Noun

friends

1. Plural form of friend.

Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which premiered on NBC on September 22, 1994. The series revolves around a group of friends in the area of Manhattan, New York City, who occasionally live together and share living expenses. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television. The original executive producers were Crane, Kauffman and Kevin Bright, with numerous others being promoted in later seasons.

Kauffman and Crane began developing Friends under the title Insomnia Cafe in November 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, 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 audience. After ten seasons on the network, the series finale was promoted by NBC, and viewing parties were organized around the US. The finale, which first aired on May 6, 2004, was watched by 52.5 million American viewers, making it the fourth most-watched series finale in television history.

Friends received positive reviews throughout its run, and became one of the most popular sitcoms of all time. The series won many awards and was nominated for 63 Primetime Emmy Awards. The series was also very successful in the ratings, consistently ranking in the top ten in the final primetime ratings. Friends has made a large cultural impact. The Central Perk coffee house that had featured prominently in the series has inspired various imitations throughout the world. Repeats of the series continue to air worldwide, and all seasons have been released on DVD. Following the series finale, the spin-off series Joey was created.

Friendship is a term used to denote co-operative and supportive behavior between two or more people. It can be taken to mean a supportive relationship which involves mutual knowledge, esteem, and affection.

Contents

• 1 Sourced
  • 1.1 Old friends
  • 1.2 Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895)
• 2 Unsourced
• 3 See also
• 4 External links

Sourced

• The blessing it is to have a friend to whom one can speak fearlessly on any subject; with whom one's deepest as well as one's most foolish thoughts come out simply and safely. Oh, the comfort — the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person — having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.
  • Dinah Craik, in A Life for a Life (1859)
  • Since the 1930s this has also been published in many paraphrased forms, often uncredited to Craik, including: A friend is one To whom one may pour out all The contents of one's heart Chaff and grain, together, Knowing that the gentlest of hands Will take and sift it, Keep what's worth keeping And blow the rest away.

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Sun Nov 29 01:32:03 2009