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F R I E N D S

By: Andreas Ohman 9a


The show



‘Friends’ is an American comedy-show about 6 persons: Chandler, Monica, Joey, Phoebe, Ross and Rachel. The show takes place in central New York (but its filmed in Los Angeles where everyone lives) and is now on the 7th season. The Acts are taken in there apartments and at the Café “Central Perk”, who have been almost the same trough all 7 years. As all other shows, Friends also got a theme (signature tune) and that’s ‘Rembrants - I’ll be there for you’. If you hum that song in the ‘Friends building’ (where they record the episodes) then someone probably would kill you. What I meant with that was, that they are so tired of that song and that’s perfectly understandable after all this years. Famous actors like to come and be a part of some shows, for example Julia Roberts and Bruce Willis who have been guest actors.

Fact:

Trough all this years the show has about 40 different scriptwriters and about 25 different directors. It’s 23 million persons who watch the show in the US and in Sweden there’s about 330 000. The show and the actors have won 11 awards and have been nominated to 26 (37 together). In Sweden they have won ‘best international TV-show’ and Jennifer Aniston (Rachel) have won the price as ‘best international actress’. They have made over 160 episodes and according to me they’re still the funniest TV-show ever (But I guess the most American won’t agree with me, because Seinfeld is much bigger over there). Every episode take about a week to record, the scriptwriters work often about 16 hours a day because it have to be perfect, and then I mean PERFECT. ‘Friends’ was from the beginning created by Marta Kauffmann and David Crane.





The Actors and the Characters


Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow)

Lisa Kudrow was born on the 30th of July 1963 in Encino, California. Her father was a headache-specialist and she wanted to go in his footsteps. But her brothers buddy, Jon Lovitz from ‘Saturday night live’ inspired her and made her interested in becoming an actress. At first it didn’t go so well, she went to a several additions but she didn’t have a part until Phoebe in Friends. The first year with Friends, she was nominated as Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series, and 1998 she actually won it. Lisa has done many movies to, ‘Analyze this’ and ‘The opposite of sex’ is just a few of them.

Phoebe is the strangest one of the 6 characters in the show. She do weird things all the time but in a funny way. For example, one sign that she’s pretty weird is that she is totally convinced that a dead friend to her was reborn as a pen. Sometimes she also seems to have supernatural powers, because sometimes she can feel the vibes. For example, once when there was a fight she came in and said: “Oh I can feel negative loaded air here” and then she did some strange moves with her arms. It’s hard to explain how she performs but she is acting really well. When you see Phoebe it’s like you think she’s all like that in ordinary life, but I’ve seen her in a couple of films and she’s not.
Phoebe is the only one who can “play” an instrument in the program, she’s not good, she’s not good at all but at least she tries. She writes own songs with own accords so you can just dream of how it sounds if you’ve never heard it.
When Phoebe was 14 years old she moved away from home because her mother had commit suicide and her stepfather got in prison. She moved around a bit and in a while she sold her body for money (before season 1), but now she works as a masseuse. She also has a twin-sister called Ursula who we get to know in some episodes.



Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston)

Jennifer Aniston was born on the 11th of February 1969 in Sherman Oaks, California. Her parents got divorced when she was 9 years old, after the divorce she lived in New York with her mum. Jennifer was inspired to be an actress when she saw the play ‘Children of a lesser god’. When she was 11 years old she started in Rudolf Steiner School’s drama club. At the age of 15 she got an admission at ‘New York’s High School For the Performing Arts’. She didn’t want to go in college so she started to work at a hamburger bar. During that time she won a several parts in the productions ‘For Dear Life’ and ‘Dancing on Checkers Grave’ at New York’s Public Theatre. But she looked for greater adventures so she moved west and there she met Mathew Perry. 1993 she went to an addition for the pilot-series ‘Friends like us’ (who was a beginning of the coming show ‘Friends’). First she had an addition for Monica but she liked Rachel more, so she convinced the directors that Rachel was the Role for her and that’s how Jennifer became Rachel Green in ‘Friends’. Jennifer is married to the very famous actor, Brad Pitt from the movies ‘Fight Club’ and ‘Seven’. Jennifer has also made a few movies, but she’s not making as much money as her husband because she’s not really in the movie industry. To mention a movie I could say ‘Office Space’ who’s the best of the films she’s been a part of.

Rachel is quite normal. She’s pretty and quite smart who just love to go shopping with her best friend is Monica. Monica and Rachel used to live in the same apartment and they have been friends since they were 6 years old. Now and then Rachel is really funny, her comments can make you roll on the floor in laugh. Before the first season Rachel had never had a job, she had lived her life with money from her father. She was going to marry the carpenter Barry but in the ceremony she noticed that she wasn’t attracted to him, so she said no and ran away.
From season one to the middle of season 3 she worked as a waitress at Central Perk. After that she got her dream job at Bloomingdales, where she would work with clothes.
Ross and Rachel have been together a few times but it never became anything serious, but my guess is that it will in the future. Jennifer is also a very good actress like all the others and she is doing Rachel very well.



Monica Geller (Courtney Cox Arquette)

Courtney Cox was born the 15th of June 1964 in Birmingham, Albama. When she was 10 years old her parents got divorced, she stayed with her mama in Birmingham. She started in Mountain Brook High and worked in the afternoon at a pool-shop. After high school she started to study architecture at Mt. Vernon College in Washington, but she quitted after one year. After that she got a model job and a little part in a TV-show called, ‘As the World Turns’.
1984 she got a lot of attention when she was a part of a Bruce Springsteen music video (Dancing in the Dark). After that she made a several parts in some different programs. 1994 she had her first big break-trough when she acted in ‘Ace Ventura: Pet Detective’ with Jim Carrey. Right after that she got the part as Monica in ‘Friends’. She’s now married with David Arquette, the one she played with in the Scream movies. She has know made 3 Scream movies, one worse than the other.

