They will be there for you, just not for much longer. On May 6, America’s favorite sitcom will come to a bittersweet end. After 10 years of keeping us laughing, Courtney Cox, Matthew Perry, Jennifer Aniston, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow, and David Schwimmer will take their final bows as Monica, Chandler, Rachel, Joey, Phoebe, and Ross. The finale comes after years of “Will they, won’t they?” questions from critics, all debating whether or not “Friends” should have ended earlier due to the lack of comedic writing the show produced the past few years. When we met the six friends on September 22, 1994, we were immediately introduced to the quirkiness of each character Chandler was the sarcastic goofball; Monica was the obsessive-compulsive neat freak; Ross was getting divorced after learning that his wife was a lesbian (and pregnant with his child); Rachel was the spoiled rich girl who we first saw in a wedding dress as she ran from her wedding straight to a world of independence (in the first episode, the other five make her cut up her credit cards at which Monica quips, “Welcome to the real world. It sucks.”). Joey was the Italian hunk with less intelligence than the rest, and Phoebe was the loopy “Let me cleanse your aura” friend who has a twin sister who she never talks to and lived on the streets for years after her mother died and her father abandoned them. After 10 years, the six friends have made us laugh and cry as we shared each of their experiences every Thursday night. Ross and Rachel have become one of the most talked about television couples in history as their relationship has been the source of much water cooler talk. Many fans still argue, “Were they on a break?” For the past seven years, fans have been on the edge of their seats to see this delicious couple get back together. Monica and Chandler got together in a shocking twist in the fourth season during the season finale, and finally married at the end of season seven. Fans were hoping that the perfectly matched Phoebe and Joey would eventually follow suit, but the writers went in another direction that had Joey fall in love with Rachel (who, after a one night stand with Ross in season seven, is pregnant with his child), thus putting yet another obstacle in the Rachel/Ross pairing as well as ending any hope Phoebe/Joey fans had.
Now, with two episodes left, fans are waiting with bated breath, expressing that they will be beyond disappointed if Rachel and Ross do not get back together. They have been a fan favorite since the beginning and with all of the obstacles in their way through the 10 seasons, fans are hoping for a perfect Rachel and Ross ending. However, the writers have decided to have Rachel offered a job in Paris and with Ross letting her go, fans will have to see if they do get the fairytale ending they hope for. Monica and Chandler will be expecting their baby to be born (after Monica and Chandler both had problems conceiving, they decided to go with a surrogate mother, played by “Scary Movie” star Anna Faris). Phoebe recently got married to Mike Hannigan (played by Paul Rudd of “Clueless”). The writers promise to wrap the show up in a way that is both satisfying to characters and to fans of the show.
On May 11, another long running sitcom will also come to an end. “Frasier,” starring Kelsey Grammer, will end its 11-year run. “Frasier” has won a total of 31 Emmys, including three for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Grammer) and two for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series (David Hyde Pierce). Frasier is based around the character that Grammer played on “Cheers,” which ended in 1993. On this show, Dr. Frasier Crane deals with analyzing other people’s lives and serving them with advice on his on-air radio show, while dealing with the neurotic nature of his brother Niles and his father, who is living with him and his dog, in the apartment. This season, Niles and his wife Daphne are expecting a baby (the first for the couple who took many years to get together due to Niles holding back his feelings for the first few seasons only to let it out hours before Daphne was to marry someone else) and their father, Martin, has met a woman who is certainly younger than he is, but provides a comic relief for the show. Frasier, however, is just getting around to his love life as Academy Award Nominee Laura Linney joined the cast for the last six episodes to prove to be “the love of Frasier’s life.” Frasier ends