NBC | Release Date: September 22, 1994
CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
65
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 24 Critic Reviews
Positive:
13
Mixed:
8
Negative:
3
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90
Los Angeles TimesHoward RosenbergFeb 27, 2013
Season 1 Review: The sexy, urbane Friends -- from Marta Kauffman, David Crane and Kevin Bright, the people responsible for the HBO super-comedy "Dream On" -- starts fairly strongly tonight, improves next Thursday and in week three gets on a grand, hilarious, rip-roaring roll. It's the perfect series to bridge "Mad About You" and "Seinfeld." [22 Sept 1994, p.F1]
90
Baltimore SunMichael SragowFeb 27, 2013
Season 1 Review: The best new sitcom of the fall...It's a very strong cast. [22 Sept 1994, p.1D]
88
San Jose Mercury News/Contra Costa TimesMike AntonucciFeb 27, 2013
Season 1 Review: All the weird, impulsive jokes are as outrageously funny as they aspire to be. [22 Sept 1994, p.1C]
80
Chicago TribuneKen Parish PerkinsFeb 27, 2013
Season 1 Review: 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. [21 Sept 1994, p.C2]
75
USA TodayMatt RoushFeb 27, 2013
Season 1 Review: Though it has its share of irritating characters and moronic moments - especially in the pilot - this is far and away the best of this season's so-called Gen X comedies. [22 Sept 1994, p.3D]
75
Chicago Sun-TimesGinny HolbertFeb 27, 2013
Season 1 Review: The clever series, from the creators of HBO's "Dream On", stars an appealing group of actors who are just a bit funnier and better-looking than your average friend. [22 Sept 1994, p.43]
70
Dallas Morning NewsEd BarkFeb 27, 2013
Season 1 Review: None of the six main actors is a stand-up comic, but they're appealing nonetheless...If the scripts get a little sharper, Friends may attract enough of the right demographics to become a hit. [22 Sept 1994]
60
Pittsburgh Post-GazetteRobert BiancoFeb 27, 2013
Season 1 Review: In short, they do what friends do, only they do more of it more often. Too often, actually. That constant comic bantering grows a little tired, just as it would if it ever actually happened in real life. [22 Sept 1994, p.C1]
50
NewsdayMarvin KitmanJul 12, 2013
Season 1 Review: The trouble with "Friends" is that Cox is not strong enough as a comedian. [5 Sep 1994]
50
San Diego Union-TribuneRobert P. LaurenceFeb 27, 2013
Season 1 Review: Tonight's new NBC sitcom from the producers of HBO's "Dream On" hands us still one more batch of self-consciously quirky, single, more-or-less charming twentysomething characters and lets them hang for a half-hour reading faux Woody Allen lines. [22 Sept 1994, p.36]
50
Cleveland Plain DealerTom FeranFeb 27, 2013
Season 1 Review: Amiable but not memorable, Friends becomes an overcrowded "Ellen," which remains a junior-varsity "Seinfeld" wannabe. [22 Sept 1994, p.7E]
50
Miami HeraldHal BoedekerFeb 27, 2013
Season 1 Review: Wildly uneven. [22 Sept 1994]
40
Kansas City StarBarry GarronFeb 27, 2013
Season 1 Review: So it's come to this - all talk and no action... Some of the lines are funny and several of the stars, particularly Aniston and David Schwimmer, who plays Ross, are appealing. But something is missing here and that something is a story. Where's the beef?[22 Sept 1994, p.F1]
40
Houston ChronicleAnn HodgesFeb 27, 2013
Season 1 Review: Friends is the new "Seinfeld" wannabe, but it will never be as funny as "Seinfeld." Even as "Seinfeld" is now, which isn't as funny as it used to be.[22 Sept 1994, p.10]
30
St. Louis Post-DispatchGail PenningtonFeb 27, 2013
Season 1 Review: All the characters lie on the couch a lot. While it's noted that they do have jobs, they seem to spend most of their time eating Oreos and watching TV. (Hey, that's my life. . . .) And they talk, but most of what they have to say isn't very funny. [22 Sept 1994, p.6G]
0
Washington PostTom ShalesFeb 27, 2013
Season 1 Review: Friends comes across like a 30-minute commercial for Dockers or Ikea or light beer, except it's smuttier. One character says he dreamed he had a telephone for a penis and when it rang, "it turns out it's my mother." And this is in the first five minutes...Another ghastly creation from professional panderers Marta Kauffman and David Crane, the witless duo who do "Dream On" for HBO, Friends is more a scripted talk show than a sitcom. You keep waiting for Sally Jessy or some other cluck to interrupt the jabbering. The show is so bad that Sally Jessy would actually come as a relief. [22 Sept 1994, p.D1]