Tip jar

If you like CaB and wish to support it, you can use PayPal or KoFi. Thank you, and I hope you continue to enjoy the site - Neil.

Buy Me a Coffee at ko-fi.com

Support CaB

Recent

Welcome to Cook'd and Bomb'd. Please login or sign up.

March 28, 2024, 03:28:06 PM

Login with username, password and session length

Is "Friends" offensive in 2018?

Started by thecuriousorange, January 15, 2018, 08:55:50 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Dr Rock

Quote from: (Ex poster) on February 21, 2018, 04:44:07 PM
Netflix are doing a Sabrina series with Kiernan Shipka and Michelle Gomez, which I suspect will be closer in tone to Riverdale than the sitcom. WB may still be able to resurrect it as a sitcom though, you'd understand the rights situation more than me.

That AV Club article explains that they did promote Fresh Prince amongst the teen crowd, having a Blossom crossover and that, but it wasn't in the low(er)-brow style that ABC's family sitcoms were.

Wiki suggests that Fresh Prince was aimed mostly at teens too, pairing it in the schedules with (plus crossovers with) Blossom, appearing on Nick at Nite, shown on Disney, although I wouldn't have known this when it broadcast, it just gave off the air as aimed most at those aged 12-17, which seeing as I was no longer a teen when it was first shown over here, plus the UK scheduling, would explain why I avoided it. I wasn't going to watch anything aimed at kids. The US sitcoms I watched had been aimed at adults since I was about 12.

Sebastian Cobb

Quote from: Wet Blanket on February 21, 2018, 01:59:00 PM
Third Rock From the Sun was hot shit in the US wasn't it? I remember that having a pretty inauspicious early evening slot here (on BBC2)

It was on before Red Dwarf back when it was popular. Back in the 4/5 channel days that's a pretty big spot.

Jerzy Bondov

Quote from: (Ex poster) on February 21, 2018, 04:44:07 PM
Netflix are doing a Sabrina series with Kiernan Shipka and Michelle Gomez, which I suspect will be closer in tone to Riverdale than the sitcom. WB may still be able to resurrect it as a sitcom though, you'd understand the rights situation more than me.
I was interested in this so I had a look. WB have the rights and are producing the new series. The Netflix deal leaves WB with full ownership of the series. It was developed with the CW but Netflix snapped it up. As a bonus for WB, if they had aired it on the CW it would be joint owned with CBS (as is Riverdale - the network is a joint venture between WB and CBS). I'm really looking forward to it but it's very clearly being touted as a horror series, not a sitcom. Anyway, there's nothing to stop WB making a Sabrina sitcom again if they wanted to. It makes sense to follow the Riverdale money though.

ieXush2i

Quote from: Dr Rock on February 21, 2018, 07:49:34 PM
Wiki suggests that Fresh Prince was aimed mostly at teens too, pairing it in the schedules with (plus crossovers with) Blossom, appearing on Nick at Nite, shown on Disney, although I wouldn't have known this when it broadcast, it just gave off the air as aimed most at those aged 12-17, which seeing as I was no longer a teen when it was first shown over here, plus the UK scheduling, would explain why I avoided it. I wasn't going to watch anything aimed at kids. The US sitcoms I watched had been aimed at adults since I was about 12.

Nick at Nite, Disney, Trouble showings etc are syndicated repeats repurposing series; just because Channel 4 showed Futurama at 8am doesn't make it a kids programme. Similarly the old Looney Tunes shorts and Hanna Barbera series were aimed at all-ages audiences though for decades they have been considered "for kids".

There's a difference between a teen/tween sitcom (eg Wizards Of Waverley Place) and a family sitcom that skews young like Fresh Prince. A modern example would be grown-ish, a new show I enjoy despite it being about rich millennials going to university and learning about things like biphobia and the best drugs to get you through education. Is it a series for students, or a family show that skews that way? My little niece loves Bart Simpson, but which age group is The Simpsons aimed at?

mippy

Quote from: Wet Blanket on February 21, 2018, 02:09:31 PM
MadMen was on BBC4 for most of its run, although that's hidden away. They got hold of The Wire just after it finished in the US but put that on really late at night

The X Files was on BBC2 wasn't it? And Twin Peaks. When was Moonlighting, late 80s?

