When someone says sitcoms there is always two names that come up in our mind. Yes! It’s Friends and The Big Bang Theory. Who doesn’t love these shows? But when it comes to choosing one among both, it’s not a joke!
FRIENDS (I’ll be there for you)
Friends and The Big Bang Theory are sitcoms that found unrivaled success on popular television impacting the lives of successive generations of viewers. Friends, by far one of the most loved shows across the globe, aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting ten seasons and we still haven’t gotten enough of it. With an amazing cast starring Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer gave us all our favorite characters Phoebe, Joey, Chandler, Monica, Ross, and Rachel.
The show revolves around six friends with an extremely close bond in their 20s and 30s who live in Manhattan, New York City, and the series of incidents that takes place giving us a wave of all kinds of emotions. The series finale aired on May 6, 2004, and was watched by around 52.5 million American viewers. FRIENDS received acclaim throughout its run, becoming one of the most popular television shows of all time winning the Outstanding Comedy Series award in 2002 for its eighth season. The sitcom cast is all set to return for a reunion ‘The One Where They Get Back Together’ special airing on HBO Max on May 27, 2021.
The Big Bang Theory
On the other hand, The Big Bang Theory, created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, premiered on CBS on September 24, 2007, and concluded on May 16, 2019, having broadcast a total of 279 episodes over twelve seasons. The show originally centered on five characters living in Pasadena, California: Leonard Hofstadter and Sheldon Cooper, both physicists at Caltech, who share an apartment; Penny, a waitress and aspiring actress who lives across the hall; and Leonard and Sheldon’s similarly geeky and socially awkward friends and co-workers, aerospace engineer Howard Wolowitz and astrophysicist Raj Koothrappali.
Along the time supporting characters were promoted including neuroscientist Amy Farrah Fowler, microbiologist Bernadette Rostenkowski. The show was nominated for the Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series from 2011 to 2014 and won the Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series four times for Jim Parsons. In total, it won seven Emmy Awards from 46 nominations.
FRIENDS Vs The Big Bang Theory: Choose Wisely
Although both shows are based on a group of friends, their experiences, love, and careers yet are completely different in their own ways. Comparison between the two is inevitable. Friends is a casual and much-related show. The story doesn’t revolve around just one character it spreads around different characters with different backstories which are shown in some flashback episodes. While TBBT has a unique setup of non-traditional characters mainly men starring in lead roles.
These characters were nerds – more interested in discovering the secrets but didn’t know how to talk to girls. The most fascinating character in TBBT was Sheldon Cooper, a child prodigy with an eidetic memory who began college at the age of 11 and earned a Ph.D. at age 16. He is seen as a theoretical physicist researching quantum mechanics and string theory.
The show also included characters like Leonard Hofstader, an experimental physicist, Howard Wolowitz, an aerospace engineer, Rajesh Koothrappali, a particle astrophysicist. These character ensembles made the show different from the rest.
Both sitcoms did an amazing job in portraying women. the women in Friends somehow ended up being free and more empowered in the end. Rachel went from a clueless privileged young woman to a single mom with a high job profile. Phoebe too was a free spirit and Monica was as much the man of the house as Chandler.
In TBBT, the female characters are shown in leading positions in STEM fields. The character evolution also was on point in both shows. But when talking about diversity, it’s no secret that Friends is lacking diversity even though it is supposed to take place in New York. TBBT somehow did a better job by casting actor Kunal Nayyar, who played Raj Koothrapalli, the main character who is Indian.
While Friends is loved by how it is so relatable and hilarious to the viewers, TBBT is loved for its unique characters, their love for physics, and comics which has entertained us all and is still doing in this COVID pandemic. Both have made sure that their viewers laugh and love every character even Sheldon. These two shows deserve their recognition and love throughout the world. Though choosing between one of them will not justify how brilliant shows they are. As far as who is better, I leave it to you. Tell us which is your favorite sitcom Friends or The Big Bang Theory.
