"That's a wrap, baby!", wrote Jennifer Aniston.The second season premiered on September 17.Jennifer Aniston posted a series of pictures on Instagram.
"I never watched that show - and I'm sick of it. "Can I tell you something honestly?" Jon Stewart said on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" on Thursday. Not everyone was heartbroken to see it go, especially with the show's omnipresence during the past few weeks. "It was overwhelming, it was fulfilling, it was satisfying, funny and sad," LeBlanc told Leno. The one big change: Kudrow's now a brunette. Unlike when the cast of "Cheers" was on "Tonight" 11 years ago, everyone from "Friends" appeared sober. Jay Leno filmed Thursday's "Tonight" show from the "Friends" set. It was the subject of a two-hour "Dateline NBC" on Wednesday, another one Friday and a one-hour preamble of old clips Thursday. The network had hardly been shy promoting the "Friends" finale. Its spinoff starring LeBlanc's character, Joey Tribbiani, will take the mother ship's Thursday time slot next fall. Not everyone was a fan, with critics noting the incongruities of a New York setting with few ethnic minorities and struggling 20-somethings who could afford huge apartments.īut it's a franchise NBC will surely miss. The six actors involved - Perry, Matt LeBlanc, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox Arquette, David Schwimmer and Lisa Kudrow - maintained an all-for-one spirit off-screen, even negotiating contracts together. With "Frasier" finishing next week, HBO's "Sex and the City" gone and CBS' "Everybody Loves Raymond" expected to end next year, television is losing some of its best and most popular comedies with little to replace them.
It's also the end of an era for TV comedy. The number NBC likes best is $2 million, which advertisers paid for a 30-second commercial on the final "Friends." The last "Cheers" was seen by 80.4 million people in 1993 and "Seinfeld" had 76.2 million for its 1998 ending. Television's most popular series finale ever, "M-A-S-H," was seen by 105 million viewers in 1983, according to Nielsen Media Research. The "Friends" finale was the second most-watched TV show of the year, behind the Super Bowl, which had almost 90 million viewers.
I love how they all have different personalities, but they all come together." "I'm a New Yorker, so I understand the whole lifestyle," said 33-year-old Joann Joseph. In New York, the final episode was beamed on a big screen in Times Square, and some 3,000 people sat on blankets and watched in a park overlooking the Hudson River in TriBeCa. "This is harder than I thought it was going to be," Monica said, before the six friends left for one last cup of coffee - babies in tow. In the final scene, the six friends gave up their key to Monica and Chandler's apartment. But did anyone doubt they'd be together in the end? Then Rachel rebuffed him, and finally had trouble getting off the plane. The couple's tortured romantic past included a quickie Las Vegas wedding and a baby, born in 2002 and seldom seen since.įirst, Ross couldn't say how he felt. Thursday's suspense involved Rachel's plan to take a job in Paris and whether Ross would try to stop her. Phoebe was already married, and Joey is headed west to get serious about his acting career (and star in an NBC spinoff starting in the fall). In the end, Monica and Chandler were surprised by twins and prepared for their move to the suburbs. The sitcom followed six New York buddies as they moved from post-adolescence to something approaching adulthood. I should have done the same thing a long time ago." "I am sooo glad you got off the plane, Rach.
"I just finished bawling my eyes out," one AOL member posted. Of more than 30,000 people to respond to an America Online poll, 77 percent said rekindling Ross and Rachel's romance was the perfect ending for the show. "I pride myself on being a real man, but I shed a few tears." "It was really emotional," said Matthew Perry, who watched the finale with the other five cast members. Television's most popular comedy provided the ending most of its fans were hoping for, with the on-again, off-again couple declaring their undying love and the gang heading out for one last cup of java. Nielsen estimated that just under 36 million people warmed up for the last episode by watching highlights of the past 10 seasons during the hour preceding Thursday's finale. That was roughly two-thirds of the audience gathered by the "Cheers" and "Seinfeld" finales, but along the lines of what NBC had been predicting. NEW YORK - An estimated 51.1 million people tuned in to watch Ross and Rachel get together on the final episode of "Friends," according to preliminary Nielsen Media Research ratings released Friday.