Friends: Episode-by-Episode 10.17 & 10.18 "The Last One"

I wasn't a big fan of this. The Chandler stuff is a little uncomfortable, and Paolo isn't even a good character. It might have been more interesting if he'd had personality, but the only thing that attracts Rachel to him is his accent.

 

I think this ep is kinda lame too. As I remember it, all of NBC's "Thursday-must-see-TV" sitcoms were all vaguely tied together by the blackout plot: Mad About You, Seinfeld, Friends, and a fourth one I can't remember now. It seemed a cheesy gimmick in order to get viewers to watch all four shows, when it's clear that each show is written as a stand-alone. Best line: Chandler yelling "Put Joey on the phone!!"



Looking back, I'm more convinced than ever that Friends Season 1 was saved by its timeslot. Being sandwiched between Seinfeld and ER was the biggest reason it made it through the harsh rounds of potential cancellation that first-season shows have to endure. (What are there, three? Fall sweeps, Winter sweeps, season's end?) The show thrived at 8pm after this season, but I have to wonder how it would have fared if S1 was aired at 8 or even 8:30.

 

This is one of the episodes on "The Best of Friends: Volume 1" DVD I think.

I can see why actually, there are some funny moments.

-----------
(Chandler's thoughts are in italics.)

Chandler: Oh my God, it's that Victoria's Secret model. Something... something Goodacre.
Jill: (on phone) Hi Mom, it's Jill.
Chandler: She's right, it's Jill. Jill Goodacre. Oh my God. I am trapped in an ATM vestibule with Jill Goodacre! (pause) Is it a vestibule? Maybe it's an atrium. Oh, yeah, that is the part to focus on, you idiot!


Ross: So you do know a little English.
Paolo: Poco... a leetle.
Ross: Do you know the word crapweasel?
Paolo: No.
Ross: That's funny, because you know, you are a huge crapweasel!
(They hug.)

 

1.08 "The One Where Nana Dies Twice"


* Episode Number: 8
* Original Air Date: November 10, 1994
* Written by: Marta Kauffman & David Crane
* Directed by: James Burrows
* Guest Cast:
o Elliott Gould (Jack Geller)
o Christina Pickles (Judy Geller)
o Elinor Donahue (Aunt Lillian)
o Nancy Cassaro (Shelly)
o Stuart Fratkin (Lowell)
o Carolyn Lowery (Andrea)
o Marilyn Tokuda (Nurse)


Detailed summary

Chandler finds out a lot of people think he's gay when they first meet him; he tries to find out why. Paolo gives Rachel calls and shoes from Rome. Ross and Monica's grandmother dies... twice; At the funeral, Joey watches a football game on a portable TV; Ross falls into an open grave and hurts his back, then gets a bit loopy on muscle relaxers. Monica tries to deal with her mother's criticisms.

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I'm too tired to talk about this, I'll post again later.

 

0108: The One Where Nana Dies Twice

- Love the teaser with the coworker thinking Chandler is gay.
- Another instance of the Rachel and Chandler never having met before continuity hazzle?
- Plenty of funny when the friends are talking about Chandler and his gayness ? love everybody laughing about how not gay Ross is.
- Paolo calling from Rome? ugh
- The surprise and shock of Nana not being quite dead yet is a great moment.
- A bit of a lull after the Central Perk scene?
- The Chandler storyline is clearly the best one of this episode. Love the second scene at his work even more than the first one.
- I guess the scene with Ross and his mom and aunt is okay.
- Why is everybody going to the funeral? Kinda odd...
- Love everything with Ross high on painkillers, especially his frustration after talking to Rachel.
- I get what they were going for with the scene with Monica and her mother, but I?m not sure they quite succeeded. Their running joke seen thoughout the body of the episode is funnier than their final scene is interesting.
- ?Look at that little thing!? ? hee ? gotta love a good penis joke. And we get two in the same scene.
- Probably the best overall episode since the pilot, mostly because of Chandler.

