Monica changed the most. Just watch an episode from Season 4 and then an episde from season five and there is a HUGE difference. Monica used to be a manture, intelligent woman who cared for her friends, family etc but from Season five onwards she became a whiney, needy, attention seeking brat who the writers thought if she put on a screechy voice it would generate a few cheap laughs.

Joey just got dumber every season. In the final season he was acting and treated like a child. Terrible. No wonder the spin off completely bombed. His character was ruined.

Phoebe went from quirky, funny and caring to a bitch. She was still funny, but it was like she jsut stopped caring about her friends and just wanted to poke fun at them and pretty much use them.

Yes I agree, the shark porn episode has to the worst sitcom storyline ever in the history of television. Seriously what were the writers even thinking? It wasn't even "so bad it's good" it was just really bottom of the barrel.

[sonicbiro]

Charlie Sheen's episode is pretty bad and the episode where Rachel tells Ross that she loves him, and for some reason gets a nose bleed - that's dire.

Oh by the way, I hated Phoebe's boyfriend Gary from Season five. What an unbelieveable asshole, I don't what Phoebe saw in him. Everytime he had a scene, he was moody and very rude to Phoebe's friends. Plus the actor playing him was very wooden. He could only do one emotion and that was agressive.

[Gulftastic]

Joey learning French is the absolute worst. A non-joke that they repeated several times.

Other lowlights include:
Joey and the brit actor spitting on each other (No basis in reality and therefore not funnyl)
The one where they are al listening through the hotel walls in Barbados. It's chock full of terrible jokes, not least of which if Monica's hilarious hair.
The 'hand twin' nonsense
Joey writing letters mistaken for those of a pre-teen child.
Joey on the Pyramid game
(a lot of Joey, sorry, but they ruined him late on)

And any episode where the moron studio audience go 'whooooooooo!'. The romance bits I can just about stomach, but when they do it because Monica and Chandler have bought a house. PISS OFF!

[Mrs Panda Gibuffalo]

Originally Posted by Gulftastic

Joey learning French is the absolute worst. A non-joke that they repeated several times.

Other lowlights include:
Joey and the brit actor spitting on each other (No basis in reality and therefore not funnyl)
The one where they are al listening through the hotel walls in Barbados. It's chock full of terrible jokes, not least of which if Monica's hilarious hair.
The 'hand twin' nonsense
Joey writing letters mistaken for those of a pre-teen child.
Joey on the Pyramid game
(a lot of Joey, sorry, but they ruined him late on)

And any episode where the moron studio audience go 'whooooooooo!'. The romance bits I can just about stomach, but when they do it because Monica and Chandler have bought a house. PISS OFF!

I have to agree about Joey learning french. It might of made sense if he'd been reading it as it was written, but he was just making random noises.

Joey became too stupid toward the end. Chandler's character was also ruined at the end, he was terrible especially doing romantic or serious.

[glitta17]

What I love most friends stories apart from the crappy episodes where they just repeat clips from previous seasons

[Gulftastic]

Forgot to add also, all of the 'Eddie' episode stop being funny when you realise the man is obviously suffering from a severe mental illness.

At the end of his final ep, Joey & Chandler just throw his stuff out inot the street. I wonder what happened to him?

[cathrin]

Originally Posted by Pretty Polly

The worst episodes ever had to be the London ones and the whole Emily/Ross storyline seemed not to make sense at all.

Whereas when they brought Mike in as Phoebe's boyfriend I thought it really worked.
.

Totally agree. It made a refreshing change for one of the regulars to be given an "outsider" partner who was actually a likeable and rounded character, instead of just a cardboard cut-out hate figure to act as a plot device (like poor Emily).

In fact, Phoebe even got *two* of these at the same time, with the David/Mike dilemma in Barbados. That must have been the first time in sitcom history that a character had to choose between two lovers in a genuinely difficult choice, instead of the usual set-up where one of the options is absolutely awful (like Emily again!!). When Phoebe had to choose between Mike and David, I genuinely didn't know which one she would go for, and couldn't quite decide which would be best; it's not often you can say that about a sitcom love triangle! I always thought David was the love of her life, but Mike was so lovely, he suited her too.

Having said that, I assume the writers had always planned to pair Phoebe off with Joey at the end (it was hinted at many times), but I guess they had to change their plans to allow for the Joey spin-off series. With hindsight, I wonder if they regret that, seeing as the spin-off was a bit of a dud?

[rivercity_rules]

There wasn't a "worst" episode ever!

I love the hand twin episode! "This Hand Is My Hand, This Hand Is Your Hand, No Wait Thats My Hand, No Wait Thats your Hand"

The Vegas eps are some of the best if anything!

[PlasticGob]

I hated the Emily/Ross/Rachel storyline with Ross moaning all the time! The hand twin was awful as was Phoebe getting kicked out twice. Awful dialogue!

Best episode for me was 'the one where nobody is ready' Joey wearing all Chandler's clothes and saying 'Hi I'm Chandler could I BE wearing anymore clothes!' Love it!

[Gulftastic]

The One with The Embryos, i.e. the one with Ross's trivia quiz to win the girls' apartment is my favourite.

[scorpio20080]

Ive remembered another scene which was quite dire.

