5.18 // Growing up with my "Friends"...

Have you ever found yourself identifying with a TV character so deeply that they feel like an old friend? Join me, Stephen, as I share my journey growing up alongside some of the most iconic characters from "Friends." This episode invites you into my living room, where Chandler's wit and Ross's lovable awkwardness mirrored my own adolescent experiences. We'll reminisce about the show's influence during my formative years and reflect on the emotional farewell to a series that felt like saying goodbye to longtime companions. Come along as we explore the enduring charm of "Friends," a show that continues to resonate, particularly across the pond in the UK, where its themes of friendship and young adulthood still strike a chord.

Listeners can expect an engaging discussion on how "Friends" became a cultural juggernaut, from its groundbreaking syndication deals to the skyrocketing salaries of its beloved cast. We’ll shine a spotlight on Courtney Cox, whose star power was already notable before joining the ensemble, and uncover how the entire group's negotiating prowess ensured their financial legacy. This heartfelt episode is a tribute to the joy and comfort the show has brought into our lives, celebrating its timeless appeal through cherished memories and anecdotes. Whether you're a long-time fan or a newcomer to the series, this episode offers a warm, nostalgic embrace, inviting you to revisit or discover the magic of "Friends.

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Chapters

• 0:21 Love and Nostalgia for Friends
• 12:46 Growing Up With Friends
• 22:34 The Phenomenon of "Friends" Salaries

Transcript

Stephen: 0:21

Hello and welcome to INF Trattle. Unscrupulous, unedited trattle on everything Hosted by me. Stephen, listen like, share, subscribe and enjoy the show.

Stephen: 0:42

Hello, welcome to another nef Welcome to another episode of Infinite Brattle. Apparently, I need to sort my teeth, tongue and general mouth organ out. Mouth organ God, it's started already. Welcome, welcome. Welcome. Thank you for joining me. I hope you're well If it's started already Welcome welcome. Welcome. Thank you for joining me. I hope you're well If it's your first time here. Thank you for taking a chance on Infinite Prattle.

Stephen: 1:12

My name's Stephen and I just talk about anything that I feel like I want to talk about, if I'm honest. So, if you like it, fantastic, If you don't try the next episode or the next episode or go back and check out some previous ones. So today, if you haven't already worked out from the intro, I am going to be talking about the comedy series Friends and my love of it and some of my favourite episodes and why I believe it to be one of the best comedy series TV shows ever. And some of these will be for logical kind of tangible reasons, and others will be because I just grew up with it and you just have to accept that. I just grew up with it and you just have to accept that. Okay.

Stephen: 2:07

So, friends, this show has been off the air 20 years, which bloody terrifies me. Time doesn't make any sense to me anymore. I'm 41, and, yeah, I don't get it. It's like you can hear my chair squeaking. I still haven't oiled it, yeah, so time seems to have gone weird for me and I I still don't understand how things work, and 20 years ago this show ended.

Stephen: 2:32

Uh, and I was, I must admit I was really gutted. It was kind of it's always a double-edged sword. I think when shows end be like frasier and um seinfeld and all them. I wasn't. I've never really watched seineld, don't know why I use that as an example, but um, when things end, it's kind of like ah, maybe it's time, because how far can you take it before it starts to get stale? And we've done all the storylines, we've seen a lot of things that people can do and the show has to kind of come to some sort of logical conclusion in the end. And other times, and sometimes at the same time, you're like I don't want it to end.

Stephen: 3:07

I've grown up with these characters, I've known these characters, I am these characters, and why are they having to leave my screen, why are they having to leave my life? And I think, in the, in the sense of friends, that hasn't really um, I don't think in the sense that, especially in Britain, it's never really gone away. It's normally on some channel in the UK at some point. And yeah, it's a's always, it's always on. Uh, I only own it on dvd. Of the entire collection on dvd, it's up in the loft, because who watches dvds anymore? And I also own the whole lot on um digital media as well. So, uh, stupidly or not, I don't know if that's going to be a stupid thing in the future, whether it just disappears.

Stephen: 4:05

Yeah, we'll kind of go back in time. The original concept of the show was by David Crane and Marta Kaufman and they were writers. I think they did a couple of things at the time. I've not really looked into this too deep because you know that's me and Kevin Bright was also involved as well. They kind of formed, I think, a production company for this. I think it was Bright, kaufman, crane, I might be wrong on that. It's at the end of every episode, so I should remember because I've seen the episodes a lot, um, so yeah, so david crane and marty comfort marty comfort, man began development. Um, you know, a plot around some, some people, um, and the.

