The Best Episode of ‘Friends’ Ever

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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“Friends,” the TV comedy, has a rare distinction. It is one of the few prime time shows that ran continuously for a decade or longer, a distinction it shares with “Roseanne” and “CSI: Miami.” It also starred one of the few actors in television history who made the crossover to a major movie career. Jennifer Aniston finds herself in the company of Robin Williams, Tom Hanks and Clint Eastwood. Films she starred in, including “Marley & Me” and “He’s Just Not That Into You,” have grossed hundreds of millions of dollars. Now she is also an independent producer, and Forbes has put Aniston’s net worth at as high as $200 million.

When “Friends” premiered back in 1994, no one had any idea whether it would even be picked up for additional episodes. The show about six twenty-somethings in New York City may have been just another pilot that went nowhere. Ten years and 235 episodes later, “The Last One” was the fourth most-watched TV show finale ever, with 52.5 million people tuning in.

To determine the best episode of “Friends,” 24/7 Tempo reviewed data on audience ratings from the IMDb. All the episodes of “Friends” were ranked based on average IMDb user rating as of November 2021. In cases of a tie, episodes with more IMDb user votes were given a higher ranking. Supplemental data on the number of IMDb user votes and original airdate also came from IMDb.

Much can change in the span of a decade, and that’s what happened with “Friends.” The characters fell in and out of love, changed jobs and apartments — and hairstyles. Though they stayed relevant, fans liked some storylines better than others.
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The best episode of “Friends” is “The Last One” (Season 10, Episode 17). Here are the details:

  • IMDb user rating: 9.7/10
  • IMDb user votes: 13,965
  • Original airdate: May 6, 2004

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Click here to see how the 25 best episodes of “Friends” ranked.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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