document_title: Friends

question_text: when do monica and chandler start dating episode

question_tokens: when do monica and chandler start dating episode

text: Friends

text: Premise

text: Rachel Green flees her wedding day and finds childhood friend Monica Geller, a New York City chef. They become roommates, and Rachel joins Monica's social circle of single people in their mid-20s: struggling actor Joey Tribbiani, business professional Chandler Bing, masseuse and musician Phoebe Buffay, and newly divorced palaeontologist Ross Geller, Monica's older brother. To support herself, Rachel becomes a waitress at Central Perk, a Manhattan coffeehouse where the group often hangs out; when not there, the six are usually at Monica and Rachel's nearby West Village apartment, or Joey and Chandler's across the hall.

text: Episodes depict the friends' comedic and romantic adventures and career issues, such as Joey auditioning for roles or Rachel seeking jobs in the fashion industry. The six characters each have many dates and serious relationships, such as Monica with Richard Burke and Ross with Emily Waltham. Ross and Rachel's intermittent relationship is the most often-recurring storyline; during the ten seasons of the show they repeatedly date and break up, even while Ross briefly marries Emily, he and Rachel have a child, Chandler and Monica date and marry each other, and Phoebe marries Mike Hannigan. Other frequently recurring characters include Ross and Monica's parents in Long Island, Ross's ex-wife and their son, Central Perk barista Gunther, Chandler's ex-girlfriend Janice, and Phoebe's twin sister Ursula.

text: Cast and characters

text:
Main characters of Friends

Actor

Character

Jennifer Aniston

Rachel Green

A fashion enthusiast and Monica Geller's best friend from childhood. Rachel first moves in with Monica in season one after nearly marrying Barry Farber. Rachel and Ross Geller are later involved in an on-again-off-again relationship throughout the series. Rachel dates other men during the series, such as an Italian neighbour, Paolo, in season one; Joshua Bergin, a client from Bloomingdale's, in season four; Tag Jones, her assistant, in season seven; and Joey Tribbiani in season ten. Rachel’s first job is as a waitress at the coffeehouse Central Perk, but she later becomes an assistant buyer at Bloomingdale's in season three, and a buyer at Ralph Lauren in season five. Rachel and Ross have a daughter named Emma in "The One Where Rachel Has a Baby, Part Two" at the end of season eight. In the final episode of the series, Ross and Rachel confess their love for each other, and Rachel gives up a job in Paris to be with him.

Courteney Cox

Monica Geller

The mother hen of the group and a chef,[15] known for her perfectionist, bossy, competitive, and obsessive-compulsive nature.[16][17] Monica was overweight as a child. She works as a chef in various restaurants throughout the show. Monica’s first serious relationship is with long-time family friend Richard Burke, who is twenty-one years her senior. The couple maintains a strong relationship for some time until Richard expresses that he does not want to have children. Monica and Chandler Bing later start a relationship after spending a night with each other in London in the season four finale, leading to their marriage in season seven and adoption of twins at the end of the series.

Lisa Kudrow

Phoebe Buffay

A masseuse and self-taught musician. As a child, Phoebe lived in uptown New York with her mother, until she committed suicide and Phoebe took to the streets. She writes and sings her own quirky songs, accompanying herself on the guitar. She has an twin named Ursula, who shares Phoebe’s quirkiness. Phoebe has three serious relationships over the show's run: David, a scientist, in season one, whom she breaks up with when he moves to Minsk on a research grant; Gary, a police officer whose badge she finds, in season five; and an on-and-off relationship with Mike Hannigan in seasons nine and ten. In season nine, Phoebe and Mike break up due to his desire not to marry. David returns from Minsk, leading to the two getting back together, but she eventually rejects him for Mike when both of them propose to her. Phoebe and Mike marry in season ten.[18][19]

Matt LeBlanc

Joey Tribbiani

A struggling actor and food lover who becomes famous for his role on soap opera Days of Our Lives as Dr. Drake Ramoray. Joey has many short-term girlfriends. Despite his womanizing, Joey is innocent, caring, and well-intentioned.[20] Joey often uses the catchphrase pick-up line "How you doin'?" in his attempts to win over most of the women he meets. Joey rooms with his best friend Chandler for years, and later with Rachel. He falls in love with Rachel in season eight,[21] but Rachel politely tells Joey that she does not share his feelings. They eventually date briefly in season ten, but after realizing it will not work due to their friendship and Rachel's complicated relationship with Ross, they return to being friends.

Matthew Perry

Chandler Bing

An executive in statistical analysis and data reconfiguration for a large, multinational corporation. Chandler hates this job, although it pays well. He attempts to quit during season one, but is lured back with a new office and a pay raise. He eventually quits this job in season nine due to a transfer to Tulsa. He becomes a junior copywriter at an advertising agency later that season. Chandler has a peculiar family history being the son of an erotic novelist mother and a gay, crossdressing Las Vegas star father. Chandler is known for his sarcastic sense of humor and bad luck in relationships.[22] Chandler marries Monica in season seven, and they adopt twins at the end of the series. Before his relationship with Monica, Chandler dated Janice Hosenstein in season one and subsequently broke up with her many times.

David Schwimmer

Ross Geller

Monica Geller's older brother, a palaeontologist working at the Museum of Natural History, and later a tenured professor of palaeontology at New York University. Ross is involved in an on-again-off-again relationship with Rachel throughout the series. He has three failed marriages during the series: Carol Willick, a lesbian who is also the mother of his son, Ben; Emily Waltham, who divorces Ross after he accidentally says Rachel's name instead of hers during their wedding vows; and Rachel, as the two drunkenly marry in Las Vegas. His divorces become a running joke within the series. Following a one-night stand, he and Rachel have a daughter, Emma, by the end of season eight. They finally confess that they are still in love with each other in the series finale.

tag: table

text: In their original contracts for the first season, cast members were paid $22,500 per episode.[23] The cast members received different salaries in the second season, beginning from the $20,000 range to $40,000 per episode.[23][24] Before their salary negotiations for the third season, the cast decided to enter collective negotiations, despite Warner Bros.' preference for individual deals.[25] The actors were given the salary of the least-paid cast member, meaning Aniston and Schwimmer had their salaries reduced. The stars were paid $75,000 per episode in season three, $85,000 in season four, $100,000 in season five, $125,000 in season six, $750,000 in seasons seven and eight, and $1 million in seasons nine and ten, making Aniston, Cox, and Kudrow the highest-paid TV actresses of all time.[26][27][28] The cast also received syndication royalties beginning in 2000 after renegotiations. At the time, that financial benefit of a piece of the show's lucrative back-end profits had only been given out to stars who had ownership rights in a show, like Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Cosby.[29]

text: Series creator David Crane wanted all six actors to be equally prominent,[30] and the series was lauded as being "the first true 'ensemble' show."[31] The cast members made efforts to keep the ensemble format and not allow one member to dominate;[31] they entered themselves in the same acting categories for awards,[32] opted for collective salary negotiations,[31] and asked to appear together on magazine cover photos in the first season.[33] The cast members also became best friends off-screen,[34] so much so that recurring guest star Tom Selleck reported that he sometimes felt left out.[35]

text: The cast remained good friends after the series run, most notably Cox and Aniston, with Aniston being godmother to Cox and David Arquette's daughter, Coco.[36] In the official farewell commemorative book Friends 'Til the End, each separately acknowledged in interviews that the cast had become their family.[37][38]

text: Episodes

text: Season 1

text: The first season introduces the six main characters: Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler, and Ross. Rachel arrives at Central Perk after running away from her wedding to her fiancé Barry and moves into an apartment with her friend Monica from high school. Ross, who has had a crush on Rachel since the two of them were in high school, constantly attempts to tell her how he feels about her. However, many obstacles stand in his way, such as the fact that he is expecting a baby with his lesbian ex-wife, Carol. Joey is shown to be a bachelor and struggling actor, while Phoebe works as a masseuse and portrays a sort of "crazy" attribute to her personality based on her troubles as a child after her mother committed suicide. However, the rest of the group loves her regardless. Chandler breaks up with girlfriend Janice (Maggie Wheeler), who frequently returns in later seasons. Carol delivers a baby boy who is named Ben. At the end of the season, Chandler accidentally reveals that Ross loves Rachel, who realizes that she feels the same way. The season ends with Rachel waiting at the airport for Ross’ arrival from a trip.

text: Season 2

text: The second season begins with Rachel waiting at the gate for Ross to declare her love for him. However, she discovers that he is dating Julie (Lauren Tom), someone he knew from graduate school. Rachel's attempts to tell Ross she likes him mirror his failed attempts in the first season, although the characters eventually begin a relationship. Joey gets cast in a part in a fictional version of the soap opera Days of Our Lives, but his character is killed off after conflicts with the show's writers, claiming that he writes many of his own lines. Chandler gets back with Janice, his ex-girlfriend from season one. Monica begins dating Richard (Tom Selleck), a recently divorced family friend and 21 years her senior but they eventually break up.

text: Season 3

text: Season three takes on a significantly greater serialized format. Rachel begins working at Bloomingdale's, an upscale department store chain, and Ross becomes jealous of her colleague, Mark. Rachel decides to take a break from their relationship; and Ross, hurt and drunk sleeps with Chloe, the hot girl from the Xerox place, causing Rachel to break up with him. In the meantime, Chandler has a hard time dealing with their breakup because it reminds him of his parents' divorce. After believing she has no family except her twin sister Ursula (Lisa Kudrow), Phoebe becomes acquainted with her half-brother (Giovanni Ribisi) and birth mother (Teri Garr). Joey develops a relationship with his acting partner Kate (Dina Meyer), and Monica begins a relationship with millionaire Pete Becker (Jon Favreau) which ends because of the disagreements between the two.

text: Season 4

text: In the fourth-season premiere, Ross and Rachel briefly reconcile after Ross pretends to read a long letter that Rachel wrote for him, but continues to insist that the two were on a break so they break up again. Joey dates Kathy (Paget Brewster), a girl that Chandler has a crush on. Kathy and Chandler later kiss, which causes drama between Chandler and Joey. Joey forgives Chandler only after he spends a day in a box as punishment. Phoebe becomes a surrogate mother for her brother and his wife Alice (Debra Jo Rupp). Monica and Rachel are forced to switch apartments with Joey and Chandler after losing a bet during a quiz game, but manage to switch back by bribing them with Knicks season tickets and a one-minute kiss (off-screen) between the girls. Ross begins dating an English woman named Emily (Helen Baxendale), and the season finale features their wedding in London. Chandler and Monica sleep together, and Rachel decides to attend Ross and Emily's wedding. While saying his vows, Ross uses the wrong name at the altar (Rachel's), to the shock of his bride and the guests.

