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THE FOREIGNER
Starring Tuna Guys
Jaston Williams & Joe Sears
September 24 & 25
HUBBARD STREET DANCE CHICAGO
October 21
FIDDLER ON THE ROOF
November 3 & 4
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December 3
GISELLE | St. Petersburg Ballet Theatre
February 5 & 6
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February 9 & 10
PRAGUE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
March 6
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March 2i & 22 |^sof.)i i Awnrn:
42ND STREET
Apr 6 & 7
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January 19
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April 17
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All Main Stage events performed in Rudder Auditorium at Texas A&M University.
Souki's got a
"Make It Happen"
list for Summer
1. Buy hat for beach party
2. Jump start math major
Message to Souki:
While you're home for summer reserve a seat in one of our
summer sessions or our three-week May mini-mester. Check out our
summer classes @www.college4you.com. Mak* Happen!
4A
Tuesday, May 4, 2004
ENTERTAINMENT
.THE BATTALION
0'
[HE •'
“Friends” at the end: Will
fans see the likes of it again!
or
[ontin
By Aaron Barnhart
KRT CAMPUS
million tor
but
u.
“Friends” has had more jump-the-shark
moments in its 10-year run than any TV show
ever. But they say what doesn’t kill you makes
you stronger, and “Friends” is proof of that.
After roaring back to life time and again, it
gets to leave the airwaves this Thursday tin its
own terms. Ross, Rachel, Monica, Chandler,
Phoebe and Joey may or may not be “friends to
the end,” but they certainly learned how to work
together as negotiation partners.
Not only did each of them earn $
each of the last 18 episodes of this season
they also were able to cancel their
own show while it was still going
strong and move on to new things.
(Malt LeBlanc will star in “Joey”
a spin-off comedy for NBC next
season.)
The sendoff of “Friends” proba
bly should have happened a year
ago, but NBC executives were still
waiting for “the next Friends” to
come along, and they bribed the
show’s six stars to return for a Final
season full of clip reels and reruns.
The gamble appears to have paid
off. This abbreviated final season
of odds-and-ends episodes has,
strangely, been one of the better
ones. And earlier this year, the
“next Friends” finally arrived.
Unfortunately for comedy fans,
it’s called “The Apprentice.”
We had to
make the point
over and over that
this was not a
show for a
generation. It was
a universal show.
The demise of the hit sitcom and the onslaught
of reality shows are worrisome trends. “Are
Sitcoms Dead?” asked Entertainment Weekly. “Is
‘Friends’ the End?” was USA Today’s more
apocalyptic headline. Interesting questions, and
we’ll get to them in a moment. But first, let’s dis
pel the false notion that underlies them that
“Friends” was just like all other sitcoms, only
higher-rated and longer-lived.
Wrong. “Friends” was in a class and a league
all its own. It was sitcom serendipity: outstanding
actors combined with terrific writing and people
at the helm who obviously hail no intention of
coasting once “Friends” became a monster mega
bit. Through all the ups and downs, journalists
waited for a crack in the six actors’ unified front.
They're still waiting.
Meanwhile. “Friends” just continued to sur
pass expectations. Originally branded as a Gen-X
comedy, it inspired a multitude of knockoffs.
Even NBC tried other ensemble shows with hip
young people hanging around drinking coffee.
”We had to make the point over and over that
this was not a show for a generation,” said David
Crane, the other co-creator of “Friends,” in a
recent conference call with reporters. “It was a
universal show.”
It’s interesting to compare “Friends” will)
“Frasier,” the other NBC comedy signing off
this spring (May 13). Five years ago, if you
were to have bet which show would be treated
to a lavish farewell, you’d probably have picked
“Frasier.” Spun off from “Cheers” in 1993,it
had an immediate impact on urban America,
and it was showered with Emmy awards eari\
on, including best comedy series five years mn
ning, from 1994 to 1998.
But as “Friends” matured, it became a big
ger hit and won Emmys, though not as
That wasn’t NBC’s marketing prowess at woii
Rather, it reflected the growing
admiration for a program where
people weathered the changes of
life while valuing their friend
ships above all else - above
lovers, above jobs, above pettv
annoyances.
Or compare “Friends” and
"Everybody Loves Raymond."the
show that w ill get the “Friends’
treatment next season if itsprinci
pals make gcxxl on their threatio
quit “Raymond” in 2005. It'si
classic comedy that depends heav
ily on comic pauses, much as the
Norman Lear shows of the
did. Laughs can be drawn out for
10 or 20 seconds if need be.
By contrast, "Friends" is a
thoroughly contemporary show
The
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— David Crane
co-creator of "Friends"
Using computers, its editors routinely remove
laughter during post-production whenever the
studio audience’s live reaction slows down the
show’s allegro pacing.
“It is such an extraordinarily sophisticated
show, and yet they make it look effortless,”says
Robert Thompson, the TV expert at Syracuse
University. “I would argue that Friends is
good if you’re half-asleep.”
That probably explains why networks have
been try ing to create “the next Friends’’for near
ly the entire decade that the show has been on
the air. Unlike the idiosyncratic "Seinfeld” or
“Frasier.” copying “Friends" doesn’t seem like
the hardest thing in the world to do. But it has
proved impossible.
Many people have commented that it feels
like the passing of an era. because networks are
no longer churning out hit comedies. Instead,
they’re investing in redlity shows, which don't
require w riters, are much cheaper to puxtot
and deliver young, advertiser-friendly viewers
in droves.
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