Watching the 66th Primetime Emmy Awards the other night got me thinking about all those television shows that I love at present, shows I've loved for many years and shows that have been off the air for even longer!
Despite my love of drama and thriller, particularly in movies, I always seem to gravitate towards comedy TV series more than any other genre.
30 Rock, Parks And Recreation, Modern Family and How I Met Your Mother have probably been my top 4 come the last couple of years. With Orphan Black and Cougar Town getting a little recognition too. Orange Is The New Black is undoubtedly my favourite right now and Arrested Development had my heart for a long time in my late teenage years. I was big into UK sketch shows, Little Britain and The Catherine Tate Show back when I was a whipper snapper, and after that list, I guess you could say I'm easily pleased in the humour department.
But what about the greats? The shows that ran for 8, 9,10, even 11 seasons as millions of adoring fans tuned in each week? The shows so good that when they ended, we shed a tear despite it intending to make you laugh, just because they meant so much to us. The characters we spent years of our lives building relationships with.
I'm, of course, talking about the likes of Seinfeld, Frasier, Will & Grace and Friends. All of which are considered retro now but still regarded as some of the best comedy we've ever seen on our television screens.
As a spin-off of popular show Cheers, Frasier was set to have a fanbase from the word 'go'. Cheers ran for over a decade and was the start of many successful careers for it's much loved cast members including recent Emmy Award nominee, Woody Harrelson. But it was Kelsey Grammar's character, bar regular, Frasier Crane who must have caught the creator's eye more than most as they started a spin-off solely about his life shortly after Cheers ended, which actually lasted just as long as the main show it came from!
Speaking of Woody Harrelson, he coincidentally also starred in early seasons of Will & Grace. Probably the most sarcastically humoured of all the older shows I've mentioned here, Will & Grace seemed to have a slightly older audience than all of the others. And with only four main characters, it certainly had the smallest ensemble cast out of them all, but that didn't stop us laughing out loud to Will, Grace, Jack and Karen's antics.
Despite the undeniable success of all these major comedies that we all watched (and enjoyed) growing up, when you hear the word sitcom, what show automatically pops into your mind? Which show made it almost impossible to say the phrases 'how are you doing?', 'I know' and 'on a break' in a normal way ever again? A programme so good that it's not even remotely controversial to hail it as the best comedy show of all time. Everybody loved Friends. And I mean, everybody. Some people have seen every episode of Lost for example, some have made sure to see every episode of Doctor Who, Homeland... The Powerpuff Girls! Everybody has their programmes that they're really into. But almost everybody, has seen every episode of Friends and this demonstrates the magnitude of it's global popularity.
Even now, it's actually quite hard to pinpoint just what was so amazing about Friends. Sure we all realised it was incredibly well written and of course, well acted. But then, so were so many other comedies. It must have been a combination of these traits but also the well-rounded characters that we could all truly relate too. They had their exaggerated moments, Phoebe with her kookiness and Joey with his stupidity but most of the time, these characters really felt like real people who would genuinely be friends and that's why it worked so well.
The gang were all so different in their own ways that viewers always ended up loving different ones more than perhaps, their best friends favourite. This personal connection to the show made it even better and added a gravitas to it that actually made you think like you were friends with these fictional characters.
All of the stuff that they were going through throughout its ten seasons was what us viewers may have gone through ourselves in our lives too. Some of them had naggy parents, some had career struggles and others, bad relationships and we could all laugh about those situations as it was most likely a situation we, or at least people we know, have been through. True situational comedy.
Another great thing about Friends was it's majorly impressive list of cameos it featured over the years it ran, which is more testimony to its success as it shows that stars were eager to be a part of the shows inevitable legendary status. The likes of Susan Sarandon, Danny DeVito, Sean Penn, Brad Pitt and the late Robin Williams, all showed their faces in episodes throughout the series, and those are some big names!
Regardless of how many times you've watched a particular, I defy you to not laugh at least once during the 22 minute episode. There is guaranteed to be at least one joke that will make you giggle EVERYTIME. And that's why Friends will always be... the best.
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