text: Season 5

text: Season five starts with Ross and Emily's wedding in London. The season features Monica and Chandler trying to keep their new relationship a secret from their friends. Phoebe gives birth to triplets in the show's 100th episode. She gives birth to a boy, Frank Jr. Jr., and two girls: Leslie and Chandler. Emily states that the only condition in which she would remain married to Ross is if he stops all communication with Rachel. Ross agrees, but during a last dinner with all six main characters together, Emily phones Ross and, upon discovering Rachel is there, realizes she does not trust him, which ends the marriage. Phoebe begins a relationship with a police officer, Gary (Michael Rapaport), after finding his badge and using it as her own. Monica and Chandler go public with their relationship, to the surprise and happiness of their friends. They decide to get married on a trip to Las Vegas, but change their plans after witnessing Ross and Rachel drunkenly stumble out of the wedding chapel.

text: Season 6

text: In the sixth-season premiere, Ross and Rachel's marriage is established to be a drunken mistake. Ross and Rachel try to get an annulment because he does not want to have three divorces. However, he realizes he could not do so and tries to keep their wedding a secret from Rachel. Nonetheless, they divorce several episodes later. Monica and Chandler move in together, causing Rachel to move in with Phoebe. Joey lands a role on a cable television series called Mac and C.H.E.E.S.E., where he stars alongside a robot. Ross gets a job lecturing at New York University and starts dating one of his students, Elizabeth (Alexandra Holden). The relationship ends because of their maturity differences. Phoebe and Rachel's apartment catches fire, and Rachel moves in with Joey, while Phoebe moves in with Chandler and Monica. Chandler proposes to Monica, who says yes even though her ex-boyfriend Richard confesses his love for her.

text: Season 7

text: The seventh season mainly follows the various antics of Monica and Chandler, who begin to plan their wedding and run into financial problems which are quickly fixed by Chandler’s secret funds. Joey's television series Mac and C.H.E.E.S.E is cancelled, but he is offered his job back on Days of Our Lives. Meanwhile, Ross tries to introduce Ben to Hanukkah with the help of an Armadillo costume. Phoebe's apartment is fixed, but it is rebuilt with only one large bedroom instead of the original two, so Rachel decides to stay with Joey. The season ends just prior to Monica and Chandler’s wedding, with Phoebe and Rachel finding a positive pregnancy test in the bathroom at Monica and Chandler's apartment.

text: Season 8

text: In the eighth season, it is revealed at Monica and Chandler's wedding reception that the positive pregnancy test found in the bathroom at Monica and Chandler's apartment belongs to Rachel. Rachel takes another pregnancy test, which Phoebe at first claims is negative, in order to find Rachel's real emotions on the realization of being pregnant. Rachel projects feelings of sadness when she thinks she's not pregnant, so Phoebe tells her the truth. The two of them and Monica then rejoice in the bathroom. The season revolves around Rachel's pregnancy; Ross is revealed to be the father after an investigation involving a red sweater. Rachel and Ross decide to have the baby but do not resume their romantic relationship. Joey develops romantic feelings for Rachel, but she does not reciprocate them. Rachel gives birth to baby Emma in the season finale. At the hospital, Ross's mother offers him an engagement ring because she wants him to marry Rachel. Ross does not intend to ask Rachel to marry him, but he takes the ring anyway and puts it in his jacket pocket. Meanwhile, in the post-delivery room, Joey looks for some tissue for an upset Rachel, picks up Ross's jacket, and the ring falls to the floor. He kneels to pick it up and turns to Rachel, still on his knees and still holding the ring. Rachel accepts what she thinks is his proposal of marriage.

text: Season 9

text: Season nine begins with Ross and Rachel living together as roommates with their daughter Emma. Monica and Chandler try to conceive a baby of their own but find out that they are unable to, due to health restrictions. Phoebe begins dating Mike Hannigan (Paul Rudd), and chooses to be with him over her ex-boyfriend David (Hank Azaria). Rachel and Emma move in with Joey in the middle of the season, and Rachel develops infatuation towards him, while the rest of the "friends" try hard to get Ross and Rachel back together. The group travels to Barbados in the finale to hear Ross give a keynote speech at a palaeontology conference, where they stay at a hotel. Joey and his girlfriend Charlie (Aisha Tyler) break up, and she begins a relationship with Ross. Upon seeing Ross and Charlie kiss each other, Joey goes to Rachel's hotel room, and the finale ends with them kissing.

text: Season 10

text: The tenth season closes several long-running storylines. Charlie breaks up with Ross to get back together with her ex-boyfriend. Joey and Rachel try to contend with Ross' feelings about them being together and decide it would be best to remain friends. Phoebe and Mike get married mid-season outside the Central Perk coffee house. Monica and Chandler apply to adopt a child and are chosen by Erica (Anna Faris). In the series finale, Erica gives birth to twins, to the surprise of Monica and Chandler — a boy and a girl. Monica and Chandler prepare to move to the suburbs, and Joey becomes upset with the changes in his life. Rachel gets fired from her job and accepts a new offer in Paris. Ross tries to get her job back by secretly meeting her boss but eventually gives up after realizing Paris job is her dream job. Rachel says a tearful goodbye to everyone but Ross. A hurt and angry Ross confronts Rachel, and they end up sleeping together. Rachel leaves, and Ross, realizing he loves her, chases after her to the airport. Rachel realizes she loves him too, and cancels her flight to Paris, agreeing to stay with him. The series ends with all friends plus Monica and Chandler's new babies leaving the apartment, heading to Central Perk for a final cup of coffee. The finale dialogue used in this series is by Chandler, making a joke for the last time. The camera's last view is of all of the characters' keys to the apartment on the counter table, finishing with a shot of the apartment's purple door.

text: Production

text: Conception

text:
"It's about sex, love, relationships, careers, a time in your life when everything's possible. And it's about friendship because when you're single and in the city, your friends are your family."

—The original treatment used by Crane, Kauffman and Bright to pitch the series to NBC.[40]

text: David Crane and Marta Kauffman began developing three new television pilots that would premiere in 1994 after their sitcom Family Album was cancelled by CBS in 1993.[41] Kauffman and Crane decided to pitch the series about "six people in their 20s making their way in Manhattan" to NBC, since they thought it would fit best there.[42] Crane and Kauffman presented the idea to their production partner Kevin Bright, who had served as executive producer on their HBO series Dream On.[43] The idea for the series was conceived when Crane and Kauffman began thinking about the time when they had finished college and started living by themselves in New York; Kauffman believed they were looking at a time when the future was "more of a question mark."[40] They found the concept to be interesting, as they believed "everybody knows that feeling",[40] and because it was also how they felt about their own lives at the time.[40] The team titled the series Insomnia Cafe, and pitched the idea as a seven-page treatment to NBC in December 1993.[40][42]

text: At the same time, Warren Littlefield, the then-president of NBC Entertainment, was seeking a comedy involving young people living together and sharing expenses. Littlefield wanted the group to share memorable periods of their lives with friends, who had become "new, surrogate family members."[18] However, Littlefield found difficulty in bringing the concept to life, and found the scripts developed by NBC to be terrible. When Kauffman, Crane and Bright pitched Insomnia Cafe, Littlefield was impressed that they knew who their characters were.[18] NBC bought the idea as a put pilot, meaning they risked financial penalties if the pilot was not filmed.[44] Kauffman and Crane took three days to write the pilot script for a show they titled Friends Like Us.[40][45] Littlefield wanted the series to "represent Generation X and explore a new kind of tribal bonding", but the rest disagreed. Crane argued that it was not a series for one generation, and wanted to produce a series that everyone would enjoy watching.[18] NBC liked the script and ordered the series. They changed the title to Six of One, mainly because they felt Friends Like Us was to similar to the ABC sitcom These Friends of Mine.[46]

text: Casting

text: Once it became apparent that the series was a favored project at NBC, Littlefield reported that he was getting calls from every agent in town, wanting their client to be a part of the series.[18] Auditions for the lead roles took place in New York and Los Angeles.[47] The casting director shortlisted 1,000 actors who had applied for each role down to 75. Those who received a callback read again in front of Crane, Kauffman and Bright. At the end of March, the number of potential actors had been reduced to three or four for each part, and were asked to read for Les Moonves, then-president of Warner Bros. Television.[48]

text: Having worked with David Schwimmer in the past,[47] the series creators wrote the character of Ross with him in mind, and he was the first actor cast.[49] Cox wanted to play the role of Monica, but the producers had her in mind to play Rachel because of her "cheery, upbeat energy", which was not how they envisioned Monica; after Cox's audition, though, Kauffman agreed with Cox, and she got the role.[40][50] When Matt LeBlanc auditioned for Joey, he put a "different spin" on the character.[40] He played Joey more simple-minded than intended and gave the character heart. Although Crane and Kauffman did not want LeBlanc for the role at the time, they were told by the network to cast him.[40] Jennifer Aniston, Matthew Perry and Lisa Kudrow were cast based on their auditions.[47]

text: More changes occurred to the series' storylines during the casting process. The writers found that they had to adjust the characters they had written to suit the actors, and the discovery process of the characters occurred throughout the first season. Kauffman acknowledged that Joey's character became "this whole new being", and that "it wasn't until we did the first Thanksgiving episode that we realized how much fun Monica's neuroses are."[51]

text: Writing

text: In the weeks after NBC's pick up of Friends, Crane, Kauffman and Bright reviewed sent-in scripts that writers had originally prepared for other series, mainly unproduced Seinfeld episodes.[52] Kauffman and Crane hired a team of seven young writers because "When you're 40, you can't do it anymore. The networks and studios are looking for young people coming in out of college."[53] The creators felt that using six equal characters, rather than emphasizing one or two, would allow for "myriad storylines and give the show legs."[30] The majority of the storyline ideas came from the writers, although the actors added ideas.[47] Although the writers originally planned the big love story to be between Joey and Monica, the idea of a romantic interest between Ross and Rachel emerged during the period when Kauffman and Crane wrote the pilot script.[40]

text: During the production of the pilot, NBC requested that the script be changed to feature one dominant storyline and several minor ones, but the writers refused, wanting to keep three storylines of equal weight.[46] NBC also wanted the writers to include an older character to balance out the young ones. Crane and Kauffman were forced to comply and wrote a draft of an early episode that featured "Pat the Cop." who would be used to provide advice to the other characters. Crane found the storyline to be terrible, and Kauffman joked, "You know the kids book, Pat the Bunny? We had Pat the Cop." NBC eventually relented and dropped the idea.[40]

text: Each summer (June, July, and August in the US), the producers would outline the storylines for the subsequent season.[54] Before an episode went into production, Kauffman and Crane would revise the script written by another writer, mainly if something concerning either the series or a character felt foreign.[52] Unlike other storylines, the idea for a relationship between Joey and Rachel was decided on halfway through the eighth season. The creators did not want Ross and Rachel to get back together so soon, and while looking for a romantic impediment, a writer suggested Joey's romantic interest in Rachel. The storyline was incorporated into the season; However, when the actors feared that the storyline would make their characters unlikable, the storyline was wrapped up, until it again resurfaced in the season's finale. For the ninth season, the writers were unsure about the amount of storyline to give to Rachel's baby, as they wanted the show neither to revolve around a baby nor pretend there to be none.[54] Crane said that it took them a while to accept the idea of a tenth season, which they decided to do because they had enough stories left to tell to justify the season. Kauffman and Crane would not have signed on for an eleventh season, even if all the cast members had wanted to continue.[51]

text: The episode title format—"The One..."[55]—was created when the producers realized that the episode titles would not be featured in the opening credits, and therefore would be unknown to most of the audience. Episode titles officially begin with "The One..." except the title of the pilot episode and the series finale "The Last One."

