Preliminary ratings showed it was the highest viewing audience since the last episode of Seinfeld in 1998.

NBC had predicted an audience of around 50 million for the last episode of their popular sit-com which was broadcast on Thursday night.

It was preceeded by one-hour retrospective of the series' six characters over the last 10 years.

Times Square

Viewers now know the outcome of the show's on-off love affair between Ross and Rachel, played by David Schwimmer and Jennifer Aniston.

The final show commanded advertising rates averaging $2m  for 30 seconds - a record for a sitcom and the kind of figures usually reserved for the Super Bowl.

In New York, the final episode was shown on a big screen in Times Square, watched by 3,000 people from a park overlooking the Hudson River.

Fans also watched bloopers from the series during an official Friends Finale Viewing Party at Universal Citywalk in Los Angeles.

TV network NBC devoted three hours of its schedule to the farewell episode.

It was followed by a special edition of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno featuring the six co-stars on set.

The finale received mixed reviews in the US press, with Newsday's Noel Holston calling the episode "sweet and dumb and satisfying".

But the Hartford Courant's Roger Catlin wrote: "Anyone new to Friends who succumbed to the hype to tune in Thursday would have been surprised at how laughless the affair could be.

"Nearly every strained gag depends on the sheer stupidity of its characters."

The Salt Lake Tribune's Vince Horiuchi said the finale featured "about a thousand goodbyes (in fact, several hundred too many)".

He concluded: "At least in the last shot, they didn't turn off the lights anywhere."

Making its debut in 1994, Friends and its cast of easy-going single people caught on with viewers looking for an escape from the fast-paced 1990s.

It has made household names of Schwimmer, Aniston, Perry, Courteney Cox Arquette (Monica), Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe) and Matt LeBlanc (Joey).

While critics commended the series for its consistently sharp writing, a key ingredient of its success was the chemistry among the six principal actors.

Equal pay

They seemed nearly as close off-screen, as they bargained together for higher salaries as the series grew in popularity and commercial value.

This saw their pay climb to $1m each per episode during the course of the show.

On The Tonight Show after the finale, the cast credited David Schwimmer with the idea of collectively bargaining for pay.

"We were doing the same amount of work... and there were six leads," Schwimmer said.

"So it just made sense that we would all show up and make the same amount of money.

"It didn't necessarily, at the time, matter what it was, just that we were paid equally so there was no resentment down the line."

When the series was renewed for a 10th season, NBC agreed to pay production company Warner Bros Television a licence fee of $10m  per episode - a deal that made Friends the most expensive prime-time series ever.

But detractors dismissed the show as a shallow fantasy about a group of photogenic, all-white 20-somethings whose only real challenge in life was drinking coffee.

"Friends was getting creaky even as it remained popular," said USA Today in an editorial on Thursday.

It emphasised the view of critics who saw problems for the cast hitting their 40s while still pretending to be 20-somethings.

"After 10 years of pretty good TV, the show tarnished more than it tanned; its winks have turned to wrinkles," said USA Today.

"Time does indeed matter even among the best of Friends."

The show also was known for the Hollywood stars who made guest appearances, including Julia Roberts, Bruce Willis and Tom Selleck.

It also featured cameos from Brad Pitt and David Arquette, the real-life husbands of Aniston and Arquette respectively.

On September 7th, 2001, I was luckily enough to attend a taping of Friends. The name of the episode is “The One With Rachel’s Date”.  The episode was suppose to air on October 11^th, 2001, but was delayed and aired on Oct 25^th, 2001.  This was my first time seeing the show live and I was very excited. In the following paragraphs I hope to try to convey the whole experience to whoever reads this, and especially help anyone out who would like to see the show in person too. If you have a Friends website and would like to post this info, please give my site credit for it.

Tickets were released on June 1st of this year. I wrote for the tickets a few days before the release date so that my letter would get there on the first day. A friend of mine wrote for tickets on the day they were released and heard back a week later that the show was sold out. I didn't hear back from Audiences Unlimited until just 3 weeks before the taping, which was also two weeks sooner than I had planned on being in L.A. So as you can imagine we modified out plans to be in L.A. for the taping.

The tickets said that the show was at 2:30pm and that we should be there an hour to and hour in half before that time, which is also what a woman at Audiences Unlimited told us. The day of the taping we decided to swing by Warner Bros. to see what they thought. When we drove by at 11:30am there were already people lined up across the street from the studio. We pulled in the studio entrance anyway and asked a guard about the show. He told us that they would let us in at 12:45pm, but for now we needed to park in the street and line up where someone from Audiences Unlimited would check us in. I jumped out of the car and waited in line for about 20 minutes until I got up to the guy that was checking people in. He gave us a number for what we were in line, which was 73-75, meaning that a lot of people were in front of us. He also told us to be back at 12:45 to enter the studio. We also learned that the people who were first in line got there around 3am and camped out.

