TOW Ross' New Girlfriend

This ep ran in syndication last night[1]. Some thoughts/reflections:

I remember seeing this ep when it first ran (premiere episode of Season 2), and being very disappointed with it then. It has since grown on me, and is probably in my top 10 or so episodes now. It's certainly not a perfect episode, but very funny and well done.

Obviously, Joey and Chandler (once again) nearly steal the show from the Ross/Julie/Rachel storyline. MP not only delivers some gut-busting lines extremely well ("You have to stop the Q-Tip when there's resistance!"), but really nails the facial expressions and postures just right. Watch the scene where Ross and Chandler are explaining to Joey that his tailor is indeed "a very bad man." MP's looks and body language are great, and don't need any lines to be funny. DS/Ross has limited interplay with C&J, but does well and the dynamic is good.

Phoebe and Monica have a pretty funny subplot here, too. I love how Phoebe tries to protect herself and Monica by pretending to be controlling and anal. While it played for humor, it really revealed how the characters know each other's weaknesses but still love and accept each other. Phoebe's faux-medical description of Monica's hair (and her slideways slam on Ross' hair) was well-written and executed.

For me, the weakest part of the story is the whole Ross/Julie/Rachel thing. When it first aired, I was peeved at the introduction of Julie. I did, and still do, see it as an artificial way of prolonging the whole unrequited love thing. I must admit, however, the writers did do a good job of foreshadowing it and even made Julie's history believable in regards to her and Ross hooking up. (Anyone know if the writers planned that story arc?) And, while I growl at the seemingly unnecessary friction and angst Julie gives to the show, this allowed for some great episodes in Season 2 (TOW Ross Finds Out, TOW The Prom Video). And JA shows some great comic and acting ability here, with her frustration in the situation. The scene where Ross is getting all mushy with Julie on the phone right in front of Rachel shines -- Rachel flipping the magazine pages angrily, making mocking faces and voices, and finally hanging up the phone!

All in all, a very successful episode in regards to comedy and interaction. I think it's biggest weakness is there's no real movement in regards to the characters, but it's funny enough and well-done enough that that's OK.

In article , "Michael Martin" wrote:

Does anybody know exactly what Chandler meant by "Yo Paisan"?

And did you not notice that the whole storyline is played out without mentioning the word "crotch", yet Rachel says it quite gratuitously?

This whole scene is brilliant, mocking medical dramas: "I'm not gonna lie to you, Ross, it doesn't look good. I put a clip on one side, which seems to have stopped the curling."

JA is indeed extremely good in that scene, but she has two others equally marvellous - she completely steals the whole first scene at the apartment "isn't that just kick-you-in-the-crotch, spit-on-your-neck fantastic"; and a finely observed duet with MLB "there's rock bottom, then 50 feet of crap, then me" with a chance to see Joey's sensitive & intelligent side.

Ooooh - you haven't mentioned the return of Paolo "I do Raquelle", or R&R's "the whole all" scene on the balcony, or Rachel being bitchy to Julie behind her back by misleading poor Phoebe: "Andie MacDowell's the girl from Four Weddings and a Funeral, right? No. No no no no no. That's Roddy McDowall. Andie MacDowell is the guy from Planet of the Apes."

Tennant

I think he was just trying to be sarcastically Italian. His tailor was Italian, and he was very mad at Joey (sorta, but not really) for not knowing that his tailor..."took advantage of" them.

Speaking of this, does anybody know what he meant by that q-tip joke?

yea you use q-tips to clean out your ears but you arent suppose to go far into your ear, he was implying that the reason why Joey was being so how can we say slow? or forgetful? is because he put the q-tip to far and damaged his brain.

~Act

FYI and just to be useless--I think the British translation of "Q-Tips" is cotton buds. Little cardboard or plastic sticks with cotton wrapped around each end. You're not supposed to stick them in your ear canal but everybody does.

Yehlaina, who frequented Boots Pharmacy in her UK travels

"Elle fumait des fleurs aux parfums etranges." -- Strasbourg graffito

In article , [email] (Yehlaina) wrote:

Women's hair grips make excellent wax scrapers - if carefully deployed.

My gosh, Yehlaina, to be acquainted with *both* Italian-Philadelphianisms *and* what we Brits do in our private little places... :)

Tennant

yep that's it. They say its ok as long as you stay in your outer ear.

'
~Act

i played trivial pursuit last night, and one of the questions was, "what does the Q in q-tip stand for?" the answer is quality. Thought you just like to know.