text: Filming

text: The first season was shot on Stage 5 at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California.[56] NBC executives had worried that the coffee house setting was too hip and asked for the series to be set in a diner, but eventually consented to the coffee house concept.[40] The opening title sequence was filmed in a fountain at the Warner Bros. Ranch at 4:00 am, while it was particularly cold for a Burbank morning.[57] At the beginning of the second season, production moved to the larger Stage 24, which was renamed "The Friends Stage" after the series finale.[58] Filming for the series began during the summer (June, July, and August in the US) of 1994 in front of a live audience, who were given a summary of the series to familiarize themselves with the six main characters;[40] a hired comedian entertained the studio audience between takes.[33] Each 22-minute episode took six hours to film—twice the length of most sitcom tapings—mainly due to the several retakes and rewrites of the script.[33]

text: Although the producers always wanted to find the right stories to take advantage of being on location, Friends was never shot in New York. Bright felt that filming outside the studio made episodes less funny, even when shooting on the lot outside, and that the live audience was an integral part of the series.[47] When the series was criticized for incorrectly depicting New York, with the financially struggling group of friends being able to afford huge apartments, Bright noted that the set had to be big enough for the cameras, lighting, and "for the audience to be able to see what's going on";[47] the apartments also needed to provide a place for the actors to execute the funny scripts.[47] The fourth-season finale was shot on location in London because the producers were aware of the series' popularity in the UK.[47] The scenes were shot in a studio with three audiences each made up of 500 people. These were the show's largest audiences throughout its run. The fifth-season finale, set in Las Vegas, was filmed at Warner Bros. Studios, although Bright met people who thought it was filmed on location.[59]

text: Series finale

text: The series' creators completed the first draft of the hour-long finale in January 2004, four months before its original airing. Crane, Kauffman and Bright watched the finales of other sitcoms to prepare the episode's outline, paying attention to what worked and what did not. They liked the ones that stayed true to the series, citing the finale of The Mary Tyler Moore Show as the gold standard. Crane, Kauffman, and Bright had difficulty writing the finale. They did not want to do "something high concept, or take the show out of the show."[61] The most critical parts of the finale were shot without an audience, and with a minimum number of crew members. The main cast enjoyed the finale and were confident that the fans would react similarly:[61]

text: It's exactly what I had hoped. We all end up with a sense of a new beginning and the audience has a sense that it's a new chapter in the lives of all these characters.

text: NBC heavily promoted the series finale, which was preceded by weeks of media hype.[62] Local NBC affiliates organized viewing parties around the U.S., including an event at Universal CityWalk featuring a special broadcast of the finale on an outdoor Astrovision screen.[63] The finale was the subject of two episodes of Dateline NBC, a weekly television newsmagazine, one of which ran for two hours. A one-hour retrospective of clips from previous episodes was shown before to the airing of the episode. Following the finale, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno was filmed on the set of the Friends' Central Perk coffee house, which featured the series' cast as guests.[64][65] The advertising rates for the finale averaged $2 million for 30 seconds of commercial time, breaking the record held by the Seinfeld finale at $1.7 million.[63]

text: In the U.S., 52.5 million viewers watched the finale on May 6, 2004, making it the most-watched entertainment telecast since the Seinfeld finale in 1998.[64] Although it was not the series' most-watched episode,[66] the finale was the fourth most-watched series finale in television history, only behind the finales of M*A*S*H, Cheers and Seinfeld, which were respectively watched by 105, 80.4 and 76.2 million viewers. The retrospective episode was watched by fewer than 36 million viewers, and the finale was the second most-watched television broadcast of the year, only behind the Super Bowl.[64] Following the finales of Friends and Frasier, media critics speculated about the fate of the sitcom genre. Expressed opinions varied between a signalling of the end of the sitcom genre, a small decline in the large history of the genre,[63] and a general reduction of scripted television in favor of reality shows.[62]

text: Reception

text: Critical reception

text: Early reviews of the series were mixed; and it holds a Metacritic score of 59 out of 100, based on 20 sampled reviews, indicating "mixed to average reviews."[67] Tom Feran of The Plain Dealer wrote that the series traded "vaguely and less successfully on the hanging-out style of Seinfeld",[68] while Ann Hodges of the Houston Chronicle called it "the new Seinfeld wannabe, but it will never be as funny as Seinfeld."[69] In the Los Angeles Daily News, Ray Richmond named the series as "one of the brighter comedies of the new season",[70] and the Los Angeles Times called it "flat-out the best comedy series of the new season."[71]

text: Chicago Sun-Times' Ginny Holbert found Joey and Rachel's characteristics to be underdeveloped,[72] while Richmond commended the cast as a "likeable, youth ensemble" with "good chemistry."[70] Robert Bianco of USA Today was complimentary of Schwimmer, calling him "terrific." He also praised the female leads, but was concerned that Perry's role as Chandler was "undefined" and that LeBlanc was "relying too much on the same brain-dead stud routine that was already tired the last two times he tried it."[73] The authors of Friends Like Us: The Unofficial Guide to Friends thought that the cast was "trying just a little too hard", in particular, Perry and Schwimmer.[74]

text: As the series progressed, reviews became more positive, and Friends became one of the most popular sitcoms of its time. It is now often ranked among the all-time best TV shows.[8][9][10] Critics commended the series as having consistently sharp writing and the chemistry between the main actors.[75] Noel Holston of Newsday, who had dismissed the pilot as a "so-so Seinfeld wannabe" in 1994, repudiated his earlier review after rewatching the episode, and felt like writing an apology to the writers.[51] Heather Havrilesky of Salon.com thought that the series "hit its stride" in the second season. Havrilesky found the character-specific jokes and situations "could reliably make you laugh out loud a few times each episode", and the quality of writing allowed the stories to be "original and innovative."[76] Bill Carter of The New York Times called the eighth season a "truly stunning comeback." Carter found that by "generating new hot storylines and high-decibel laughs", the series made its way "back into the hearts of its fans."[77] However, Liane Bonin of Entertainment Weekly felt that the direction of the ninth season was a "disappointing buzzkill", criticizing it for the non-stop celebrity guest spots and going into jump the shark territory. Although disappointed with the season, Bonin noted that "the writing [was] still sharp."[78] Havrilesky thought that the tenth season was "alarmingly awful, far worse than you would ever imagine a show that was once so good could be."[76] Friends was featured on Time's list of "The 100 Best TV Shows of All-Time", saying, "the well-hidden secret of this show was that it called itself Friends, and was really about family."[79]

text:
"It may have been impossible for any one episode to live up to the hype and expectations built up around the Friends finale, but this hour probably came as close as fans could have reasonably hoped. Ultimately, the two-hour package did exactly what it was supposed to do. It wrapped up the story while reminding us why we liked the show and will miss it."

— Robert Bianco of USA Today on the series finale.[80]

text: Reviews of the series finale were mixed. USA Today's Robert Bianco described the finale as entertaining and satisfying, and praised it for deftly mixing emotion and humor while highlighting each of the stars.[80] Sarah Rodman of the Boston Herald praised Aniston and Schwimmer for their acting, but felt that their characters' reunion was "a bit too neat, even if it was what most of the show's legions of fans wanted."[81] Roger Catlin of the Hartford Courant felt that newcomers to the series would be "surprised at how laughless the affair could be, and how nearly every strained gag depends on the sheer stupidity of its characters."[82] Ken Parish Perkins, writing for Fort Worth Star-Telegram, pointed out that the finale was "more touching than comical, more satisfying in terms of closure than knee-slappingly funny."[83]

text: Awards

text: To maintain the series' ensemble format, the main cast members decided to enter themselves in the same acting categories for awards.[32] Beginning with the series' eighth season, the actors decided to submit themselves in the lead actor balloting, rather than in the supporting actor fields.[84] The series was nominated for 62 Primetime Emmy Awards,[85] winning six. Aniston and Kudrow are the only main cast members to win an Emmy, while Cox is the only actor not to be nominated. The series won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Comedy Series in 2002, receiving nominations in 1995, 1996, 1999, 2000, and 2003.[86] The series also won an American Comedy Award,[87] one GLAAD Media Award,[88] one Golden Globe Award,[89] three Logie Awards,[90][91] six People's Choice Awards,[92][93] one Satellite Award,[94] and one Screen Actors Guild Award.[95]

text: Ratings

text: The table below shows the ratings of Friends in the United States, where it consistently ranked within the top ten of the final television season ratings.[96] "Rank" refers to how well Friends rated compared to other television series that aired during primetime hours of the corresponding television season. It is shown in relation to the total number of series airing on the then-six major English-language networks in a given season. "Viewers" refers to the average number of viewers for all original episodes, broadcast during the television season in the series' regular timeslot. The "season premiere" is the date that the first episode of the season aired, and the "season finale" is the date that the final episode of the season aired. So far, Friends has been the last sitcom to reach the no. 1 spot on television, as its successors were CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, American Idol, NBC Sunday Night Football and NCIS.

text:
Ratings table

Season

Timeslot

Season premiere

Season finale

TV season

Rank

Viewers(in millions)

Most-Watched episode

Title

Viewers(in millions)

1

Thursday 8:30 pm  (1–16)  Thursday 9:30 pm  (17–24)

September 22, 1994

May 18, 1995

1994–95

8

24.3[96]

"The One Where Rachel Finds Out"

31.3[97]

2

Thursday 8:00 pm

September 21, 1995

May 16, 1996

1995–96

3

29.4[96]

"The One After the Superbowl"

52.9[97]

3

September 19, 1996

May 15, 1997

1996–97

4

24.9[96]

"The One Where Chandler Can't Remember Which Sister"

29.8[98]

4

September 25, 1997

May 7, 1998

1997–98

4

24.0[96]

"The One with Ross's Wedding"

31.6[97]