We quickly grabbed lunch and then drove into the studio where they directed us to park in the parking ramp. We left that and walked across the street in the studio and got in another line where we were lined up by number. At the time there were three main lines. One was for people who had tried to see the show before but didn't make it in. They somehow filled out some form at the studio and then they were given guaranteed tickets. There were about 25-30 people in that line. The next line was the one I was in, which was the first seating, non-guaranteed tickets. This line had around 100 people in it and I was #73 in line. The third line was really small, only like 6 people who had second seating tickets. They got there really early.

We waited in line for a long time and around 1:30pm the people from Audiences Unlimited escorted the guaranteed ticket holders into the studio. Then about 2:30 they took some of the people from our line, but only 16 people. So we started to really worry that we weren't going to make it in. About 20 minutes later came back and took in another 17 people. I asked one of the employees if we would get in and he said he didn't know because it was really starting to fill up in there. He said that he has seen it where they only let 3 people in. I guess that it all depends on how many V.I.P.s come to the show. They must escort them in from somewhere else because I never saw them. Around 3:15 I was getting really worried that we wouldn't get in and that we would have to wait for the second seating. Then one of the employees started counting the number of people in line and when he got to two people behind my group, #76 and 77, he cut it off and said this is all that gets in. So I was very lucky that he didn't cut the line off a few people sooner. The employees then took us and marched us single file for a little ways to studio 24, where they film Friends. We walked through a metal detector and were checked for cameras and cell phones. Then I entered the studio.

I headed in and heard a lot of music and the first thing I saw was part of the Friends set. They marched us up some stairs and I could see a set with  two elevators and next to that was a hallway and then Chandler's office. When I got to the top of the stairs I looked out and saw what was the street area of New York that they film the cast walking on a lot and the outside of Central Perk. To the left of that was Central Perk and then to the left of that was a big black curtain that said "Friends" on it. To the left of the curtain was Joey and Rachel's apartment. One of the employees led us over that way and seated us in the last three seats just in front of their apartment. I looked off to the left and saw Monica's kitchen for her restaurant and just up from that was a doctor's office, which turned out to be a set for a "Days of Our Lives" skit with Joey.

We sat down and looked all around at all of the people. At least half of them in there were V.I.P.s. There was also a comedian who was telling jokes and keeping people entertained until the show started. He also walked around and gave away many prizes like Friends pencils, cups, and t-shirts. I was lucky to get some cups, a pencil, and two hackey sacks. Unfortunately I didn't get one of the rare shirts he gave away. People mostly had to dance for him to get those.

Shortly after I was seated they started up the Friends theme and everyone stood. The curtain in front of us razed and behind it was Monica and Chandler's apartment.  Then the comedian announced 5 of the 6 Friends cast members' names and they came running out. It was very exciting to see them in person. Unfortunately they told us that Courteney Cox was not there because she was off shooting a movie somewhere. So that was disappointing.

Soon the lights dimmed and someone told us that we had to be seated because they were about to shoot a scene. The first scene they shot had Phoebe visiting Monica's restaurant. For all of Monica's scenes, they had a stand-in. Lisa Kudrow did an awesome job and they only had to shoot the scene once. Since Courteney was not there they were only going to do one take on the scenes she was suppose to be. The scene had Monica introducing Phoebe to this new assistant chef named Tim. Phoebe hit it off with the guy and later they go out on a date. The scene was quick and when it was done the cameras and all the crew headed across the stage to Chandler's office.

During the break the comedian talked to the audience some more and gave away a few more things. Then Matthew Perry walked out and into his office set. His scene had him sitting at his desk when his boss walks by and enters the room. Chandler asks him if he there is any way to by pass the network on the computers so that he can get to some of the really good office porn. His boss just laughs and says you are a funny one Bing. After the scene the writers got together and decided to make a few changes to the script. They wanted to change a few lines to get a better reaction from the audience. So they changed a few things and actually shot this scene 3 times. All of the scenes they shot at least 3 times, except for the ones with Monica in them, which they shot only once.  They also would shoot a scene again or go back a little bit if one of the actors made a mistake.  During one take on the second scene, Matthew Perry made a mistake. When he asked about the office porn, he broke out in laughter and it was really funny to see.

