It transformed from a sitcom into something much more, as it popularized a new way of life.
The world first meets Jennifer Aniston’s character Rachel Green, who hotfooted it straight from the altar to join her orthodontist fiancé Barry, as she bursts through the doors of the now-universally recognised Central Perk, barely three minutes into the Friends pilot episode (The One Where Monica Gets a Roommate).
She fled her possible household situation—married to a man she didn’t love at the age of 24—in an attempt to find a different life in the big metropolis. She sits in her high school buddy Monica Geller’s kitchen later in the episode.
As she embarks on a new life in the city with Monica, Phoebe, Chandler, Joey, and Ross, it represents a symbolic break from her family. Monica says, “Welcome to the real world.” It’s awful. You will really enjoy it.
Friends’ first episode, which aired this month thirty years ago, gave viewers a clear idea of the plot of the show. The marriage was deserted (or, in Ross’s case, ended soon after it started). The parents were no longer involved. Each week, these characters would depend on one another.
