Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox Arquette, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer star in this hit comedy about six close-knit young friends living in New York City.

Beginning its eighth season as the leadoff series on NBC’s enormously popular “Must See TV” Thursday-night lineup, “Friends” continues to garner critical acclaim and ratings success. The series reigns as the number one comedy and top-rated 8 p.m. series on television.

Since its debut season (1994-95), “Friends” has received 33 Emmy Award nominations, including four for Outstanding Comedy Series. The cast won a Screen Actors Guild Award in 1996 for Outstanding Ensemble Performance in a Comedy Series and has been nominated three times (1996, 1997, 1998) for a Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series, Musical or Comedy. “Friends” won the People’s Choice Award for Favorite New Comedy Series in its first season, and has since won twice more as Favorite Comedy Series.

The series focuses on the friendship of three men and three women who frequently gather at each other’s apartments and share sofa space at Greenwich Village’s “Central Perk” coffeehouse. Monica (Cox Arquette) is a chef with an obsession for neatness and order in her life. She is also married to Chandler (Perry), a dry wit who is never at a loss for words. Across the hall is Chandler’s longtime roommate Joey (LeBlanc), an actor currently on “Days of our Lives” playing a man with a woman’s brain.

Sharing his apartment is Rachel (Aniston), Monica’s best friend from high school and former roomie. Rachel works for a fashion designer and is still trying to get by without help from her well-to-do father. Across the alley from Monica and Chandler is Monica’s hapless brother Ross (Schwimmer), a teacher who has been divorced three times, including once from Rachel following a reckless weekend in Las Vegas. Rounding out the circle of friends is Monica’s ex-roommate, Phoebe Buffay (Kudrow), an offbeat, eternally optimistic folk singer and massage therapist, who gave birth to triplets as a surrogate mother for her half-brother and his wife.

The series was created by the writing team of Marta Kauffman & David Crane. Emmy and CableACE Award-winning producer Kevin S. Bright is executive producer with Kauffman and Crane. Scott Silveri and Shana Goldberg-Meehan also serve as executive producers. “Friends” is a Bright/Kauffman/Crane Production in association with Warner Bros. Television.