Friends

[G-Man]

Don;t you think you're doing some pretty heavy projecting yourslelf? But, yeah, it's for the best to conclude this before we get into a dizzy spin.

[WOM]

Just announced that Frasier is getting a reboot next year.

[Hot Pepsi]

That’s unnecessary.

[Gangster Octopus]

The dog must be dead by now...

[Hot Orange]

The dog must be dead by now...

Its owner is.

[Patrick Thistle]

Just announced that Frasier is getting a reboot next year.

Surely that would be worthy of its own thread?

[WOM]

WOM, there's a great book about that era on NBC by Warren Littlefield (the model for the character Bob Balaban played on Seinfeld), called Top Of The Rock.

Thanks for this tip. And it's an oral history, too. I fucking love reading oral history style books. Anyway, I'm a quarter of the way through and loving every page.

[Lucy Waterman]

Hooray! Glad to hear it.

[WOM]

If you've any interest, Final Cut by Stephen Bach is a phenomenal look at Heaven's Gate, Michael Cimino, and how a million little bad decisions turn into a catastrophe.

[Lucy Waterman]

Yes! The bit where they discuss the battlefield not having grass on it is one of the best comic set pieces in anything. Have you read The Devils Candy - same sort of thing but about the 1990 Bonfire Of The Vanities adaptation?

[WOM]

Goddammit man... <runs off to Abebooks again...>

The one anecdote that wasn't in the book was one that I'd read in (I think) Easy Riders / Raging Bulls, about how they paused production for a full week so that they could teach the entire cast to rollerskate/ballroom dance, even though it's a shot that only lasts a few seconds and could have been done with rollerskating extras. The bloat was just insane. And John Huston...he was sitting around between scenes for so long, he went off and made The Elephant Man before anyone had missed him.

[WOM]

Yes! The bit where they discuss the battlefield not having grass on it is one of the best comic set pieces in anything. Have you read The Devils Candy - same sort of thing but about the 1990 Bonfire Of The Vanities adaptation?

Okay, just finished this. Fantastic book. Great look behind the scenes at how creative decisions get made and how a flop unfolds in real time. The best part was that it was written while the movie was being made, so it wasn't a retrospective 'how did this flop get made' point of view.

Worst part was that they all thought they were making a great film. Nobody seemed to sense that it was a stinker until the test audiences starting responding so badly.

Anyway, any more recos...send 'em my way.

[WOM]

Thanks for this tip. And it's an oral history, too. I fucking love reading oral history style books. Anyway, I'm a quarter of the way through and loving every page.

This was a great read, too. I passed it along to my mate at work who was a massive Seinfeld fan and he enjoyed reading it too. Like me, he largely skipped chapters about shows he didn't watch, like ER and Wings. But the rest were great.

[Lucy Waterman]

Great to hear, WOM! Have you read the SNL oral history, Live From New York? With movies, this is a fun one...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Fiasco-Hist.../dp/0470098295

[WOM]

Brilliant. I've ordered that now.

Say, why not just give me the whole reading list at once and I'll try to save a bit on shipping...

[Lucy Waterman]

Haha, next time I have a chance I'll go through the bookshelves more thoroughly...

[WOM]

You've suggested some great stuff. That Fiasco book looks marvelous.

[WOM]

Say, did we discuss the Roger Corman book? It was quite good.

[Balderdasha]

In terms of whether Friends influenced coffee culture in the UK, all I can add is that when Friends was first on screens in the UK, I was about 13 / 14 and there were no coffee places like that. Then a small branch of the Seattle coffee company opened upstairs in the Waterstones in Cambridge. A couple of my friends were absolutely obsessed with Friends and so, from that point onwards it's where we all hung out, testing how many chocolate coated coffee beans we could eat before we couldn't sit still. That place and a more traditional Italian café called Clowns. I preferred Clowns because the owner would give you a decent pasta dish for 20p if you helped with the washing up and he never questioned why you weren't in school, say at 2pm on a Wednesday.

Anyway, we only got the idea of hanging out in coffee places from Friends. I don't know what the generation before me did instead. Actually, I do. My sister was four and a half years older and they just all hung out at pubs from age 14.

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

I always found the quirky conceit in Frasier was how the whole of Seattle apparently listened in to a talk radio agony aunt phone-in show broadcast in the afternoons. Surely in real life a show like that would get about 2% of the radio listening audience, who in turn would be at most 10% of Seattle.

I watched an episode recently where Roz was trying to find a man she had met on a bus, and Frasier is persuaded to put an appeal out on his show because apparently "half a million people listen to it". Spoilers - the guy heard the appeal, turned up at the station but he was married. D'oh!

[Walt Flanagans Dog]

Also while the thread is back up - was in Manchester with daughter recently and she excitedly led me into Primark where they have a replica "Central Perk" in-store. It was queued out of the door so we didn't hang around and made out way back through the racks of Friends / Central Perk themed merch.

[Patrick Thistle]

In terms of whether Friends influenced coffee culture in the UK, all I can add is that when Friends was first on screens in the UK, I was about 13 / 14 and there were no coffee places like that. Then a small branch of the Seattle coffee company opened upstairs in the Waterstones in Cambridge. A couple of my friends were absolutely obsessed with Friends and so, from that point onwards it's where we all hung out, testing how many chocolate coated coffee beans we could eat before we couldn't sit still. That place and a more traditional Italian café called Clowns. I preferred Clowns because the owner would give you a decent pasta dish for 20p if you helped with the washing up and he never questioned why you weren't in school, say at 2pm on a Wednesday.

Anyway, we only got the idea of hanging out in coffee places from Friends. I don't know what the generation before me did instead. Actually, I do. My sister was four and a half years older and they just all hung out at pubs from age 14.

I hope you've got at least four articles from peer reviewed economics journals and maybe an OECD report to back up your assertions here, Balderdasha. People on this thread demand at least that.

[Snake Plissken]

Great to hear, WOM! Have you read the SNL oral history, Live From New York?

Have I mentioned that one before? If I haven't - or even if I have - I thoroughly second the recommendation.

[Balderdasha]

Can't provide scientific studies or peer review, but these two articles mention the sitcom Friends as a contributory factor:

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...85691.html?amp

https://www.perfectdailygrind.com/20...oving-britain/

[ursus arctos]

Jeez, if everyone starts taking PT literally who know where we will end up . . .