I never did watch The Odd Couple 2010s series that Matthew Perry, who recently passed away, starred in with Thomas Lennon. Perry had pretty much did this concept earlier with Friends, but he played the Felix Unger role in that NBC sitcom. In Couple, he played Oscar Madison.
Friends ran from 1994 to 2004. While it had some faults and a lot of things that were unbelievable, such as New York City being so non-diverse and how everyone seemed to have prime real estate while working low-level jobs, it did touch on one thing – the platonic love between Chandler Bing (Perry) and Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc). Chandler was the metrosexual before it was popular. He was a NYC business yuppie who had sometimes had a crass sardonic wit, while Joey was the working-class Italian stereotype.
Easily, the two men could’ve been the same thing we had seen time and time before. And they weren’t the first to behave this way. Ralph Kramden (Jackie Gleason) and Ed Norton (Art Carney) had a bromance on The Honeymooners. So did Cliff Claven (John Ratzenberger) and Norm Peterson (George Wendt) on Cheers. But the writers, producers and dynamic between Perry and LeBlanc made them so damn perfect together. They were like a married couple who slept in separate bedrooms. They could argue like they were about to come to blows and five minutes later, you’d never notice they’d ever had a spat.
Their bond was so much that when Joey moved out during the second season following a success on his role on The Days of our Lives, rumors in real life spread they were gay. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, as the old phrase from Seinfeld goes. And Jerry and George (Jason Alexander) also had a similar bromance where they could’ve been partners easily. No, they weren’t gay. None of them were. But for a rare moment in a TV show, people were witnessing the platonic love between two men. Ralph and Ed would bicker with Ralph getting upset over Art’s goofiness. Jerry and George were too selfish to show this affection toward each other. And Cliff and Norm kept a distance between them as well.
Maybe it was the fact that Chandler and Joey lived together they had a special friendship. Things would be different with Joey moving out. They argue over who gets to take the beloved foosball table with them. Joey wins but decides to leave it with Chandler. Before he moves out, Joey gives Chandler a hug meaning simply “All is forgiven” and he’ll miss him.
Chandler ended up getting a weird roommate, Eddie, played by Adam Goldberg who ended up being somewhat crazy. But when things went bad for Joey at his new place, they threw all of Eddie’s stuff out and Joey moved back in much to the audience’s delight. Since Eddie had cognitive problems, he thought he had made a mistake. But it wasn’t just fights over foosball and realizing they liked living together. No, Chandler and Joey had that weird connection where no matter how refined Chandler seem, he enjoyed Joey’s simpleminded foolishness. And Joey could be just as nuerotic and over dramatic like Chandler.
Remember the one when Joey takes out all Chandler’s clothes and wears them all? And then he hides all off Chandler’s underwear forcing him to go commando on a rented tuxedo. They may have been from both backgrounds but they seemed to move parallel with each other. One episode had the two laughing in those recliners they loved while they watched Beavis and Butt-head. They were like a NYC grown-up version with Joey as Beavis and Chandler as Butt-head. When they realize that even though the fire alarm is off, the heat hasn’t gotten far enough, so they keep watching the TV.
Chandler could be just as scatter-brained as Joey. When they are playing a football game on Thanksgiving, Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) distracts Chandler by showing him her breasts. He stops and just looks with a goofy smile on his face like he had just saw some boobs. You could very easily see Joey being distracted by the same thing. And then there was the “Free Porn” episode where they discover a cable/satellite link into a porn channel which they leave on endlessly afraid that if they turn it off they’ll lose the channel. But it affects their behavior and they expect every interaction with random women to result in sex.
Another story arc was when Joey and Chandler had switched apartments with Monica Gellar (Courtney Cox) and Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston). They come riding in on a dog statue that Joey had bought with his Days of Our Lives money like two generals prevailing over a conquest after winning a quiz game. And later, Monica and Rachel moved their stuff back. To compromise Monica and Rachel said they would kiss for a minute. We don’t see them kiss. Not that standards and practices would’ve probably vetoed it at the time, but you know from the reaction of Joey and Chandler, they couldn’t pass it up. The next scene has them returning to their original apartment with Chandler saying, “Totally worth it!”
While Chandler was the college friend of Ross Gellar (David Schwimmer), they had a different friendship. It’s very common. It’s like bandmembers who are in other bands. It doesn’t mean they don’t like performing in one band, they just make different music in another. And they need to make that other music. Ross is the intellectual of the group while Chandler is the suave and Joey is the fool. In previous sitcom decades, Joey and Chandler would’ve been the sidekicks like Cliff and Norm. But in Friends, they were the leads. Perry and LeBlanc made them three-dimensional characters that rose above the cliched tropes.
And probably one of the most memorable story arcs was when Joey got a baby chick and they ended up becoming “parents” of a baby chick and duck that Joey also got. This led to Chandler becoming a father figure during an episode where Ben Stiller guest-starred as a person who has anger issues and gets upset at the chick and duck. His outburst leads the others to come in and very assertively Chandler says, “Step away from the duck!” It was comical but you could tell Chandler wasn’t going to let anyone harm his babies.
Of course while the show had Ross and Jennifer become a couple and then break up, during the arc where Ross marries Emily, Chander and Monica have a fling in the England hotel that soon turns into a relationship. While they played this relationship out for three seasons, the seventh season ended with Chandler and Monica finally getting married. And Joey officiates the ceremony.
It was a fitting moment because while the bromance was taking a turn. It would remain but not the same. It was almost like Joey was giving away Chander knowing that things are going to be different between them from now on. They would remain friends forever but the relationship was changing. Nowadays, such a dynamic wouldn’t be so revolutionary.
Hollywood is still afraid of having men show their emotions to each other. I noted Strangers Things season four took a very good approach at this. There’s also Stand By Me. While in other cultures, straight men hug (and even kiss) each other with a total platonic feel, here in America, having a limp handshake is considered “unmanly.” Chandler and Joey still busted each other balls as men do. Chandler kidded Joey about taking the stage name “Joseph Stalin” to make it sound more professional. Later he tells Joey to change his stage name to “Holden McGroin.”
But Joey was sometimes quick with the mockery. When Chandler lets it slip that Ross was in love with Rachel, he freaks out and begins to massage the side of his head. Joey tells him to see if he can keep doing that to turn back time. Guys normally do this among each other and Joey and Chandler were no different. But they also care about each other, very much! That’s what makes them so special.
Not much is still known about Perry’s death at this time except it’s believed he drowned in his hot tub. Some people may never have liked Friends and I admit the show probably should’ve called it quits with the marriage of Chandler and Monica, it still was a show that brought happiness to a lot of people. It was a look at that moment in youtr life in your 20s where you’re not sure how things are going to go, but you have your own circle of friens to help you out. Living Single did the same thing. So did How I Met Your Mother.
Perry struggled throughout the years with drug and alcohol abuse. If anything else, his struggles may have helped others get the help they needed.
Were you a Friends‘ fan? What was your favorite episode? Please comment.
Zane Says 