The love lives of the main characters in Friends were at the front and center of many, many storylines, and sometimes their relationships got tangled, as happened with Ross and Joey, who dated the same three women, and ultimately, Ross won. The 1990s was a great decade for sitcoms as it saw the debut of many popular titles, but few had the success and legacy that Friends has. Created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, Friends premiered on NBC in 1994 and came to an end in 2004 after 10 seasons full of memorable jokes, moments, and characters, who continue to be popular among new generations of viewers thanks to its arrival to the world of streaming.

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Friends followed a group of six young adults living in New York City and doing their best to balance their social, personal, and professional lives, all while dealing with everything adulthood threw their way, which sometimes was a lot. Over the course of 10 seasons, viewers saw Monica, Chandler, Phoebe, Joey, Rachel, and Ross grow in every aspect of their lives, and as such, they also saw them meet a variety of people. By the end of Friends, each of the main characters (except for Joey, whose story came to an end in the spinoff series Joey) had found their partner and were building their own families, but before that, they dated different people and even dated between them, and in Ross and Joey’s case, they even share three ex-girlfriends.

Ross and Joey are opposite personalities but they also have a strong friendship – Ross is more intellectual, polite, socially awkward, and sometimes clumsy, while Joey is dim-witted, caring, and a womanizer. Ross was more relationship-oriented whereas Joey was more into casual dating and he rarely had a girlfriend, but on three occasions they were into the same women, and in two of those, Ross ended up as the “winner”. In Friends season 7, in the episode “The One With The Cheap Wedding Dress”, a girl named Kristen (Gabrielle Union) moved in across the street from Central Perk and Ross and Joey met her separately, and they went on a date with her unbeknownst to the other. They eventually found out and started competing for her, and Joey showed up at Ross and Kristen’s date, where they got into a verbal fight while pretending to not know each other, leading Kristen to leave in the middle of their fight.

In Friends season 9, Ross and Joey dated the same woman again but now separately. In the episode “The One With The Soap Opera Party”, Ross met Charlie Wheeler (Aisha Tyler), a fellow paleontology professor. Ross invited her to Joey’s party, but his insecurities got the best of him and Joey made his move, so he started dating Charlie. However, episodes later, during a conference in Barbados, Charlie realized she and Joey weren’t a match and started dating Ross. On that same trip, Joey gave in to his feelings for Rachel and they started dating too. Charlie ultimately chose her ex-boyfriend over Ross and Joey and Rachel realized they were better off as friends, and so both relationships came to an end.

However, the complicated relationship between Ross and Rachel was reignited in the final season of Friends and was at the front and center of the final episodes, with the finale showing them getting back together supposedly for good, meaning that Ross “won” with Charlie, who chose him over Joey, and with Rachel, who turned out to be his “lobster”, as Phoebe said. It’s fun to see how two very different characters ended up attracting the same three women, but each relationship was definitely a world of its own.

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Adrienne Tyler
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Adrienne Tyler is a features writer for Screen Rant. She is an Audiovisual Communication graduate who wanted to be a filmmaker, but life had other plans (and it turned out great). Prior to Screen Rant, she wrote for Pop Wrapped, 4 Your Excitement (4YE), and D20Crit, where she was also a regular guest at Netfreaks podcast. She was also a contributor for FanSided’s BamSmackPow and 1428 Elm. Adrienne is very into films and she enjoys a bit of everything: from superhero films to heartbreaking dramas, to low-budget horror films. Every time she manages to commit to a TV show without getting bored, an angel gets its wings.

When she’s not writing, you can find her trying to learn a new language, watching hockey (go Avs!), or wondering what life would have been like had Pushing Daisies, Firefly, and Limitless not been cancelled. Breakfast food is life and coffee is what makes the world go round.

Guillermo del Toro said “hi” to her once. It was great.

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