![]() Friends became the dominant sitcom of the Nineties and afterwards in apparently endless repeats, the ideal of a certain kind of twentysomething nirvana. It makes the heart sing to think that a piece of market research, even a minor one, could get it so comprehensively wrong. ![]() Science and Technical Research and Development.Infrastructure Management - Transport, Utilities.Information Services, Statistics, Records, Archives.Information and Communications Technology.HR, Training and Organisational Development.Health - Medical and Nursing Management.Facility / Grounds Management and Maintenance.And, undeniably, there was something in the wind, a suspicion that the times were changing and that there were new kinds of people, new social situations to talk about. The network suspected that there might be something in a collection of spunky characters sharing living space in a downsized economy, hilarious consequences guaranteed. ![]() Its developers had hit upon the notion of young people living in the city for the first time – the moment in your life when the future is a “question mark”. And the auguries were not good for one sitcom pilot commissioned by NBC in 1994. We might like to fool ourselves that comedy writing is all about inspiration and individual expression, but in the US it’s a research-driven business. This article was originally published in the New Statesman on 12 September 2014, and looks back at how a sitcom once described as “not very entertaining” left a lasting legacy and made Perry a star. Editor’s note: Matthew Perry, best known for his portrayal of Chandler in “Friends”, died at his home in Los Angeles on Saturday 28 October.
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