"The One with the Prom Video" is the fourteenth episode of the second season, and the 38th episode overall, of the American television situation comedy Friends, which first aired on NBC on February 1, 1996. The episode focuses on the main characters watching Monica (Courteney Cox) and Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) getting ready for their high-school prom in the titular video. A subplot sees Joey (Matt LeBlanc) having increased income, buying roommate Chandler (Matthew Perry) an unusual gift.

The episode was directed by James Burrows and written by Alexa Junge and features guest stars Elliott Gould and Christina Pickles as Jack and Judy Geller, Michael Ray Bower as Monica's date, and Patrick Kerr as the restaurant manager. Writer Alexa Junge incorporated many of her own experiences into the script, in particular Phoebe's line about Ross and Rachel being "lobsters", something Junge's husband once said. this was the first on-screen appearance of "Fat Monica" (the fat suit made frequent return appearances). Rachel's large nose was added because Junge believed that the characters "were so good-looking, you wanted to feel they had some realness in their past". An early script draft featured a scene in the prom video in which an episode of All My Children is on in the background. The scene was intended to feature the character "Bryce", played by Gunther (as revealed in "The One Where Eddie Won't Go").

Reception

In 1997, TV Guide ranked this episode number 100 on their list of the "100 Greatest Episodes of All Time".

"The One with the Prom Video" received acclaim from critics. Entertainment Weekly rates the episode "A", welcoming the return of Burrows as director and calling the prom video "witty character development disguised as a standard flashback." The authors of Friends like Us: The Unofficial Guide to Friends write that it is "a watershed in the history of the show" and "It's the sign of a good show that they can switch so effortlessly from comedy to pathos to romance in one short scene." Robert Bianco wrote in USA Today in 2004, "If any one outing can take credit for moving Friends from good to great, it's Prom Video" and describes the resolution as an "ingenious, unexpected twist."

The episode is popular among fans of the series. and is one of the two episodes to feature an audio commentary on the region 1 DVD release of the complete second season. In a poll conducted shortly before the series finale, "The One with the Prom Video" was voted the best episode of Friends, with 1.6 million people polling on the Internet. The episode is the favorite of Schwimmer, who liked the comedic and emotional origins of the Ross/Rachel relationship, as well as the exchange between Monica and Chandler as she defends her weight on the video.

References

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