Tennant Stuart wrote in message news:[email]...

I believe "paisan" is some sort of slang referring either to Italians or things of Italian origin.

Does she say it more than once? I didn't catch that!

[snip us agreeing on the quality of Phoebe's mock-medical take on Rachel's hair]

Yes! I meant to mention this scene, but obviously it slipped my mind. Nice to see Joey with some self-awareness and non-envious recognition of Ross' devotion to Rachel.

yes. I love it when Ross shoulder-shoves Paolo away. I share his physical revulsion for the character.

Skipped it because that was clipped from the syndicated version here in the States. Her misleading Phoebe is right up there with her triumphant va-va-voom hipswaying walk away from Ross when she tries to convince him that women really want men to withhold sex.

In article ,

In my ignorance, "paisan" doesn't look very Italian to me, and why would Chandler use obscure Italian slang? I wonder if it's from a movie.

Nope, just the once. "Gratuitous" means without good reason. :)

Well it was Joey who quickly realised the extent of Ross's devotion (?) love (?) infatuation (?) before any of the others, and it's a side of Joey that Rachel was obviously aware of.

Oh yes, I hated his guts. But it was thanks to Paolo that we had one of the bestest Phoebe scenes, where she *very*carefully* warns Rachel about him, without losing her friendship. That scene SO avoided the clich�.

Oh no! How dreadful! Here's the whole tag...

[Scene: Central Perk, Julie is asking Phoebe to cut her hair.]

JULIE: I was thinking of doing it a little shorter, you know, like
       Andie MacDowell's new haircut?
PHOEBE: You wanna do it right now?
JULIE: Great! (Julie leaves)
PHOEBE: (to Rachel) Okay, I just wanna be really sure this time. Andie
        MacDowell's the girl from "Four Weddings and a Funeral", right?
RACHEL: No. No no no no no. That's Roddy McDowall. Andie MacDowell is
        the guy from "Planet of the Apes".
PHOEBE: Oh, yeah. Okay, thank you.
RACHEL: You're welcome.

Watching the scene is funny, but reading it in cold print and thinking about how she is using poor Phoebe to do her dirty work, I can see what Claire means by Rachel as written being two steps from evil but...

..but Rachel as JA plays her manages to make people love her.

Tennant

Italians or

would

that

Looks like "peasant" to me (in which case it would work nicely as an insult to Joey's intelligence), but I can't find a definite answer.

Jac

Jacqui wrote:

Oh dear, Jacqui, if *you* don't know than we're in trouble. Can you at least listen to the tape and supply a definitive spelling?

Tennant :):)

of

As it's typed there, I would say. Unfortunately although it's a word I've heard, and there are similar versions in other languages ("paysanne" comes to mind), it's not in my Italian dictionary and asking Nonna resulted in a torrent of too-fast-to-follow dialect. Based on THAT I'd say that I did indeed call her a peasant, and offended her to boot... :)

Jac

Jacqui wrote:

Eek - you didn't tell Nonna to Va fa Paisan did you?

ooooooooooooooooooo0ooooooooooooooooooo

Okay, near the start of 219 "TOW Eddie Won't Go", Phoebe & Monica are telling Rachel about "Be your Own Windkeeper", when Joey holds up a "phallic shaped man cake" and asks them if they want a... What?

It sounds like CROW ANNE and is spelt "croan" in the transcript.

What's that then?

Tennant :):)

Sounds like a mishearing (or mispronunciation) of a cr�ller (not sure about that spelling, it might be a k, and possibly even a u). Certainly it looks like one.

Jac

Second thought, it might be a HIDEOUSLY MANGLED croissant. :)

Jac

No, I found the ep. It's definitely a cr�ller, but I still don't know for sure that's how it's spelled. :)

Jac

Lol! I was thinking it was an �clair myself. :)

Ah yes, you're *so* clever, Jacqui! :) He says CROW LERR not CROW ANNE.

I tried searching for "cr�ller", but found nothing, however "croller" turned up one entry that says it's a type of straightened out donut, but they didn't know how to spell it (arrrggh). I tried searching for sites about donuts, but there are 10606 of them!

Has anybody else heard of this word?

Tennant :):)

yes you can get them at dunkin donuts, I dont know how to spell it though.

~Act

<< Has anybody else heard of this word?

yes you can get them at dunkin donuts, I dont know how to spell it though.>>

It's spelled cruller. Hope this helps.

