Friends: The Complete Eighth Season

I have to start out by saying that, yes, I'm an obsessive fan of Friends. I have been checking this website EVERY single day since season 7 was released hoping and praying that season 8 would show up, and after what has seemed like eternity, I just turned on the computer and found out that season 8 of Friends will be released on November 9th!!! I have to admit that season 7 is one of the worst seasons of Friends. It's pretty much just a long, drawn-out planning of Chandler and Monica's wedding. Season 8 is much better, where we start out by finding out that Rachel is pregnant and end with the birth of baby Emma, while following the first year of Monica and Chandler's marriage. Let me give you a quick run down of season 8:

The One After "I Do" - The group finds out Rachel is pregnant and Chandler reveals his two left feet.

The One With The Red Sweater - Everyone finds out that Ross is the father of Rachel's baby, except Ross himself.

The One Where Rachel Tells - Ross Finds out he's the father

The One With The Video Tape - Ross shows the gang the videotape of him and Rachel having sex to determine who pursued whom.

The One With Rachel's Date - Ross is uneasy finding out Rachel is going on a date while pregnant with his baby.

The One With The Halloween Party - Pheobe meets Ursula's fiance (Sean Penn)and ross dresses up as "Spudnik"

The One With The Stain - Sean Penn leaves Ursula for Pheobe and Joey puts up a nursery so Rachel will stay at his place.

The One With The Stripper - Monica orders a stripper for Chandler's belated b-day and she turns out to be a hooker.

The One With The Rumor - Brad Pitt guest stars on the thanksgiving episode with the "I hate Rachel" club from HS.

The One With Monica's Boots - Chandler is upset when Monica buys an expensive pair of boots that hurt her feet.

The One With Ross' Step Forward - Rachel ponders sleeping with Joey after feeling the hormonal changes in her pregnancy.

The One Where Joey Dates Rachel - Joey dates Rachel (duh!)

The One Where Chandler Take A Bath - Rachel and Ross decide not to learn the sex of their unborn child until Rachel peeks.

The One With The Secret Closet - Chandler discovers Monica's secret closet that is insanely messy.

The One With The Birthing Video - Chandler loses his romantic mood on Valentines day after seeing a birthing video meant for Rachel.

The One Where Joey Tells Rachel - Joey tells Rachel how he feels

The One With The Tea Leaves - Joey feels akward about confessing his love to Rachel so he tries to avoid her, Ross tries to get his pink t-shirt back from girlfriend Mona's apartment.

The One in Massapequa - Monica regrets giving a toast at her parents 35th anniversary and Pheobe's new boyfriend (Alec Baldwin) drive everyone crazy.

The One With Joey's Interview - Joey get another interview with Soap Opera Digest but he insists his friends be there so he doesn't mess it all up like he did the last time (when he lost his first role on Days of Our Lives)

The One With The Baby Shower - Rachel feels unprepared about being a mother and agrees to let her mother move in to help her

The One With The Cooking Class - After being criticized in the paper, Monica attends a cooking class where she is considered a cullinary genius.

The One Where Rachel is Late - Rachel is past her due date and gets more irritable, and is willing to try anything that might make the baby come.

The One Where Rachel Has A Baby - In the season finale, Rachel is in pain while other women get rolled into hospital rooms before her. Monica and Chandler find an empty room to make love in so they can have their own baby, and Rachel runs into Janice when she is rolled into the same hospital room.

Great stuff here in Friends season 8, you won't be disappointed!

The Friends season-by-season collections on DVD have been fantastic! Season 8 showed a natural and very realistic progression in the lives of Monica, Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Joey and Phoebe. Episodes 171-194 covered the first year of Monica and Chandler's married life together, Rachel finding out she was pregnant with Ross's baby, Joey showing some maturity as he deals with his deepening feelings for Rachel, and Phoebe still trying to find her true love (boyfriends included guest stars Sean Penn and Alec Baldwin).

We had watched our "Friends" transition from their 20's into their 30's and came to know and love them even more in Season 8. We could sense the end was coming though--we thought it would be Season 9 but were treated to an additional (although shortened) Season 10.

Season 8 wasn't all just growing up and getting serious though. Hysterical highlights from this year included Rachel crying out "I don't see it!" when trying to spot her baby on the sonogram, Chandler's claw hand after playing Ms. Pac-Man for hours, finding out Monica's secret - her closest full of junk in her otherwise obsessively-clean apartment, and Chandler discovering the joys of a scented bubble bath.

Seasons 5, 6, and 7 were released just a few months apart from each other, and I was hoping Warner Bros. would continue on the fast-track with seasons 8, 9, and 10 so I could finally complete my collection. It's been an agonizing summer of waiting for news of Season 8's release date (checking Amazon every day waiting for the announcement). Can't believe we still have to wait until November, but hopefully we'll get a Christmas treat and be able to buy Seasons 9 and 10 before 2005 arrives.

The eighth season of Friends finds the series rebounding strongly from a couple of good, but not great years. The series started picking up near the end of season seven with Monica (Courtney Cox) & Chandler's (Matthew Perry) wedding and the cliffhanger of one of the girls being pregnant. Season eight opens with the wedding reception in progress and it is discovered that Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) is the one pregnant. Rachel's pregnancy is the main storyline for the season. It is determined that Ross (David Schwimmer) is the father and this creates complications with Joey (Matt Le Blanc) who after living with Rachel develops feelings for her. The season's finale episode where Rachel finally has the baby has gone down as one of the best, if not the best episode, in the series' history. There are other hilarious episodes along the way including one where Chandler finds the soothing qualities of a bath with scented oils, one where Rachel tells Joey her boss is trying to buy her baby and Ross tries to retrieve his favorite shirt from his ex-girlfriend's apartment, the one where Joey & Rachel go on a date and Monica gets Chandler a Ms. Pac Man machine and the annual Thanksgiving episode in which Ms. Aniston's real life husband Brad Pitt guest stars as a fellow classmate and friend of Ross' from high school who started the We Hate Rachel club in high school. Other big guest stars include Sean Penn & Alec Baldwin. This was the only year that Friends would win the Emmy for Outstanding Comedy Series and Ms. Aniston won the Best Actress Emmy for her work.