5

September 24, 1998

May 20, 1999

1998–99

2

23.5[96]

"The One After Ross Says Rachel"

30.9[97]

6

September 23, 1999

May 18, 2000

1999–2000

5

20.7[96]

"The One with the Proposal"

30.7[97]

7

October 12, 2000

May 17, 2001

2000–01

5

20.2[96]

"The One with Monica and Chandler's Wedding"

30.1[97]

8

September 27, 2001

May 16, 2002

2001–02

1

24.5[96]

"The One Where Rachel Has a Baby"

34.9[97]

9

September 26, 2002

May 15, 2003

2002–03

2

21.8[96]

"The One Where No One Proposes"

34.0[97]

10

September 25, 2003

May 6, 2004

2003–04

4

22.8[96]

"The Last One"

52.5[3]

text: Syndication

text: Because of syndication revenue, Friends continues to generate approximately $1 billion each year for Warner Bros. That translates into about $20 million in annual residuals each for Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer, who each get 2% of syndication income for Friends.[99] The series has a syndication deal through multiple networks including Nickelodeon, TBS, and Paramount (formerly known as Spike).

text: Cultural impact

text: Although the producers thought of Friends as "only a TV show", numerous psychologists investigated the cultural impact of Friends during the series' run. Aniston's hairstyle was nicknamed "The Rachel", and copied around the world.[18] Joey's catchphrase, "How you doin'?", became a popular part of Western English slang, often used as a pick-up line or when greeting friends.[100] The series also influenced the English language, according to a study by the University of Toronto that found that the characters used the emphasized word "so" to modify adjectives more often than any other intensifier. Although the preference had already made its way into the American vernacular, usage on the series may have accelerated the change.[31] Chandler's habit of ending a sentence unfinished for sarcasm also influenced viewers' speech.[101] Following the September 11 attacks, ratings increased 17% over the previous season.[77]

text: Friends is parodied in the twelfth season Murder, She Wrote episode "Murder Among Friends." In the episode, amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) investigates the murder of a writer for Buds, a fictional television series about the daily lives of a group of city friends. The episode was devised after CBS moved Murder, She Wrote from its regular Sunday night timeslot to a Thursday night timeslot directly opposite Friends on NBC; Angela Lansbury was quoted by Bruce Lansbury, her brother and Murder, She Wrote's supervising producer, as having "a bit of an attitude" about the move to Thursday, but he saw the plot as "a friendly setup, no mean-spiritedness."[102] Jerry Ludwig, the writer of the episode, researched the "flavor" of Buds by watching episodes of Friends.[102]

text: The Central Perk coffee house, one of the principal settings of the series, has inspired various imitations worldwide. In 2006, Iranian businessman Mojtaba Asadian started a Central Perk franchise, registering the name in 32 countries. The decor of the coffee houses is inspired by Friends, featuring replica couches, counters, neon signage and bricks. The coffee houses also contain paintings of the various characters from the series, and televisions playing Friends episodes. James Michael Tyler, who plays the Central Perk manager in the series, Gunther, attended the grand opening of the Dubai cafe, where he worked as a waiter.[103] Central Perk was rebuilt as part of a museum exhibit at Warner Bros. Studios, and was shown on The Ellen DeGeneres Show in October 2008. Jennifer Aniston revisited the set for the first time since the series finale in 2004.[104] From September 24 to October 7, 2009, a Central Perk replica was based at Broadwick Street, Soho, London. The coffee house sold real coffee to customers and featured a display of Friends memorabilia and props, such as the Geller Cup from the season three episode "The One with the Football."[105] In Beijing, business owner Du Xin opened a coffee shop named Central Perk in March 2010.[106] In India, there are six Friends themed cafes, located in Chandigarh (named Central Perk), Kolkata (named F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Cafe) which features many icons from the original T.V. series for example, Chandler and Joey's ugly dog statue, the orange sofa, the purple door of Monica and Rachel's apartment and Phoebe's pink bicycle. The other three cafes are located in Delhi, Gurgaon, Bhubaneswar and Pune.[107][108] There are two Friends themed cafes in Pakistan as well—one in Lahore known as "Friends Cafe" and the other in Peshawar called "Central Perk". Both of those cafes have an iconic couch, a guitar and foosball table, quotes from the show on the walls and even episode reruns on a projector. They're also planning to have their own Gunther at the bar.[109]

text: Friends has also developed an alternative family lifestyle by representing young people that live unconventional domestic lives. It presents the idea that "all you need is good friends" and can construct families through choice. The audience is able to identify with the program through the troubles seen on weekly episodes. It portrays a new way of living life and developing relationships which are not normally seen in conventional society.[110] According to a pop-culture expert at the University at Buffalo, Friends is "one of those rare shows that marked a change in American culture." The images of youth and the roles they portray are better defined and represent a lifestyle that centres around creating and sustaining relationships between friends running their own lives and seeking help from each other.[111]

text: The Guardian's TV and radio blog stated that Friends has impacted the creation of other television shows such as How I Met Your Mother. The similarities between the two consist of both sitcoms taking place in Manhattan, a group of white adults who are funny and have similar character traits.[112]

text: Readers of TV Guide voted the cast of Friends their Best Comedy cast of all time, ranking at 29% of the votes, beating Seinfeld, which registered 18%.[113] A poll undertaken by 60 Minutes and Vanity Fair named Friends the third greatest sitcom of all time.[114] In 2014, the series was ranked by Mundo Estranho the Best TV Series of All Time.[115]

text: Distribution

text: Broadcast

text: United States

text: After the produced pilot lived up to NBC's hopes, the series premiered with the name Friends on September 22, 1994, in the coveted Thursday 8:30 p.m. timeslot. The pilot aired between Mad About You and Seinfeld,[18] and was watched by almost 22 million American viewers.[40] The series was a huge success throughout its run, and was a staple of NBC's Thursday night line-up, dubbed by the network as Must See TV.[116] When Crane told reporters in 2001 that the ninth season was a possibility, critics believed that he was posturing, and that at least two of the cast members would not sign on for another season.[77] When it was confirmed that Friends would return for a ninth season, the news was mainly about the amount of money—$7 million per episode—that it took to bring the series back for another season.[77]

text: After year-long expectations that the ninth season would be the series' last, NBC signed a deal in late December 2002 to bring the series back for a final tenth season. The series' creative team did not want to extend negotiations into the next year, and wanted to start writing the rest of the ninth-season episodes and a potential series finale.[117] NBC agreed to pay $10 million to Warner Bros. for the production of each tenth-season episode, the highest price in television history for a 30-minute series.[75] Although NBC was unable to bring in enough advertising revenue from commercials to cover the costs, the series was integral to the Thursday night schedule, which brought high ratings and profits to the other television series.[117] The cast demanded that the tenth season be reduced from the usual 24 episodes to 18 episodes to allow them to work on outside projects.[78]

text: In fall 2001, Warner Bros. Domestic Cable made a deal with sister network TBS (both are owned by Time Warner) to air the series in rerun syndication. Warner Bros. Domestic Cable announced that it had sold additional cable rights to Friends to Nick at Nite which began airing in the fall of 2011 (unlike the TBS and broadcast syndication airings, Nick at Nite broadcasts of the series, which began airing as part of a seven-night launch marathon on September 5, 2011, replace the end credit tag scenes with marginalized credits featuring promotions for the series and other Nick at Nite programs). Warner Bros. was expected to make $200 million in license fees and advertising from the deal. Nick at Nite paid $500,000 per episode to air the episodes after 6 p.m. ET for six years through fall 2017. In syndication until 2005, Friends had earned $4 million per episode in cash license fees for a total of $944 million.[118]

text: Beginning on March 5, 2012, high definition versions of all 236 Friends episodes were made available to local broadcast stations, starting with the pilot episode. For the remastered episodes, Warner Bros. restored previously cropped images on the left and right sides of the screen, using the original 35 mm film source, to use the entire 16:9 widescreen frame.[119] These masters had been airing in New Zealand on TV2 since January 2011.[120] Netflix added all ten seasons of Friends in high definition to their streaming service in the United States on January 1, 2015.

text: International

text: Friends has aired on different channels in the UK in their original, unedited international versions prior to their being re-edited for US broadcast and syndication. These versions, with additional footage not seen domestically, have aired on such stations as Channel 4, Sky1, E4, and Comedy Central UK.[121][122][123][124][125] On September 4, 2011, Friends officially ended on E4 after the channel re-ran the series since 2004. Comedy Central took over the rights to air the program from October 2011. In the Republic of Ireland, each season of the show made its European debut on RTÉ2. After 2004 RTÉ2 began to repeat the series from the start before moving over to TV3 and its digital channel 3e in 2010.[126][127] As of February 2015, repeats of the show have returned to RTÉ2 while also broadcasting on Comedy Central Ireland.[128][129]

text: Friends has aired in Australia on the Seven Network (season 1 only), Nine Network (season 2–10), Network Ten (2007–09, repeats), on GEM (a sub-channel of the Nine Network), and on pay TV channel TV Hits formerly aired on Arena, 111 Hits.[130][131] The show is broadcast on TV2 in New Zealand.[132]

text: In Canada, the series was broadcast on Global. In later years, it was syndicated on several of its cable sibling networks, including Slice, DTour, and TVTropolis, its previous incarnation.[133][134]

text: In India, the show is broadcast by Comedy Central at various times. It is the most-watched English language show in the country.[135]

text: In the Philippines, τhe show aired on ABC-5 (now TV5)

text: In Greece, the show was broadcast on Star Channel.[136] In Cyprus, Friends aired on CyBC 2 while reruns air on TVOne.[137]

text: Streaming

text: In October 2014, Warner Brothers CEO Kevin Tsujihara announced that the company had licensed the North American streaming rights of all ten seasons of Friends to Netflix,[138][139] in a deal said to be worth around $500,000 an episode,[140] or about $120 million in total. The show became available on Netflix from January 1, 2015.[141] The Netflix airings are in the versions as aired on NBC rather than the longer international versions, as discussed below.

text: DVD

text: All ten seasons have been released on DVD individually and as a box set. Each Region 1 season release contains special features and are presented in their aforementioned original international broadcast versions, although Region 2 releases are as originally aired domestically. For the first season, each episode is updated with color correction and sound enhancement.[47] A wide range of Friends merchandise has been produced by various companies. In September 1995, WEA Records released the first album of music from Friends, the Friends Original TV Soundtrack, containing music featured in previous and future episodes. The soundtrack debuted on the Billboard 200 at number 46,[142] and sold 500,000 copies in November 1995.[143] In 1999, a second soundtrack album entitled Friends Again was released.[144] Other merchandise includes a Friends version of the DVD game "Scene It?", and a quiz video game for PlayStation 2 and PC entitled Friends: The One with All the Trivia.[145][146] On September 28, 2009, a box set was released in the UK celebrating the series' 15th anniversary. The box set contained extended episodes, an episode guide, and original special features.[147]

text: Warner Home Video released a complete series collection on Blu-ray on November 13, 2012.[148] The collection does not feature the extra deleted scenes and jokes that were included on prior DVD releases, and are therefore presented in their NBC broadcast versions.