Wendy

In article , [email] (Wendy Rigney) wrote:

Thankyou very much indeed, Wendy. :)

Do you know about Spackle or Spackel or whatever?

Tennnt

<<> It's spelled cruller. Hope this helps.

Thankyou very much indeed, Wendy. :)

Do you know about Spackle or Spackel or whatever?

Tennnt>>

Spackle. <G>

Wendy

In article , [email] (Wendy Rigney) wrote:

Check. :)

Tennant

I think, though I can't verify this, that the word is spelled "cruller". Blame Webster for changing all those spellings and setting American precedents back in the 1700's. It's some kind of doughnut, as far as I know.

As for the "paisan'" thing: as an American of Italian descent, I'll offer the following overly-involved but hopefully interesting interpretation.

"Paisan'" is short for "paisano", I'm pretty sure, and I presume the meaning is "peasant" (sadly I know much more French than Italian).

Italian words all or mostly end in a vowel, and when immigrants came to America they were made fun of when they tried to put vowels on the ends of words when they spoke English. Therefore in the zeal to become assimilated, they overcompensated and knocked the final vowel off of everything, including many borrowed Italian words that should have kept it on. Examples besides "paisan' " include pronouncing antipasto as "antipast' " and the word "macaroni" (still used in by the older people the more insular Philadelphia immigrant neighborhoods to mean "spaghetti") as "macaron' ".

"Yo" is a time-honored Philadelphia greeting, used by Italians and I think Irish (I'm both) long before it made its appearance in rap. It means "hey" or "hi", or "just a minute". Recall "Yo Adrian!!" from the movie Rocky. It's probably also in use in other cities on the US eastern seaboard.

"Yo paisan' ", is therefore a greeting between Italian-Americans and is additionally an expression of ethnic pride and shared origin. Choosing "peasant" probably implies both "We're proud of my lowly, hardworking origins", and "Look how far we've come." My brother and the other solidly middle-class Italians in his fraternity in college (a private American University) used to greet each other this way, rather self-consciously.

Two of the executive producers of Friends came from the Philadelphia area (the TV column of the Philly Inquirer makes a point of saying so every time they quote said producers on the show), so I don't doubt they heard the expression in use. Chandler's use of it was probably sarcastic (I can't recall the exact usage in the episode), but nobody ever accused HIM of being Italian. Poor thing, what he misses. :-)

I didn't get all the way through to the end of this thread before adding this, so I don't know if someone else offered an explanation.

Yehlaina, in her second delurked post of the day "Elle fumait des fleurs aux parfums etranges." -- Strasbourg graffito

In article , [email] (Yehlaina) wrote:

<SNIPPING A DETAILED AND *VERY* INTERESTING EXPLANATION FOR "PAISAN">

Thankyou very much indeed, Yehlaina, especially for enlightening me about the reactionary tendency to strip vowels from the end of words. It explains a great deal. So, "paisan" it is then. :)

That's quite a name you have there, Yehlaina?

Tennant

You're welcome! And if you quote me and somebody corrects you, I never said it! :-)

Hey, you don't have to ask ME about myself twice. (unless you want to. Really, I can talk about Friends, too! And I will, I swear! :-) I took russian in college (University to you Brits). My real name is Ellen, so I went for Yelena when I took Russian. A friend of mine in college thought it was hysterically funny to greet me by yelling "Yeh-LAY-na", which is more or less how an American would pronounce it anyway. Not to knock my friend--I thought it was funny too.

when I took on a net name a couple of years later, I was looking for a really ugly spelling to match the nasal way my friend would yell it. I think I failed! :-)

Yehlaina, who extrapolates and makes presumptions about British dirty ears merely from her own! "Elle fumait des fleurs aux parfums etranges." -- Strasbourg graffito

That's how I would say it.

which is more or less

nah you didnt' do so bad.

Thanks for the explanation.

~Act

In article , [email] (Yehlaina) wrote:

You did indeed fail. "Yehlaina" has class. Have you checked to see how many Yehlainas there are in the world? I couldn't find any at all, unlike searching for "Activia" which gave her quite a shock... :)

Tennant

In article , Tennant Stuart wrote:

I've tried again, with different vowels, and discovered the spelling is "cruller", a small sweetcake in the form of a twisted strip of deep fried dough. In some parts of the USA it is called an unraised doughnut.

Apparently Dorothy (Judy Garland) eats a cruller just before plummeting into Auntie Em's pigpen, in "The Wizard of Oz".