B

 

1.09 "The One Where Underdog Gets Away"


* Episode Number: 9
* Original Air Date: November 17, 1994
* Written by: Jeff Greenstein & Jeff Strauss
* Directed by: James Burrows
* Guest Cast:
o Jane Sibbett (Carol Willick)
o Jessica Hecht (Susan Bunch)
o Max Wright (Terry)
o Lara Harris (Obsession Girl)


Detailed summary

Joey poses for a health poster, but later finds out he's become the V.D. poster boy. Ross finds out Susan is reading to the unborn baby and decides he must, too. Ross and Monica plan their own Thanksgiving dinner because their parents are away; Phoebe joins them, because she celebrates with her grandmother and her grandmother's boyfriend... in December... because he's lunar; Joey joins in because his family thinks he has V.D.; Monica has to make three kinds of potatoes. Chandler plans to boycott Thanksgiving because his parents announced their divorce on that day; Rachel has plans to go to Vail to be with her family. The Underdog balloon breaks free during the parade; everyone goes to the roof to watch but they get locked out of Monica's apartment; the dinner is burned and Rachel misses her flight. Everyone ends up eating Chandler's cheese sandwiches and Funyuns for Dinner. Ugly Naked Guy has Thanksgiving dinner with Ugly Naked Gal, and there's Ugly Naked Dancing.

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And so begins the tradition of the thanksgiving episodes.

This was a great episode, all the random things that stop everyone from celebrating thanksgiving with other people... Joey's family thinking he had VD was great. We find out very early in the shows run that Chandler and Thanksgiving do not get alone.

 

0109: The One Where Underdog Gets Away

- The early Rachel stuff is okay, nothing exceptionally funny though.
- Love everything with Ross in the Central Perk scene.
- The stuff with Ross and Susan is great. There?s just the right tone of awkwardness and common resentment in their interactions.
- ?Bobo the sperm guy? ? Hee
- The montage with Joey?s posters and the friend?s making fun of him are pretty good, the song fits.
- Rachel?s ?chooping? becomes more and more cute every time she does it.
- Careful examination of the ?got the keys(?) - okay? exchange determines that it?s Rachel?s fault they get locked out.
- First appearance of Jane Sibbett as Carol. As I alluded to in a previous review, she doesn?t stand out as a noticeably different character than the previous Carol.
- Nice moment with all three of them with their hand on the belly.
- Love everything out in the hallway when they?re locked out, especially Monica?s meltdown.
- Ugly naked gal ? aww
- This episode sets a precedent in terms of this show doing very good Thanksgiving episodes.

B +

 

1.10 "The One With the Monkey"


* Episode Number: 10
* Original Air Date: December 15, 1994
* Written by: Adam Chase & Ira Ungerleider
* Directed by: Peter Bonerz
* Guest Cast:
o Hank Azaria (David)
o Wayne Pere (Max)
o Maggie Wheeler (Janice)
o Vincent Ventresca (Fun Bobby)
o Sarah MacDonnell (Sandy)


Detailed summary

Ross gets a monkey named Marcel. Everyone makes a pact not to bring dates to their New Years Eve Party. While performing at Central Perk, Phoebe confronts some noisy boys and ends up dating one of them: David, Scientist Guy. Their relationship develops well until he gets offered a grant to go to Minsk, and doesn't know what to do. Everyone breaks the no-date pact except Ross; Phoebe brings David, Joey brings Sandy, someone he met while working as an elf in a department store; Rachel plans to bring Paolo, who's flying in earlier than expected; Chandler snaps and asks Janice; Monica invites Fun Bobby; Ross just brings Marcel. However, no one ends up with their date (or monkey) at midnight.

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Nothing really too memorable about this episode for me.

Marcel was great, I wish he was around longer. Things like Marcel are why the earlier quirkier seasons are better then the later formulaic ones.

