Friends

A quarter-century on, this sitcom about six New York City-dwelling friends is still a hit.

When September 1994 rolled around, and a new sitcom about six New York City-dwelling friends first debuted on television screens, no one could've known just what would follow. It made stars out of Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer, and made seemingly everyone keen to copy Aniston's hairstyle — and it unleashed a genuine pop culture phenomenon that's still watched and rewatched by adoring fans all these years later.

The setup is so very simple, and it's one that plenty of other shows have also tried. But Friends manages to distill a familiar and straightforward idea into 236 episodes of entertaining comedy. Call it 'The One with the Huge Longevity', 'The One That No One Seems to Be Able to Get Enough Of' or 'The One That Made Sitting on Orange Coffee Shop Couches and Singing About Smelly Cats Cool'.