Thanks for all your help on this one, Jacqui. :)

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo0ooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Okay, so in 305 "TOW Frank Junior", Joey replaces Monica's bathroom floor instead of finishing off the music unit. When an annoyed Chandler finds this out, he calls him "Spackel boy". What's that, then?

Tennant :):)

floor

Spackle is something equivalent to polyfilla (I think). He's possibly insinuating that Joey is doing a make-do-and-mend/half a job on *their* work, rather than finishing the job he started.

Jac

Jacqui wrote:

Ahh yes Jacqui, well done again! That sounds very likely. :)

Do any Americans know for sure the spelling of this product?

Tennant :):)

Tennant Stuart wrote in message news:[email]...

Spackle.

It's a compound used for filling small holes in walls (drywall, plaster). Over here, it's what most people use to fill in holes made by nails and such when they're going to paint the walls. Spackle comes in many varieties.

Technically, Joey would probably be using grout on the floor, but the joke still works. As do most of Chandler's. :-)

remember this line Tennant

"do you remember which part of the wall isn't spackel?"

When they co invented fireball.

and Joey probably did most of the spackle in their apartment.

~Act

On Sat, 8 Jul 2000, Activia stated this considered view. Waking from my doze, I hastily scrawled -

Thanks - I always wondered what that meant.

In article , Activia wrote:

Ahh, thankyou Michael. Jacqui was right then, the spelling is "Spackle" and it's the same thing we Brits call "Polyfilla". Sorry for doubting you Jacqui, but I needed some native input. :)

Off the top of my head no, I didn't remember, it's one of many weird Americanisms that go in one ear & out the other while I am NOT analysing but sitting back to enjoy the blissful comedy. :)

I'm now asking all these questions because I'm revamping my database, (in between everything else), and I've now got as far as 305, so I had not yet encountered these other spacklisms. But since you say so, Act, I've dug up the old database from its grave in the cellars...

305 "TOW Frank Junior"

CHANDLER: Yo!! Spackel boy! Get up!

315 "TOW Ross and Rachel Take a Break"

MONICA: Yeah, well kinda cute, like really kinda cute, or kinda cute like your friend Spackel Back Larry? PHOEBE: Hey, don't call him that! His name is Spackel Back Harry!

510 "TOW the Inappropriate Sister"

CHANDLER: Do you even remember which part of the wall is not spackle?

So, good people of ATF, are we agreed it is "Spackle", not "Spackel"?

Tennant

wow I remembered that line pretty near perfect!

OH I went to ANOTHER audition today, and uhh I dont know if I got the part but they clapped at the end so uhh, I think that's a good sign then asked me if I could sing a bit or if I knew James Taylor songs, I hate waiting to hear if you are in it or not. And I made another play which I am rehersing for on Tuesday. It's in the same playhouse so I dont have to worry about conflicting schedules between the two! Oh I hope I got it :o)

~Act

In article , Activia wrote:

Yeppity. :)

Fingers crossed...

Tennant

Likewise. I'm doing the community theater thing myself right now and hoping to break into the pros at the advanced age of thirty-three. Best of luck to you Act, and believe me when I say I know EXACTLY how you feel!! :-)

Yehlaina "Elle fumait des fleurs aux parfums etranges." -- Strasbourg graffito

They have tons of parts for that age group but not many for mine. Only 2 in this play and I was lucky there was one, sometimes they won't have one play that has a character young enough for me to play in the whole summer. Yea I hate waiting to find out. I love auditioning, I know that sounds crazy..but it really gets the adreneline pumping and I get this new sense of energy and it releases so many other feelings, it's great.

Good Luck!

~Act

In article , Activia wrote:

Just don't keep Francis Ford Coppola waiting. :(

Tennant

ahh who's that?

~Act

In article , Activia wrote:

Big-time movie director (Finian's Rainbow, The Godfather trilogy, The Conversation, Apocalypse Now, The Cotton Club, Peggy Sue Got Married, Dracula, The Rainmaker) who supervised auditions for Frankenstein, on the day we had a minor hassle with the doors on the subway... :(

Tennant

ohhh, ok

~Act

Hellooooo!!! After getting drunk in Vegas, Yehlaina doodled cat whiskers on his/her face and miaowed this little lot at a statue...

