Friends: B.O. Friends 4 [VHS] (1994)

Here's a rundown of this DVDs contents:

1. The One With Chandler in a Box (11/20/97): Thanksgiving comes around again. With Joey still fuming at Chandler for stealing his girlfriend, Chandler confines himself to a box to prove his friendship to Joey. Plus, Monica attempts to start a relationship with Richard's son.

2. The One Hundredth (10/8/98): Phoebe gives birth to the triplets she carried for her brother, with a Fonzie-loving weirdo as the doctor. Plus, to Chandler's chagrin Rachel sets-up Monica and herself with two cute males nurses, and Joey has a kidney stone.

3. The One With All the Resolutions (1/7/99): New Year's comes around and with it resolutions. Chandler can't insult; Ross wants to try new things (including wearing leather pants which lead to a HILARIOUS disaster on a hot date); Joey tries to learn guitar from Phoebe; and Rachel resolves not to gossip, but stumbles across Chandler and Monica's BIG secret!!!

4. The One Where Ross Got High (11/25/99): Ross and Monica's parents visit for Thanksgiving and it is revealed that they don't like Chandler, to Monica's chagrin. Ross reveals the reason for their parent's disdain of Chandler is a little white lie he told them about Chandler to cover his own tracks while in college. Also, Rachel tries to fix Thanksgiving desert for the very first time -- to hilarious results!!!

5. The One with the Proposal Parts 1 & 2 (5/18/00): Chandler's big plans to spring a surprise proposal to Monica nearly fall through when Dr. Richard Burke returns from the past to try to reclaim Monica for himself!!! Plus, Joey inadvertently buys a boat at an auction and Ross breaks things off with his college co-ed honey!!!

In addition to these episodes this DVD also contains the following special features:

1. Special Discovery Channel Documentary: "The One That Goes Behind The Scenes." Slightly dated, this 45 minute documentary takes you behind the scenes as the season premiere for the 1999-2000 season is produced (the one after with the gang in Vegas where Ross and Rachel got married). The beginning is kinda so-so with tons of technical stuff where the set gets built and the writers discuss the storyline, but it picks up as the actual filming begins. Some COOL stuff toward the end of filming as they get immediate feedback from the studio audience about jokes which work and fall flat and TONS of cool stuff in the "post-production" phase where we see the Foley artists adding in the sound effects, the music editor adding on the soundtrack and the video editor actually stitching the episode together. Overall, the first half of it is boring; the second half is cool. This should be great for film/video production students wanting to see how an award-winning, ratings-producing show is produced. Kinda neat for Friends fans.

2. Cast bios (the usual stuff talking about where they grew up and their career resume, neat but nothing to write home about....)

3. NEVER BEFORE SEEN FOOTAGE: It's soooo seamlessly edited into the shows that I can't really tell the difference anyway... Pretty cool I guess...

Here's my quick rundown:

Awesome: NO COMMERCIALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Some of the stuff on the documentary was pretty cool

So-so: The additional footage? Me personally, I can't really tell the difference but I guess that makes it a plus.

Bad: Nothing really, but HEY, WB, WHERE'S THE COMPLETE SEASON COLLECTIONS?????????

I like the fact that they released these episodes on DVD. The replay value, like most sitcoms, is awesome. It's just like watching Friends syndicated reruns on your local station but without the commercials and with a better picture. Unlike taping your favorite episodes off the air, the DVD won't get "eaten" from constant replay.

However, I'm anxiously awaiting when Warner Bros will release the complete season sets like they have overseas. Getting these "Best of" sets will be somewhat moot if/when the complete season sets come out domestically.

Otherwise though, if you need your Friends fix, sans commercials and VCR eaten tapes, this will have to do it for you.

Recommended.

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Good video for us "Friends" junkies, but what I"m really waiting for is actual anthologies of all the seasons, not just a mixed bag of what some producer deems the "best of". A few of these episodes really are the "best", but the other few are pretty much fillers, probably to make you have to keep buying videos to get the really funny ones.

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(1) The One with Chandler In a Box - Chandler, to show he feels sorry for stealing Joey's girlfriend, decides to stay in a box throughout Thanksgiving dinner. This ensues in hilarious stuff from Joey who becomes a parent-like unit to Chandler. Also, the gang finds it weird when Monica pursues a relationship with Richard's son.

(2) The One Hundredth - Phoebe goes into labor with the triplets, and is stuck with a doctor who is obsessed with "The Fonz" much to Pheobe's dismay. Monica and Chandler question their relationship here also, but in the end, they strengthen it. I must also mention that Lisa Kudrow gets major kudos for this ep! The ending is quiet teary.

(3) The One with All the Resolutions - This episode is great for 2 reasons only. 1. Rachel finds out about Monica and Mr. Big -- after making her New Year's resolution not to gossip. And the other reason, 2. Ross' resolution is to do something new each day. He chose to wear leather pants one day. And well, that leads to a very funny catastrophe in a date's bathroom.

(4) The One Where Ross Got High - Another Thanksgiving ep! Monica invites her parents over for Thanksgiving, but has failed to tell them about her and Chandler. Also, Monica has promised Rachel she can fix the Thanksgiving dessert. Although this episode doesn't have the spunk that the rest do, the last 5 minutes are great.

(5) The One with the Proposal - Chandler plans to pop the big question on Monica, but all doesn't go as planned when Dr. Richard (Tom Selleck) shows up and screws things up by telling Monica he loves her. A VERY good episode with a VERY good ending.

The twenty episodes that were contained in the Best of Friends volumes are all great. Now I must go and get the Friends Season One set, and anxiously await further seasons.

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