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Click on the links below to read different  reviews about Season 1 of the sitcom Friends.

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On Sept. 22, 1994 at 8:30 pm, the first episode of Friends aired on NBC. Earlier that Thursday, The Hollywood Reporter deemed the effort "humorously involving." The original review is below:
There's a sustaining humor at work on the new NBC entry Friends.

This ensemble comedy about a pack of young adults holed up in Manhattan starts in a capable manner, evidencing a solid understanding of the forces at work within the series' architecture. True, there is some forced shtick, but nonetheless, Friends makes the lives of its protagonists humorously involving.

Comprising the group of fledgling adults are Monica (Courteney Cox), who has a talent for connecting with not-so-good men. Her roommate is high-school pal Rachel (Jennifer Aniston), who never has had to work a day in her pampered life. Their neighbors are Chandler (Matthew Perry) and Joey (Matt LeBlanc), the latter a struggling actor, the former an office worker who sardonically sizes up things. Also encountered are Monica's recently divorced brother Ross (David Schwimmer) and Monica's pal Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow), a new-age flake.

The interplay of characters is kickily, if slightly inartfully, accomplished in Friends' commencement, as rendered by a story pertaining to Monica's going out with a line-skipping cad and Rachel skipping out on her wedding ceremony.

While Friends sometimes does appear more like a clumsy parody of MTV's The Real World than as a knowing effort to comically report on the real world, by and large the series puts its band of actors into engaging predicaments, resulting in good laughs. - Miles Beller

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'Friends' First Episode: THR's 1994 Review

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On Sept. 22, 1994 at 8:30 pm, the first episode of Friends aired on NBC. Earlier that Thursday, The Hollywood Reporter deemed the effort "humorously involving." The original review is below: There's a sustaining humor at work on the new NBC entry Friends.

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Before "Seinfeld," young and single characters with no marital prospects in TV sitcoms were subjects of pity ("Rhoda") or ridicule ("Laverne and Shirley"). Now, unattached singles are clearly the most envied characters in prime time.

Where else, except in TV fantasyland, can people spend most, if not all, of their time lounging on an apartment sofa confronting life's little irritations, chatting in pal-speak and sharing easy, intimate bonds of unconditional acceptance?

Thus, "Friends" (7:30 p.m. Thursday, NBC-Ch. 5)-which shouldn't be confused with "These Friends of Mine" (now "Ellen"), which shouldn't be confused with "Seinfeld"-couldn't have arrived at a more fortuitous time, or in a better time slot.

Wedged happily between "Mad About You" and "Seinfeld," this comedy series from the producers of HBO's "Dream On" would have to be an utter disaster-which it isn't-not to finish as the season's highest-rated new comedy.

What helps "Friends" is that the show's creators have come up with a highly likable group of actors who are talented and charming, if not rip-roaringly funny.

"Friends," like "Ellen," like "Seinfeld," like "Mad About You," wants you not merely to laugh at its characters-but to identify with them.

There's Monica ( Courteney Cox), the smart, assistant chef who is the most grounded of the group, but who often misfires when shooting for Mr. Right; Rachel (Jennifer Aniston), the pampered snob seeking independence; Ross (David Schwimmer), the divorced romantic; Joey (Matt LeBlanc), the passionate, struggling actor; Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow), the eternal optimist; and Chandler (Matthew Perry), the witty observer.

The humor derives mostly from a litany of complaints and wisecracks that spring from such subplots as Monica finding a beau her friends approve of, and Ross coping with the fact that his ex-wife, who left him for a woman, is pregnant.

Unlike "Ellen" and "Seinfeld, which pride themselves on exploring the trivial, "Friends" wants to be about something-which I suppose is its attempt to be a deeper, more poignant show.

It isn't, not yet anyway. But "Friends" is clearly a show of demographics-which is why it should do extremely well among those who, between the snappy dialogue, find themselves among the crowd.

- There aren't many big laughs in "Madman of the People" (8:30 p.m. Thursday, NBC-Ch. 5), but viewers should find Jack, the irreverent magazine columnist played by Dabney Coleman, amusingly familiar.

Producers have promised a softer, more humane character for Coleman, who in a handful of sitcoms over the years has transformed shifty irascibility into an art form.

The central theme of "Madman" is that Jack's new boss is his daughter, Meg (Cynthia Gibb), who refuses to bow to his bullying tactics. Playing referee is Jack's wife (Concetta Tomei).

Coleman was far better in "Buffalo Bill," and "Madman" could use spicier material, but it might develop with age. Besides, following "Seinfeld" will at least allow "Madman" time to find its footing.

- As for other shows premiering this week: Bill Cosby returns in the mild-mannered "Cosby Mysteries" (7 p.m. Wednesday, NBC-Ch. 5), playing a retired forensics expert whose hobby is solving crimes . . . The witless "Daddy's Girls" (7:30 p.m. Wednesday, CBS-Ch.2) stars Dudley Moore as a clothing manufacturer trying to handle four grown daughters without his wife, who has run off with his business partner. The tender, sentimentally quirky drama "Touched by an Angel" (8 p.m. Wednesday, CBS-Ch. 2), about angels on earthly missions, and "Due South" (7 p.m. Thursday, CBS-Ch. 2) premiere in regular time slots. . . . BET is promising "revelations" out of Ed Gordon's interview with controversial rapper-actor Tupac Shakur on "Conversations with Ed Gordon" (8 p.m. Wednesday, BET).

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Before "Seinfeld," young and single characters with no marital prospects in TV sitcoms were subjects of pity ("Rhoda") or ridicule ("Laverne and Shirley"). Now, unattached singles are clearly the most envied characters in prime time.

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