I'm attempting to break into the pro thing atm... it's insanely hard, especially when you don't even have a clue as to how to go about getting an agent. :(

In article , Tina wrote:

My experience begins with 'the agent getting you', sorry. :(

Tennant

Hellooooo!!! After getting drunk in Vegas, Tennant Stuart doodled cat whiskers on his/her face and miaowed this little lot at a statue...

I figured as much. :(

On Sat, 8 Jul 2000, Tennant Stuart stated this considered view. Waking from my doze, I hastily scrawled -

Mmmmm... Doughnuts! :)

[Sorry, that was just my Homer Simpson impression] :)

One of my fav scenes was when Homer was sent to hell & they tried to punish him by stuffing him with all the donuts in the world, but he just ate them all!

lol I didnt see that episode. That's Homer all right.

~Act

In article , Activia wrote:

Or where he invented a time-travelling toaster, and kept going back in time, changing history, and going back to try again? In one of the worlds he created, just as he went back to destroy it, it rained donuts. :-)

Tennant

In article , Paul Hyett wrote:

My favourite is "Mmmmmmm... Waffle run-off"! :)

Tennant

Tennant Stuart wrote:

I think "paisan" (not sure if that's the correct spelling) literally means "countryman." At any rate, it's not obscure�I know lots of Italian-Americans in NYC who call each other "paisan." On occasion,they also use the term to address non-Italian friends; its slang meaning is the equivalent of "buddy" or "pal." In TOW Ross' New Girlfriend, Chandler uses the term to make fun of Joey�Joey thinks the tailor is a great guy just because he's a paisan (a fellow Italian-American) while not noticing that the tailor is a pervert.

�Spencer

In article , [email] (Sprong77) wrote:

Cheers Spencer, that sounds right to me.

Anyone know the correct spelling?

Tennant

In article , "Michael Martin" wrote:

Well of course, I can think of *somebody* who would be better for Ross, but not many people agree with me. And while really disliking Ross in the last half of Season two, I've always liked Rachel, even when she's so awful - I just can't help it. The old Monica has never given me a moment's worry, let's just hope she returns in Season Seven...

Tennant

Tennant Stuart wrote in message news:[email]...

[snippety snip]

Ross, but

Who?! My curiosity is quite piqued.

Why? Because he was understandably jealous of Rachel's devotion to her new job? Because he knew Mark's intentions were not platonic?

Wait -- that sounds more aggressive than I wanted it to. Tennant, please share your reasons for a sliding dislike of Ross after Season 2. Better? :-) I'm just curious because, as I have shared in earlier posts, Ross (for me) started losing my liking/sympathy in late Season 4/early Season 5.

worry,

I liked Rachel the first couple of seasons, but mostly because of Ross' feelings for her. I've found I don't really like the character much outside of the R&R dynamic. (Hiding from Rachel supporters taking aim.)

Hellooooo!!! After getting drunk in Vegas, Michael Martin doodled cat whiskers on his/her face and miaowed this little lot at a statue...

Not that I don't like her, just find her pretty boring to be honest. Ross isn't much better. This is my central reason for demanding a reunion these days. :)

In article , "Michael Martin" wrote:

I'm that rare creature, a Ross & Phoebe fan.

He was right to be jealous of Mark, wrong not to trust Rachel.

There's a correction floating around in cyberspace somewhere. As I read this, it hasn't yet arrived. I actually meant the last half of Season 3, and upon reflection not even that, but just 311-315. Ross's behaviour during the Emily period seems reasonable to me, given the situation that he was in, and episode 418 made it clear that 311-315 was not his fault.

Well I'm one, but I won't hurt you. I was never impressed by the R&R dynamic because I so dislike will-they won't-they romances (Cheers and Moonlighting and Frasier having others) which are so doomed if the pair ever get together. I liked NewsRadio where their romantic couple clicked straight off, and the comedy went on from there. Now, R&R have terrific chemistry together, but that's because DS & JA are great thespians, but they are at their best when they're antagonistic. If Ross & Phoebe ever get together, then with luck Rachel will go absolutely bitchcakes over the one girlfriend in the world she can't drive away, yet Phoebe would be so healing for Ross, returning the poor guy not just to his best as in episode 310, but to how he was in 1992-3 which we have never seen.

Tennant

In article , Tennant Stuart wrote:

Errk - that should be last half of Season Three, and upon reflection that's too strong - let's say 311-315. Hmmm, that's not as long as it feels like, maybe it's because he's never been as great since 310.

Tennant

;) I loved how she took the phone from Ross & hung it up, and I never noticed before but when Julie's about to tell the story about the bus ride and Rachel says "The chicken pooped on her lap" it really made me laugh, It was definitely the way she said it.

