In the aftermath of the Friends Reunion special on HBO Max, I thought I would take a look at Friends when the cast was young and funny and not old and maybe kind of a bit depressing.
My wife Andrea and I have watched Friends since the show began. Over the years of watching and re-watching this series over the years, we have some that stand out as favorite episodes.
"The One Where Ross Finds Out" features a great comic performance by Jennifer Anniston as an increasingly inebriated Rachel obsesses over Ross and his then girlfriend Julie getting a cat and Rachel getting closure in a drunken voice mail message.
"The One Where Everybody Finds Out" is a comic mishmash of who knows what when Rachel and Phoebe figure out Monica and Chandler's secret relationship and Phoebe's hilarious efforts to seduce Chandler to get him to break.
"The One with the Holiday Armadillo" has a special place for us as it's the first new episode Andrea and I watched while she was still in the hospital after giving birth to our daughter. Andrea tried not to break a C-section stitch as Ross waddles in dressed as armadillo to teach his son Ben about the story of Hanukah as "Santa's representative in the southern United States. And Mexico!"
But perhaps the one episode that Andrea and I might definitively say is our absolute favorite episode is ""The One with the Baby on the Bus" from the 2nd season.
There's a lot going on in this episode.
Rachel has the unfortunate task of telling Phoebe she's being replaced at Central Perk by a professional singer named Stephanie (played by real life professional rock star Chrissie Hynde) which leads Phoebe to sing angry protest songs outside the coffee shop. The owner of Central Perk is played by the always good Max Wright who is perfectly on point in his comic assessment of Phoebe's singing.
Meanwhile, Ross and his son Ben are visiting Monica who subsequently nearly poisons Ross with kiwi. Having a severe allergic reaction to the kiwi, Ross goes with Monica to the hospital where his pathological fear of needles ensues much hilarity.
With Ross and Monica at the hospital, Ben is left in the care of Chandler and Joey. Joey has an idea.
Women like babies. Women like men with babies. So Chandler and Joey with baby Ben and crap ton of baby stuff in tow go out on the town looking to score with women.
Which is when Lea Thompson enters the scene.
At the time this episode aired in 1995, Lea Thompson was in her own NBC sitcom Caroline in the City. The cameo was part of some stunt by NBC to stage a crossover with the stars of their Thursday night comedy line up.
Lea is not playing Caroline Duffy here but a different character.
She notes that her brother and his boyfriend have been trying to adopt a child for three years and asks what agency did Chandler and Joey use.
Exposing a flaw in Joey's plan to use a baby to pick up women.
A subsequent encounter with two other women on a bus finds Joey repeatedly emphasizing their heterosexual status.
But as Chandler, Joey and the two women disembark the bus, one of the women asks, "Where is your baby?"
A desperate dash for the bus proves fruitless as the bus turns a corner and merges into traffic with other identical buses.
The guys track the baby to a bus transportation center where they encounter a new complications: apparently they are not the only ones to leave a baby on the bus.
And it's the next sequence that pushes "The One With the Baby on the Bus" to the top of our list of favorite Friends episodes.
With two identical babies to chose from, the guys frantically try to recall if Ben's shirt had ducks or clowns on it.
Joey suggests flipping a coin.
Chandler suggests this is a stupid idea.
Joey suggests Chandler make a better suggestion.
Chandler pulls out a coin.
Joey calls "heads" and is excited when the coin comes up heads.
Then Matthew Perry does this perfect slow burn, giving Chandler a beat before he says "We have to assign heads to something!"
Joey contemplates a moment then says that ducks have heads so ducks is heads.
It's time for another classic Matthew Perry slow burn before Chandler poses the question, "What kind of scary ass clowns did they have at your birthday parties?"
There may be more classic iconic Friends episodes but "The One With the Baby on the Bus" is one that Andrea and I always enjoy.
When we first got HBO Max, we decided to sample some Friends on our new streaming service and "The One With the Baby on the Bus" is the first one we picked to watch.
Joey and Chandler are in classic Laurel and Hardy mode in one of the funniest scenes in the series, some fairly decent B and C plots and Lea Thompson too!
What more can you ask for?
Next week, Tuesday TV Touchbase takes a look at Gentlemen Jack and The Flight Attendant.
Until next time, remember to be good to one another and keep it down will ya? I'm trying to watch TV over here!
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