Starring: Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa
Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David
Schwimmer
Director: Michael Lembeck
To the socially negligible, the first season of
Friends was a dispensation of Providence. Then Miss. Aniston's ways with the hair
startled--much more than the concept of six carefree kids sharing palatial flats located
conveniently opposite each other. The show appealed because the actors were convincing;
the bonhomie they displayed was credible. Each episode had the knack of being better than the silly imitators the
show spawned. Suddenly, with Friends was the place to be: Julia Roberts, Jean
Claude Van-Damme, Elliot Gould, Charlie Sheen, and Tom Selleck hoofed in and that set
the stage for salary hikes.
Now, the urchins get paid a pretty penny--enough perhaps to rent their famous
dwelling.
Kudrow takes the dimness of her character, at times to prosaic limits and Schwimmer's
vexing makes you want to haul off and let him have one. The others hold up admirably and
when you really think about it Friends is quite good.
(Thursdays at 8:00 on
NBC.)