I think with Mad Men, that was because Sky Atlantic had the rights and so there was a waiting period before they could show it.

Did they ever show Murphy Brown over here? i vaguely remember Cybill being on BBC2 but I mostly watched it on Paramount a decade later.

mippy

Sabrina was definitely shown on CITV here, whereas Clarissa Explains It All was on about 6pm, same slot that C4 tended to use for Blossom/Boy Meets World/Moesha.

The Simpsons was voted the best children's programme of all time on some C4 list show a few years back. I was desperate enough as a kid to watch it to rent compilation videos - we didn't have Sky - but that was back when they were focusing on Bart as the main character more than Homer.

Wet Blanket

Quote from: mippy on February 23, 2018, 05:48:05 PM
I think with Mad Men, that was because Sky Atlantic had the rights and so there was a waiting period before they could show it.

Did they ever show Murphy Brown over here? i vaguely remember Cybill being on BBC2 but I mostly watched it on Paramount a decade later.

Mad Man was just on Beeb 4 but Atlantic bought the rights to it just after it was launched (around season 5? I can't remember). It used to be that terrestrial would get to show US imports a few months after satellite but I think Atlantic has some sort of deal that means they have exclusive rights to a programme, so the last two seasons of MM weren't shown on BBC4 at all, and as far as I know stuff like Game of Thrones or True Detective have never been on free-to-air. It's a real bastard.

mippy

Ah yes, you're right. I signed up with Now TV for the last season because I didn't want to wait, especially given the amount of internet discussion about it.

Halt And Catch Fire was an AMC show that didn't even make it to TV here - it was an Amazon exclusive.

H-O-W-L

Quote from: Utter Shit on January 15, 2018, 09:39:04 PM
If we're going to talk about characters we hate, can everyone please confirm that we'll be taking it as read that Phoebe is an awful, awful woman?

Phoebe is one of those characters that only """works""" because the show is somewhat farcical and a comedy. I've known people like that IRL and they ain't nothing to fuck with I can tell you hwhat.

Utter Shit

Oh yeah for sure, but I've always thought of Friends, perhaps wrongly, as something that is supposed to resemble reality - or at least more so than something that was prone to flights of fancy like Scrubs. So using Scrubs as an example, there's not much to like about the Janitor or Todd, but you don't 'hate' them because they aren't really representing anything real.

And I suppose there's also an element of disliking Phoebe because, despite the fact she's clearly an arsehole, she is presented as someone you should like, possibly even admire and want to be like. So I think there is a tonal issue - she's very inconsistent; one minute she is nice, the next minute she's a manipulative ball bag. Now obviously that inconsistency is true of all the characters, who are mostly just vessels for jokes, with character traits which can turn in a second - one minute Rachel's naive and a bit thick, the next she's intelligent and cunning etc - but when those traits relate to how you feel about the character, it's a bigger issue. The cat example is the perfect one, because she is clearly 'shown' by the writers to be in the right, even though (to my mind at least) she is completely in the wrong.

Utter Shit

I could honestly write a thesis about Phoebe. It wouldn't be interesting, obviously, but I could definitely write one.

H-O-W-L

Even as someone with mental health issues I think I'd sleep with my hand on a fucking lump hammer if I had to share a house with Phoebe, and that's even if I could lock my door. She seems like the kind of person who might fucking gut you if you misplace her teacosy.

SavageHedgehog

Quote from: mippy on February 23, 2018, 05:59:09 PM
Sabrina was definitely shown on CITV here, whereas Clarissa Explains It All was on about 6pm, same slot that C4 tended to use for Blossom/Boy Meets World/Moesha.

The first run of Sabrina was shown on Saturdays at around 17:30; memorably it aired opposite the first season of The Simpsons on BBC1, and actually out-performed The Simpsons, which seemed shocking until you realised everyone who cared had already seen the six year old episodes by then, and everyone who didn't thought it was some T-Shirt/Novelty record fad which had died out years earlier.

olliebean

I'm just amazed that anyone could watch the series and think Phoebe in particular stands out as the one with mental health issues. She's pretty much the least dysfunctional of them all.

up_the_hampipe

Quote from: olliebean on March 02, 2018, 09:27:39 PM
I'm just amazed that anyone could watch the series and think Phoebe in particular stands out as the one with mental health issues. She's pretty much the least dysfunctional of them all.