 

0110: The One with the Monkey

- First appearance of Marcel. It?s a weird choice to bring in an animal less than halfway into a show?s first season. It seems more like the kind of desperate move seen in the later year of a show that has seen a loss in both quality and ratings. Some might find it gimmicky, but considering I?m a fan of Marcel; I don?t mind it.
- ?That monkey got a Ross on its ass? ? hee
- LOVE Phoebe?s snowman song.
- Hank Azaria! He does a pretty good job as David. This is the first episode where I actually care about Phoebe?s story and can enjoy her beyond the pure weirdness.
- The officer and a gentleman joke is great.
- LOVE Joey?s costume and Chandler?s overload.
- I?m realizing that I pretty much love everything about this episode.
- For the longest time I was sure that I must have missed an episode that properly introduced Fun Bobby. Eventually I realized that he really gets no real introduction, he?s just mentioned here as if we all know who he is...
- The return of Janice: love it. I?m pretty sure the laugh is even better in this one than in her original appearance.
- Jennifer Aniston does a great job when she arrives at the party.
- The stuff with Joey and his date is probably the least interesting parts of this episode?
- Actually, the stuff with Fun Bobby is the least interesting part of this episode?
- Max calling Phoebe ?Yoko? ? hee
- The final scene with Phoebe and David has just the right balance of funny and drama.
- The episode does lose a bit of the energy in the final minutes, but it is still another GREAT episode. Actually the best episode yet!

A -

 

You really liked this one better then the one with the blackout and the thanksgiving episode?

 

Absolutely. While there's no obvious quality difference between this one and the thanksgiving one, I rated this a tiny bit higher because it actually had a dramatic story (Phoebe & David)that was succesful, while the thanksgiving one is more of a pure comedy episode.

Regarding the blackout episode: I just think it's kinda bland and nothing particularily great about it. Sure it got it's share of funny jokes, but that's pretty much every episode.

 

The Thanksgiving and Monkey episodes have their funny moments, but they also become established within the larger 'Friends universe', as both stories are referred to in later episodes and even in later seasons.

One clever thing that Friends did was establishing more storyline continuity within itself than in the average sitcom. But I say this with a grain of salt--most sitcoms by their very nature don't really lend themselves to air-tight plotline continuity. (Cheers and Frasier utilized a strong continuity back in the day, but this created problems when Frasier's plots referenced long-ago plots on Cheers.) The benefit to Friends using a slightly tighter continuity was that certain jokes in later seasons became that much funnier, basically acting as in-jokes for the longtime viewer: every Thanksgiving episode later on referenced Chandler's holiday hang-ups (but I will say that the Thanksgiving eps took a dive after Chandler & Monica's wedding. That's the Friends jump-the-shark moment IMO, but that's a later discussion). Ross's monkey adventures later got the nod in Season 2, when a sweeps episode brought in a reunion between them.

Keeping strict story continuity is tough in a sitcom, almost dangerous if the show's creators are trying to constantly draw in new viewers. The failure of the brilliant Arrested Development verifies this. Tight story continuity was AD's biggest strength, but practically guaranteed that viewers wouldn't stay tuned in if they couldn't follow the story. Friends did a better job of this by keeping the continuity a little less obvious. Although the Friends' various first-meetings and pre-season 1 stories were all jumbled over and over...

 

1.11 "The One With Mrs. Bing"


* Episode Number: 11
* Original Air Date: January 05, 1995
* Written by: Alexa Junge
* Directed by: James Burrows
* Guest Cast:
o Morgan Fairchild (Nora Tyler Bing)
o Jay Leno (Himself)
o Cosimo Fusco (Paolo)
o David Sederholm (Coma Guy)


Detailed summary

Monica and Phoebe distract an attractive guy who then gets hit by a car and ends up in a coma; they both take care of him in the hospital but begin getting very competitive and possessive over him. Chandler's mom (who embarrasses Chandler with her forwardness) is on Jay Leno and then pays Chandler a visit. Paolo returns from Rome. Mrs. Bing takes everyone out to dinner... and ends up kissing Ross. Mrs. Bing gives Rachel advice on writing romance novels. Ross tells Chandler about the kiss and convinces him to confront his mother about his feelings.

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Not really a fan of this episode... Monica and Phoebe are just creepy and Ross kisses his best friend's mom? meh...

