so no one told you it was gonna be this fun we learn we laugh we play come on everyone it's like you're always learning something new expressions vocab fun facts and grammar too this is fyi it's your favorite show this is fyi so now you know this is fyi come on join me let's go welcome to for your info english you got it[Applause][Music][Applause] hello hello hello my amigos and welcome to this another exciting edition of your favorite topic based podcast f-y-i for your english and today we've got a really cool show for you if you haven't figured it out yet to figure out is avedi guade we're going to be looking at friends today that's right the most one of the most famous sitcoms ever and let's clear something up before we even begin a sitcom is a situational comedy and a series is usually well a little bit more involved it's more structured it's a little bit deeper so think of situational comedy as something that's 25 minutes the same characters in the same place so that would put friends as a sitcom but a lot of days people call these series as well but if you want to be a stickler rigorista well that would be the difference so this is one of the most famous shows ever it was more of a phenomenon than a show and as you can see in the intro i came up with my own version of the song by the rembrandts now the original version is i'll be there for you when the rain starts to pour coin yo could you pour me some more wine please i'll be there for you like i've been there before como estado anterioremente i'll be there for you cause you're there for me too and i know i know my version was better i know it's okay but let's take a look at the rembrandt's version because we can learn a lot of english from it now i just did the chorus the choruses but the song starts with so no one told you life was[Music] your love life to be the amorosa is dead on arrival it's a bit pessimistic to be honest you never would think that he's saying you know nothing's going right your job's a joke you're broke your love life's doa it's like you're always stuck in second gear come on great word stuck in second gear in segunda when it hasn't been your day your week your month or even your year when it hasn't been your day your week your month or even your year and then the chorus el estribillo now it's a very catchy song catchy is pegadito but did you know that the cast here we go with our fun facts did you know that the cast they weren't big fans of this song yeah they didn't like this tune very much according to jennifer aniston my favorite friend she said in her own words no one was really a big fan of that scene of that theme song excuse me yeah that's what she said when they asked her about the song but later on when they asked her she retracted a bit and she said well i i don't mean to say that no quiero de tireso she says we just felt it was a little i don't know dancing in a fountain felt sort of odd odd es rado but we did it so they weren't big fans of the song i imagine us the fans of friends are bigger fans of that song than they were and i should clear something up before i go on if it comes down to friends and seinfeld i'm definitely gonna go for seinfeld but i think friends had more of a global repercussion so when did the show first air and to heiress is that enemies when did it broadcast well it aired for the first time and of course this is in the united states on september 22 1994 and that's when it had its debut let's pronounce that word no debut in english the themos debut and well some would say it forever changed the face of american sitcoms it ran for 10 seasons dieth temporadas and it wasn't only popular back in the day but it is still one of netflix's most streamed shows decades later it's still a huge hit in late 2018 uh late is finales day when netflix announced that they were gonna drop the series fans went nuts say bolbiron loco yeah they were so upset that they started a change.org and the word upset is disgustados yeah they signed a petition to tell netflix you better masos ballet you'd better bring this show back and you want to know what happened it worked it absolutely worked the people made their voices heard and they even had their own hashtag called justice for friends and one of the show's creators marta kaufman her name is marta kaufman it was created by david crane and marta kaufman but she she said she had a hunch she knew that it was going to be huge and she said it was during the first rehearsal in el primer remember the verb is to rehearse and the the the place or the thing i should say is a rehearsal and she said that she got chills up and down her spine and she said this is special there is something special about what's happening right now in front of these cameras the chemistry among these people this is gonna be huge and was she right i don't know if she had any idea how huge it would be but yeah she was right david crane and martha kaufman as i just said these were the creators or co-creators of friends well in the 1990s they wrote a seven page pitch and a pitch is basically the way you sell something an idea and the original title this is crazy i don't think it would have been as popular maybe you never know in a parallel universe but the original title that they had in mind was insomnia cafe what do you guys think insomniac it sounds kind of weird it sounds kind of twisted and well thank god good taste prevailed and they decided on friends but they had a couple other names in mind too when nbc the network when they bought the pilot the title was friends like us and i guess they thought that was too long another title that they were working with it's called a working title so another working title was across the hall but the one that they settled on and to settle down to settle on is to agree on well that one was simply friends and i think now we can all look back and they say that hindsight is always 2020 and hindsight means seeing something after the fact so and 2020 means that you have perfect vision so it's always easy to say after the fact oh i knew it was going to be a hit or i knew it wasn't going to be a hit but they had this idea they had a good feeling about it it seems like they had the right cast but we'll get to that because casting wasn't so easy i mean there were a lot of people who wanted to audition for these roles so they had to decide on six and the best six and it seems like they did and there have been a lot of changes in the plot no historia and all of that stuff from the original script like for example phoebe and chandler those characters well they were originally written as supporting roles the apollo they weren't going to be the main characters so imagine that friends with only four friends it just doesn't feel right the original love interests in the script well that was supposed to be joey and monica but in the end as many of you know those of you who watched friends it was ross and rachel so as i said they considered a lot of people i mean there's a lot of talent in hollywood and they could get whoever they wanted but they settled on six people and it wasn't easy the only one that really was easy was david schwimmer that's right now david schwimmer played the role of ross and the executive producer kevin bright well he had worked with david schwimmer in the past and he knew that he wanted to work with him again and so they wrote this role for this actor i mean that is truly an honor for them to contact you and say hey i've got a role for you in this new pilot and it's yours you're the guy i wrote it for you you don't have to audition and many people didn't know that i didn't know that personally another thing about david schwimmer as well is he directed 10 episodes of friends as well so he was uh kind of their golden boy if you will but all of these people were not really well-known actors at all they were all struggling artists in hollywood trying to make a