'Friends' premiered 26 years ago: What did Newsday say?

"Friends" premiered 26 years ago, on Sept. 22, 1994. When Newsday's longtime TV critic Marvin Kitman reviewed the show, he lumped it in with two other "Gen X" comedies, both of which quickly vanished — unlike "Friends," which went on to become a pop culture phenomenon. Here is an edited version of that review from Sept. 13, 1994.

The big new trend in comedy this season is shows about friends. I realize this may not seem like much, but, hey, this is a year when

everybody said there were no new trends.

These buddy comedies about groups of friends, belonging to what they call "Generation X," are usually about nothing. Of course, all of them say they are about something: relationships, commitment, the meaning of life. But some of them are really about nothing; others are about really nothing.

The best of this year's Generation X buddy comedies is Fox's "Wild Oats"s about two friends in Chicago — a sexually active photographer (Tim Conlon), who has the hormones of a rabbit, and his best friend (Paul Rudd), a social worker. He is labeled sensitive "because he doesn't like the Three Stooges." They are childhood buddies who have vowed never to let a woman come between them. One does — a fifth-grade teacher, Jack's ex-girlfriend, (Paula Marshall).

"Wild Oats" is the most promising new twentysomethingcomedy since "Flying Blind."

The most widely anticipated of the Generation X comedies, and the one which I was sure I could watch longer than five minutes, was NBC's "Friends." It's by Marta Kauffman and David Crane, who also do "Dream On" on HBO, still the best liberated sitcom of the sexual revolution. "Friends" is not "Dream On."

It's a smart sophisticated comedy, they say, that looks into the hearts and minds of a group of friends, who hang out at the New York apartment of central character Monica (played by Courteney Cox). The extended family includes her brother, Ross (David Schwimmer), who is the late vigilante lawyer "4B" from "NYPD Blue"; friends from Lincoln High, neighbors across the hall, and people Monica has met on the subway, in various states of growing up, all doing their independence thing. They are searching for commitments, for relationships that last longer than a Mento.

The trouble with "Friends" is that Cox is not strong enough as a comedian. Her Lenny & Squiggy neighbors (Matthew Perry and Matt LeBlanc) get more laughs. Coming from the minds of Crane & Kauffman, "Friends" has some funny lines that float around the show like Tang containers in a space capsule. It needs a stronger central character to nail it all down. The reason I'm still optimistic that something can come of this, anyway, is the premiere's final scene: the ritual of cutting up the credit cards of Rachel (Jennifer Aniston), the princess. It will bring tears to many an eye.

The least promising of the buddy comedies is ABC's "Blue Skies." It's the story of these two friends, one is sexually aggressive (Matt Roth), the other meek (Corey Parker) — who are partners in a mail order catalog business called Blue Skies Trading Company. "Blue Skies," out of the Barry Kemp shop, is a less urban hip, more middle American "Coach"-type comedy that explores friendships that also can't be strained by a woman.