There was a time when you simply couldn't escape Friends. It was everywhere - whenever you turned on the TV, you were almost guaranteed to see Ross, Rachel, Monica, Chandler, Phoebe and Joey on your screen as they frolicked around, whether looking at Ugly Naked Guy or trying to avoid the horrendous laugh of Chandler's ex Janice.
And sure, you'd seen every episode a hundred times already, but you still watched it because there was something in the dynamic between those six characters that really felt special. You wanted to believe they were real, even if their ridiculously plush apartments in New York, that should have been totally unaffordable given their career choices, told you otherwise.
The series ran for a decade, from 1994 to 2004, with its stars earning an estimated $1 million per episode for a good portion of that. And a decade-plus after the last episode aired, and (almost) everyone was happy because Ross and Rachel did get together in the end after all, it seems Friends still has a place in everyone's hearts.
At least, it does in the hearts of the users of Ranker, who have voted in their thousands to crown it the best sitcom of all time.
It's not the first time the show has worn that accolade, either. In fact, it sits atop IMDB's 2013 list of the top 30 greatest sitcoms of all-time, too, with Modern Family, Two And A Half Men, Full House and Roseanne making up the rest of the top five.
On the Ranker list, Seinfeld - which is placed at number six on the IMDB list - sits at number two, followed by The Simpsons, Cheers and The Big Bang Theory.
That the runners-up are so different on each list but the number one remains the same is testament to the enduring power of Friends to this day. Even though it's dated quite a lot - you'll be shocked at how many homophobic jokes are in there - it's clear that there really was some special chemistry between those six characters.
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(We just won't mention Joey. Never mention Joey.)
Whether anything can topple Friends off the top spot remains to be seen, but given that it's been 14 years since it left our screens - or at least since they stopped filming new episodes - we highly doubt it. And fair enough.
Featured Image Credit: Warner Bros.Topics: TV and Film, US Entertainment, Friends