconsciously we all tried to find out who we were in the show. However, I realized that I am all of them at some point. Sometimes I’m geeky like Ross, most of the times I’m sarchastic and funny like chandler, sometimes I’m always hungry like Joey, and sometimes I like to feel creative like Phoebe or super neat and tidy like Monica, or sexy like Rachel. I think I felt all these things at some point in my life. And I think it’s a really powerful reason as to why we all fell in love with this bunch of people.

Reason Number 4:
The epic lines. There have been some historic TV moments that Friends has left us. If I said things like you NEED to put lotion to lift your pants or Pivot, or WE WERE ON A BREAK or, Smelly smelly cat, we all know what we’re talking about. And it’s precisely these lines that have made the show such a timeless piece.

Reason number 5:
The cameos. Cameos are guest appearances by other celebrities on the show and Friends had a ton of these cameos. Brad Pitt, Tom Selleck, Bruce Willis, Robin Williams, Billy Crytal Jean Claude Damme just to name a few. They were all part of the Friends universe. It was always a really pleasant surprise to see them in the show. Even Marcel, you know that capuchin monkey. they were all great stars in the show.

Reason number 6:
The Taboos they all talked about. Friends was authentic. It was authentic in the sense that the issues that many times came up in the show were not topics that people discussed freely. Homosexuality, single-parenthood, obesity and OCDs. It even discussed sex freely, even today it’s hard to do so on American TV. Friends opened up the way how genuine TV was supposed to be made.

And now let’s move to the second part in which I’ll tell you about the 5 best moments of Friends ever. I’ve compiled this list, you know I love making lists with all 236 episodes in mind. Actually, Who am I kidding? I’m just listing the ones I remember.

At number 5: Season 5, Episode 11. The one with the new Year’s resolutions
This is probably one of the funniest TV moments in TV history. As a part of Ross’s new year resolution to try something new every day, he buys a pair of leather pants to wear on his date. The situation begins to go a bit not as planned though, when he discovers the pants are actually too hot, causing him to sweat, and the pants to shrink.

Here’s a little excerpt of the episode.

At number 4: Season 2, Episode 1. The one with Ross’s new girlfriend.
In this episode Chandler asks Joey to recommend a tailor because he needs to get some alterations done. So Joey suggests going to his lifelong tailor Frankie. Chandler isn’t pleasantly surprised when gets there. Here’s one of the most hilarious bits ever.

At number 3: Season 4 Episode 1. The one with the Jellyfish.
After a horrible weekend at the beach to which Rachel and Ross couldn’t go, the guys get back swearing not to tell what had happened during the getaway. For those who have some trouble remembering this was the one in which Monica’s stung by a Jellyfish, and the rest is history. Here’s a bit from the episode.

At number 2: The One with Chandler in a box. Season 4 Episode 8. Chandler for some reason hooked up with Joey’s girlfriend. And Joey found out, so Chandler promised he would do anything to make up to Joey and so Joey comes up with the idea of putting him inside a box during Thanksgiving. In that episode Monica also starts dating her ex-boyfriends son. (Tom Selleck’s son). Here’s the clip.

At number 1: The one with the Cop.
This might not be your best bit of the show, but it is one of the funniest TV moments for me. Rachel Ross and Chandler are trying to get the couch up the stairs to Ross’s apartment. Here’s the clip.

I hope you had a good time recalling all of these wonderful episodes. I sure did have a great time remembering them.

And lastly, the hating part. I don’t really like to hate a lot, but when it comes to sitcoms I hate the shows that are bad copies of good series. Some series have tried to replicate the Friends feeling, but none of them have come even close. There was even a spin off of the series called Joey, which was unbearable. So, this brings us to an important question, what made Friends so unique.

I think Friends was one of those right time, right place things. But I think luck played only 1% of the part. I think that the success of Friends came because Friends was real. Even back then, when I was just 15 years old, my group of friends had each and every character in it. I even got married to one. My wife. We all still call her, Monica Geller. She’s a neat freak. We didn’t only feel that we were all in the show, we felt that we had the same problems they had. Or at least we knew someone who had them. And of course, the type of humour that Friends promoted, is the intelligent and real humour that we all love so much.

There are many reasons why Friends made us feel that way, but the most important of all is that it taught us to accept each other the way we were. It showed us the meaning of true friendship and love. Or at least it tried.

Thanks so much for listening to our podcast. It’s our real pleasure to make these podcasts for you. We really hope you’re enjoying them. Please let us know in our social networks or in our blog. We’ll be really glad to hear from you.

My name’s Rohit, this has been another episode of ENglish before going to bed and the whole GoGetter Team says see ya and don’t forget #beagogetter