Product Details

• Actors: Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry
• Format: Dolby, Box set, NTSC, Widescreen, Surround Sound
• Language: English (DTS 5.1)
• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
• Region: Region A/1 (Read more about DVD/Blu-ray formats.)
• Number of discs: 21
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• DVD Release Date: November 13, 2012
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (124 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B008D19WBQ
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #10,150 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

The ultimate collector set features over 110 hours of content (90 hours of features and 20 hours of bonus content). All 236 original broadcast episodes. Highly Collectible Premium Packaging Lenticular Box Cover Hard-cover book that holds 21 discs 32-page episode guide with content from the Warner Bros. archives.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

280 of 300 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Hey Warner Home Video, we want the EXTENDED episodes!!! September 14, 2012

By Greg VINE™ VOICE

I'm a huge fan of "Friends," in fact it's probably my favorite TV show of all time. Interestingly, I didn't start watching the show until it was in its 9th season. I dismissed it as a "chick show," but when I finally started catching re-runs when I was in college, it had me rolling! It was right at this point that they began releasing the full seasons on DVD. So every time a new season was released on DVD I went right out and bought it. The first time that I saw many of these episodes (probably 80% of the series) was on DVD. For those of you that don't know this, the DVDs actually contained longer episodes than what had been originally broadcast on NBC. Each 20-minute episode contained another 2 or 3 minutes of dialogue/story. And it wasn't excessive stuff that needed to be cut, many of my favorite lines in the show were in these extended scenes. In fact, when I go back and watch re-runs of the show now I can't believe how much of it is missing. I still love my DVDs though, special features and all! But when I watch them now on my 47" TV I notice that they look pretty rough. There's lots of pixelation and fuzziness, and the episodes aren't formatted for widescreen. Certain channels have been showing the episodes in HD and they look gorgeous! I thought to myself, "I would actually buy the whole series over again on Blu-Ray if it had all the extended episodes and bonus features from the standard DVD set."

When I learned that "Friends" was coming to Blu-Ray I was so excited, I couldn't wait to get my hands on it. Then I learned that this Blu-Ray boxed set would not contain the previously released extended episodes, but would instead have them as they appeared in the original NBC broadcast.... Warner Home Video's reason for this is as follows: "The extended cuts were special versions created for the DVDs and no longer exist in a form that could be used for a Blu-ray release." ...What does THAT mean? You can transfer the short episodes but not the long ones? That makes no sense! Whatever was done to clean up the episodes that they've been showing on TV in HD, they can do for the extended episodes. I think someone just got lazy and decided this would be good enough. While I desperately want my favorite show in HD, I will not fork out over $200 for an inferior product! I know these (extended) episodes like the back of my hand, and I won't be able to truly enjoy the show with the absence of so many great scenes and lines. I'd rather watch bad resolution "Friends" in its entirety than watch a cleaned up abridged version. The only reason I'm giving this 2 stars is because it's still an awesome show, and for casual fans this might be enough. However, for fans like me this will simply not do. This reminds me of George Lucas only releasing the versions of Star Wars that nobody likes, or Peter Jackson putting out The Lord Of The Rings trilogy on Blu-Ray but waiting over a year to put out the extended versions. Warner Home Video won't be getting my money this time. Try again, guys! Read more ›

190 of 213 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars What will be Missing from this FRIENDS Broadcast edition? July 3, 2012

By paper tiger

For fans of FRIENDS you will know what episode is below. For everyone else, the below lines from the script are from episode 809, season 8: The Rumor (The one with Brad Pitt at Thanksgiving). Everything with a star next to it will NOT be in the FRIENDS Blu-ray Broadcast version.

Phoebe: Turkey's are beautiful, intelligent animals!
Joey: No they're not! They're ugly and stupid and delicious! *Plus, eating them is like a tradition. It goes back to the very first Thanksgiving when the Indians sat down with the cowboys
*Rachel: Oh right... That's when they had that big rodeo at Plymouth Rock.

Ross: Uh actually, there was also that exchange student from Thailand but I don't think he knew what it was.
*Chandler: (sarcastically) You guys were cool.
Rachel: So Ross, we went out for two years, and you never told me you were in an I Hate Rachel club.
Will: You went out with her?! We had a pact!
Ross: That was in high school! It's not like it was binding forever.
Will: Then why did it have the word eternity in it?
*Joey: I'm thinking of joining an "I Hate Turkey Club"... although I do love a turkey club.

Rachel: Joey stop staring! There's nothing there! It's not true!
Joey: I'm afraid I'm gonna need proof. *C'mon, whip it out.