text:
DVD name

Eps

DVD release dates

Blu-ray release dates

Region 1

Region 2

Region 4

Region A

Region B UK

Region B Australia

The Complete First Season

24

April 30, 2002[149]

May 29, 2000[150]

October 4, 2006[151]

April 30, 2013

The Complete Second Season

24

September 3, 2002[152]

May 29, 2000[150]

October 4, 2006[153]

April 30, 2013

The Complete Third Season

25

April 1, 2003[154]

May 29, 2000[150]

October 4, 2006[155]

The Complete Fourth Season

24

July 15, 2003[156]

May 29, 2000[150]

October 4, 2006[157]

The Complete Fifth Season

24

November 4, 2003[158]

May 29, 2000[150]

October 4, 2006[159]

The Complete Sixth Season

25

January 27, 2004[160]

July 17, 2000[161]

October 4, 2006[162]

The Complete Seventh Season

24

April 6, 2004[163]

October 25, 2004[164]

October 4, 2006[165]

The Complete Eighth Season

24

November 9, 2004[166]

October 25, 2004[167]

October 4, 2006[168]

The Complete Ninth Season

24

March 8, 2005[169]

October 25, 2004[170]

October 4, 2006[171]

The Complete Tenth Season

18

November 15, 2005[172]

October 25, 2004[173]

October 4, 2006[174]

The Complete Series

236

November 15, 2005November 14, 2006 (re-issue)April 16, 2013 (re-issue 2013)

October 2, 2006November 12, 2007 (re-issue)September 28, 2009 (15th Anniversary Edition)

November 13, 2012

November 12, 2012

November 21, 2012 (JB Hi-Fi exclusive)August 21, 2013

text: Spin-off

text: Joey

text: After the series finale in 2004, LeBlanc signed on for the spin-off series, Joey, following Joey's move to Los Angeles to pursue his acting career. Kauffman and Crane were not interested in the spin-off, although Bright agreed to executive produce the series with Scott Silveri and Shana Goldberg-Meehan.[176] NBC heavily promoted Joey and gave it Friends' Thursday 8:00 pm timeslot.[177][178] The pilot was watched by 18.60 million American viewers,[179] but ratings continually decreased throughout the series' two seasons, averaging 10.20 million viewers in the first season and 7.10 million in the second.[59] The final broadcast episode on March 7, 2006, was watched by 7.09 million viewers;[180] NBC cancelled the series on May 15, 2006, after two seasons.[181] Bright blamed the collaboration between NBC executives, the studio and other producers for quickly ruining the series:[59]

text: On Friends, Joey was a womanizer, but we enjoyed his exploits. He was a solid friend, a guy you knew you could count on. Joey was deconstructed to be a guy who couldn't get a job, couldn't ask a girl out. He became a pathetic, mopey character. I felt he was moving in the wrong direction, but I was not heard.


document_title: My Fair Lady (film)

question_text: who owns the rights to my fair lady

question_tokens: who owns the rights to my fair lady

root

text: My Fair Lady (film)

text: Plot[edit]

text: In Edwardian London, Professor Henry Higgins (Rex Harrison), a scholar of phonetics, believes that the accent and tone of one's voice determines a person's prospects in society. In Covent Garden one evening, he boasts to a new acquaintance, Colonel Hugh Pickering (Wilfrid Hyde-White), himself an expert in phonetics, that he could teach any person to speak in a way that he could pass them off as a duke or duchess at an embassy ball. Higgins selects as an example a young flower seller, Eliza Doolittle (Audrey Hepburn), who has a strong Cockney accent. Eliza's ambition is to work in a flower shop, but her thick accent makes her unsuitable. Having come from India to meet Higgins, Pickering is invited to stay with the professor. The following morning, Eliza shows up at Higgins' home, seeking lessons. Pickering is intrigued and offers to cover all expenses, should the experiment be successful.

tag: p

text: Eliza's father, Alfred P. Doolittle (Stanley Holloway), a dustman, shows up three days later, ostensibly to protect his daughter's virtue, but in reality simply to extract some money from Higgins, and is bought off with £5. Higgins is impressed by the man's honesty, his natural gift for language, and especially his brazen lack of morals. Higgins recommends Alfred to a wealthy American who is interested in morality. Eliza goes through many forms of speech training, such as speaking with marbles in her mouth, enduring Higgins' harsh approach to teaching and his treatment of her personally. She makes little progress, but just as she, Higgins, and Pickering are about to give up, Eliza finally "gets it"; she instantly begins to speak with an impeccable upper class accent.

text: As a test, Higgins takes her to Ascot Racecourse, where she makes a good impression initially, only to shock everyone by a sudden lapse into vulgar Cockney while cheering on a horse. Higgins, who dislikes the pretentiousness of the upper class, partly conceals a grin behind his hand. He next has Eliza pose as a mysterious lady at an embassy ball where she dances with a foreign prince. At the ball is Zoltan Karpathy (Theodore Bikel), a Hungarian phonetics expert trained by Higgins. After a brief conversation with Eliza, he certifies that she is not only Hungarian, but of royal blood, declaring her to be a Princess.

text: After all the effort she has put in, however, Eliza's actions are barely acknowledged, with all the praise going to Higgins. This, and his callous treatment towards her afterwards, especially his indifference to her future, causes her to throw Higgins' slippers at him, and to walk out on him, leaving him mystified by her ingratitude. Accompanied by Freddy Eynsford-Hill (Jeremy Brett), a young man she met at Ascot and who is charmed by her, Eliza makes an attempt to return to her old life, but finds that she no longer fits in. She meets her father, who has been left a large fortune by the wealthy American to whom Higgins had recommended him, and is resigned to marrying Eliza's stepmother. Alfred feels that Higgins has ruined him, since he is now bound by morals and responsibility. Eliza kindly refuses an invitation to the wedding and eventually ends up visiting Higgins' mother (Gladys Cooper), who is outraged at her son's behaviour.

text: The next day, Higgins finds Eliza gone and searches for her, eventually finding her at his mother's house. Higgins attempts to talk Eliza into coming back to him. He becomes angered when Eliza announces that she is going to marry Freddy and become Karpathy's assistant. He makes his way home, stubbornly predicting that she will come crawling back. However, he comes to the realization that he has "grown accustomed to her face." Henry returns to his study to lament his loneliness. As he listens to Eliza's recorded voice, she reappears in the doorway behind him, turning off the recording and saying in her old Cockney accent, "I washed my hands and face before I come I did." Higgins looks surprised then pleased before asking for his slippers once more as Eliza smiles on behind him, leaving the audience to decide what happens next.

text: Cast[edit]

text:
Audrey Hepburn as Eliza Doolittle

Marni Nixon as Eliza's singing voice (uncredited)

Rex Harrison as Professor Henry Higgins
Stanley Holloway as Alfred P. Doolittle
Wilfrid Hyde-White as Colonel Hugh Pickering
Gladys Cooper as Mrs. Higgins
Jeremy Brett as Freddy Eynsford-Hill

Bill Shirley as Freddy's singing voice (uncredited)

Theodore Bikel as Zoltan Karpathy
Mona Washbourne as Mrs. Pearce, Higgins' housekeeper
Isobel Elsom as Mrs. Eynsford-Hill
John Holland as the Butler

tag: ul

text: Uncredited Cast

text:
Henry Daniell as the British Ambassador (in his last film role)
Baroness Rothschild as the Queen of Transylvania
Buddy Bryant as Prince Gregor of Transylvania
Charles Fredericks as the King in Eliza's fantasy
Lillian Kemble-Cooper as female Ambassador (in yellow dress) at Ball
Queenie Leonard as Cockney bystander
Moyna MacGill as Lady Boxington
Alan Napier as gentleman escorting Eliza to the Queen
Betty Blythe as Lady at Ball
Marjorie Bennett as Cockney with pipe

text: Musical numbers[edit]

text:
"Overture" – played by orchestra.
"Why Can't the English Learn to Speak?" – performed by Rex Harrison, Wilfrid Hyde-White and Audrey Hepburn.
"Wouldn't It Be Loverly?" – performed by Audrey Hepburn (dubbed by Marni Nixon) and chorus.
"An Ordinary Man" – performed by Rex Harrison.
"With a Little Bit of Luck" – performed by Stanley Holloway, John Alderson, John McLiam, and chorus.
"Just You Wait" – sung by Audrey Hepburn (partially dubbed by Marni Nixon) and Charles Fredericks.
"Servants Chorus" – sung by Mona Washbourne and chorus.
"The Rain in Spain" – performed by Rex Harrison, Wilfrid Hyde-White, and Audrey Hepburn (partially dubbed by Marni Nixon).
"I Could Have Danced All Night" – performed by Audrey Hepburn (mostly dubbed by Marni Nixon), Mona Washbourne and chorus.
"Ascot Gavotte" – sung by chorus.
"Ascot Gavotte (Reprise)" – sung by chorus.
"On the Street Where You Live" – sung by Jeremy Brett (dubbed by Bill Shirley).
"Intermission" – played by orchestra.
"Transylvanian March" – played by orchestra.
"Embassy Waltz" – played by orchestra.
"You Did It" – performed by Rex Harrison, Wilfrid Hyde-White, and chorus.
"Just You Wait (Reprise)" – sung by Audrey Hepburn.
"On the Street Where You Live" (reprise) – sung by Jeremy Brett (dubbed by Bill Shirley).
"Show Me" – sung by Audrey Hepburn (dubbed by Marni Nixon) and Jeremy Brett (dubbed by Bill Shirley).
"Wouldn't It Be Loverly" (reprise) – sung by Audrey Hepburn (dubbed by Marni Nixon) and chorus.
"Get Me to the Church on Time" – performed by Stanley Holloway, John Alderson, John McLiam, and chorus.
"A Hymn to Him (Why Can't A Woman Be More Like a Man?)" – performed by Rex Harrison and Wilfrid Hyde-White.
"Without You" – sung by Audrey Hepburn (dubbed by Marni Nixon) and Rex Harrison.
"I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" – performed by Rex Harrison.
"Finale" – played by orchestra.