Stephen: 5:02

The original the original kind of like pitch, pitch line to pitch the series to NBC was apparently it's about sex, love, relationships, careers, a time in your life when everything's possible, and it's about friendship, because when you're single and in the city you're friends of your family, and I think that's a great pitch because that kind of does sum up the series of Friends, and I've never really thought about it like that because you kind of just take it for what it is, but that is like the perfect thing, you know, when you're young and you're trying to find yourself like, your relationships are pretty much with your friends. You don't maybe have your life partner. You might have relationships or one night stands or flings whatever you want to call them, go on dates, um, but you always come back to your friends. You always come. They're the staple. It's like your family, maybe better than family sometimes. Um, because you can pick your friends. Let's face it. It's the old saying, isn't it? You can't pick your family, but you can pick your friends, um, and I think that's a great statement, but it is about sex, love, relationships, careers and a time when everything's possible. Because you're young, you know you can literally do anything. And people say, oh, you can't do anything, but if you put your mind to it, you can. I know some situations are tougher than others, but in general terms, most people can change their situations and, you know, aim higher and uh, yeah, so they'd have, they think they'd have a season that one of their tv shows cancelled, um, and taken off the air and they basically wanted to pitch a series about six people in their 20s making their way in Manhattan and that's, and that's kind of you know, they wanted to represent that kind of generation and the title.

Stephen: 6:41

I think in working they wanted it to kind of like I think it was going to be called Friends Like Us and then they changed it to Six of One because Friends Like Us felt too similar to these friends of mine which was already a tv show, um on abc. Uh, friends like us, I think, is a good, good name. I think six of one is. It's still a good name. Um, I think just call it friends is just the simple way, because that's literally what they are. It's just a group of friends and how they deal with life and kind of how they lead in that kind of like synopsis cell uh statement, a conception cell statement to the network. Like how do they deal with like life, love, relationship, sex, while trying to find what they want to do and and aim, aim for anything they want to? Um, yeah, and I just I, I kind of, you know, as a, as a young kid, like I was like when this, when this first aired, I was like 11 years old, um, and it was on channel 4 in the uk, I believe it was, and um, it was on at nine o'clock I think at night and uh, yeah, just fell in love with it.

Stephen: 7:50

Fell in love with it and I think I didn't see it right from the start because I think we'd missed some episodes. So when they repeated them, I kind of managed to get back and go and relive them, first episodes. So, yeah, so in the intro I said the character names, but obviously Rachel Green is played by Jennifer Aniston, monica Geller is played by Courtney Cox, phoebe Buffay is played by Lisa Kudrow, joe Tribbiani, matt LeBlanc, ross Geller plays David, david Schwimmer plays Ross Geller and Chandler Bing is played by the late, wonderful Matthew Perry, who only recently passed away. I think it was last year now, I think it was late last year. So he's been, he's passed away like just over a year now, uh, and I was devastated to to learn of his passing, like most people. Um, not just because of this show, but other stuff he's done. I was a massive fan of studio 60 on the sunset strip, which I think I've mentioned on the podcast before, and that only did one season, but it was a great show and he was fantastic in it. Um, but yeah, I think, I think the reason for me why the show is so successful and it will be the same for yourself, probably, or and people around the world, is because and it probably reflects in the six of one kind of working title of the series is because even though they are six different people three girls, three boys they represent everyone. They represent the whole of what we are as people.

Stephen: 9:27

So in the very first episode it's kind of established that Ross Geller is a doctor, he's got a doctorate, he's going through a divorce, he's a doctor, he's got a doctorate. You know he's going through a divorce, he's done a good job, he's clever, but things still aren't working out for him. Matt LeBlanc is the dreamer, joey Tribbiani. You know his character. Joey Tribbiani is the dreamer, he's the actor, he kind of lives hand to mouth kind of thing and and he he's aiming big and he won't give up on his dream, which is which is again brilliant uh chan labing is kind of like the fell into a job, maybe isn't happy with it, but he goes every day and he's just, he just does it and he tries to do his best and he doesn't really complain. But he's a joker and that's how he compensates for things. He's obviously had stuff going on and that's the role he's fell into. Come to the big city and that's what he's fell into.

Stephen: 10:23

Monica Geller, obviously Ross Geller's sister in the show from Day Dark in the first series you show that she's kind of overshadowed by Ross because he's got the doctorate and the older brother and first born and they didn't think they could have children and all that. He was a medical marvel, as they say in an episode. And courtney cox obviously came along with the second child, which is like, oh, by then we've already had a baby, what, what? You know it's nice to have a second, but you know you're not really a miracle. That ross was, um, and they don't really see he's a doctor and they don't really see her kind of wanting to be a chef as like a thing, um, I think they want to aim higher.

