  By Ann Oldenburg, USA TODAY In many ways, it was the exact opposite of a reality show. Six young, single friends living in New York City. It didn't matter what jobs they had or where they were from. They weren't out to get each other. They were Friends. Tonight, after 236 episodes, it's goodbye to Chandler, Monica, Rachel, Ross, Phoebe and Joey. Friends wraps up after 10 years of dominating Thursday night TV for NBC, of shaping pop culture with their chic hairstyles — in particular, The Rachel — hip clothing and favorite sayings, and of portraying a sweet and silly single life that struck just the right chord with young adult viewers. Last week, it was No. 1 in the ratings among the prized 18- to 49-year-old demographic. "Friends will be remembered as the show that made America aware that being in your 20s is really being in the prime of life," says Elayne Rapping, professor of American studies at the University of Buffalo. "Friends stands out as a sign that we are now living in a culture where youth rules. " The cast — Jennifer Aniston, 35; Courteney Cox, 39; Lisa Kudrow, 40; Matt LeBlanc, 36; Matthew Perry, 39; and David Schwimmer, 37 — will gather alongside the crew and NBC executives to watch the finale together in Los Angeles. At 8 p.m. ET/PT, a clip show looks at great Friends scenes through the years. At 9 comes the aptly titled last episode, "The Last One.
" And at 11:30 the cast will appear on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno. "Television will be a different landscape without it," says Jonathan Munane, 30, from Los Angeles, who has watched the sitcom since day one. "I saw the first episode of Friends when I was in college, and it was the first show I ever really saw that seemed like it could be about people I knew. " But was anybody really like these friends? In spirit, maybe yes. In reality, probably not. They lived mostly in two spacious two-bedroom apartments in Manhattan right across the hall from each other, with no obvious means of financial support. They hung out at a coffee shop called Central Perk all day long. While real life in the dot-com '90s meant many people were losing their jobs, for these Friends life was carefree, centered on foosball, dating and meatball sandwiches.
And friendship. "Loyal and honest, they were always there for each other. They really loved each other, warts and all," says Lauren Johnson, 39, the author of Friends: The One About the #1 Sitcom (New American Library, $13.95). "We saw ourselves in them, and because of that, we knew that if they were OK, we knew we were OK." Topical events never intruded The show wasn't about lecturing on social issues, although there was a lesbian marriage in the first season and interracial dating in later seasons.
Sex was always a topic of conversation. But war or topical events? The show never made a direct reference to 9/11. And it came under fire for not featuring any minorities as Friends and few as guests. "If everything had to be so darn politically correct, it wouldn't have been as funny," says Beth Alcaron, 34, of Tucson. "It was just fun," and what appealed most was simply the interaction among the six pals. "I've got a group of close-knit friends, and I see us getting into some of the same dumb conversations, talking about the same stupid stuff. " Focusing on the friendship of six young adults equally was a different concept for sitcom television. The nuclear family, from Leave It to Beaver to The Cosby Show, was, and still is, often the main story line.
The closest similar show: Seinfeld, about friends in New York but billed as a show about nothing and based on the comedy of Jerry Seinfeld. Friends, which made its debut in 1994, focused also on friends in New York, but it was about something, Rapping says — specifically, a way of life. She says Friends will go down in history as doing for twentysomethings what The Mary Tyler Moore Show did in portraying the single working woman for the '70s: Both showed friends becoming family.
"Friends and Beverly Hills 90210 were among the first shows to depict young people who were very much on their own. Their lives revolved around each other. Family and work were not of major importance. " Those days are over, she says. Now, work and winning are of major importance. "What we are seeing now instead is the immense popularity of TV reality shows, with their depictions of corporate, cutthroat values, whose characters are concerned solely with competing and getting ahead of other people. That's the opposite of what Friends was about. " Says Matthew Perry, who always in some way will be Chandler Bing, the hapless, lovable Friend, "It became comfort television for people.
" Perry found it "impossible to ignore" the emotion as the ending approached. "I'd had this huge headache. It was this moment before you're supposed to start weeping, and I just stayed there for the whole night. It was very difficult to shoot the last scene, because it was the end of something significant. " For fans, it's personal It wasn't just significant for television, or for the actors, who gained exposure and built monster bank accounts; it was huge for NBC.
"Friends has been one of the cornerstones of the network for the last 10 years.," says Jeff Zucker, NBC president. "Obviously, we can't deny it's a huge loss for us. " Fans also are feeling the loss — on a personal level. Kris Bosman, 27, special-events coordinator for the University of Utah's Crimson Club, says the show mirrored her life. "It's a show that a lot of girls my age have grown up with. The first year it was on was my freshman year in college. That was kind of what you wanted for your life — to have a group of friends who were supportive. " She usually watched the show with her roommates. Now, she is married and pregnant and will watch the finale with "probably just my husband. I'll have it on TiVo and watch it sometime that night. " Abbi Novic, 17, has been a fan "ever since I was not even old enough and had to sneak upstairs and lock my door to watch it.
" She lives in Murrysville, Pa., and plans to have a party at her house tonight with about a dozen friends. "It is the end of a decade of laughter, but I'm sure that when it ends, I will be in tears," she says. "I cried at least two times on the second-to-last episode. I have just become so attached to the Friends characters and their story lines, I cannot even imagine how they will end the show, and I try not to imagine it because I want it to be a surprise. " The finale will focus on the big question: Will star-crossed Ross and Rachel wind up together after being married, divorced and having a child together? Or will Rachel go off to Paris, where her heart is leading her, and leave Ross behind? The finale was taped in January. Afterward, as the sets were broken down and cast and crew got a chunk of the street outside Central Perk in a glass box as a keepsake. Although rumors have been floating ever since, the show has tried to keep the plot under wraps. For Matt LeBlanc, the ending is about Joey, his character, and Chandler.
"We have a pretty similar sense of humor, he and I," LeBlanc says. "We were like Abbott and Costello. We were a great comic team together. In the finale, needless to say, we have a story together, which is a really nice way to wrap things up. " David Crane, Friends' creator and executive producer, says, "Everybody ends up in a place where you can feel satisfied ... (but) there are some surprises. " Adds Marta Kauffman, another creator and producer, "We didn't have a gimmick. What we hope is that people feel good about saying goodbye to them, and that they're all going to be OK." Says Kevin Bright, who will produce the Joey spinoff: "People would be really angry if the end of the show was not satisfying.
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