This is 2021, and Friends is streaming on Netflix among the 10 trending shows. The phenomenon of this show has got scientists attention as well. Yashu Seth who is a machine-learning engineer made his own study based on the character of friends in numbers and graphs. Based on these characters they studied gender stereotypes.
The thought came to Yashu’s mind while watching one of his favourite episodes “The one with Ross’s Tan”, where everyone’s performance is hilarious. Who is the actual lead of the show? Is it Ross and Rachael, or the witty Phoebe, or is it sarcastic Chandler, or the clean freak Monica or the most famous ladies man- Joey?
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Eventually, when he couldn’t decide on one, he used data science and gathered instances from all the seasons and came up to this conclusion.
1. Ross and Rachel had more lines than anyone else
Ross and Rachel hold the first place and I believe, that’s because of their love story and it’s their love story due to which the show was followed rigorously by the fans. They have almost spoken 100,000 words, which is an approximate number. The least was spoken by Phoebe, which stands to 15,000 because most of her words were in her head. There is no priority given to any particular person because it was well balanced.
2. Chandler had the biggest number of screen appearances
Through his study, we come to know that Chandler had the most screen appearance. It comes to 1,400+. Rachael and Ross stand very close with 1,370 and 1,330 individually. Phoebe again had the least number of appearances. But not forgetting to mention, these data are calculated on the basis of dialogue delivery and screen appearance.
3. Ross has the biggest number of individual screen appearances
This category made Ross the winner with 150 scenes. This parameter was calculated on the basis where out of all the characters who were seen individually or with supporting actors. Ross had the highest number and Rachael was not even close this time and stood at fourth place. Joey stands in second place with 130 scenes and Monica least with only 50 scenes.
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4. Rachel was mentioned in the episode titles more often than the others
Again Rachel and Ross beat everyone in this category. Rachel beats everyone by holding 27 episodes title and Ross has 24. Monica again stands at the last place holding only 8 episodes title which mentions her name.
5. Ross Geller is the lead character of the show
According to the numbers and graphs, Ross looks like the lead character of the show. He has a greater number of screen appearances, and many other categories as well.
6. A lead couple of the show
In Spite of Ross and Rachael being the most talked couple of the show, they don’t lead here. The winner of this category remains Chandler and Joey who appeared most of the time on screen as a pair.
7. The main supporting character in Friends
Other than the 6 main characters, Gunther, a barista from the Central Perk coffee shop has the most screen appearances amongst all the supporting characters.
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8. The main set for Friends was
People think that the main location and set of friends was the Central Perk but most of the scenes which comes to around 26% were shot in Monica’s apartment compared to 16% that was shot at Central Perk.
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