The Portrayal Of Family And Friendship Roles In Television

Television plays a very integral role in the continuous growth of our society. It has changed the way we approach the world, interact with one another, and in our relationships. In today’s contemporary society, media has become a very big part of many people’s lives. The 90’s television sitcom Friends is an example of how society looks to television in regards to how they approach the world. The sitcoms continuing popularity to this day, is a common inquisitive thought considering sitcoms tend to “die” quickly. Friends, however, persists making large sums of money in the process of its tenure in our current lives. People get involved with good characters, creating a world that the viewer feels envious of, and the show defining what true cross-gender friendship can look like are reasons for its longevity. By creating an idealized version of life in your 20s, Friends planted a seed in society unknowingly at the time which is currently trying to be attained by the general public.

Understanding friendships may seem simple yet that’s far from the case. Friendships are very complex but once they are formed they become easy to navigate. Stefan Robinson, Eric Anderson, and Adam White’s article titled Bromance: Undergraduate Male Friendships and the Expansion of Contemporary Homosocial Boundaries explains that “Although friendship is primarily experienced by individuals as a complex psychological phenomenon, its dimensions, behavioral requisites, and prohibitions are nonetheless socially defined and regulated,”(Robinson, Anderson, White, 2017, p.94). Essentially, it is a stronger form of interpersonal bond than a general association with a person making it a friendship.

David Crane and Marta Kauffman’s NBC sitcom Friends exemplifies this definition because they found a way to intricately shape a group of New Yorkers into what we would call a“national treasure”. The show is made up of a tight-knit group of charismatic people with varying personas who form a community that the audience wishes they were a part of. The close bond between the six friends was cultivated through multiple shared experiences. They've been through marriages and breakups, births and birthdays and even live with one another. As friends do they argue and fight but always find a way to communicate and make up at the end of the day. The mutual love they have for one another is a priority in order to sustain the relationship they have. Many viewers of this sitcom, Millenials and Generation Z, long for relationships like this. It even stems back to the forever friends mentioned by C. J. Mann and Safura Amme in their presentation on Past Models of Friendship. Many parents or grandparents in the Baby boomer and Generation X have friends they have had since their childhood and still keep in contact with them to this day.

The six characters created an ideal of creating an alternative family from the friends you have. This resonated with many viewers of the show. They created a world that the viewer feels envious of although it was not in a negative manner. They told each other secrets, gave advice, and had endless inside jokes. Friends proves that your friends can basically become your second family. You may live far away from your immediate family and living on your own, in some cases, forces you to separate from them. Friendships are as important as ever and living in this society full of new challenges and responsibilities alone can be hard. This sitcom demonstrates cherishing your friends because they will always be there for you in times of happiness, sadness or grief. This sitcom honors and praises true friendship in the form of a second family.

In varying episodes you can, for instance, see Rachel go to Chandler for advice and even Joey seeking advice from Phoebe about issues. Their friendship wasn’t divided by their genders. Having a mix of men and women added to the group dynamic. In Jordan Adeyemi-John and KJ Maduike’s presentation about Cross-gender friendships, they state that cross-sex friendships are “a platonic relationship between men and women. There are multiple types of cross-gender friendships, all defined by whether or not each person has a romantic attraction to each other.” The Cross gendered relationship they share is for some a rarity. This is why people were “envious”. The show was the model for these types of friendships. Watching the sitcom immersed the viewer, giving them a feeling of belonging. Friends are the solution to having an exceptional, healthy and happy life. Fighting with someone in your social circle can ruin the bond shared with one another. The core expectations of friendship are “ ‘trust, commitment, locality, and genuineness…’,” which are all found in the cross-gendered friendships (David C. Watson, 2012, p.5). So relating to how much these characters care about each other even if they do drive one another crazy sometimes creates a sense of realism.