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Stunt casting stumbles (Jean-Claude Van Damme, Charlie Sheen) aside, it was a very good year for this beloved series, recently ranked by
TV Guide as among the top 25 of all time. With the bar set so high from the first season, a sophomore slump could be expected, but, apart from a game Julia Roberts, only the hour-long episode raised the question whether success would spoil
Friends. (This episode, "The One After the Super Bowl," convinced some misguided NBC executive that guest star Brooke Shields could carry her own series!) Ross (David Schwimmer) and Rachel (an Emmy-worthy Jennifer Aniston) were the engine that drove the season and produced some of the series' most monumental episodes, including "The One with Ross' New Girlfriend," "The One Where Ross Finds Out" (with R & R's first kiss), "The One with the List," "The One with the Prom Video," and "The One Where Ross and Rachel... You Know." But this was not the only significant story arc.
Enter--and, in the bittersweet season finale, exit--Tom Selleck as Dr. Richard Burke, the family friend ("He's like a brother to... Dad," notes a disapproving Ross) who becomes Monica's (Courtney Cox) lover. Joey (Matt LeBlanc) finds success (albeit short-lived) as Dr. Drake Ramoray on "Days of Our Lives" and moves out ("We're not Bert and Ernie," he tells roommate Chandler). Future Emmy winner Lisa Kudrow's best season is to come, but, as Phoebe, she makes the most of some memorable subplots, including her shocked discovery of sad movie endings she had been shielded from ("The One Where Old Yeller Dies"), her dispute with Ross over evolution ("The One Where Heckles Dies"), and her channeling of an elderly woman who died on her massage table ("The One with the Lesbian Wedding"). Praise is due unsung hero Lauren Tom, so charming and sweet in the thankless role as Julie, the Girl Who Comes Between Ross and Rachel. Adam Goldberg also makes an indelible impression in his three-episode stint as Chandler's new "psycho" roommate. Notable omissions from this set include chapter stops for each episode, and uh, ahem, hel-LOH, how about commentary from the cast? --Donald Liebenson
Video Details
Friends: The Complete Season Two includes 24 episodes, each containing additional, never-before-seen footage.
TV Guide recently named
Friends as one of the "50 Greatest Shows of All Time" and called it "a chemistry textbook in cast dynamics ...."
Entertainment Weekly dubbed
Friends, "The sitcom gift that keeps on giving ... an incredibly consistent supply of charming, clever comedy."
Friends: The Complete Season Two features an all-star slate of special guests including Julia Roberts, Charlie Sheen, Tom Selleck, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Giovanni Ribisi, Chris Isaak, Brooke Shields, Marlo Thomas, and Elliot Gould. The DVD version of
Friends: The Complete Season Two is loaded with special features, including commentary from the show's producers, Kevin S. Bright, Marta Kauffman and David Crane, on two key episodes; "Open House at Monica and Rachel's," which takes viewers on an interactive tour of their to-die-for apartment; "Friends Of
Friends," a video guide to season two's special guest appearances; a "How Well Do You Know Your Friends?" video trivia challenge; video character bios and a DVD-ROM link to the
Friends website.
DVD ~ Jennifer Aniston
DVD ~ Jennifer Aniston
DVD ~ Jennifer Aniston
DVD ~ Jennifer Aniston
DVD ~ Jennifer Aniston