Phoebe is clearly the most insane.

Utter Shit

From around series 5 or 6 (whenever the sandwich thing happens) Ross is literally supposed to be a nutter. He has a breakdown and becomes an angry, irrational, erratic madman. It's played for laughs obviously but he is essentially written as having gone mad. Tone-wise it is a little dodgy but he's a million times funnier than the moping bore of the first few series. Sadly Chandler took up that role when he hooked up with Monica.

H-O-W-L

Quote from: olliebean on March 02, 2018, 09:27:39 PM
I'm just amazed that anyone could watch the series and think Phoebe in particular stands out as the one with mental health issues. She's pretty much the least dysfunctional of them all.

Phoebe clearly has issues that stem from her past abuses and her isolation during her homelessness. You're right in that all of them are, in some way, mental though. Ross's mentalness actually disturbs me, to the point that I legitimately forgot about it until re-reading this thread, at which point I was reminded of it much like a spider crawling over my brain.

People often use the term "Fifth Beatle". But who was the "Seventh Friend"?

Eddie, who briefly moved in with Chandler for a few episodes in Season 2, is a candidate. He only really skimmed the surface of the primary gang though.

There's Janice, who cropped up sporadically through many of the years and even had a catchphrase.

Gunther was a consistent background presence through all eight seasons. He didn't get much character development - or many lines - though. I guess he's the winner.

Captain Z

A big deal was made at the time about L. McPherson joining the cast as a 'regular', although she didn't seem to last very long. I don't even remember her character name.

Icehaven

Quote from: Captain Z on March 20, 2018, 11:39:08 PM
A big deal was made at the time about L. McPherson joining the cast as a 'regular', although she didn't seem to last very long. I don't even remember her character name.

I dunno if she was ever going to be a regular given her main storyline involved her flatsharing with then dating Joey but - shock horror- not liking the rest of the Friends. Can't remember how many episodes she was in but it wasn't that many, and you got the impression it was more of an inflated cameo than anything more permanent. I remember her seeming quite wooden and unlikeable but then she was supposed to be a baddie for trying to take Joey away from the gang.

Bad Ambassador

Quote from: thecuriousorange on March 20, 2018, 11:32:37 PM
People often use the term "Fifth Beatle". But who was the "Seventh Friend"?

Mike, the only person to marry into the group and stay married at the end of the series.

gilbertharding

Was she Elle McPherson in it as many times as Bruce Willis or Jon Favreau, or ... Ross's british wife?

Apparently it was almost a running joke among the writers about how harshly these interlopers would be treated within the plot, then written out.

phantom_power

Quote from: thecuriousorange on March 20, 2018, 11:32:37 PM
People often use the term "Fifth Beatle". But who was the "Seventh Friend"?

Ugly Naked Guy, or whatever he was called. That or the monkey

Andy147

According to IMDB:
- Gunther was in 160 episodes
- Janice was in 19
- Mike was in 18
- Emily (Helen Baxendale) was in 14
- Jon Favreau ("Pete Becker") was in 6
- Elle MacPherson ("Janine Lecroix") was in 5
- Bruce Willis was in 3

Elliott Gould (Jack Geller) was actually in the most episodes (21) of anyone other than the main 6 and Gunther; Christina Pickles as Judy Geller was in 20.

Utter Shit

Mike is the only one who was ever really treated like a Friend rather than just someone's partner. He wasn't in a huge number of episodes but he's definitely the seventh Friend IMO.

Dr Rock

The monkey is the seventh Friend, he was the only character that was ever 'in with the gang', - for about two seasons anyway. Then he died thankfully.

Barry Admin

Andy, Elliott Gould is absolutely fucking amazing in Friends, isn't he? Always a real highlight for me.

Utter Shit

Yeah he's fantastic. I think of him as the spiritual brother of Eugene Levy in American Pie. Or indeed Eugene Levy in pretty much anything else he's ever been in.

Barry Admin

Oh god yeah, he's brill too. I think I'll maybe look up some clips now, I haven't watched any Friends in a while, and I just have this somewhat vague memory of Gould playing Jack as this kind of permanently happy, upbeat guy who you just love, and who can make any line devastatingly funny.

the

I remember Hank Azaria being good as a hapless, slightly defeated scientist who Phoebe was going out with.