Next month, NBC’s “Friends” and “Frazier” will come to an end. Just as was the case with the highly publicized finale of “Seinfeld” years ago, it looks like I will be the only one who won’t be shedding any tears.
Like “Seinfeld”, “Frazier” and “Friends” were never on my personal list of “Must See TV.”
The reason I tuned into “Frazier” for half its first season when it premiered in fall 1993 was due to my interest in seeing what direction the show’s creators were going to take Kelsey Grammer’s self-absorbed psychiatrist Frasier Crane who audiences got to know for several years on “Cheers” (1982-1993).
The best episode was the pilot in which Dr. Crane’s hopes of living as a divorced bachelor and father in Seattle are dashed when he must take in his retired father and dog and hire an English maid who says she has a knack for seeing the future.
I still laugh every time I recall how Dr. Crane responded in a deep negative voice when someone asked him what the name of his dad’s four-legged mutt was who would do nothing but sit and stare at him.
“That is Eddie.”
I haven’t watched the show on a regular basis since. The same can’t be said unfortunately, for “Friends.” Like the repeats of “Seinfeld,” thanks to the WB network who’ve milked the series for all its worth with reruns five days a week, I have seen, or maybe I should say heard, every episode five times over. I can’t say it was by choice mind you. Since I don’t own a satellite or rent cable, there is nothing else on at those times for me to watch other than “M.A.S.H.” and the news. The only other reason I had the show on was so I could have something on in the background while I was doing something else.
I always saw “Friends” as disposable entertainment. It is far from what NBC calls “a classic.” Of the 200 plus episodes made, I have only sat and watched over a dozen and most of them were from the first season. The boyfriend/girlfriend relationships were annoyingly endless. I can probably count on one hand alone how many cliffhangers over the past ten years on “Friends” had something to do with Ross (David Schwimmer) and Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) and in some cases with Joey (Matt LeBlanc). When there was no Ross/Rachel love triangle, we got the Monica (Courtney Cox-Arquette) and Chandler (Matthew Perry) relationship. Probably one or two of those cliffhangers involved Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow), who was either in the process of giving birth to three triplets or found out someone else in the gang was pregnant.
A true fan would probably know the exact title of each episode which starts out with the words, “The One…” if you look at various Friends’ websites. Thankfully, I cannot tell you the title of what I thought was the funniest episode NBC recently aired as part of its “Viewer’s Choice” poll.
Perhaps it was called “The One Where Ross Wants Everyone to Get Dressed So They Don’t Miss His Banquet” dinner? No that’s too long. Maybe it’s “The One Where Joey and Chandler Fight Over Who Is Going to Sit in The Chair?” That’s still too long.
How about, “The One Where Joey and Chandler Spill Liquid Fat on Phoebe’s Yellow Dress?” No? Could it be “The One Where Rachel Asks Ross to Eat the Fat?” Or is it called “The One Where Monica Gets a Message from Her Ex-Boyfriend Richard (Tom Selleck) And Doesn’t Know If the Message Is Old or New?”
How about “The One Where Joey Wears All of Chandler’s Clothes with No Underwear On?” Is it “The One where Pheobe Covers the Fat Stain With…” oh, never mind.
I could go on and on with this.
Even despite their highly publicized Friends’ spinoff, Joey, next season, the peacock network still has no sure thing.
Nor do ABC, CBS, or Fox for that matter. Long running shows like “The Simpsons”, “NYPD Blue”, “ER”, “Everybody Loves Raymond”, “Will & Grace”, “The West Wing” and the original “Law & Order” have only a couple more seasons left before their contracts expire. Who’s going to step in and take over the coveted slots?
There is no doubt diehard fans will have a hard time bidding farewell when Dr. Crane takes that final phone call on his radio show to say, “I’m listening.” Or when Monica, Chandler, Ross, Rachel, Joey, and Phoebe all go their separate ways following one last round of cappuccino at Central Perk.
All this right now is just a mourning period.
The real shock of losing two comedies won’t hit until this fall when viewers realize how much laughter will be vacant from the top ten or twenty most watched programs of the week.
The series known as the hit sitcom is dead. Make way for nights of families competing to see how many worms they can eat on Fear Factor, slews of Law & Order and CSI spin-offs, hour-long news documentaries and survivor type shows where hosts like Donald Trump bring failing interns into the boardroom every week to say, “You’re fired.”
©4/21/04
Like “Seinfeld”, “Frazier” and “Friends” were never on my personal list of “Must See TV.”
