One of them was mutiple storylines, and here are three really good ones from Season 3: #61 ("TOW Monica and Richard are Just Friends"): The guy Phoebe's dating isn't wearing underwear beneath his running shorts. #68 ("TOW the Dollhouse"): Phoebe's cool dollhouse that unfortunately burns down (Ross: "We believe the fire originated here....in the aroma room.") #70 ("TOW the Screamer"): Ben Stiller's Tommy character, who bullies Ross and the couple at Joey's play, was the best part (Chandler to Tommy: "Step away from the duck.").

TOW the Screamer was a classic.


IDIOT!!!!!!


BIG DUMB DONALD DODO!!!!!!!!!!!


lol

Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong, but those quotidian-type storylines must have been influenced by Seinfeld, right?

Anyway - another strength in the show is the variety of characters. There's a high probability of a viewer identifying with at least one of the six main characters.

Originally posted by DianeDiane
Somebody please correct me if I'm wrong, but those quotidian-type storylines must have been influenced by Seinfeld, right?
Even if Friends was not consciously trying to be another Seinfeld, I'm sure Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David could rightfully take credit for influencing any TV show post-Seinfeld in which the plot lines were essentially about "nothing". I don't know that anyone else would have risked it had Seinfeld not been such a huge success dwelling mainly on the mundane. :)

One of Friends' strengths has always been the way those actors play off each other, sometime after the first season they did research which found viewers didn't want to see Chandler, Monica, Ross etc on their separate lives, they wanted to see them together, of course this had the unfortunate side effect of stretching credulity and creating the image that they were all going to sleep with each other, but it's a sitcom and not real life, so the writers made the right choice!

Now I wouldn't call that a strength exactly. The concern for opinion polls reveals the show worried more about ratings than the integrity of story-telling. The creators of Cheers had a really strong work ethic, so even when the audience responded really well to a scene, they would often discard it if they felt it wasn't "right." If they had done a poll of how many people wanted to see Sam and Diane together in the season finale, I'm guessing the majority would have voted for them to get together. But they didn't - and I'm glad because it wouldn't have felt right for the characters to do that. That is what I'd call a strength.


But another strength for Friends would be the chemistry between the actors - not in terms of romance, just as friends. They really were "friends."