Yeah this episode was very good, each of the 3 storylines were funny and flowed well with eachother. I definitely enjoyed it more than I did the first time I saw it. Damned syndication cut off the end teaser thing though.

====== "Life is never without love" -Sheryl Crow

Michael Martin wrote:

Because they just don't give a damn, that's why. I know, you'd love to hear of some practical explanation that you hadn't taken into account, but unfortunately it is simply because they are dumber than you are.

For whatever solace that brings you ;-)

I guess I have so gotten used to this, but I can still feel your pain. There's no help for it.

Just wait until Columbia House (Re-Play) offers Friends on VHS or DVD in about 10 years. Don't expect to get them in order, and don't expect to get them all either. And you'll never find out whether all of them are included or not until they stop coming. These people have absolutely no concept of series order or completeness. I know they are dependent on the studio to make the episodes available to them, but if they cared about either one of these things you would think they tell us once in awhile ("we're trying to get the rest of the Cheers episodes from seasons 1-5, honest we are, but so far WB won't unclench!").

I'm almost finished getting my MASH collection, and every tape comes as a theme tape. The first tape ever did have the pilot episode on it, followed by a second season episode and a third season episode.

But hey, if the Internet achieves it's potential maybe one day we'll be able to order the episodes we want, in the order we want them, and assemble our own "Collector's Edition". Gee, wouldn't that be .... logical? Yeah, too logical probably.

In article , [email] (JamesS1889) wrote:

Well, in The Rest Of The World we already have seasons 1-5 in order. All you guys have to do is solve the PAL DVD problem, without letting the trolls tell you it's impossibly expensive.

Tennant

That'll have to be somebody else. I'm way too busy to even care, and way too incompetent to even understand the problem much less solve it. I practically have the entire series on my own tapes anyway.

On Fri, 7 Jul 2000, Tennant Stuart stated this considered view. Waking from my doze, I hastily scrawled -

Roll on re-recordable DVD players!

(Wait - have I said that before?) :)

In article , Paul Hyett wrote:

Well, I can think of a young lady in Connecticut who'd receive a little parcel of discs in the mail...

Tennant

On Sun, 9 Jul 2000, Tennant Stuart stated this considered view. Waking from my doze, I hastily scrawled -

Dare I ask? :)

Paul Hyett wrote:

She knows who she is. :)

Tennant

I don't think anyone mentioned the 2nd best Chandler line of that ep.

Joey: Tell my tailor I said 'hi', from Joey, he'll know what I mean Chandler: Do you think he can crack that code?!

that was a great line!

~Act

In my opinion, this episode really shows jennifer's comedic acting ability. As i have said MANY times on this newsgroup, i think she deserved at least an emmy nomination for season 2! This is one of my favorite episodes of all time, because it's good writing and it gives each of the characters a GOOD plot. My 2 favorite parst were: ross/julie: we were on this bus that was easly 200 hundred years old... Rachel: ..and the chicken POOPS in her lap!!!! and rachel: i mean isn't that just kick-you-in-the-crotch, spit-on-your-neck FANTASTIC!!!!!

In article , [email] (SHNOCODY) wrote:

Absolutely, but she was great in other seasons too, her performance in 118 "TOW All the Poker" just takes my breath away.

She is also superb at physical comedy, the only one of the six who can really make an accident look accidental. Watch DS trying to put his hand over Chandler's air-hole in 408 "TOW Chandler in a Box" for an example of how *not* to do it.

Tennant Stuart

I agree this was very funny. C&J never disappoint. Plus, I always love it when the three guys are together. It doesn't happen often enough anymore.

This is where I have to disagree. For me, the Phoebe/Monica story was the weakest of the episode. The Dudley Moore hair was good for a quick joke, but not for an entire subplot.

I really liked this plot. I'll admit it didn't have the jokes the Chandler/Joey story had, but it had enough heart to carry it through.

I think everyone was peeved with Julie's indroduction. But at least it wasn't a surprise to us. It would have been much worse if we hadn't seen Julie get off the plane with Ross in Season One. We would have expected Ross and Rachel to get together and been disappointed to see Julie in 201. This way, we sort of knew what was coming.

Season Two Rachel has always been my favorite Rachel. IMHO Rachel was at her best during the "Julie" episodes. I really like her when she's bitchy and doesn't always get what she wants. She had a great blend of humor and emotion.