What Makes 'Friends' So Popular?

In an interview with NBC News, the original pitch for Friends used by Marta Kauffman and David Crane was revealed to be this: “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 in the city, your friends are your family.” 

Now, over thirty years since it first aired, Friends remains one of the most enduring and consistently popular shows of all time, and you’d be hard pressed to find somebody who won’t recognise the characters, the title, or even one of its many quotable catchphrases - Pivot! But while the sitcom isn’t for everyone, it certainly isn’t going anywhere, leaving one main question in its wake: Why on earth is Friends so popular? 

Undoubtedly, Friends has some hilarious moments and some iconic plotlines, but no more so than many other well-written TV comedies. In fact, if you speak to those who return to the show again and again, you’ll find that the first thing they say most often isn’t that it makes them laugh, but instead will utter a phrase that has come to the forefront of the mainstream in recent years - “It’s my comfort show.”

This comfort, applied to other series’ also but so commonly associated with Friends, is where I believe the show's unending appeal stems from. Relationships are a universal constant, whether it be partners, friends, family members or even passing acquaintances, and no aspect of that is more universal than friendship itself. It’s vital to all types of connection, a layer in some and the entirety in others, and for all, the central group of 20-somethings in this show are representative of exactly the kind of idealised warm, funny and loving friendships that people aspire to. 

To me, the group seems to represent something that people had or have or even want to find again. Everybody has experienced a neurotic friend like Monica, or a sarcastic friend like Chandler, and in watching the show, you can’t help but see your own friendships reflected back at you. 

Through this association, Monica, Rachel, Phoebe, Joey, Ross and Chandler become our friends, our chance to dream of future meet-ups or reminisce on a time when we weren’t too busy to idle away hours doing nothing together. In this way, they become the people, and therefore the show, that we always want to return to.