The television show "Friends" has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I was born in 1997, about three years into the show's initial run but already it was one of the most popular shows on television. Starring Jennifer Aniston, Matthew Perry, David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, and Lisa Kudrow, the show made household names of it's mostly previously unknown cast. Averaging over 20 million viewers a week for all 10 of it's seasons, the show signaled the continuing success of the sitcom genre that also included shows such as "Seinfeld" and "Cheers." The success of the show has continued even now, 12 years after the final episode aired in the fashion of syndication, DVD and Blu-Ray releases, and most recently, streaming on Netflix. You can find an episode on cable television at least once a day and for good reason, the show was nominated for 52 Primetime Emmys, ranked number 21 on "TV Guide"'s Greatest TV Shows of All Time and number 7 on Empire Magazine's 50 Greatest Shows of All Time.

If you ask most of the show's fans, the reason they love the show is because they can find themselves relating to at least one of the characters on the show. Chandler is the funny one, Monica and Ross are the neurotic ones, Phoebe is the crazy liberal hippie that's reminiscent of a lady from the 60s, Joey is the ladies man and Rachel is the shopping-obsessed, pretty one. The six friends are among the most well known and frequently referenced figures in television history. Along with the show's ending in May of 2004, many experts have retroactively referred to it as signaling the end of the sitcom era and the beginning of the more serialized drama focused era of television. As of 2016, "Friends" is the last comedy show to hit number one in the overall Neilson ratings for an overall season and the series finale was the most watched episode of any show in the 2000s decade. "Friends" is one of the most loved shows of all time, and for this fan, it's legacy will live on until my kids are yelling "WE WERE ON A BREAK!!!"