Anyone who is old enough to remember NBC in the late 1980s and 90s will remember the phrase ‘Must See TV’, their longtime promotional campaign for their Thursday night line-up. Every now and then, the execs at NBC would order episodes of their Thursday sitcoms that would feature a running narrative through all of them; “The One with the Blackout” is one of these, focused around a blackout caused on Mad About You, when Paul Buchman causes a city-wide blackout while trying to steal someone’s cable. For Friends, the blackout was used to inch forward the relationship of Rachel and Ross – as well as provide us one of the single-funniest Chandler plots in the show’s 236-episode run.
In “‘The One with the Blackout”, Chandler finds himself trapped in an ATM vestibule (his words, not mine) with Victoria’s Secret model Jill Goodacre (in one of her few acting appearances, when she wasn’t busy being one of the most desired models of the early 1990s). It’s full of signature awkward Chandler moments: his attempts at conversation, trying to talk about her on the phone with Joey (who speaks back to him in the same muffled language Chandler does to him, a hilarious moment), and finally, “Gum would be perfection.”
But what I really like about the scene is how it puts us in Chandler’s head for a moment, giving us some useful insight into the reasons why Chandler is so awkward and twitchy – when asked by Jill if he needs to call anyone, he says: “yeah… about three hundred guys I went to high school with,” as well as his attempts to impress her with his physical bubble-blowing skills. Chandler is the epitome of the 90’s male ‘underdog’ who still manages to pull in women with his childish charm, something on full display when he finally engages Jill in some non-babbling conversation. Plus, the episode is topped off with one of the series’ great moments, in the pose he strikes after Jill leaves him with a kiss on the cheek. Pure genius by the writers to close off Chandler by himself, and delve into his psyche a bit in an unforced and humorous manner.
Like I said earlier, the bulk of “The One with the Blackout” is dedicated to Ross/Rachel stuff, which introduces the show’s first male recurring character (Chandler’s already met and broke up with Janice) in Paulo, the Italian man Rachel releases some of her pent-up sexuality on. At some point during the blackout, the group began talking about weirdest places they’ve had sex, to which Rachel can only come up with ‘the foot of the bed’. Having seen the entire series, this obviously is contradictory to what we see from post-nose job Rachel Greene in flashbacks – but here, it gives an interesting vulnerability to the show’s biggest sex symbol. If you pay close attention to the opening handful of episodes, Monica is dressed mostly as tom boy, and Phoebe is given the colorful, wacky bohemian clothing, which puts Rachel front and center in the fancy, upper-class attire, clearly establishing her as the ‘sexy one’ from the get go. Having Rachel be fairly inexperienced when it comes to ‘passion’ is a smart touch by the writers, although its one that is largely ignored from that moment forward once Paulo is introduced as her European sex toy.
I’ve never been a fan of Paulo, and mostly because of the reactions he brings out of Ross – however, in this episode, there’s a noticeable subtlety to Ross’s visceral reactions to both Paulo’s presence, and the sight of him making out with Rachel. I’ve talked extensively about David Schwimmer’s bad physical comedy, but his interactions and reactions to Paulo and Rachel are some of his more enjoyable gags in the early going. Somebody clearly gave him some notes, because not only does his line delivery feel more authentic, but his physical movements (from his open-mouthed horror at Paulo/Rachel to his conversations with Joey about asking her out) portray his emotions better than usual, mainly because it doesn’t feel like Schwimmer is pandering to the studio audience.
“The One with the Blackout” is one of my favorite first season episodes of Friends: it doesn’t try too hard with any of its plots or jokes, or try to get too deep into serious material for its own good. Highlighted by Chandler’s internal monologues, ‘The Blackout’ is the first episode of Friends where it feels like its operating on all cylinders, drawing on established familiarity (Ross’s desire for Rachel, Chandler’s inability to communicate confidently with women) to bring out some memorably hilarious moments.
Other thoughts/observations:
- Chandler’s internal conversation about Jill’s “some guy” comment was very Seinfeld-esque.
- there is a transition where the Friends pop-rock jingle features a flock of “do-do-dooo” singers, something NBC seemed to do a lot in the 1990s (again, see Seinfeld, specifically early on in the second season. It’s absolutely egregious).
- “The Friend Zone” would go on to be a featured topic in every single sitcom, ever.
- the first appearance by Mr. Heckles (and yet another Seinfeld-y moment in an episode that most certainly featured LOTS of network notes about doing such a thing) was terrific: “You owe me a cat.”
- Phoebe: “did you rent a moped?… oh we’re not talking about ‘that’ right now.”
- Up next: Joey tries to watch the Giants game in “The One Where Nana Dies Twice”.