Stephen: 11:02

And then we have phoebe buffet, who's the kind of I don't really want to say hippie, but you know that you know into into alternate things, different thinker, just is who she is and doesn't really care if she's judged and is into a bit of music and yeah, she just is the free spirit I think everyone kind of wants to be at some point in their life. And then you got rachel green, who's kind of like the spoiled princess, who's kind of brought down to earth a bit. And again, I think everyone can relate to that in some sense, where you know at some point in life you might have it good and then something happens and you've kind of just got to start again. And her I think her kind of like character line almost is in different ways but twinned with with ross geller uh, she, you know he's high-flying and gets, gets a blip on it, you know, blip on his uh in his life, like his divorce and and they kind of coalesce again. And then obviously there's that great love story all the way through the season, the first season, where Ross has always had a crush on her and it's revealed and then they get together and then they break up and then there's other relationships and then spoiler, at the very last episode, it looks like they're going to get together. They've had a baby, you know, randomly, um, from a one-night stand they did when they both got drunk and uh, the fairy tale you know comes together at last and it's just, it's just such a nice, nice tv show and I think it's like anything with nostalgia, like if someone was to watch it now they would probably think, yeah, that's okay, that's, that's pretty cool, it's funny, it's all right. Would it resonate with someone today as it did with me when I was watching it as a child?

Stephen: 12:46

Like I grew up with a show from the age of 11 to 21, like I'd gone through puberty watching this show. I'd learned things from this show. It taught me things about life. I kind of imitated it, like I was kind of like and, as I say, I was kind of part chandler, part joey, part ross, a little bit phoebe, a little bit monica and maybe not so much rachel, but like um, the other characters definitely did resonate with me highly, um, and I suppose with the rachel, but like um, the other characters definitely did resonate with me highly, um, and I suppose with the rachel thing it just goes.

Stephen: 13:19

She's a grafter at heart because she had to go from like basically having it all and having it handed to her plate to say no, I don't want it handed on the plate, I want to work for it something. That's why I had it, because I was very much like I don't like people handing me things, um, but yeah, so for me growing up with that for 10 years, when it ended it was, it was kind of like wow, like crumbs. This is uh, this is over. Like I've grown up with these people and I think it's a thing that's a um.

Stephen: 13:47

When I go and watch it it's pure nostalgia, like watching a film from when you've seen, when you first see a film in your childhood like the goonies or um, flight of the navigator or any of these films that if you showed a child now they'd probably think they're okay, but they'd probably say, oh well, it's not really believable, it's not really this, or the effects are rubbish, or why are they doing that? Or you know, I don't know. It probably wouldn't gel with them the same as as it would like my generation that was brought up on them.

Stephen: 14:13

But it's the same with anything, anything.

Stephen: 14:14

It's the same with anything, isn't it? You have nostalgia for the thing that you kind of knew as a child, and this show definitely is that for me. The way it ended, I think, was nice. I think it tied it up well. It didn't close it off completely to ever restarting or having spin-offs, which indeed it did. It had had joey, which, um, I can't remember. I think it went for like two seasons, which I didn't mind. It got slated by a lot of people, um, but I I didn't mind. I can't remember if I had had two seasons or one. I can't remember. Maybe I, maybe I had more than that, I can't remember. I think I remember seeing a couple of seasons of it. To be honest, I'm not even sure let's have a look, let's actually have a look.

Stephen: 15:00

Let's click on here. So, spin-off Joey, there we go. So so, after two seasons leaving eight episodes, okay, so it looks like it did two seasons. I thought so, yeah, yeah, two seasons, um, averaging 10.2 million views in the first season, 7.1 in the second, which apparently is too, too little for the american audience. Uh, friends did quite well in the view figures. I was looking at this earlier on and they were were always in the low 20s to mid-20s, even touching 30 million in season two. So they always had really really big kind of viewing figures.

