i was just watchings some old eps and i thought about the fact that no one ever works, not ever, but you never see them work.
everyone has a job more or less. but they seem to spend most of the day at home or in central perk. yeah, i know it's a sitcom, but it is kinda weird.
it looks like chandler has a pretty good job and so he should be in the office most of the day, AFAIK. joey and phoebe don't really count because they have not regular working times, but rachel, ross and monica have "normal" jobs although they don't "work" much.
it's just something that popped into my mind lately...
Keep in mind that we see them merely one day a week, 24/25 weeks a year. Else we'd have possibly seen them going on vacation other than honeymoon or a weekend trip.
Yes, the Bings' working hours would collide a lot in RL, because Monica is a chef, who supposeably has to work in the evening and weekends too. Somehow they can go off work for unlimited time, whenever they need, e.g. when a friend has a baby.
But how do The Rembrandts sing "you're still in bed at and work began at eight."
yeah, but a episode mostly covers more than one day so it seems rather impossible that we see them always having a day off or vacation. but in fact it's just a sitcom so it is a "moo" point anyway, regarding to joey *g*
In article , Christoph =?ISO-8859-1?Q?P=E4per?= wrote:
That's right, and it means that you overslept, and when you woke up you were already two hours late for work. But you can't just zip there, so it's gonna be a lot worse than that. In which case you might as well have a decent breakfast before you go, but you burnt it. Your mother warned you there'd be days like these, but you didn't realise the world could bring you down to your knees.
But it's okay, since your friends will be there for you...
"Michael Herzog" wrote in message news:CiBu9.171444$[email]...
"Never"? We have seen every single character working. We've seen Ross teaching, Monica cooking and dealing with restaurant employees, Rachel in her office at Ralph Lauren, Joey at _Days of Our Lives_, Chandler at his job, and Phoebe massaging clients. How many work plots would we need before people stop claiming we "never" see them at work?
i certainly noticed that, but shouldn't be there 'more' working? i agree, we saw everyone doing something, but do you spend most of the week hanging out during the day with your friends in a coffee house or at their homes? presuming you have a job (no offense!). ;-)
there was in one ep. where chandler said something about them on not working on a regular work day, while all of them where sitting during the day in central perk. after that everybody jumps up and they storm out. that got directy to the point i was speaking about. very funny, but i don't remberber which episode that was.
"Michael Herzog" wrote in message news:mBCu9.171731$[email]...
we
out
You were claiming that we "never" see them at work. Whether we ought to see them working more often is open for debate. I certainly wouldn't mind seeing good work stories, but it's a matter of selection. As Christoph points out, we do just see a fraction of their lives. I teach full-time at the college level, and if I were the subject of a sitcom, the writers could make most of the stories about me in the classroom teaching, chatting with colleagues, working in my office, and meeting with students. Or there could be more stories about me at home with my husband, going out and doing things, interacting with friends, etc. (Not that anyone would want to watch either show!)
working
don't
You're thinking of 6.08, TOW Ross's Teeth:
Rachel: Just come by at lunch so that my boss doesn't see you, 'cause Kim will just freak out, and she already doesn't like me very much. Chandler: Oh, that's weird. I don't think my boss likes me either. Monica: I don't think mine likes me either. Ross: Maybe it's a universal thing. Joey: Yeah. Or maybe... it's because you're all hanging around here at 11:30 on a wednesday.
I can't help thinking this was put in as a joke since you're not the only one who has claimed the characters "never work."
Belphoebe is a character in Spenser's _The Faerie Queene_. And why not? ;)
IMHO there are two general types of TV series: work based ones and home/family based ones. Sparetime orientated shows seem to be almost exclusive to sitcoms, including Friends (damn, Caroline in the City doesn't fit in). They have one huge advantage: the most important things in life don't happen at work, thus in most work-orientated series, the characters' lives don't evolve much over the seasons (The X-Files is a good example, neither Mulder nor Scully ever had a girl-/boy-friend; family members interfered with stories though). Also it's easier (actor-wise)to introduce a re-appearing working colleague than a (close) family member. Work shows without people getting fired or promoted (fixed cast) become unbelievable (e.g. Star Trek) over the years and their characters tend to have love relations only between each other (e.g. ER).
But very few shows are about a person's life; they are about a situation in their life. I guess that's why they are called sit-coms. If you look at most shows, they seem to exagerate some part of the character's life.
The show's creator(s) pick some funny situation, then pick some characters to inhabit it, and that's where the laughs come from. It doesn't matter that you never see them at work (or indeed what happens at work) because the writers aren't trying to make that funny.
If you look at Cheers, virtually all of it took place in the bar. They must all be drunks, they must not have jobs, they have no family.
It's been a long time, but I don't remember any episodes of Barney Miller that didn't take place at the police station.
In "Everyone Loves Raymond", rarely does anything happen anywhere but at home. The situation is the family and how they interact, not what funny things can happen when Raymond is at work.
In "I Dream of Jeannie", the situation was "what happens if a guy finds a genie, and how will it affect his life". Because of that situation, it often worked out well at home or work.
Friends is like that. The situation is a group of friends, and usually they are at home or at the coffee place. Other characters come in and interact in that "universe". Actually, compared to some other shows, they get out into the world a fair amount. But usually, it's when someone from home shows up (Phoebe's brother at the massage parlor) or references something that has happened at home (there was an ongoing joke, which seems to have faded, about how Chandler must be gay because of the way he dresses, etc. And one episode where he is at work, that's part of the joke. On the other hand, there is also an ongoing joke about what exactly he does at work, so for him to be at that vague job is funny in itself.)
Look at it this way. You have your friends, and then you have your work. Often the two don't overlap. Friends (and most sit-coms) are a snap-shot of a small bit of someone's life.
Even more so, because he didn't live with anyone and one of the people he worked with was his best friend, so they didn't have the nasty expense of casting more people.