The Wake

On May 21, audiences around the country will bid adieu to a television show that has long overstayed its welcome. “Friends” originated in a TV era that was obsessed with the fast New York single life. “Shows like Caroline in the City,” “The Single Guy,” and “Seinfeld” all showed single New Yorkers not doing much more than drinking coffee and dating incessantly.

This was the way to live it seemed, to be in your late twenties/early thirties, not horribly successful yet somehow rich enough to afford well decorated city lofts and designer outfits. “Friends” opened to rave reviews; how could such a simple equation seem so unique? In the course of its first season, the show made bad dates and oversized cappuccinos a way of life. Women across the country flocked hair stylists for “the Rachel.”

That was eight years ago. And somehow the writers at NBC have flexed their minds enough to find new dating combinations between the six cast members. I’m not above it; I, like you, memorized the 7:00 p.m. Thursday slot in no time. I turned down the volume knob on my tiny television so my parents couldn’t scold me for watching such a show. (I was one of the few children in America not raised around a television schedule.) I cared about the Ross and Rachel drama and actually regretted missing the two-hour Super Bowl episode where Ross loses his precious pet monkey and crosses paths with a bevy of supermodels. Even my algebra homework included a “Friends” worksheet (I still couldn’t figure out the answer). On Friday afternoons over our baggied sandwiches, my classmates and I would recount last night’s episode play by play for those who had been unfortunate enough to miss it.

Somewhere, around the time Chandler slipped into bed with Monica, I turned the dial to a show that took the single in New York idea to the next level. The show was “Sex and the City”; whereas Rachel’s bedroom time with the Italian tourist was merely implied, I could see Samantha’s full plan of action with whatever meathead she picked up on 5th Avenue.

The one thing I admired about the end of “Sex and the City”’s run was the fact that it didn’t end things wrapped up in a tidy package; the girls don’t all end up with wedding rings and babies. But let’s face it: it’s just not that kind of show. The previous season seemed to flirt with this ending, and even Carrie the perpetual single girl found herself engaged. Thankfully the girls’ potential marriages all came apart, and they could go back to the sport of lonely bed hopping. The final episode had each girl in what appeared to be a happy relationship, but nothing set in stone.

“Friends” however, can’t get around an ending without pregnancies and weddings. This is the very same show of course that used a lesbian wedding, Phoebe giving birth to her brother’s triplets, and even Ross and Rachel having a child to create season finales. If you’re expecting an ending sans engagement rings and baby carriages, you obviously haven’t been watching.

However, for those that just can’t fathom going cold turkey, Joey and his womanizing brain dead self will return in a spin off, titled the obvious, “Joey.”