 

0111: The One with Mrs. Bing

- Pretty dull teaser.
- The first hospital scene is kinda boring?
- Jay Leno! Too bad I prefer Letterman?
- Paolo ? meh ? it is funny when he knows who Chandler?s mom is though..
- ?And then he burst into flames.? ? hee
- The coma guy storyline seriously drags this episode down. It does provide occasional amusement (?and teams played sports?) but is mostly uninteresting?
- Ross realizing he used the ladies room is hilarious.
- Talking about Paolo as a secondary character who?s just a temporary obstacle for the hero, is very meta: me likey!
- Joey saying that kissing a friend?s sister is okay according to the code doesn?t really correspond to his reaction in the later episode when Chandler makes out with his sister Mary Angela. The Joey and Ross scene in the hallway is otherwise pretty good though.
- Another boring hospital scene?
- ?Nora, Mrs. Mom, your Bing? ? hee
- Another good Phoebe song.
- The last hospital scene is the best one, though that isn?t saying much?
- Funny little throwaway scene at the end?
- Overall an okay episode with no standout positives but with one poor storyline dragging it down?

C +

 

I love the one with Mrs Bing. It cracks me up

The Thanksgiving one and Nana were both good as well. I'm not a big fan of the one with the monkey, even though it introduces Marcel.

 

1.12 "The One With the Dozen Lasagnas"


* Episode Number: 12
* Original Air Date: January 12, 1995
* Written by: Jeffrey Astrof & Mike Sikowitz & Adam Chase & Ira Ungerleider
* Directed by: Paul Lazarus
* Guest Cast:
o Jane Sibbett (Carol Willick)
o Jessica Hecht (Susan Bunch)
o Cosimo Fusco (Paolo)
o Cynthia Mann (Jasmine)
o Jo Jean Pagano (Customer)


Detailed summary

Everyone hums the theme from The Odd Couple. Monica is stuck with a dozen lasagnas because she didn't know they were supposed to be vegetarian. Paolo and Rachel prepare for their first weekend away together; Paolo makes a pass at Phoebe, which ends his relationship with Rachel. Phoebe makes the best oatmeal-raisin cookies in the world. Joey and Chandler have to get a new table, but can't agree on which one; they end up with a foosball table; Monica rules the foosball field. Carol finds out the gender of the baby, but Ross doesn't want to know... even though everyone else knows.

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Not a very memorable episode really. Paulo is still hated and the guys get the foosball table. yawn.

 

Maybe not memorable, but I enjoyed it.

 

0112: The One with the Dozen Lasagnas

- The teaser with everybody humming is cute.
- Paolo ? yuck
- I consistently like the stuff with Ross, Carol and Susan this season.
- ?Don?t you want to know about the sex?? ? hee
- Yaawn...
- Not much to say about this one, except that there?s not much that?s above average about it?
- I do like Monica kicking ass at the foosball table.
- Paolo?s exit is done well. Love Ross closing the door in his face.
- Ross finding out he?s gonna have a son is done well also.
- Half the episode is kinda poor and the rest ranges between average and okay.

C

 

An interesting note about this episode is that the Chandler and Joey storyline about getting a new table was originally scripted and shot for episode 2, "TOW The Sonogram At The End", but was cut from that ep and eventually found its way into this one. The sharp-eyed will note that the lasagna that Chandler and Joey carry into their apt before Joey breaks the table is the same one the gang pawed through to find Rachel's engagement ring, and not a fresh-made one from Monica. Also, their apt #s flip-flop between 4&5 and 19&20 depending on the scene.

 

1.13 "The One with the Boobies"


* Episode Number: 13
* Original Air Date: January 19, 1995
* Written by: Alexa Junge
* Directed by: Alan Myerson
* Guest Cast:
o Robert Costanzo (Joey Tribbiani, Sr.)
o Brenda Vaccaro (Gloria Tribbiani)
o Lee Garlington (Ronnie)
o Fisher Stevens (Roger)


Detailed summary

Chandler accidentally walks in on Rachel after a shower and sees her breasts, leading to a series of shower peepings. Phoebe's new psychiatrist boyfriend, Roger, depresses and angers everyone. Joey finds out his dad has been having an affair with Ronni, a pet mortician, for six years; he insists his dad either break it off or confess, but it turns out his mom already knew--and didn't want it to stop.

