Friends

Friends is an American television sitcom, created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which originally aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting ten seasons. Starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer, the show revolves around six friends living in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television. The original executive producers were Kevin S. Bright, Marta Kauffman, and David Crane.

Kauffman and Crane began developing Friends under the title Insomnia Cafe between November and December 1993. They presented the idea to Bright, and together they pitched a seven-page treatment of the show to NBC. After several script rewrites and changes, including a second title change to Friends Like Us, the series was finally named Friends.

Filming took place at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California. All ten seasons of Friends ranked within the top ten of the final television season ratings; ultimately reaching the No. 1 spot with its eighth season. The series finale on May 6, 2004, was watched by around 52.5 million American viewers, making it the fifth most watched series finale in television history, and the most watched television episode of the 2000s decade.

Television program

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A television program is a segment of content intended for broadcast on vision, other than a commercial, trailer, or any other segment of content not serving as attraction for viewership. It may be a single production, or more commonly, a series of related productions (also called a television series).

A television series that is intended to comprise a limited number of episodes may be called a miniseries or serial. Series without a fixed length are usually divided into seasons or series, yearly or semiannual sets of new episodes. While there is no defined length, US industry practice tends to favor longer seasons than those of some other countries.

A one-time broadcast may be called a "special," or particularly in the UK a "special episode." A television film ("made-for-TV movie" or "television movie"), is a film that is initially broadcast on television rather than released in theaters or direct-to-video.

A program can be either recorded, as on video tape, other various electronic media forms, played with an on-demand player or viewed on live television.

Series

Series (singular) may refer to anything of a serial form:

Mathematics and science

Media

Music

Other uses

Television

Television is a telecommunication medium used for transmitting sound with moving images in monochrome (black-and-white), or in colour, and in two or three dimensions. It can refer to a television set, a television program, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium, for entertainment, education, news and advertising.

Television became available in crude experimental forms in the late 1920s. After World War II, an improved form became popular in the United States and Britain, and television sets became commonplace in homes, businesses, and institutions. During the 1950s, television was the primary medium for influencing public opinion. In the mid-1960s, color broadcasting was introduced in the US and most other developed countries. The availability of storage media such as VHS tape (1976), DVDs (1997), and high-definition Blu-ray Discs (2006) enabled viewers to watch recorded material such as movies. At the end of the first decade of the 2000s, digital television transmissions greatly increased in popularity. Another development was the move from standard-definition television (SDTV) (576i, with 576 interlaced lines of resolution and 480i) to high-definition television (HDTV), which provides a resolution that is substantially higher. HDTV may be transmitted in various formats: 1080p, 1080i and 720p. Since 2010, with the invention of smart television, Internet television has increased the availability of television programs and movies via the Internet through services such as Netflix, iPlayer, Hulu, Roku and Chromecast.

Matt LeBlanc

Matthew Steven "Matt" LeBlanc (born July 25, 1967) is an American actor, comedian, and producer, best known for his role as Joey Tribbiani on the NBC sitcom, Friends. In 2011, LeBlanc began starring as a fictional version of himself in Episodes, a BBC Two/Showtime television series created by Friends co-creator David Crane and Jeffrey Klarik. He won a Golden Globe award for his work on Episodes, and was nominated for an Emmy three times for his work on Friends and four times for Episodes. On February 4, 2016, it was confirmed by the BBC that he would become one of the presenters of the motoring show Top Gear, which would begin its 23rd series on May 8, 2016.

Early life

LeBlanc was born in Newton, Massachusetts. His mother, Patricia (b. 1937), was an office manager, and his father, Paul (1931–1997), was a mechanic. His mother is of Italian ancestry and his father of French-Canadian.

Career

LeBlanc first appeared in a 1987 Heinz Tomato Ketchup commercial. In 1988, he starred in the television drama TV 101 for one season. He went on to star in a spin-off of Married... with Children titled Top of the Heap. The Fox series lasted seven episodes airing in April and May 1991.