Is DVD best of `Friends’?

By Jae-Ha Kim
Chicago Sun-Times
Dec. 27, 2000

Six years ago, I fell in love. Hard. Not with a man, but with a television sitcom called “Friends.”

I loved it so much that in 1995, I wrote a book about the series called Best of Friends (HarperPerennial). For the record, I never wrote a book about any of my ex-boyfriends.

So imagine my surprise when Warner Home Video sent me a two-volume DVD set of my beloved “Friends” called . . . “The Best of Friends.” Quicker than I could stammer out, “Lawsuit!” my editor quietly reminded me that book titles can’t be copyrighted.

Drats.

In any case, their “The Best of Friends”–now in stores–is an entertaining collection of 10 of the show’s episodes from the first five seasons.

Are these the show’s best episodes? Not in my opinion. But that says more about the overall excellence of the series than anything negative about Warner’s selections.

The press release promised that the two-volume set would include expanded versions of each episode with never-before-seen footage. Now if you haven’t gathered already, I’m a bit of a “Friends” geek. I’ve not only seen all the episodes at least twice, but I tape the show each week and archive them for instances just like this.

OK, that’s not totally true. I tape them just so I can watch them again when I’m feeling blue. But the point is that I have a point of reference to check to see if Warner is fibbing.

That said, I can say that I had a difficult time pinpointing any phenomenal extra footage. There were a few scenes where the actors had a little more on-air time–but nothing so extraordinary that you would shout, “Ohmigod! That was so not in the show when it aired on TV.”

Unlike something like say, “The X-Files” DVD/video collection, the added treats here aren’t really worth your time. You get a music video of the Rembrandts (remember them?) singing the theme song “I’ll Be There For You” and a couple of so-so featurettes shot during the two-part “London” episode in which Ross was supposed to marry Emily, but ended up saying Rachel’s name in his vows instead. Remember?

Anyhow, the selling point of the “Friends” collection is that you get to re-live 10 sassy episodes presented with digitally remastered care. You get to watch the somewhat shaky pilot when Rachel moves in with Monica. And the episode where Ross attends Lamaze class with his ex-wife and her new lesbian lover. And the one where Phoebe agrees to be a surrogate mom for her brother and his wife.

One of the funniest episodes is “The One with All the Thanksgivings,” where the gang relates their worst Thanksgivings ever. We not only get to see Ross wearing a pastel, “Miami Vice”-era suit and Chandler sporting a Flock of Seagulls hair-don’t, but also a very fat and funny teenage Monica nursing an unrequited crush on Chandler.This is all that much more sweet because the two are engaged to be married (hopefully later this season).

This mixture of sweet pathos, smart scripts and some darned good acting makes “The Best of Friends” two-volume set worth its price ($24.98 on VHS; $34.98 on DVD).

Even if it did nick its name from my book.