*Monica: (To Chandler and Phoebe) Alright, guys, could you help me with the dishes? There's a lot of pots and pans.
*Chandler: Oh honey I'd love to but the second game's about to start so... (starts to get up)
*Phoebe: (getting up with him) Oh yeah, the second game. More football for the Phoebster
*Monica: Who's playing?
*Chandler: Los Angeles
*Monica: Wow, last time I checked, Los Angeles didn't have a football team.
*Chandler: Did I say Los Angeles?... I meant the team that used to be in Los Angeles and now in St. Louis. (whispers to
Phoebe) I actually knew that.
*Monica: Ok, quick. Name three players on that team.
*Chandler: Gretzky... Agassi (struggles to think of a third, then to Phoebe) I'm a pretty little girl. (Monica Throws him a tea-towel)

Monica: It's true?!!
Ross: No.
Rachel: Yes it is! I saw you guys going at it behind the card catalog!
*Ross: Hey! What were you doing in the library?
*Rachel: They had magazines!

Will: Yeah! (They high-five.) Shall I call a meeting.
*Ross: Is everybody present?
*Will: With the exception of Takaka.
Phoebe: I wanna join!

That is just an example of one episode. There is a site out there which has the script to each episode and what will be missing from them in this broadcast version. Amazon will not let me post the site, however I will try it this way...

uncutfriendsepisodes(dot)tripod(dot)com

As Amazon keeps deleting my link, feel free to comment on my review and I can e-mail it to you.

I am a huge FRIENDS fan and I am very disapointed in this, however I do still plan on purchasing this Blu-ray set once it greatly goes down in price.

*** Update ***

I ended up purchasing and importing the UK edition of FRIENDS on Blu-ray because I liked the UK packaging much better, plus it was about half the price of the US version at the time.

When I first popped the disc in and started watching I was presented with a nice HD picture and sound and I appreciate all the care they took in bringing Friends to Blu for us. Sadly I am very upset, and more bothered than I thought I would be, in all I know I am missing by simply watching these broadcast versions. There is a lot cut out and even the basic cutting of scenes is quicker and made to fit a commercial in. I love the show and I have enjoyed watching them all over again, however I miss the little jokes they cut out. Over-all I am glad I own it, however I really hope one day the will release the extended cuts on Blu-ray! Read more ›

126 of 144 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing - Edited versions August 28, 2012

By Kevin

Please be aware that these episodes will NOT be the versions found on the DVD sets. They will be the originally broadcast versions, missing quite a bit of footage that was added for the DVD release (some wonderful jokes, scenes, and moments). Unfortunately, I will not be purchasing this set - I'd rather have DVD quality visuals and the full extended versions I am used to and love, rather than jarring missing footage.

(To be fair, this set will show the episodes as originally intended, but I never watched them on TV when they aired originally, so for me, it is a deal breaker.)

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Trying to clear up the "cutting" confusion... November 15, 2012

By M. Otto

For anyone who thinks that these episodes are cut, please read this review from Gord Lacey at tvshowsondvd(dot)com:

"Alright, let's deal with the "elephant in the room." You may have read, or heard that these episodes are cut. That's completely false. These are the original airings of the episodes (with a couple exceptions, which I'll get to later) that were seen on NBC. If you sat down to watch the show on "Must See TV" Thursdays, this is what you would have seen, except it's in HD (and widescreen). When Warner Bros released this on DVD, years ago, they added material - stuff that was deleted from the episodes for whatever reason. When you create a TV show you log everything - all the shots, the timecode, everything. It's well-documented, and finding the material you need again is a relatively easy task. Unfortunately that wasn't the case with the extended episodes; records weren't kept, timecode didn't exist. That makes the task of finding the material to recreate the extended episodes a daunting task; one that likely would have made Friends on Blu-ray financial unfeasible. I think a good comparison would be what CBS is going through with Star Trek: The Next Generation, except that they're recreating episodes in HD that can bring them other financial revenue streams, while Friends would have to recoup everything from this one set. I think the irony here is that if Warner Bros didn't go to the trouble to create the extended episodes for the DVDs, there wouldn't be any issue with this Blu-ray set. I've gone through the entire set and noted the times of every episode, which you can find at the end of this review (I think I need a new remote now)....

There were 4 "Super-Sized" episodes in season 7, and while those longer episodes aren't here in HD, they entire episodes are available as SD bonus material. Those are the only episodes that differ from the "broadcast night" versions."

[Taken from: tvshowsondvd(dot)com]

See, it's not so bad. If they would have gone through to find all the episodes that they extended, it would have taken them much longer and the cost would have been astronomical!

Long story short, amazing to see in HD like on TBS/Nick at Nite. If you already have the series on DVD, then maybe you'd be happier with what you have and not buying this Blu-ray set. However, if you have been like me and waiting for the Widescreen HD episodes, then this does just fine. They are pretty much the same as what you'd see on your local TV station's syndicated version or on TBS/Nick at Nite. Read more ›