Yes, we know it is over. Friends is a thing of the past, and they won’t even placate pining fans with a movie. Or is it really over? Which other show are you guaranteed to find some time, on some channel, every night? Which other show has viewers coming back for more time and time again? Which other English show is a random cross-section of Indian urbanites even familiar with? Something about watching Rachel Green, Monica Geller, Phoebe Buffay, Joey Tribbiani, Chandler Bing, Ross Geller and their always amusing antics is soothing after a long, hard day. Strangely so. Even if you’ve seen it all before — and perhaps because you’ve seen it all before — Friends remains one of the most popular English shows on Indian TV.

And here are the 10 reasons why, in no particular order.

1 Celeb spotting: George Clooney as the hot doc, Julia Roberts as vengeful classmate, Alec Baldwin as hyperactive boyfriend, Reese Witherspoon as spoilt sister number 1 and Christina Applegate as spoilt sister number 2….

Every season saw a few hot stars pop in and out of Central Perk. Try Brad Pitt as co-founder of the I Hate Rachel Green Club, crazed Dr Drake Ramoray fan Brooke Shields, Susan Sarandon the soap opera star who owned the room, angry father turned cry baby lover boy Bruce Willis, sexy cousin Denise Richards, Sean Penn as Phoebe’s almost brother-in-law, almost boyfriend…. Good, good, good!

2 Recurring gags: Every great sitcom has gags meant for the avid fan. And Friends is positively peppered with them. Phoebe’s convenient alter ego Regina Phalange has to be our favourite — she pops in every now and then to save Ross’s marriage or Joey’s ego, and in the series finale, she stops Rachel from flying off to Paris by reporting that her plane’s ‘phalange’ is missing! Then there are the endless fat jokes about Monica, who was a tubby teen, and Rachel’s ‘real’ nose, Ross’s ‘music’ from hell and Joey’s love of food, Chandler’s cross-dressing dad and cougar mom...

3 Random, proudly so: Friends is one of those rare shows that stayed random in its humour. Like its edgier and smarter competitor Seinfeld, the show was really about nothing and was seldom allowed to degenerate into soap opera-style dramatics. When the Ross-Rachel romance threatened to get too much, it was put on almost indefinite backburner. When the Rachel-Joey arch fell flat, it was quickly killed. It was straight back to situational comedy. It is so easy to LOL when the jokes are so spontaneous. Make that ROFL.

4 Smelly Cat: Smelly cat, smelly cat,

What are they feeding you?

Smelly cat, smelly cat

It’s not your fault…

We love that song, though Phoebe perhaps had others of greater poetic merit. Our heart goes out when Smelly Cat is put to a pop tune for a TV commercial. And it really was quite a difficult song to sing…

5 The fashion: No ‘it’ bags, shoes or watches. Friends fashion is miles away from what we see in Sex & The City and Gossip Girl. We like it because it is simple and sweet, not to be confused with quiet and boring. The show showed us what real, workable signature style is all about. You will never catch Rachel in Phoebe’s peasant boho chic tiered skirts and mismatched flouncy tops. You will never find Phoebe in a super-skinny pencil skirt and jacket. You will never find Ross in track pants. Or Chandler in shorts. And it gave us the still-in-demand Rachel haircut.

6They’ll be there for us: We all know (and love) someone like each of them. Every time we watch the show, we think of our compulsive cleaner friend. Or our compulsive flirt friend. Or our wonderfully weird friend. Or our one-liner cracking friend. Or our boring palaeontologist (okay, banker) friend. Or our fabulously fashionable friend. We always see a friend in Friends.

7 Something new in every view: Every time we watch an episode, we find an element we had missed before. Sometimes it’s a joke (much of the humour is multi-layered), other times it’s a gesture (when there are six people on screen, sometimes we concentrate on some and miss the others).

8 Partners in comedy: Thank god Ross and Rachel weren’t hooked up forever. Thank god Chandler and Monica hooked up only later. Thank god Joey and Phoebe weren’t hooked up at all. How incomplete would Friends be without the various love interests? Top marks go to Richard, Monica’s first true love and the longest running celebrity appearance in the form of a dishy Tom Selleck. Then there was just-divorced Joshua. Cute Mike. Scientist David (we’d love Hank Azaria — another celebrity turn — in whatever he did). Lesbian Carol. Fun Bobby, Lover Boy Paolo, Joey’s Many. And Annoying Janice! And then there are the friends’ families — Rachel’s dysfunctional folks, Chandler’s dad (come on, Kathleen Turner!), the gaggle of Tribbiani girls, the Gellers and we’ll even throw in Gunther from Central Perk and dead Estelle, Joey’s agent.

9 Easily accessible: This show is always easy to find. Unlike other elusive shows, you can always count on Friends to be playing somewhere or the other. And when your remote finds it, it stays put.

10 ‘n’ time lucky: We keep hoping that one day we will catch that one episode we have never seen before. You never know!

Memorable moments

Every true fan knows that every Friends episode has a name, and every name starts with ‘The One Where’. Here is a list of our favourite Friends moments, strictly observing the naming protocol...

The one where Rachel makes a Thanksgiving trifle, which Ross describes as tasting like feet, and Joey devours, proclaiming ‘Custard, good! Jam, good! Meat, good!’

The one where Fat Monica and slouchy Chandler hook up in the ‘what if’ episode. (And pretty much all the Fat Monica moments.)

The one where Phoebe gets a cold that gives her a sexy voice and will do anything to not get cured!

The one where Ross gets a terrible tan, which just gets worse and worse and worse!

The one where Joey is nominated for a ‘Soapy’ and loses the plot when he doesn’t win.

The one where Chandler breaks up with Janice and the girls help him recover, ending with the girls getting more depressed and eating full-fat ice cream from the tub.