Stephen: 15:47

And I like Michael Blank, I think he's great. I think the character Jerry was endearing. I think a lot of people go back and look at it now and people probably think, oh, it's a misogynistic character. But again, all these characters are viewed from all ourselves. Like Ross wasn't really very good with women. He'd only ever slept with one woman and that's the one he married and he thought he was going to be with her forever and that's kind of like commendable. Like Joey was like basically really good with chatting up girls and sleeping with them and he didn't say anything wrong with that and I don't think he was disrespectful in the sense of he was trying to be mean. It was just like I want to sleep here and that's all I want from this thing, whereas Chandler was probably the one I referred to the most, like hiding things with humor. I do that now. I crack jokes when I feel uncomfortable, I'm sarcastic when I'm trying to give advice. Um, I self, um, basically, what do you call it like? I'm basically down on myself and the way he is with with women in the episodes and the things that happen to him is pretty much like me, like some of the things I'm like, like you know, life imitates art, etc. And um, yeah, so I really do resonate with. I really do resonate with with, with chandler in the show for for relationship stuff, as well as ross uh, not so much joey, because never been overly successful with the ladies um, but yeah, so like one. One episode, for example, is um.

Stephen: 17:16

There's there's one episode where chanel is trying to break up with janet, or janice janet, um, and that's in the, that's in the first season um, and he's, he's basically he's gonna break up with her with, with um, phoebe, because she, she's gonna break up with someone. So I think this, I think it's the one. I think it's the one with the east German laundry detergent and it's a great episode because it shows my viewpoint from this, from Ross's side and Chandler's side. So Chandler's trying to break up with someone he really doesn't know how to, he gets high on caffeine to do it. Kind of done that myself. In some sense maybe I got inspiration from Chandler.

Stephen: 17:54

And then Ross is on a date doing laundry with Rachel and the way he's acting. He's trying to be cool but not be cool, trying to play it cool but he's failing. He's trying to be sweet but trying to be manly at the same time and he ends up walking into one of the open doors of one of the washing machines. And it just reminds me of me being clumsy and probably many men around the world can relate to that trying to be the cool guy to get the girl and kind of failing. But for me, one of the main episodes that I really relate to Chandler for my inner monologue as well is the one with the blackout, which is a couple of episodes later in season one, episode seven of season one, and basically there's a blackout in New York and, again from Ross and Chandler's perspective, ross is trying to get Rachel's attention and some random guy turns up in the blackout who's Italian, and Ross is absolutely devastated when he sees them kissing because he's like he can't even speak English. He's just suddenly appeared tonight and I've been trying all these things. I've decided to go for it tonight and then that happened right before he tried to go for it. And that's happened to me like with girls and stuff, like thinking about it far too much rather than just going, just grabbing the ball by the horns and thinking I'm just gonna ask her out.

Stephen: 19:09

Uh, and then chandler was stuck at channel in that episode. Channel stuck in an atm vestibule, or is it an atrium? No, it's definitely a vestibule. That's the thing to fixate on. As you can tell, watch friends quite a lot.

Stephen: 19:18

Um, so he's stuck in an atm vestibule with gillian goodacre, who's apparently like a lingerie model. Um, being a british person, didn't really know that at the time. Um, it's only when I got a bit older and I was actually like, is this like a, like a person? Uh, I just thought it was a made-up character, but apparently not. Probably she was one of the first guest stars, I believe. I believe, anyway, if my memory serves me correctly. But anyway, he's like trying to think oh, I'm stuck in here like I could make small talk, maybe even hit on her trying to get a date and stuff, you know, and just it's the inner monologue for me that really kills it, because that's how my brain works Overthinking, ridiculous thoughts yeah, just cracks me up every time I watch that episode.

Stephen: 20:03

Definitely go and see that. And if you've not watched Friends, why haven't you watched Friends? What the hell? If you're listening to this, you're probably thinking what is this guy churning on about? But definitely go and watch it. I think it's worth it. I think it's just just a great season. Um, every every season's great. It's a great series. Every season's amazing. Um.

Stephen: 20:21

There are obviously some episodes that are not as funny as others. You get that. You always get that in series. There's always a couple of storylines going on in each episode. They're similar to most sitcoms. Obviously there's not one sole storyline. Um, and they're just brilliant.

Stephen: 20:36

And each episode is starts with the one with. So they're all. They all start with that. So like the one with a thumb, the one with the east german laundry detergent, the one with a blackout and, um, the one with the butts these are all first season names, but they go through and that's how they all start, which is funny as well.

Stephen: 20:55

I think that's a kind of cool way to name the episodes. I could go on about this for ages and we're already past the 20 minute mark, so I'm just going to talk about the wages that the actors are on, because I think that's an interesting point. This goes to show how much money the show generated, as well as you know the impact of the show and, yeah, just just how much of a good venture it was probably for the, for the uh, for the company at the time, uh, warner brothers, to invest in, um, this show, um, because it ran for 10 seasons and then the first season, um, just to it, basically explains on this website, which is wikipedia uh, as as we get all our information from nowadays, um so obviously it's all from wikipedia.