tag: ol

text: Production[edit]

text: The head of CBS, William S. Paley, put up the money for the original Broadway production in exchange for the rights to the cast album (through Columbia Records). When Warner bought the film rights in February 1962 for the then-unprecedented sum of $5 million, it was agreed that the rights to the film would revert to CBS seven years following release.[4]

text: Order of musical numbers[edit]

text: The order of the songs in the show was followed faithfully, except for "With a Little Bit of Luck". The song is listed as being the third musical number in the play; in the film it is the fourth. Onstage, the song is split into two parts sung in two different scenes. Part of the song is sung by Doolittle and his cronies just after Eliza gives him part of her earnings, immediately before she makes the decision to go to Higgins's house to ask for speech lessons. The second half of the song is sung by Doolittle just after he discovers that Eliza is now living with Higgins. In the film, the entire song is sung in one scene that takes place just after Higgins has sung "I'm an Ordinary Man". However, the song does have a dialogue scene (Doolittle's conversation with Eliza's landlady) between verses.

text: The instrumental "Busker Sequence", which opens the play immediately after the Overture, is the only musical number from the play omitted in the film version. However, there are several measures from this piece that can be heard as we see Eliza in the rain, making her way through the cars and carriages in Covent Garden.

text: All of the songs in the film were performed near complete; however, there were some verse omissions, as there sometimes are in film versions of Broadway musicals. For example, in the song "With a Little Bit of Luck", the verse "He does not have a Tuppence in his pocket", which was sung with a chorus, was omitted, due to space and its length. The original verse in "Show Me" was used instead.

text: The stanzas of "You Did It" that came after Higgins says "she is a Princess" were originally written for the Broadway version, but Harrison hated the lyrics, and refused to perform the song unless and until those lyrics were omitted, which they were in most Broadway versions. However, Cukor insisted that the omitted lyrics be restored for the film version or he would not direct at all, causing Harrison to oblige. The omitted lyrics end with the words "Hungarian Rhapsody" followed by the servants shouting "Bravo" three times, to the strains of Liszt's "Hungarian Rhapsody" before the servants sing "Congratulations, Professor Higgins".[5]

text: Dubbing[edit]

text: Hepburn's singing was judged inadequate, and she was dubbed by Marni Nixon,[6] who sang all songs except "Just You Wait", where Hepburn's voice was left undubbed during the harsh-toned chorus of the song and Nixon sang the melodic bridge section. Some of Hepburn's original vocal performances for the film were released in the 1990s, affording audiences an opportunity to judge whether the dubbing was necessary. Less well known is the dubbing of Jeremy Brett's songs (as Freddy) by Bill Shirley.[7]

text: Harrison declined to pre-record his musical numbers for the film, explaining that he had never talked his way through the songs the same way twice and thus could not convincingly lip-sync to a playback during filming (as musical stars had, according to Jack L. Warner, been doing for years. "We even dubbed Rin-Tin-Tin"[8]). George Groves decided to use a wireless microphone, the first such use during filming of a motion picture.[9] The sound department earned an Academy Award for its efforts.

text: Intermission[edit]

text: One of the few differences in structure between the stage version and the film is the placement of the intermission. In the stage play, the intermission comes after the embassy ball where Eliza dances with Karpathy. In the film, the intermission comes before the ball, as Eliza, Higgins, and Pickering are seen departing for the embassy.

text: Art direction[edit]

text: Gene Allen, Cecil Beaton, and George James Hopkins won an Academy Award for Best Production Design for art direction of the film. Beaton's inspiration for the library in Higgins' home, where much of the action takes place, was a room at the Château de Groussay, Montfort-l'Amaury, in France, which had been decorated opulently by its owner Carlos de Beistegui.[citation needed] Hats were created by Parisian milliner Paulette[fr] at Beaton's request.

text: Soundtrack[edit]

text:
Original Columbia Records LP

All tracks played by the Warner Bros. Studio Orchestra conducted by André Previn. Between brackets the singers.

"Overture"
"Why Can't the English Learn to Speak?" (Rex Harrison, Audrey Hepburn, Wilfrid Hyde-White)
"Wouldn't It Be Loverly?" (Marni Nixon (for Hepburn))
"I'm an Ordinary Man" (Harrison)
"With a Little Bit of Luck" (Stanley Holloway)
"Just You Wait" (Hepburn, Nixon)
"The Rain in Spain" (Harrison, Hepburn, Nixon, Wilfrid Hyde-White)
"I Could Have Danced All Night" (Nixon)
"Ascot Gavotte"
"On the Street Where You Live" (Bill Shirley (for Jeremy Brett))
"You Did It" (Harrison, Hyde-White) (without the choir "Congratulations")
"Show Me" (Nixon, Shirley)
"Get Me to the Church on Time" (Holloway)
"A Hymn to Him (Why Can't a Woman Be More Like a Man?)" (Harrison, Hyde-White)
"Without You" (Nixon, Harrison)
"I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face" (Harrison)

Previously unreleased on LP, included on the CD

"The Flower Market"
"Servants' Chorus"
"Ascot Gavotte (Reprise)"
"Intermission"
"The Transylvanian March"
"The Embassy Waltz"
"You Did It" (Harrison, Hyde-White) (with the servant's final choir "Congratulations")
"Just You Wait (Reprise)" (Audrey Hepburn)
"On the Street Where You Live (Reprise)" (Shirley)
"The Flowermarket" (containing the reprise of "Wouldn't It Be Loverly?") (Nixon)
"End Titles"
"Exit Music"

text: Reception[edit]

text: With a production budget of $17 million, My Fair Lady was the most expensive film shot in the United States up to that time.[10] The film was re-released in 1971 and earned North American rentals of $2 million. It was re-released again in 1994 after a thorough restoration.[11]

text: My Fair Lady currently holds a 96% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 46 reviews, with an average rating of 8.1/10. The consensus states: "George Cukor's elegant, colorful adaptation of the beloved stage play is elevated to new heights thanks to winning performances by Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison."[12] Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert gave the film four stars out of four, and, in 2006, he put it on his "Great Movies" list, praising Hepburn's performance, and calling the film "the best and most unlikely of musicals."[13]

text: Awards and honors[edit]

text: Academy Awards: 1964[edit]

text: My Fair Lady won eight Oscars:[3][14]

text:
Academy Award for Best Picture – Jack L. Warner
Academy Award for Directing – George Cukor
Academy Award for Best Actor – Rex Harrison
Academy Award for Best Cinematography – Harry Stradling
Academy Award for Sound – George R. Groves, Warner Brothers Studio
Academy Award for Best Adaptation or Treatment Score – André Previn
Academy Award for Best Art Direction – Gene Allen, Cecil Beaton, and George James Hopkins
Academy Award for Costume Design – Cecil Beaton
Academy Award for Writing Adapted Screenplay – Alan Jay Lerner - Nominated
Academy Award for Film Editing – William Ziegler - Nominated
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor – Stanley Holloway - Nominated
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress – Gladys Cooper - Nominated

text: Golden Globe Awards[edit]

text: My Fair Lady won three Golden Globes:

text:
Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy
Golden Globe Award for Best Director – Motion Picture – George Cukor
Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy – Rex Harrison

text: BAFTA Awards[edit]

text: My Fair Lady won the BAFTA Award for Best Film from any source

text: Restoration[edit]

text: The film was restored in 1994 by James C. Katz and Robert A. Harris, who had restored Spartacus three years earlier. The restoration was commissioned and financed by CBS, to which the film rights reverted from Warner Bros. in 1971.[15] CBS would later hire Harris to lend his expertise to a new 4K restoration of the film for a 2015 Blu-ray release, working from 8K scans of the original camera negative and other surviving 65mm elements.[16]

text: Planned remake[edit]

text: A new film of the musical was planned in 2008 with a screenplay by Emma Thompson but the project did not materialize. Keira Knightley, Carey Mulligan, and Colin Firth were among those in consideration for the lead roles.[17][18][19]


document_title: Communist Party of India

question_text: who is considered the founder of communist ideology in india

text: Communist Party of India

text: History[edit]

text: Formation[edit]

text: The Communist Party of India has officially stated that it was formed on 26 December 1920 at the first Party Conference in Kanpur. But as per the version of CPI(M), the Communist Party of India was founded in Tashkent, Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic on 17 October 1920, soon after the Second Congress of the Communist International. The founding members of the party were M.N. Roy, Evelyn Trent Roy (Roy's wife), Abani Mukherji, Rosa Fitingof (Abani's wife), Mohammad Ali (Ahmed Hasan), Mohammad Shafiq Siddiqui, Rafiq Ahmed of Bhopal and M.P.B.T. Aacharya, and Sultan Ahmed Khan Tarin of North-West Frontier Province.[4][5][6] The CPI says that there were many communist groups formed by Indians with the help of foreigners in different parts of the world and the Tashkent group was only one of. contacts with Anushilan and Jugantar groups in Bengal. Small communist groups were formed in Bengal (led by Muzaffar Ahmed), Bombay (led by S.A. Dange), Madras (led by Singaravelu Chettiar), United Provinces (led by Shaukat Usmani) and Punjab and Sindh (led by Ghulam Hussain). However, only Usmani became a CPI party member.[7]

text: Involvement in independence struggle[edit]

text: During the 1920s and the early 1930s the party was badly organised, and in practice there were several communist groups working with limited national coordination. The British colonial authorities had banned all communist activity, which made the task of building a united party very difficult. Between 1921 and 1924 there were three conspiracy trials against the communist movement; First Peshawar Conspiracy Case, Meerut Conspiracy Case and the kanpur Bolshevik Conspiracy Case. In the first three cases, Russian-trained muhajir communists were put on trial. However, the Cawnpore trial had more political impact. On 17 March 1924, M.N. Roy, S.A. Dange, Muzaffar Ahmed, Nalini Gupta, Shaukat Usmani, Singaravelu Chettiar, Ghulam Hussain and R.C. Sharma were charged, in Cawnpore (now spelt Kanpur) Bolshevik Conspiracy case. The specific pip charge was that they as communists were seeking "to deprive the King Emperor of his sovereignty of British India, by complete separation of India from imperialistic Britain by a violent revolution." Pages of newspapers daily splashed sensational communist plans and people for the first time learned, on such a large scale, about communism and its doctrines and the aims of the Communist International in India.[8]

text: Singaravelu Chettiar was released on account of illness. M.N. Roy was in Germany and R.C. Sharma in French Pondichéry, and therefore could not be arrested. Ghulam Hussain confessed that he had received money from the Russians in Kabul and was pardoned. Muzaffar Ahmed, Nalini Gupta, Shaukat Usmani and Dange were sentenced for various terms of imprisonment. This case was responsible for actively introducing communism to a larger Indian audience.[8] Dange was released from prison in 1927. Rahul Dev Pal was a prominent communist leader

text: On 25 December 1925 a communist conference was organised in Kanpur.[9] Colonial authorities estimated that 500 persons took part in the conference. The conference was convened by a man called Satyabhakta. At the conference Satyabhakta argued for a 'National communism' and against subordination under Comintern. Being outvoted by the other delegates, Satyabhakta left the conference venue in protest. The conference adopted the name 'Communist Party of India'. Groups such as Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan (LKPH) dissolved into the unified CPI.[10] The émigré CPI, which probably had little organic character anyway, was effectively substituted by the organisation now operating inside India.

