It was a formula many series had tried before, but Friends made the concept of a weekly sitcom based around the exploits of a group of 20-something friends and flatmates work, lasting a full ten seasons. So what other sitcoms plowed the same furrow? Here are ten of the best.
10. Hope and Gloria
This NBC sitcom debuted in 1995, and featured Northern Exposure’s Jessica Lundy and long-time sitcom star Cynthia Stevenson as neighbors in a Pittsburg apartment complex. The same mid-90s sensibilities that characterized Friends are present here, but audiences were less impressed, and the show was canceled after two seasons.
9. Dream On
This quirky HBO sitcom stars Brian Benben as Martin Tupper, a divorcé living in New York who is desperately trying to rekindle his love life. The frequent use of archive footage from old TV shows and films spoke well to the irony-heavy pop culture at the time, and the show was a success, running for six seasons and winning two Emmy Awards.
8. Game On
This London-based sitcom made no waves beyond Britain, but was a ratings hit for the BBC on debut in 1995, and offered early outings for Ben Chaplin (Neil Stuke in later seasons) as the agoraphobic Matt, his loyal but feckless friend Martin (Matthew Cottle), and Mandy (Samantha Womack), who is smart, quick, and drop-dead gorgeous, but can’t seem to find Mr. Right. Debuting in the midst of the “lad culture” of mid-90s Britain, the show’s sexual politics have hardly dated well, but the scripts are tight, and the one-liners flow fast and freely. Chaplin would go on to carve out a career in Hollywood as a character actor, being most recently seen in Netflix’s 2021 period drama The Dig.
7. Coupling
Another British show, this BBC sitcom was more or less a straight lift of the premise behind Friends – the setup is almost identical, even down to the number of principal cast members, though the content was rather steamier – and ran from 2000 to 2004. It was penned by none other than Steven Moffat, who shortly became the showrunner for Doctor Who. An American adaptation for NBC was, however, a disaster, being pulled before the end of its first season.
6. Living Single
Less vaunted than its contemporary, this sitcom was likewise set in New York, and ran from 1993 to 1998. The interplay between the four female leads and the emphasis on the balance between work and love mirrored Friends’ preoccupations. Queen Latifah is excellent as the go-getting editor Khadijah James.
5. Will and Grace
It takes a show of unusual quality to come back from the dead, but that’s exactly what Will and Grace did, returning to TV screens in 2017 over a decade after its cancellation. As the first primetime sitcom to feature a gay character in a lead role, the sitcom broke new ground, and during the show’s revival, Eric McCormack and Debra Lessing continued to impress as the eponymous not-actually-a-couple.
4. Gimme Gimme Gimme
If Will and Grace offered offence-free portrayals of the gay/straight odd couple, Gimme Gimme Gimme went out of its way to shock, featuring swingers, S&M, and hookups in public toilets. This uproarious BBC sitcom ran from 1999 to 2002, and starred Kathy Burke (Elizabeth, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy) as Linda and James Dreyfus as Tom, two chalk-and-cheese flatmates forever destined to chase after the same men.
3. Spaced
The show that launched the careers of Simon Pegg, Jessica Stevenson, and Nick Frost, Spaced ran for just two short seasons from 1999 to 2001, but perfectly captures the happy-go-lucky zeitgeist of the late 1990s. Pegg and Stevenson play Tim and Daisy, two strangers who pretend to be an item in order to rent out a flat, with the military-obsessed Mike (Frost) joining them. Under Pegg’s influence, the show features a non-stop procession of pop culture references from The Phantom Menace – Tim didn’t like it – to Lara Croft.
2. Frasier
Frasier may have featured a slightly older demographic than the firmly 20-something Friends, but in terms of its affluent lifestyle and urban setting, it trod similar territory. Kelsey Grammer did Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning work in the lead role, but Jane Leeves and Peri Gilpin are equally accomplished as the sardonic Roz and the eccentric Daphne, respectively. A revival premiered earlier this Fall on Paramount Plus.
1. Seinfeld
More than a quarter of a century after its final episode, it’s hard to believe just how ubiquitous Jerry Seinfeld’s comedy was to 1990s TV. The sitcom supercharged the careers of Jason Alexander (George Costanza), Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Elaine Benes), and gathered dozens of Emmy and Golden Globe awards in a ten-year run that frequently saw it top the ratings. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…
