Friends turns 30: Can it be adjudged the best sitcom ever?

It is a three-decade-old incident, but Jennifer Aniston recounts it with the enthusiasm of a three-year-old. Seated on the couch opposite talk show host Ellen DeGeneres, the actor fondly recollects an impromptu trip she and the rest of the cast of Friends took to Las Vegas in 1994, days before the show aired on the NBC network.

In the words of Aniston, the show’s director, Jimmy Burrows, got them in a huddle and handed each a couple of hundred dollars, and said: “Now go into the casino and gamble because this is the last time you will be able to walk into a casino anonymously.”

“Sure enough, that was the last time we were able to do that,” she said with a chuckle.

On September 22, Friends — the sitcom that followed Aniston and five others living in New York and hanging out in a coffee shop — will turn 30. Over the course of 236 episodes, the show would turn into a monumental cultural touchpoint, with its cast turning into superstars, their fame matched only by some of the Hollywood A-listers. The show’s jokes and catchphrases became an integral part of everyday parlance.

At its peak, the show was simultaneously aired across 60 countries, with each episode watched by 22 million viewers. Even today, Warner Brothers continues to laugh their way to the bank selling Friends merchandise.

Its popularity and pop culture references notwithstanding, Friends is labelled by many as the “Best sitcom.” But was it really the best?

There are several worthy contenders. Topping the list is The Sopranos, a visually stunning series that chronicles the journey of an Italian-American mafia head based in New Jersey.

The American edition of The Office headlined by the brilliant Steve Carell is another terrific watch.

Carell, as the over-the-top, playful yet despicable character Michael Scott, quite literally carried the show on his shoulders.

Nevertheless, conversations on sitcoms cannot happen without mentioning Seinfeld. Like Friends, Seinfeld was also set in Manhattan. But it focused on the minutiae of everyday life of Jerry (Jerry Seinfeld), his best friend George Costanza (Jason Alexander), Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and neighbour Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards).

Co-written by Jerry and Larry David, Seinfeld, billed as “A show about nothing” was first aired five years before the pilot episode of Friends.

Unlike Friends, which puts undue emphasis on sentiments, Seinfeld finds its strength from observational humour. A bulk of the 180 episodes depicted day-to-day occurrences that people could relate to, even though they were at times wildly exaggerated.

For instance, waiting for your table at a Chinese restaurant, struggling to find your car at the parking lot, or lying about your job to impress a girl, Seinfeld managed to strike a chord with audiences. Unlike most sitcoms of the 1990s, Seinfeld was bolder because of the humorous manner it dealt with topics that are considered taboo and unthinkable even for today’s television.

The fact that even the fastidious, legendary director Stanley Kubrick was a big fan of Seinfeld illustrates the show’s unmatchable swag.

Another reason for the show’s popularity was the performances of the four lead characters. They were outright cynics, lacking moral compass.

“Seinfeld’s impact resonated beyond comedy. Its serene belief that characters did not have to be likable as long as they were interesting foreshadowed a change in television drama that wouldn’t settle until the late 1990s, when HBO turned a show about violent gangsters (The Sopranos) into an award-winning hit,” Culture writer Matt Zoller wrote in The Vulture.

Even in terms of storytelling, this show broke new ground.  The incredibly talented team of writers perfected the art of dovetailing multiple storylines in the final scene of each episode, culminating in a thrilling finish.

It was similar to watching a high-octane run chase in a T20 game.

 In that sense, Seinfeld rewrote the template of sitcoms during its nine-year run-time from 1989 to 1998.

The show’s final episode was watched by 76 million viewers, making it the fourth-most watched television series finale.

Friends may still be a sentimental favourite but Seinfeld was a different beast. Timeless and utterly re-watchable, it was way ahead of the curve, and a harbinger of a raft of sitcoms like Curb Your Enthusiasm.