text: Soon after the 1926 conference of the Workers and Peasants Party of Bengal, the underground CPI directed its members to join the provincial Workers and Peasants Parties. All open communist activities were carried out through Workers and Peasants Parties.[11]

text: The sixth congress of the Communist International met in 1928. In 1927 the Kuomintang had turned on the Chinese communists, which led to a review of the policy on forming alliances with the national bourgeoisie in the colonial countries. The Colonial theses of the 6th Comintern congress called upon the Indian communists to combat the 'national-reformist leaders' and to 'unmask the national reformism of the Indian National Congress and oppose all phrases of the Swarajists, Gandhists, etc. about passive resistance'.[12] The congress did however differentiate between the character of the Chinese Kuomintang and the Indian Swarajist Party, considering the latter as neither a reliable ally nor a direct enemy. The congress called on the Indian communists to utilize the contradictions between the national bourgeoisie and the British imperialists.[13] The congress also denounced the WPP. The Tenth Plenum of the Executive Committee of the Communist International, 3 July 1929 – 19 July 1929, directed the Indian communists to break with WPP. When the communists deserted it, the WPP fell apart.[14]

text: On 20 March 1929, arrests against WPP, CPI and other labour leaders were made in several parts of India, in what became known as the Meerut Conspiracy Case. The communist leadership was now put behind bars. The trial proceedings were to last for four years.[15][16]

text: As of 1934, the main centres of activity of CPI were Bombay, Calcutta and Punjab. The party had also begun extending its activities to Madras. A group of Andhra and Tamil students, amongst them P. Sundarayya, were recruited to the CPI by Amir Hyder Khan.[17]

text: The party was reorganised in 1933, after the communist leaders from the Meerut trials were released. A central committee of the party was set up. In 1934 the party was accepted as the Indian section of the Communist International.[18]

text: When Indian leftwing elements formed the Congress Socialist Party in 1934, the CPI branded it as Social Fascist.[12]

text: The League Against Gandhism, initially known as the Gandhi Boycott Committee, was a political organisation in Calcutta, founded by the underground Communist Party of India and others to launch militant anti-Imperialist activities. The group took the name ‘League Against Gandhism’ in 1934.[19]

text: In connection with the change of policy of the Comintern toward Popular Front politics, the Indian communists changed their relation to the Indian National Congress. The communists joined the Congress Socialist Party, which worked as the left wing of Congress. Through joining CSP, the CPI accepted the CSP demand for a Constituent Assembly, which it had denounced two years before. The CPI however analysed that the demand for a Constituent Assembly would not be a substitute for soviets.[20]

text: In July 1937, the first Kerala unit of CPI was founded at a clandestine meeting in Calicut. Five persons were present at the meeting, P. Krishna Pillai E.M.S. Namboodiripad, N.C. Sekhar, K. Damodaran and S.V. Ghate. The first four were members of the CSP in Kerala. The latter, Ghate, was a CPI Central Committee member, who had arrived from Madras.[21] Contacts between the CSP in Kerala and the CPI had begun in 1935, when P. Sundarayya (CC member of CPI, based in Madras at the time) met with EMS and Krishna Pillai. Sundarayya and Ghate visited Kerala at several times and met with the CSP leaders there. The contacts were facilitated through the national meetings of the Congress, CSP and All India Kisan Sabha.[17]

text: In 1936–1937, the cooperation between socialists and communists reached its peak. At the 2nd congress of the CSP, held in Meerut in January 1936, a thesis was adopted which declared that there was a need to build 'a united Indian Socialist Party based on Marxism-Leninism'.[22] At the 3rd CSP congress, held in Faizpur, several communists were included into the CSP National Executive Committee.[23]

text: In Kerala communists won control over CSP, and for a brief period controlled Congress there.

text: Two communists, E.M.S. Namboodiripad and Z.A. Ahmed, became All India joint secretaries of CSP. The CPI also had two other members inside the CSP executive.[20]

text: On the occasion of the 1940 Ramgarh Congress Conference CPI released a declaration called Proletarian Path, which sought to utilise the weakened state of the British Empire in the time of war and gave a call for general strike, no-tax, no-rent policies and mobilising for an armed revolutionary uprising. The National Executive of the CSP assembled at Ramgarh took a decision that all communists were expelled from CSP.[24]

text: In July 1942, the CPI was legalised, as a result of Britain and the Sov iet Union becoming allies against Nazi Germany.[25] Communists strengthened their control over the All India Trade Union Congress. At the same time, communists were politically cornered for their opposition to the Quit India Movement.

text: CPI contested the Provincial Legislative Assembly elections of 1946 of its own. It had candidates in 108 out of 1585 seats. It won in eight seats. In total the CPI vote counted 666 723, which should be seen with the backdrop that 86% of the adult population of India lacked voting rights. The party had contested three seats in Bengal, and won all of them. One CPI candidate, Somanth Lahiri, was elected to the Constituent Assembly.[26]

text: After independence[edit]

text: During the period around and directly following Independence in 1947, the internal situation in the party was chaotic. The party shifted rapidly between left-wing and right-wing positions. In February 1948, at the 2nd Party Congress in Calcutta, B. T. Ranadive (BTR) was elected General Secretary of the party.[27] The conference adopted the 'Programme of Democratic Revolution'. This programme included the first mention of struggle against caste injustice in a CPI document.[28]

text: In several areas the party led armed struggles against a series of local monarchs that were reluctant to give up their power. Such insurgencies took place in Tripura, Telangana and Kerala.[citation needed] The most important rebellion took place in Telangana, against the Nizam of Hyderabad. The Communists built up a people's army and militia and controlled an area with a population of three million. The rebellion was brutally crushed and the party abandoned the policy of armed struggle. BTR was deposed and denounced as a 'left adventurist'.

text: In Manipur, the party became a force to reckon with through the agrarian struggles led by Jananeta Irawat Singh. Singh had joined CPI in 1946.[29] At the 1951 congress of the party, 'People's Democracy' was substituted by 'National Democracy' as the main slogan of the party.[30]

text: Communist Party was founded in Bihar in 1939. Post independence, communist party achieved success in Bihar (Bihar and Jharkhand). Communist party conducted movements for land reform, trade union movement was at its peak in Bihar in the sixties, seventies and eighties. Achievement of communists in Bihar placed the communist party in the forefront of left movement in India. Bihar produced some of the legendary leaders like Kishan leaders Sahjanand Saraswati and Karyanand Sharma, intellectual giants like Jagannath Sarkar, Yogendra Sharma and Indradeep Sinha, mass leaders like Chandrashekhar Singh and Sunil Mukherjee, Trade Union leaders like Kedar Das and others. It was in Bihar that JP's total revolution was exposed and communist party under the leadership of Jagannath Sarkar fought Total Revolution and exposed its hollowness. "Many Streams" Selected Essays by Jagannath Sarkar and Reminiscing Sketches, Compiled by Gautam Sarkar, Edited by Mitali Sarkar, First Published : May 2010, Navakaranataka Publications Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore . In the Mithila region of Bihar Bhogendra Jha led the fight against the Mahants and Zamindars. He later went on the win Parliamentary elections and was MP for seven terms.

text: In early 1950s young communist leadership was uniting textile workers, bank employees and unorganized sector workers to ensure mass support in north India. National leaders like S A Dange, Chandra Rajeswara Rao and P K Vasudevan Nair were encouraging them and supporting the idea despite their differences on the execution. Firebrand Communist leaders like Homi F Dazi, Guru Radha Kishan, H L Parwana, Sarjoo Pandey, Darshan Singh Canadian and Avtaar Singh Malhotra were emerging between the masses and the working class in particular. This was the first leadership of communists that was very close to the masses and people consider them champions of the cause of the workers and the poor. In Delhi, May Day (majdoor diwas or mai diwas) was organised at Chandni Chowk Ghantaghar in such a manner that demonstrates the unity between all the factions of working classes and ignite the passion for communist movement in the northern part of India.

text: In 1952, CPI became the first leading opposition party in the Lok Sabha, while the Indian National Congress was in power. (Note - At this time, there was no CPI(M) and both were united)

text: Communist movement or CPI in particular emerged as a front runner after Guru Radha Kishan undertook a fast unto death for 24 days to promote the cause of textile workers in Delhi. Till than it was a public misconception that communists are revolutionaries with arms in their hands and workers and their families were afraid to get associated with the communists but this act mobilised general public in the favour of communist movement as a whole. During this period people with their families used to visit 'dharna sthal' to encourage CPI cadre.

text: This model of selflessness for the society worked for the CPI far more than what was expected. This trend was followed by almost all other state units of the party in the Hindi heartland. Communist Party related trade union AITUC became a prominent force to unite the workers in textile, municipal and unorganised sectors, the first labour union in unorganised sector was also emerged in the leadership of Comrade Guru Radha Kishan during this period in Delhi's Sadar Bazaar area. This movement of mass polarisation of workers in the favour of CPI worked effectively in Delhi and paved the way for great success of CPI in the elections in working class dominated areas in Delhi. Comrade Gangadhar Adhikari and E.M.S. Namboodiripad applauded this brigade of dynamic comrades for their selfless approach and organisational capabilities. This brigade of firebrand communists gained more prominence when Telangana hero Chandra Rajeswara Rao rose to be General Secretary of the Communist Party of India.

text: In the Travancore-Cochin Legislative Assembly election, 1952, Communist Party was banned, so it couldn't take part in the election process.[31] In the general elections in 1957, the CPI emerged as the largest opposition party. In 1957, the CPI won the state elections in Kerala. This was the first time that an opposition party won control over an Indian state. E. M. S. Namboodiripad became Chief Minister. At the 1957 international meeting of Communist parties in Moscow, the Communist Party of China directed criticism at the CPI for having formed a ministry in Kerala.[32]

text: Ideological differences lead to the split in the party in 1964 when two different party conferences were held, one of CPI and one of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). There is a common misconception that the rift during the Sino-Indian war, when Communist Party Of India proudly supported China in the war led to the 1962 split.[citation needed] In fact, the split was leftists vs rightists, rather than internationalists vs nationalists.[citation needed] The presence of nationalists in CPI, and internationalists P. Sundarayya, Jyoti Basu, and Harkishan Singh Surjeet in the Communist Party of India (Marxist) proves this fact.

text: During the period 1970–77, CPI was allied with the Congress party. In Kerala, they formed a government together with Congress, with the CPI-leader C. Achutha Menon as Chief Minister. After the fall of the regime of Indira Gandhi, CPI reoriented itself towards cooperation with CPI(M).