Stephen: 21:49

So in the original contracts for the first season, cast members were paid twenty two and a half thousand dollars per episode, which isn't too bad. Considering there's like 20 odd episodes in each season, that's not a bad. Not a bad paycheck, is it when? If someone said to me do you want to? You know, I know it takes a few hours, just, you know, maybe a few days, to film each episode, but to be paid 20 grand per episode, it is is pretty bloody good.

Stephen: 22:11

Um, I mean, what is that? Uh, if there's like, I think they go from like 22 to 24 episode in in in the season, so 22 and a half thousand times 24, yeah, it's like half a million, just over half a million, that's not bad, is it? Um, and I know that's a lot of work, but you know the fame and the fortune that comes with you know you get offered film, films after that. I think monica, monica, courtney cox yeah, you see you blur the lines between reality. Uh, courtney cox, probably the most well-known person on the show because she'd been in films before, I don't think many of the cast had been in big things really, but Courtney Cox had been in.

Stephen: 22:54

She'd been in the Bruce Springsteen video for Dancing in the Dark, famously, but she'd been in Masters Universe and something else. Was it Tango and Cash? Or was that Terry Hatcher? That was Terry H universe, wasn't it? And something else? Was it tango and cash, or was that? Or was that terry hatcher? That was terry hatcher, wasn't it? She was in another like buddy cop film where she played the person and I can't think of it maybe lethal weapon anyway.

Stephen: 23:13

Uh, she, she was a bit well known, um, but the wages go crazy, because it says there that in the second season the range went from 20 to 40 000 per episode, guessing depending on notoriety. At that. In the second season the range went from 20,000 to 40,000 per episode, guessing, depending on notoriety. At that point, the negotiations for the third season was collective. The cast started collecting notifications. Despite Warner Bros' preference for individual deals. The actors were given a salary deal of the least paid cast member. The stars were paid $75,000 per episode in season three, $85,000 an episode in season four and $100,000 in season five per episode, $125,000 an episode in season six, $750,000 an episode, and that's a massive increase in seasons seven and eight and $1 a massive increase in season seven and eight and one million dollars per episode in seasons nine and ten. I mean I don't know if you added all that together how much money that is, but I mean you're talking. Each other probably made 50 mil out of this program. And then it also says that they also uh applied for to receive syndication royalties at the beginning, 2000, after renegotiations, which was kind of unheard of for someone. I think Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Cosby, according to this, were kind of the only people that had kind of ownerships like that. So that's obviously going to bring annual income in for them, probably forever, which is amazing. Yeah, I think that speaks for itself of how popular this show was. And it says somewhere else in this that the show's made like 1.7 billion or something over time and it's still making money now because, as I say, in the UK it's still played a lot and I still stream it off Netflix, even though I own it on Apple, I think it is.

Stephen: 25:00

But never mind, I'm going to leave it there. I might come back and revisit this and go through some of my favourite episodes and character traits and stuff like that. It was just a nice little journey down memory lane for me today just to have a bit of a chat about Friends and maybe introduce it to you. If you've never heard of it or never watched it, definitely go and watch it. It's brilliant. There's a lot of episodes to get through, but they'll fly.

Stephen: 25:23

I've actually started watching them on on netflix again, actually, just because I put them on the background when I'm doing things. Uh, I do this with films for my childhood as well. It's like turtles and stuff like that. So I'm doing stuff around the house or I'm sitting making lego or I'm, you know, just pottering around. I'll put them on the background because I know them that well. I don't even have to watch them, I can listen to them, which I suppose is sad.

Stephen: 25:45

I've watched these so many times, as you can tell. I can quote them quite well. And, yeah, I'm not like probably like the biggest fan that some people are, but yeah, it's a big thing in my life and I have my friends Lego sets just up and to my left and they bring me much, much joy, and so does the show and, uh, thank you to the creators of that show for releasing it to the world and having that uh, having that uh inspiration and creativity to develop that show. It's brought me many, many happy times and, uh, as I taught me some stuff too. Uh, for good or for bad. Anyway, I'm gonna leave it there because I've been churning on for ages, prattling away. Thank you very much for listening to me. This has been infinite prattle. I've been steven and remember prattle on yourself you've been listening to infinite drattle.

Stephen: 26:41

Thanks for listening. If you like this episode, go back and listen to some others, and please continue to listen. Your support is much appreciated. Please like, share, comment and subscribe, and I'll speak to you all again soon. Take care.