The reason I tuned into “Frazier” for half its first season when it premiered in fall 1993 was due to my interest in seeing what direction the show’s creators were going to take Kelsey Grammer’s self-absorbed psychiatrist Frasier Crane who audiences got to know for several years on “Cheers” (1982-1993).
The best episode was the pilot in which Dr. Crane’s hopes of living as a divorced bachelor and father in Seattle are dashed when he must take in his retired father and dog and hire an English maid who says she has a knack for seeing the future.
I still laugh every time I recall how Dr. Crane responded in a deep negative voice when someone asked him what the name of his dad’s four-legged mutt was who would do nothing but sit and stare at him.
“That is Eddie.”
I haven’t watched the show on a regular basis since. The same can’t be said unfortunately, for “Friends.” Like the repeats of “Seinfeld,” thanks to the WB network who’ve milked the series for all its worth with reruns five days a week, I have seen, or maybe I should say heard, every episode five times over. I can’t say it was by choice mind you. Since I don’t own a satellite or rent cable, there is nothing else on at those times for me to watch other than “M.A.S.H.” and the news. The only other reason I had the show on was so I could have something on in the background while I was doing something else.
I always saw “Friends” as disposable entertainment. It is far from what NBC calls “a classic.” Of the 200 plus episodes made, I have only sat and watched over a dozen and most of them were from the first season. The boyfriend/girlfriend relationships were annoyingly endless. I can probably count on one hand alone how many cliffhangers over the past ten years on “Friends” had something to do with Ross (David Schwimmer) and Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) and in some cases with Joey (Matt LeBlanc). When there was no Ross/Rachel love triangle, we got the Monica (Courtney Cox-Arquette) and Chandler (Matthew Perry) relationship. Probably one or two of those cliffhangers involved Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow), who was either in the process of giving birth to three triplets or found out someone else in the gang was pregnant.
A true fan would probably know the exact title of each episode which starts out with the words, “The One…” if you look at various Friends’ websites. Thankfully, I cannot tell you the title of what I thought was the funniest episode NBC recently aired as part of its “Viewer’s Choice” poll.
Perhaps it was called “The One Where Ross Wants Everyone to Get Dressed So They Don’t Miss His Banquet” dinner? No that’s too long. Maybe it’s “The One Where Joey and Chandler Fight Over Who Is Going to Sit in The Chair?” That’s still too long.
How about, “The One Where Joey and Chandler Spill Liquid Fat on Phoebe’s Yellow Dress?” No? Could it be “The One Where Rachel Asks Ross to Eat the Fat?” Or is it called “The One Where Monica Gets a Message from Her Ex-Boyfriend Richard (Tom Selleck) And Doesn’t Know If the Message Is Old or New?”
How about “The One Where Joey Wears All of Chandler’s Clothes with No Underwear On?” Is it “The One where Pheobe Covers the Fat Stain With…” oh, never mind.
I could go on and on with this.
The end of “Friends” and “Frazier” is not so much the end of two hit Emmy award winning comedy series as it is possibly the end of hit sitcoms overall and maybe even the death of creative original network television programming.“NBC has had years to develop something to plug in once they lost Friends, and they’ve never been able to do it,” said Stacey Lynn Koerner, director of global research at Initiative Media, according to the Oct. 6, 2003 issue of Newsweek. “I’d rather be CBS than NBC a year from now.”
Even despite their highly publicized Friends’ spinoff, Joey, next season, the peacock network still has no sure thing.
Nor do ABC, CBS, or Fox for that matter. Long running shows like “The Simpsons”, “NYPD Blue”, “ER”, “Everybody Loves Raymond”, “Will & Grace”, “The West Wing” and the original “Law & Order” have only a couple more seasons left before their contracts expire. Who’s going to step in and take over the coveted slots?
There is no doubt diehard fans will have a hard time bidding farewell when Dr. Crane takes that final phone call on his radio show to say, “I’m listening.” Or when Monica, Chandler, Ross, Rachel, Joey, and Phoebe all go their separate ways following one last round of cappuccino at Central Perk.
All this right now is just a mourning period.
The real shock of losing two comedies won’t hit until this fall when viewers realize how much laughter will be vacant from the top ten or twenty most watched programs of the week.
The series known as the hit sitcom is dead. Make way for nights of families competing to see how many worms they can eat on Fear Factor, slews of Law & Order and CSI spin-offs, hour-long news documentaries and survivor type shows where hosts like Donald Trump bring failing interns into the boardroom every week to say, “You’re fired.”
©4/21/04
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