The next scene took place right over by me. I had to lean back behind my chair to see it because it was in the doctor's office set that was suppose to look like a set on "Days of Our Lives". I luckily had a clear view of this set and was able to look at Joey and Rachel while they prepared for the scene. This scene dealt with Joey talking to another doctor who was informing Joey that the brain transplant of Jessica into his body wasn't working right. He also told Joey that they went to dig up Jessica's body and that it was gone. Then Joey gave his cool inquisitive look into the camera. They actually had to shoot him giving the look a few times. During the time he is filming this, Rachel is standing on the side watching his Days of Our Lives scene on a TV. You then hear the "Days" director yell cut and Joey walks over to Rachel, who asks his what happen to Jessica. Joey says that he can't tell her because she has to tune into find out. Then Rachel says, "you don't know do ya?" And Joey says, "Nope, and I don't care". Then Rachel wants Joey to introduce her to the other actor playing a doctor, who is Cash Ford. Rachel talks to him like she is a total soap opera nut by knowing his favorite ice cream and that his dog's name is Wally. While she is unknowingly stroking Cash's arm, Joey grabs her and says let's go. She yells goodbye to Cash and that was the end of that scene. During the break in between reshooting that scene, Jennifer Aniston stood right in front of me so I was able to get a really good look at her. Then suddenly she lifted her head and looked right up at me and waved to me. It was the highlight of my night. I was sooooo excited that she actually waved.

The next scene was back over in Chandler’s office.  This time Ross walks in and asks if Chandler is ready to head off to lunch.  Chandler asks him where he wants to go, and Ross tells him something like, “you know where”.  Chandler says, “The Hard Rock Cafι again?”  Ross happily replies, “Uh-huh”.  Then the two of them walk out of the office.  The cameras move once more over by the elevators and then Chandler and Ross come walking around a corner to the elevators.  Ross is making some comment about where he hopes to get a table but he messes up his line and breaks out in laughter.  Matthew Perry also laughs and starts jumping and pointing at him.  They do the scene a few more times and the writers actually change what Ross says when they walk around the corner.  After that they make it to the elevators and while they are working another actor playing the part of Bob walks by and pats Chandler on the shoulder and says “Hey Toby”.  Ross looks at Chandler and asks why that guy just called him Toby.  Chandler explains that 5 years ago Bob offered him a donut and called him Toby.  Since he was hungry, he just went along with it.  But he says to Ross that it’s better than being called something like Muriel.  Ross looks at him and says, “Why would he call you Muriel?”  Then he goes, “Wait wait, wait a minute, Chandler….M….Bing.  Your middle name is Muriel!”   

So this basically sets up the three main plots of the show.  For the next few hours they continued to shoot more scenes of the show.  Phoebe later gets tired of dating Tim because he calls her all the time and wants to know how she is doing and what she is doing.  And if she doesn’t answer, he stops by her place.  So she finds this really annoying and decides it’s time to break up with him.  But when she goes over to Monica’s apartment, Monica tells her that she wants to fire Tim because he is a terrible assistant and even set one person on fire.  So the two of them argue about who is going to deliver the bad news first, because the second one “will be the bigger b*tch”.  As Phoebe explained it, if a guys girlfriend dumps him and then later that day his boss fires him, that boss must be a real b*tch.  And if a guy looses his job and then his girlfriend dumps him, she is a super b*tch.  This scene was really funny to see being shot because Lisa Kudrow kept messing up her lines.  At one point she turned to the audience and said, “You’ll have to excuse me, I just took some cough medicine before coming back in here”.  It was funny.  She was totally acting like Phoebe.  After that scene we were left with Tim being paged by Monica at Central Perk just as Phoebe was trying to break up with him.  So Phoebe took off after him to meet him at Monica’s restaurant.  Unfortunately we were not able to see how this story line ended because the crew decided not to finish shooting without Courteney being there. 

As for Rachel, Joey comes into the apartment and tells Rachel that Cash really liked her and wants to go out with her.  But he says he figures since she is pregnant and all that she is done with the whole dating thing.  She says no way, it doesn’t count since it’s Cash Ford and also says that she isn’t going to tell him that she is pregnant.  So Joey sets up a date for her.  Later on Ross shows up at their apartment with pizza and beer as Rachel is getting ready for her date.  She tells him that she has a date and Ross informs her that it doesn’t bother him at all.  But as she runs back in her room to get earrings, Ross asks Joey what is going on.  Joey explains how he set it up and how they are going on a ferryboat ride, which gets Ross really irritated.  He tells Joey that he is really bothered that Rachel and his baby are going on a date with “some actor”.  A few minutes later Cash shows up at the door and Ross acts all weird around him asking him strange questions.  Then Rachel walks out embarrassing herself by saying, “hey guys, does this dress make me look slutty?”  She then notices Cash is there and the two of them quickly take off for their date.  The scene was neat because they filmed two different endings to it.  As the door is closing with Rachel and Cash walking out, Ross yells out, “keep your hands and feet inside the boat at all times!”  The other ending has him yelling out “yes that dress does make you look slutty!”  I think they will end up using the second one. 

