When a sitcom is easily able to reach 10 seasons, it’s proof that the show is a total success. Friends premiered in 1994 and continued until 2004, cataloguing the hilarious stories of six young men and women living life in Manhattan, New York. Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer made up the incredible cast of characters.
There’s no way the world is ever going to forget a show like Friends, as it created a blueprint for what meaningful adult relationships should look and feel like in the real world. In 2021, the cast of Friends got together for a reunion special to discuss some of their favorite memories through shared laughter and tears. It served as a beautiful reminder of what the show meant to not only its fans, but the stars who made it the most beloved sitcom of its time.
Friends was once super easy to binge on Netflix whenever viewers wanted, but the streaming platform removed the show from its lineup at the end of 2019. If you find yourself missing the classic sitcom, here are some other shows that are super similar and just as enjoyable to watch.
2 Broke Girls
Six seasons of 2 Broke Girls have been hilariously fun to watch, with Kat Dennings and Beth Behrs in the leading roles. In the show, two unlikely female friends come together while working in the food service industry. Even though they don’t get along at first, they ultimately end up becoming as tight-knit as ever. One girl is streetwise and knows not to have high expectations of other people in the world while the other comes from a wealthy family only to go broke and lose her fortune. This leads her to realize that she must pick up a job as a waitress to make ends meet, which is where she meets her soon-to-be bestie.
That ’70s Show
Just like Friends, That ’70s Show focuses on a group of friends who are super close for the most part even though they don’t always see eye-to-eye on everything. In That ’70s Show, the central teenagers spend their time hanging out together in the basement of one of their family’s homes. The cast includes Laura Prepon, Danny Masterson, Topher Grace, Wilmer Valderrama, Ashton Kutcher, and Mila Kunis. The eclectic social circle experiences what it means to transition from childhood to adulthood over the course of eight unforgettable seasons.
Scrubs
Scrubs is a medical sitcom that ran for nine seasons starting in 2001 and starred Zach Braff, Sarah Chalke, Donald Faison, and Judy Reyes. It followed a group of medical students who start working at Sacred Heart Hospital with a moody fellow of an instructor taking charge of their schedules. Braff plays the role of JD, an idealistic future doctor who has his eyes set on a romantic relationship with a girl named Elliott. Between trying to make the dreams of his career and love life come true, he also does his best to maintain his own peace of mind while nurturing his friendships.
Everybody Loves Raymond
Everybody Loves Raymond is another funny sitcom that’s been compared to Friends in the past. It’s about a man named Ray Barone who makes a living as a successful sportswriter. He has an enjoyable career doing what he absolutely loves, and on top of that, he’s a total family man who’s in love with his wife and proud of his three children. His parents live across the street and totally favor him over his older brother, Robert. There are enough comedic moments in this show that definitely make it worth watching.
Gilmore Girls
There’s occasionally a lot of fast-moving dialogue in Friends when we take characters like Rachel Green and Monica Geller into account. That’s why Gilmore Girls is so easily comparable. In Gilmore Girls, Rory and Lorelai Gilmore constantly engage in speedy conversations in nearly every single episode. The close bond between the mother-daughter duo is similar to some of the genuine connections in Friends.
The Big Bang Theory
The Big Bang Theory is another show that people can easily compare to a show like Friends since it sheds light on another large social circle of young adults. In every season of The Big Bang Theory, lovable friends and roommates hang out together discussing the subjects of quantum physics, dating, and everything in between. The CBS show stars Kaley Cuoco, Jim Parsons, Mayim Bialik, Melissa Rauch, and Johnny Galecki in the leading roles.
Brooklyn Nine-Nine
Andy Samberg is the leading actor in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, an eight-season sitcom that premiered in 2013. The show is about a detective named Jake Peralta who is super talented when it comes to solving cases. His carefree nature gets him in trouble with the new commanding officer at his precinct, making him want to become more rebellious than ever before in order to prove that he actually knows what he’s doing.
Sex and the City
A group of friends living in New York City? This is a major detail Friends and Sex and the City have in common. One of the major differences, though, is that Sex and the City focuses on a group of four female friends while Friends focuses on a group of six friends split in half by gender. Sex and the City has been such a huge show over the years that it even ended up getting a couple of theatrical movie releases as well as a spinoff series, And Just Like That.
New Girl
Instead of watching a group of friends living life in New York City, New Girl focuses on a group of friends living in a Los Angeles loft. Zooey Deschanel plays the role of Jessica Day, a quirky young woman who finds out her long-term boyfriend has been cheating on her. She seeks out a new living arrangement and finds herself shacking up with three male roommates. Despite the fact that she and one of her roommates, Nick, try their best to deny their feelings for each other, ultimately they end up falling head over heels in love.
The Office
It seems like The Office and Friends are constantly getting compared to each other since both shows are hugely popular to people who love hilarious sitcoms. The Office contains a more advanced level of humor compared to Friends since it’s filled with so much sarcasm and the occasional moment of blissful ignorance from the main character, Michael Scott. Both of these shows have huge fan bases of dedicated audiences who know every episode inside and out.
Any of these comedies are sure to fill the void in your heart left by Friends‘ lack of new episodes in recent years, but if we’re being honest, the show’s library of episodes never gets old, even in rerun form. Nevertheless, we hope you enjoy this collection of other comedies when you’re ready to move on to your next group of pals.
