Category: Friendships

The TV show Friends remains the ultimate sitcom of all times about friendship. One of the main reasons for the show’s popularity is the idealistic premise about a group of millennial-age friends in New York City, who share their lives, their relationships, and frankly just about everything. Throughout its ten seasons, viewers see how six friends are always there for each other through heartbreak or a family crisis, or whatever else they encounter. They show why finding and maintaining close friends in a group is hard. They also show that finding friends in a mixed-gender group is even harder, especially for men. Like my other posts on friends in Seinfeld, Happy Days, The Andy Griffith Show, and The Odd Couple for my series, New Year; New Types of Friends, the cast of Friends may give us unrealistic expectations for friendship. These six vastly different people in their young adulthood appear

On-screen, the friendships of Jerry Seinfeld and his kooky single friends, Elaine Benes, George Costanza, and Cosmo Kramer seemed solid. The foursome made so many stops at the coffee shop and faced so much together during the nine seasons of Seinfeld that it’s hard to believe that the cast wasn’t friends in real life. Like many work-only friendships though, perhaps they were simply friendships of convenience and not the deep, authentic friends that I believe many people (especially men) need today.  First, a confession. I have never seen a full episode of Seinfeld. As I read more about the show though, there are aspects that fit well for my series called, New Year; New Types of Friends. It appears the actors on Sienfeld were friends on set but that’s pretty much where the pleasantries ended. Similarly, most work colleagues are friendly in the office and occasionally go out to dinner

My series, New Year; New Types of Friends, continues with another example of friendships in television. During my research for the series, I came across one that almost wasn’t very happy. In fact, the relationship between Ron Howard and Henry Winkler almost never materialized. This TV sitcom Happy Days gives us several examples of how egos can impact friendships and the success of others. About Happy Days According to Wikipedia, Happy Days is an American television sitcom that first ran on the ABC network from January 15, 1974, to July 19, 1984. It aired a total of 255 half-hour episodes spanning 11 seasons. Created by Garry Marshall, it was one of the most successful series of the 1970s. The sitcom presented an idealized vision of life in the 1950s and early 1960s Midwestern United States. It starred Ron Howard as Richie Cunningham and Henry Winkler as his friend, Arthur Fonzarelli, better