Monica is the pedantic one. In her apartment everything have to be clean and the stuff at the right places. She’s a really controlling and cleaning freak chef, but still she cares a lot about her friends (I think she do it more than anyone else in the program). She’s also Ross’ sister. Monica’s best friend is Rachel and now in the 7th season she’s going to marry Chandler, her new boyfriend and long-time friend. I think that Courtney do Monica very well, she’s a great actress. If you can’t see it in ‘Friends’ you’ll notice it in ‘Scream’ (Especially the first one).



Joey Tribiani (Matt LeBlanc)

Matt LeBlanc was born the 25th of July 1967 in Newton, Massachusetts. As a child he didn’t like to go up-stage, he was probably a little bit shy. Instead he liked Motorcycles, he got his first MC at the age of 8 years old and he started to compete around that age. He wanted to be a pro. Even tough his mother kind of constrained him to change direction so he became a carpenter. After he hade finished high school he moved to New York.
1987 he had played in a several commercial films, Coca Cola, Levi’s for example. The same year he also won a “The Gold Lion in Cannes” for his acting in the Heinz commercial. 1988 he started to practise more theatre and he started to take classes. The same year he got the starring role on a TV-show called ‘TV 101’ and he moved to Los Angels. 1994 he got the part as Joey in ‘Friends’. Matt had also a role in ‘Lost in Space’ a science-fiction movie from 1998, the only famous movie according to me.

Joey is very funny. He is the stupid one in the show. As in many comedy shows and comedy movies there is often a stupid one, who the other make fun of. I like Joey most after Chandler, Joey dumbness can really make you laugh. For example, yesterday I saw a very good example of how stupid he is. So whatever, Chandler explained to everyone (Season 2) that he broke up with girls because of things like they had to big nostrils and stuff. The girls become aggressive but then Joey sad, “I kind of know how he feels, cause once I met a girl at disco and she was really pretty and nice, but I couldn’t go out with her again cause I didn’t like her Adam’s apple.” He didn’t know that girls DON’T have Adam’s apple. Joey may not be the smartest, but he like his friends and want them the best. For example he choose Phoebe instead of Ursula because he didn’t want to risk his relationship with Phoebe. He also bought a bracelet for Chandler. It was a gold-bracelet with the text ‘You’re my best friend’ inside of it. In almost every season Chandler and Joey have lived in the same apartment but now when Chandler and Monica are living together, Joey and Rachel are living in the same apartment. Joey is most popular of the guys but he’s also the one who don’t like too serious relationships.



Ross Geller (David Schwimmer)

David Schvimmer was born the 12th of November 1966 in Queens, New York. He grew up in Los Angeles with his mother and father. David started to take drama course at High School. When the course was over his teachers told him to go a summer course because he thought Chandler acted well. After High school he went to Chicago and started study at North-western University. After his graduation he and 7 other students started a theatre group called ‘Lookingglass Theater Company’ in Chicago. His debut was in the TV comedy ‘Monty’, but his big break-trough was Friends, 1994. Nowadays he also makes movies, but they haven’t been good at all, so my personal advice to him is just do what he do best, Ross in Friends. He has been a part of a few “B-films” like ‘The Pallbearer’. He has been a part of one A-classed-film and that’s ‘Six Days, seven Nights’. David is very interested in sports, he like to play baseball, softball and poker with his friends.

Ross is a paleontologist and the “geek” of the gang. Monica is his sister and he’s the only one who has got the same job trough all the 7 seasons. Since High School to the end of Season one he was desperately in love with Rachel, but he gave up just when she was starting to get interested in him. Even tough they got together after all but it didn’t work out, so they broke up. Before the first season (in the story) Ross was married to Carol, but they broke up because she realized suddenly that she was a lesbian. Carol and Ross also got a child together. His name is Ben and is 6 years old now. Ross can also be kind of romantic, you noticed it especially in season 1 and 2.


Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry)

Matthew Perry was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts on August 19 1969. He moved with his mother to Ottawa, Ontario, after his parents divorced. As a junior Matthew was a very good tennis-player, he was top-ranked in Canada as he was growing up. In 7th grade he first tried theatre in school, but back then he was more interested in tennis. At the age of 15 he moved to Los Angeles to live with his father, John Bennet Perry. His father was an actor (well known for the Old Spice commercial), and he become more interested in acting. In LA the tennis didn’t go so well so he started to act more and more. When Matthew was 16 a director saw him. That was the beginning of his long carrier. 1993 he decided to write a sitcom with his friend Andrew Hill Newman called ‘Maxwell’s House’, but unfortunately a likely sitcom was coming up produced by NBC. That show was ‘Friends’. 1994 he went to an addition for a part in Friends, and he got the role-person Chandler Bing. Matthew have also made a few good movies ‘The whole nine yards’ with Bruce Willis is one example, and ‘Three to tango’ with Neve Campbell (Scream) is another. Nowadays his big hobbies are softball and ice hockey. For a while Chandler had drug problems but it seems to be working out now.

Chandler is the funniest guy in the gang according to me. He’s making fun of all of his friends all the time. He just can’t stop doing ...