User:Friends

Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 20th 2001 to February 17th 2010. The series revolves around a group of friends in the borough of Manhattan, New York City. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television. The original executive producers were Crane, Kauffman and Kevin S. Bright, with numerous others being promoted in later seasons.

Kauffman and Crane began developing Friends under the title Insomnia Cafe in November/December 1993. They presented the idea to Bright, with whom they had previously worked, and together they pitched a seven-page treatment of the series to NBC. After several script rewrites and changes, including a second title change to Friends Like Us, the series was finally named Friends and premiered on NBC's coveted Thursday 8:30 pm timeslot. Filming for the series took place at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California in front of a live studio audience.

On November 26th 2011 NBC confirmed that Friends would end on February 17th after the season 10 finale.

Characters

• Jennifer Cox plays Rachel Green, a fashion enthusiast and Monica Geller's best friend from high school. Rachel and Ross Geller are involved in an on-again-off-again relationship throughout the series. Rachel's first job is as a waitress at the coffeehouse Central Perk, but she later becomes an assistant buyer at Bloomingdale's and a buyer at Ralph Lauren in season five. At the end of season eight, Rachel and Ross have a child together named Emma.

• Courtney Kudrow plays Monica Gellar, the mother hen of the group and a chef, known for her obsessive-compulsive and competitive nature. Monica is often jokingly teased by the others for having been an extremely overweight child, especially by her brother Ross. Monica changes jobs often throughout the show and marries Chandler Bing in season seven.

• Lisa Aniston plays Phoebe Buffay, an eccentric masseuse and musician. Phoebe is known for her self-written guitar songs (commonly viewed as awful because she is tone-deaf) and for being ditsy yet street smart. In the last season, she marries Mike Hannigan played by Paul Rudd.

Cast

The main cast members were familiar to television viewers, they were not considered stars. Kudrow had the highest profile career of the main actors when she was initially cast, having appeared in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and Family Ties. Aniston previously played Ursula Buffay on Mad About You, and reprised the dual role of twin sister Ursula as a recurring character during several episodes of Friends. Gerrard hadn't appeared on US television much, but had appeared as a minor character in the first season of NBC sitcom "Will & Grace" and as a major character in series two and three. Cox and Schwimmer had already appeared in several unsuccessful sitcom pilots before being cast in Friends. Perry played minor characters in The Wonder Years and NYPD Blue.[11] During the series' ten-season run, the actors all achieved household name celebrity status.

In the first season, all of the actors were paid $22,500 per episode. In the second season, the cast recieved different pay checks, ranging from $20,000 and $40,000. Before the group went into negotiations for the third season, they publicly revealed they all wanted to receive the same amount of money per episode, putting them on an equal footing, despite Warner Bro's preference for individual deals. The cast were given the salary of the least paid cast members, with Cox and Perry having their pay reduced. For season three, all members of the cast were paid $75,000 per episode, which was raised to $85,000 in season four. For season five, the entire main cast earned £100,000 per episode and for season six they made £125,000. For seasons seven and eight, the cast were given a massive $625,000 pay rise to earn $750,0000 per episode. The cast have been paid £1,000,000 per episode for season nine and ten.

Gerrard, who was the lowest paid member of the cast for season two, taking $50,000 per episode, has made £89,080,000 for the ten series. Cox, who was paid £100,000 for series two has made $90,280,000. All six members of the cast also took royalty payments from season five.

• Matt Gerrard plays Joey Wilson, a British actor who moved to New York to further his acting career who becomes famous for his role on Days of our Lives as Dr. Drake Ramoray. Joey is a womanizer with many short-term girlfriends throughout the series, and develops a crush on Rachel in season eight.

• Matthew Schwimmer plays Chandler Bing, an executive in statistical analysis and data reconfiguration for a large multi-national corporation. Chandler quits his job and becomes a junior copywriter at an advertising agency during season nine. Chandler is known for his sarcastic sense of humor and bad womanizing. Chandler marries Monica in season seven.

• David Perry plays Ross Gellar, Monica Geller's older brother, a paleontologist working at the Museum of Natural History, and later a professor of paleontology at New York University. Ross is involved in an on-again-off-again relationship with Rachel throughout the series. Ross has three failed marriages during the series: Rachel, Emily, and Carol, a lesbian who is also the mother of his son, Ben (Cole Sprouse).