name for themselves and well with the success of this show it turned these normal people these people into household names and a household name is un nombre que sedite in cada casa and those people we should mention their names jennifer aniston courtney cox lisa kudrow matt leblanc who played joey he was one of my favorite characters i guess i identified with him a little bit you know a struggling actor italian-american funny guy you know that was that was a little bit me i i have to say then there was matthew perry and the one i just mentioned david schwimmer who didn't even have to audition now when they first started this the the only one that was really known on any level was courtney cox she was the most famous cast member and i use the word famous in air quotes because she was in bruce springsteen's video even if we're just dancing in the dark can't start a fire you can't start a file without a spark and if you remember there's a girl who gets on stage that's courtney cox so um she was she had her 15 minutes of fame but little did she know that she was going to become a household name but she as i said was the the most popular one going into it and now i mean this is debatable but i think most people would say the most successful friend after the fact decades later would definitely be jennifer aniston does anybody disagree with that and jennifer aniston almost didn't play the role of rachel it was almost played by courtney cox yeah the producers originally asked her to play rachel they said okay we loved your audition we want you to play rachel and she said no i don't want to play rachel i want to play monica because she thought that monica was a stronger character so can you imagine that somebody other than jennifer aniston as rachel it's unthinkable at this point but if the producers had gotten their way to get their way es salir se con la suya well that's the way it would have been it would have been courtney cox playing the role of rachel and who knows who would have played monica and in the bonus part of today's show we're going to take a look at all the different ways to describe each character so we're going to learn a wealth of adjectives we're actually going to look at the original character descriptions according to the producers and i think we're going to learn a lot that's in the bonus part of today's show we're also going to talk about the naming of central perk and why it makes sense on so many levels we'll look at why they had a live audience sometimes and other times they didn't do the show in front of a live audience plus we'll look at some of the hardships and controversies behind the scenes and some of the rituals that they did as well if you'd like to receive bonus material pdfs classes with me and so much more there's a world just waiting to be discovered over on patreon.com join our curious community at patreon.com slash alberto alonso i'd like to send a shout out to all my patrons especially my super duper students francisco sabella tony roberto jose maria mila alex patricio edgar and lolis and don't forget about my interstellar students carmen diego diana and pilar thank you so much to all of you this show would not be possible without you and if the rest of you are interested in becoming a patron find out more at patreon.com alberto alonso or drop me a line i'd love to give you some more information and even some samples if you'd like it i'm gonna let you guys in on a little secret you know that iconic fountain in central park in the opening credits of friends when they're jumping in the fountain and the song is playing i hate to bust your bubble or to burst your bubble you could say amargarte la fiesta but it didn't take place in new york nope i'm sorry it wasn't in new york i know i know it looks like new york in fact it was designed after central park's pulitzer fountain but really it took place in burbank burbank california on the warner brothers lot yeah i know i know how many of you have gone to central park and said where's central perk and where's uh all the friends stuff and and and that fountain and it looks a little bit different that's because it's not it's hollywood it's the magic of show business marta kaufman was not the only person to have a hunch that this was going to be huge there was there must have been some kind of feeling some kind of vibe in the air that everybody could feel in fact director james burroughs he directed some of the episodes between 1995 and 1997 well he brought the six cast members to las vegas before the show debuted because he quote unquote had a feeling about the show and they went to caesar's palace caesar's palace is a famous casino in las vegas oh and if you haven't heard the episode on las vegas don't forget we've got an episode on las vegas the statue of liberty and so many other interesting topics just go over to wherever you listen to podcasts and hit follow so he took them to vegas they went out to a nice fancy dinner fancy de lujo and as they were having dinner and having a great time and laughing he looked at them all and he said and i quote this is your last shot at anonymity right anonymity means you are anonymous let's pronounce those words anonymity anonymous and he told them once the show goes on the air you guys will never be able to go anywhere again without being hounded and to be hounded a hound is um but to be hounded is molestado no fastidiado and he was right they were right i hope this director bet some money while he was in las vegas because well it seemed he like he was on a roll como sistuvira in racha and then the icing on the cake laginda was that later on in the show what they did is they got married there was a scene where they got married and when i say they obviously i mean ross and rachel got married there's a scene a very famous scene a very famous episode where they are at caesar's palace and well it was kind of a a wink a nod so it's uh it's kind of cool reality is sometimes stranger than fiction isn't it and i know what you're thinking you're thinking now they played friends on tv they seemed like they got along remember to get along or to get on as the british people say they seemed like they got along but you never know what happens behind the scenes but you're lucky because i've done some research and i'm going to tell you all about that in the bonus part of the show so i guess we can end this part of the episode by asking the question that you're all asking is there going to be a friend's reunion are they going to get back together are they going to do a reboot or something like that i mean reboots are really popular these days in hollywood are they planning anything like that well according to them no way it's out of the question if something is out of the question is in 2015 they asked courtney cox on the late show with david letterman and they said what's going on is there any possibility of a friend's reunion and she said and i quote it's not gonna happen ni de conya would be the translation and she said that it was hard enough to get the cast remember castus reparto it was hard enough to get the cast together for you know a relaxing dinner never mind a reunion show you know that films every day and we're going to talk about that too in the bonus part they're very rigorous filming schedule and filming in front of a live audience it took its toll on the actors paso factor and we are going to look at that and so much more in the bonus part of today's show so i'd love for you to join us there if you're not sure and maybe you're thinking about it you're playing with the idea toying with the ideas just let me know i'll send you the bonus content i can send you some pdfs you can take a look and see if it's right for you but as you know when we come back the learning the laughing and the fun will continue because i'm here with my friends talking about the show friends on this week's episode of f y r you