text: In 1986, the CPI's leader in the Punjab and MLA in the Punjabi legislature Darshan Singh Canadian was assassinated by Sikh extremists. Then on 19 May 1987, Deepak Dhawan, General Secretary of Punjab CPI(M), was murdered. Altogether about 200 communist leaders out of which most were Sikhs were killed by Sikh extremists in Punjab.[citation needed]

text: Present situation[edit]

text: CPI was recognized by the Election Commission of India as a 'National Party'. To date, CPI happens to be the only national political party from India to have contested all the general elections using the same electoral symbol. Owing to a massive defeat in Indian general election, 2014 where the party saw its tally reduce to 1 MP, the Election Commission of India has sent a letter to CPI asking for reasons why its national party status should not be revoked.[33][34][35][36][37] If similar performance is repeated in the next election, the CPI will no longer be a national party.

text: On the national level they supported the Indian National Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government along with other parliamentary Left parties, but without taking part in it. Upon attaining power in May 2004, the United Progressive Alliance formulated a programme of action known as the Common Minimum Programme. The Left bases its support to the UPA on strict adherence to it. Provisions of the CMP mentioned to discontinue disinvestment, massive social sector outlays and an independent foreign policy.

text: On 8 July 2008, Prakash Karat, General Secretary of CPI(M) announced that the Left was withdrawing its support over the decision by the government to go ahead with the United States-India Peaceful Atomic Energy Cooperation Act. The Left parties combination had been a staunch advocate of not proceeding with this deal citing national interests.[38]

text: In West Bengal it participates in the Left Front. It also participated in the state government in Manipur. In Kerala the party is part of Left Democratic Front. In Tripura the party is a partner of the Left Front, which governed the state till 2018. In Tamil Nadu it is part of the Progressive Democratic Alliance. It is involved in the Left Democratic Front in Maharashtra

text: The current general secretary of CPI is S. Sudhakar Reddy.

text: The principal mass organisations of the CPI are:

text:
All India Trade Union Congress
All India Youth Federation
All India Students Federation
National Federation of Indian Women
All India Kisan Sabha (peasants organisation)
Bharatiya Khet Mazdoor Union (agricultural workers)
All India State Government Employees Federation (State government employees)

text: Notable leaders[edit]

text:
N.E. Balaram - Founding leader of the communist movement in Kerala, India
Mohit Banerji (Mohit Bandopadhay) (1912–1961)
M. N. Govindan Nair – Kerala state general secretary during the first communist ministry and a freedom fighter
C. Achutha Menon – Finance minister in first Kerala ministry later chief minister
T. V. Thomas – Minister in first Kerala ministry
M. Kalyanasundaram – Tamil Nadu
P. K. Vasudevan Nair – Ex. Chief minister of Kerala
Indrajit Gupta – Parliamentarian, former general secretary and a former central minister
Bhupesh Gupta – Parliamentarian
Ajoy Ghosh – Last general secretary of unified CPI, freedom fighter
Chandra Rajeswara Rao – former general secretary, Telangana freedom fighter
Jagannath Sarkar – former National Secretary, freedom fighter, builder of communist movement in Bihar and Jharkhand
Geeta Mukherjee - Parliamentarian & Former President of National Federation of Indian Women
Ardhendu Bhushan Bardhan – former general secretary
Chaturanan Mishra parliamentarian & former Central Minister of India
Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy – current general secretary of the party
D. Raja – parliamentarian & secretary of the party
Shripad Amrit Dange – Freedom fighter & former chairman of the party
Hijam Irabot – Founder leader of CPI in Manipur
P. S. Sreenivasan – Former minister of Kerala
C. K. Chandrappan – Parliamentarian & former Kerala state secretary of the party
Pannyan Raveendran – Former Kerala state secretary of the party
Kanam Rajendran – Current Kerala state secretary of the party
Nallakannu – Parliamentarian & former Tamil Nadu state secretary of the party
D. Pandian - Parliamentarian & former Tamil Nadu state secretary
Binoy Viswam – Former minister in the Government of Kerala
Thoppil Bhasi – Writer, film director & parliamentarian
Puran Chand Joshi – first general secretary of the Communist Party of India
Veliyam Bharghavan – Parliamentarian & Former Kerala state secretary of the party
E. Chandrasekharan Nair – Senior leader and Former Minister in the Government of Kerala
Ramendra Kumar – Former Parliamentarian, national executive member, national president AITUC
Meghraj Tawar – Udaipur district secretary
Govind Pansare – Prominent activist and lawyer
R.Sugathan - Prominent trade unionist, mass leader and member of Kerala Legislative assembly
DR.Bhalchandra Kango - Central Secretariat and National Executive and Former Maharashtra state secretary of the party

text: Lok Sabha election tally[edit]

text:
Performance of Communist Party of India in Lok Sabha elections

Lok Sabha
Year
Lok Sabha
constituencies
Seats
Contested
Won
Net Change
in seats
Votes
Votes %
Change in
vote %
Reference

First
1952
489
49
16
-
34,87,401
3.29%
-
[41]

Second
1957
494
109
27
 11
1,07,54,075
8.92%
 5.63%
[42]

Third
1962
494
137
29
 02
1,14,50,037
9.94%
 1.02%
[43]

Fourth
1967
520
109
23
 06
74,58,396
5.11%
 4.83%
[44]

Fifth
1971
518
87
23
 00
69,33,627
4.73%
 0.38%
[45]

Sixth
1977
542
91
7
 16
53,22,088
2.82%
 1.91%
[46]

Seventh
1980
529 ( 542* )
47
10
 03
49,27,342
2.49%
 0.33%
[47]

Eighth
1984
541
66
6
 04
67,33,117
2.70%
 0.21%
[48][49]

Ninth
1989
529
50
12
 06
77,34,697
2.57%
 0.13%
[50]

Tenth
1991
534
43
14
 02
68,98,340
2.48%
 0.09%
[51][52]

Eleventh
1996
543
43
12
 02
65,82,263
1.97%
 0.51%
[53]

Twelfth
1998
543
58
09
 03
64,29,569
1.75%
 0.22%
[54]

Thirteenth
1999
543
54
04
 05
53,95,119
1.48%
 0.27%
[55]

Fourteenth
2004
543
34
10
 06
54,84,111
1.41%
 0.07%
[56]

Fifteenth
2009
543
56
04
 06
59,51,888
1.43%
 0.02%
[57]

Sixteenth
2014
543
67
01
 03
43,27,298
0.78%
 0.65%
[58]

text: * : 12 seats in Assam and 1 in Meghalaya did not vote.[59]

text:
State
No. of candidates 2014
No. of elected 2014
No. of candidates 2009
No. of elected 2009
Total no. of seats in the state

Andhra Pradesh
1
0
2
0
(25)(2014)/42(2009)

Arunachal Pradesh
0
0
0
0
2

Assam
1
0
3
0
14

Bihar
2
0
7
0
40

Chhattisgarh
2
0
1
0
11

Goa
2
0
2
0
2

Gujarat
1
0
1
0
26

Haryana
2
0
1
0
10

Himachal Pradesh
0
0
0
0
4

Jammu and Kashmir
0
0
1
0
6

Jharkhand
3
0
3
0
14

Karnataka
3
0
1
0
28

Kerala
4
1
4
0
20

Madhya Pradesh
5
0
3
0
29

Maharashtra
4
0
3
0
48

Manipur
1
0
1
0
2

Meghalaya
1
0
1
0
2

Mizoram
0
0
0
0
1

Nagaland
0
0
0
0
1

Odisha
4
0
1
1
21

Punjab
5
0
2
0
13

Rajasthan
3
0
2
0
25

Sikkim
0
0
0
0
1

Tamil Nadu
8
0
3
1
39

Tripura
0
0
0
0
2

Uttar Pradesh
8
0
9
0
80

Uttarakhand
1
0
1
0
5

West Bengal
3
0
3
2
42

Union Territories:

Andaman and Nicobar Islands
0
0
0
0
1

Chandigarh
0
0
0
0
1

Dadra and Nagar Haveli
0
0
0
0
1

Daman and Diu
0
0
0
0
1

Delhi
1
0
1
0
7

Lakshadweep
1
0
0
0
1

Puducherry
1
0
0
0
1

Total:
67
1
56
4
543

text: State election results[edit]

text:
State
No. of candidates
No. elected
Total no. of seats in Assembly
Year of Election

Andhra Pradesh
38
1
294
2014

Assam
15
0
126
2016

Bihar
98
0
243
2015

Chhattisgarh
13
0
90
2013

Delhi
5
0
70
2015

Goa
2
0
40
2017

Gujarat
3
0
182
2012

Haryana
14
0
90
2014

Himachal Pradesh
6
0
68
2012

Jammu and Kashmir
3
0
87
2014

Jharkhand
24
0
81
2014

Karnataka
8
0
224
2013

Kerala
25
19
140
2016

Madhya Pradesh
23
0
230
2013

Maharashtra
33
0
288
2014

Manipur
6
0
60
2017

Meghalaya
1
0
60
2013

Mizoram
0
0
40
2013

Odisha
32
0
147
2014

Puducherry
7
0
30
2016

Punjab
23
0
117
2017

Rajasthan
23
0
200
2013

Tamil Nadu
25
0
234
2016

Tripura
1
0
60
2018

Uttar Pradesh
68
0
403
2017

Uttarakhand
4
0
70
2017

West Bengal
11
1
294
2016

text: Results from the Election Commission of India website. Results do not deal with partitions of states (Bihar was bifurcated after the 2000 election, creating Jharkhand), defections and by-elections during the mandate period.

text: Party Congress[edit]

text:
Party Congress
Year
Place

1
1943 May 28 June 1
Bombay

2
1948 Feb 28 March 27
Culcutta

3
1953 December 27 January 4
Madhura

4
1956 April 19 to 29
Palakkad

5
1958 April 6 to 13
Amritsar

6
1961 April 7 to 16
Vijayawada

7
1964 Dec 13-23
Bombay

8
1968 February 7–15
Patna

9
1971 Oct
Kochin

10
1975 Jan 27 - Feb 2
Vijayawada

11
1978 March 31-April 7
Battinda

12
1982 March 22 to 28
Varanasi

13
1986 March 2 to 17
Patna

14
1989 March 6–12
Culcutta

15
1992 April 10 to 16
Hyderabad

16
1995 October
Delhi

17
1998 Sept 14-19
Chennai

18
2002 March 26 to 31
Thiruvananthapuram

19
2005 March 29 0 April 3
Chandigarh

20
2008 March 23–27
Hyderabad

21
2012 March 27–31
Patna

22
2015 March 25–29
Pondicherry

23
2018 April 25–29
Kollam