Oh I agree with you all, the show was very much a product of the 90s. I think the only thing that gets me is that the show is still so popular today when the issues we've pointed out makes it, for me anyway, a little hard to watch.
The depiction of any male character doing anything even mildly feminine as being tantamount to social suicide makes me cringe the most though.
And I LOVE LUCY was a product of the 50's. She was constantly fearing that Ricky would hit her. It doesn't mean we need to be uncomfortable watching it. We recognize that it (and FRIENDS and pretty much every other TV show ever made) was a product of it's time and enjoy it for what it is, "flaws" and all.
As much as I loved Friends, there were a few story lines that drove me crazy. The monkey, the Joey-Rachel romance, and Monica & Chandler's 'secret' romance (though the episode in which it was resolved is priceless).
"It does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are 20 gods or no god. It neither picks my pocket, nor breaks my leg."
-- Thomas Jefferson
"And I LOVE LUCY was a product of the 50's. She was constantly fearing that Ricky would hit her. It doesn't mean we need to be uncomfortable watching it."
I see that as being a little different though. When audiences today watch I Love Lucy, they know that scenes like that are completely outdated and wrong, because it's so obvious.
With friends, the issues discussed earlier in the thread are a lot more subtle, to the point that many people still think that they're acceptable today.
When people laugh at Lucy being afraid of Ricky, they're laughing for a slightly different reason or with a different mindset than audiences did in the 50's. When people laugh at the gay/lesbian portrayals on Friends, they're laughing for the SAME reason they did fifteen years ago.
It's not a major issue. "Friends" isn't the most racist or most homophobic show by any means. It was a good show and I understand why people like it. The issues that were pointed out were merely the few things that turned me off from watching it personally.
I liked the Monica/Chandler secret romance. Poor Joey having to keep their secret over several episodes was one of the best plot lines Matt LeBlanc ever had. Plus the episode when Phooebe tried to seduce Chandler to get him to reveal his relationship with Monica. "I'm very bendy."
I HATED the Ross/Emma marriage plot line. I was amazed that Ross & Rachel named their daughter Emily - it sounds a little too close to Emma for me.
^ I think you have the names reversed. Emily was who Ross married and Emma was his daughter with Rachel.
"I don't want the pretty lights to come and get me."-Homecoming 2005
"You can't pray away the gay."-Callie Torres on Grey's Anatomy.
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