As Rachel is gone on her date, Joey and Ross try to figure out what they want to do.  Ross actually wants to just hang out there so he can be around when Rachel gets back from her date.  You can see that the date really worries him.  So he explains to Joey how he figured that with his next kid it would be with his wife and how he has these dreams of having a perfect family and a nice home, where on Sunday mornings the kid would run into his bedroom and they would read the paper together.  He also tells Joey that he has a picture of his wife in his head, and that it used to be Rachel, but not anymore.   The girl in his dreams didn’t have a face. 

The next scene in this plot had Ross outside on the streets of New York at the newspaper stand.  He runs into Rachel there and asks her how the date went.  She says that since it’s still early and she’s alone, it didn’t go well.  She says that he didn’t take the news of her being pregnant very well, but better than Ross did.  So Ross sits down with her on some steps to cheer her up and tells her about Chandler’s middle name.  That makes her happy and then he starts talking about kids with her and the two of them really have a great moment.  You would think that it would’ve ended with a kiss or something, but unfortunately it didn’t.  Ross gets up and asks her if she wants to join him for coffee.  She says no and that she is going to go back to her place and eat 10 candy bars.  A few minutes later we see Ross enter Central Perk to get some coffee.  Before he gets to the counter this girl jumps up and says that Ross owes her a dance.  I guess that it was some girl Ross met at Monica and Chandler’s wedding.  So Ross offers to take her to a Ukrainian film instead.  Just as Ross is talking with her, Rachel walks in the doors behind him.  But she stops right in the doorway and sees Ross talking with this girl.  Everyone in the audience wanted to yell out to Ross to turn around, but he never did and Rachel gets a disappointed look on her face and leaves.  Unfortunately that is where it ended with that plot. 

The final plot of the show was the one with Chandler and Bob, who thought Chandler’s name was Toby.  Chandler’s boss sees him talking with Bob and approaches Chandler later and asks him what he thinks about promoting Bob to their department on the 11^th floor.  Chandler tries to come up with some excuses why not to promote this guy because he doesn’t want him working up there.  Otherwise Chandler would have to tell him the truth about his name.  His boss buys the excuses and doesn’t promote Bob.  Later Bob comes up to Chandler and asks him if he knows whom this jerk Chandler is because this guy stopped him from getting a promotion.  Chandler gets all nervous and just says something about not really knowing him, but that he hears he is a nice guy.  A little later on we find Chandler walking to his office and Bob pops up right next to him and asks him if he knows where Chandler’s office is.  Chandler quickly forces his name tag off of the door when Bob isn’t looking and points down the hall telling him that he thinks his office is down that way.  But then Chandler tries to tell Bob the truth but Bob says to him, “Toby, I know what you are trying to do, and anything you say now just makes me more angry at this Chandler”.  So then Chandler tries to convince Bob to not doing anything to Chandler and to not drop to his level.  Bob agrees and leaves. 

For the ending of the show, they actually shot three different ones.  The first has Chandler walking into his office and finding it a total mess.  He walks in wondering what happened and then his boss walks in.  As Chandler finds some things he never knew he had, like a Rolodex, his boss explains that Bob went nuts and messed up the office and that it was a good thing that they didn’t promote him since he was a nut.  Just then you see two security guards escorting Bob down the hallway as he yells something in to Chandler like “I’m sorry Toby, but I had to do it”.  Chandler and his boss just look at each thinking what is wrong with this guy.  Just after they cut the scene, Matthew Perry turns to the actor playing his boss and says, “So do you want to get it on?”  The second ending started off the same, but instead of Bob being escorted by the office, Chandler reaches down and picks up something.  He then says to his boss, “hey look, the good porn!”  Then the two of them just stare at it and the scene ends.  This one was funny because Matthew Perry couldn’t keep from laughing.   The final ending they shot is probably the one they will use.  Chandler walks into his office and finds Bob in there throwing stuff around.  Bob turns and says something like, “Hey Toby, I found Chandler’s office.  Come here and help me mess it up”.  Chandler pauses for a few seconds and than says, “ok” and jumps in and starts throwing stuff around. 

After that scene Matthew Perry walked by and waved to everyone. Then we all had to leave so they could clean everything up. We left around 9pm, almost 5 and half hours after I got inside the stage. It took a long time, but it was definitely worth it. And it never seemed like it was that long. It definitely was a great experience and I recommend it to anyone that gets the chance.  All of the cast members seemed really cool.  They all waved to the audience at some point or another.  And you could really see that they were friends because between takes many times they would talk with each other.  Plus David liked doing goofy little dances to the music between takes.  Matthew Perry looked like he had gained some weight since last season too which was good.  He was the only one that actually came up to the audience and signed an autograph.  But it was for some people from Australia who made him a flag.  Most of the time when the actors were done with their scenes they would exit backstage through the green door in the back of Monica's apartment, by the balcony.  I thought that was interesting.  Thanks for reading this and I hope I gave you a good insight into what it was like to go to a taping.