Its the one in vegas, and Rachel's alone in the apartment and starts dancing naked... I mean c'mon!!

[JPS Corrie King]

Originally Posted by Gulftastic

The One with The Embryos, i.e. the one with Ross's trivia quiz to win the girls' apartment is my favourite.

I like that one as well but I think they should have chosen a different name for it.

[jde-tv]

Friends has never had a bad episode, simple as!

[Gulftastic]

Originally Posted by jde-tv

Friends has never had a bad episode, simple as!

Phoebe's wedding? When they had Monica acting so unbelievably it was painful?

[Mrs Panda Gibuffalo]

I love T.O.W Unagi.

"Ah salmon roll"

[leaby]

Originally Posted by cathrin

Totally agree. It made a refreshing change for one of the regulars to be given an "outsider" partner who was actually a likeable and rounded character, instead of just a cardboard cut-out hate figure to act as a plot device (like poor Emily).

In fact, Phoebe even got *two* of these at the same time, with the David/Mike dilemma in Barbados. That must have been the first time in sitcom history that a character had to choose between two lovers in a genuinely difficult choice, instead of the usual set-up where one of the options is absolutely awful (like Emily again!!). When Phoebe had to choose between Mike and David, I genuinely didn't know which one she would go for, and couldn't quite decide which would be best; it's not often you can say that about a sitcom love triangle! I always thought David was the love of her life, but Mike was so lovely, he suited her too.

Having said that, I assume the writers had always planned to pair Phoebe off with Joey at the end (it was hinted at many times), but I guess they had to change their plans to allow for the Joey spin-off series. With hindsight, I wonder if they regret that, seeing as the spin-off was a bit of a dud?

Nah, I do think they left it open a little bit just in case, but I think even they were wary of how ridiculous it would be to pair the 3 girls up with the 3 guys. I like your point about Mike and David, it was a nice touch; much as I liked Mike I would've loved to have seen her paired up with David - it would've tied up the first and last series together well.

Hmmm yes agree with everyone on how exaggerated the characters became - especially Monica. Love her character until series 5/6. Somewhere about the time she grows her hair anyway... it's all downhill from there. I only watch the E4 episodes if I catch one from the first 5 series. There are a couple I like from the later ones but on the whole it's just really lazy; people always go on about how rubbish Friends is, but if you go purely on the earlier episodes it's actually a very good sitcom if you ask me.

Worst episodes are the clip show ones... lazy, lazy, lazy. But if I had to pick a regular episode, it would be the Pottery Barn one (Phoebe: "AND ALL I CAN THINK ABOUT IS HOW I DON'T HAVE THAT LAMP!!!!"... No, making it louder doesn't make it funnier), or TOW The Routine (but that might be cos I've seen it far too many times). You can tell I hate series 6...

[cathrin]

Originally Posted by scorpio20080

Ive remembered another scene which was quite dire.

Its the one in vegas, and Rachel's alone in the apartment and starts dancing naked... I mean c'mon!!

I hated that one too. Were we honestly supposed to believe she hadn't realised she could be seen? As if anyone could possibly forget that they were standing in front of a huge window, directly across from a big block of flats!

[leaby]

Originally Posted by cathrin

I hated that one too. Were we honestly supposed to believe she hadn't realised she could be seen? As if anyone could possibly forget that they were standing in front of a huge window, directly across from a big block of flats!

I think it was mainly for the benefit of the men

[Pete Callan]

Originally Posted by leaby

Worst episodes are the clip show ones... lazy, lazy, lazy. But if I had to pick a regular episode, it would be the Pottery Barn one (Phoebe: "AND ALL I CAN THINK ABOUT IS HOW I DON'T HAVE THAT LAMP!!!!"... No, making it louder doesn't make it funnier), or TOW The Routine (but that might be cos I've seen it far too many times). You can tell I hate series 6...

I'm not a fan either, mainly because as much as I like her, Elle MacPherson is a dreadful actress.

Originally Posted by jde-tv

Friends has never had a bad episode, simple as!

Yes Friends was perfect.

[panda_eyes]

Originally Posted by loey_yy

Have to agree....the bit were Ross started jumping with Rachel & Phoebe is still hilarious to this day !!!!

And Chandler's "I've glad we're going to have all the sex"

I love that episode! And "What are you doing?! . . . GET OFF MY SISTEEEEERR!"

[panda_eyes]

I think I like the earlier series the least. I thought they were the least funny and the characters seemed really undeveloped. But I agree that Chandler was ruined towards the end.

I liked a little line from today,

*Joey and Chandler return to the table*

Monica: Um, we were just talking about bacon.

Phoebe: No we were talking about Tennis. Tennis is more believeable.

ROFL!

[Jaded81]

Originally Posted by Gulftastic

The One with The Embryos, i.e. the one with Ross's trivia quiz to win the girls' apartment is my favourite.

Yes, absolutely my favourite episode.

I don't know why they thought Joey would work as a spin off. He was the most one dimensional character. You just weren't interested. Compare that to Frasier who outside of his life in the bar Cheers actually had a decent set up for a spin off, and he was never one of the "main" Cheers characters either so there was so much more you could do with him. Joey was just a dumb but lovable nymph.