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I like this episode a lot. Everything works IMO... nothing is really spectacularly hilarious, just consistent laughs all the way through.

 

Chandler: And I'd like to believe that when the right woman comes along, you will have the courage and the guts to say, "No thanks, I'm married."

I love that line.

 

0113: The One with the Boobies

- While the teaser is a decent setup for its particular story, I don?t really get any laughs out of it.
- Fisher Stevens seems like a weird guy? But in a good way though! I love both his voice and his line deliveries.
- The frequent use of the word boobies is giving me the giggles.
- The first scene after the title sequence is flawless until Joey and his father arrive.
- I don?t care much for Joey?s story this episode.
- Chandler staring at Rachel?s breasts ? hee
- I love Roger!
- I don?t like Ronnie; she?s annoying and unlikable.
- I can?t articulate what I don?t like about Joey?s story in this one, it just bugs me. It is helped by the presence of Chandler though?
- I don?t like either of Joey?s parents. I think they (as well as Ronny) might be too ?sitcommy? for this show?
- Phoebe lying down on the couch ? hee
- Love Roger?s rant!
- The running joke with the showers is okay I guess, but no real laughs for me though?
- Everything in this episode that isn?t Joey?s parents or the mistress is fine, while anything with Roger is great.

B -

 

1.14 "The One with the Candy Hearts"


* Episode Number: 14
* Original Air Date: February 09, 1995
* Written by: Bill Lawrence
* Directed by: James Burrows
* Guest Cast:
o Jessica Hecht (Susan Bunch)
o Jane Sibbett (Carol Willick)
o Maggie Wheeler (Janice)
o Nancy Valen (Lorraine)
o Larry Poindexter (Fireman Dave)
o Jay Acovone (Fireman Charlie)
o Joel Gretsch (Fireman Ed)
o Heather Medway (Kristen)


Detailed summary

Ross goes on a date with a Kristen, a woman from his apartment building; Carol and Susan show up at the same restaurant; Susan gets paged and leaves; Ross pays so much attention to Carol that he doesn't even notice his date has gone. Joey can't go out with his date, Lorraine, unless he brings a friend for her friend; Chandler agrees to go, but the date turns out to be Janice; Somehow they end up together again; Janice buys Chandler candy hearts for Valentines Day; Chandler breaks up with her--again. Phoebe, Monica, and Rachel have a cleansing ritual to rid themselves of bad luck with men, which turns into a small fire; Fireman guys come to the rescue.

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First recurring appearance for Janice I think... and it's a good one.

The girl's story was kinda dull in this one... meh

 

0114: The One with the Candy Hearts

- The teaser is neither bad nor great.
- The show teases me with the potential of getting to see more of Roger, though sadly it is not to be. Good continuity though.
- ?I don?t care? ? hee
- Third appearance of Janice! They really used her a lot the first season. I love the Chandler and Joey scene in the bathroom: ?Come on! Do it! Do it!?
- Angry Chandler is hilarious.
- The scene where?s Janice is leaving is even more hilarious!
- At least Ross?s date is nice enough to laugh at his terrible joke/story.
- The stuff with the girls in this episode is okay, but it?s definitely the scenes I am least interested in. I just want to get back to the Chandler story.
- ?Hi just Janice? ? hee
- The firemen ? meh
- Like a foghorn: ?Janice! Janice!? ? fantastic!
- Ross got a nice understated storyline this episode with a lot of heart. David Schwimmer and Jane Sibbett got great chemistry together.
- Even thought the scenes with the girls are a bit bland they still feature some good jokes and the episode as a whole is great.

B +

 

I really liked the one with the boobies. The Valentines one was okay. The guys stuff is good, but not the girls.