I haven’t watched “Friends” in a while and I haven’t written a walkthrough in a while so I figure that I would. Let me see what episode I’m up to. Looks like we have “The One With Ross’s Teeth” Season 6 Episode 8 from November 18, 1999. Let me check my calendar to see what I was doing that week.
Looks like that day was a Thursday (Duh, it always ran on Thursday nights). I worked at Marvel Comics in Manhattan. The next day went downtown to a bar called “Ace Bar” for a friend’s 30th birthday. I even have pictures from the evening. According to my calendar I spent the rest of the weekend hanging out in Brooklyn with friends. That sound like a good time. Now let’s start the show.
Chandler pops over to visit Joey since they’re no longer roommates. Joey has a new hot model roommate now. Elle Macpherson, an actual hot model is playing her (Janine). Chandler checks out his old room. He is shocked at how feminine it is now and gets Joey all riled enough about the apartment losing it’s manly look (plot one). Monica shows up and we figure out it’s really Chandler commenting on his own new living situation with Monica. Here comes the theme song.
The next scene is Central Perk. Ross finds out that a coworker of Monica’s is single and he wants to be set up with her. The Ross and marriage jokes fly (they never fail to amuse me). That is plot two that will lead us to Ross’s teeth. Phoebe wants to use Rachel’s work photocopier at Ralph Lauren’s. This will lead to plot number three. Joey ends the scene with a joke about the unrealism of the gang always having time to hang out at the coffee shop. It’s a meta “Friends” joke.
Next we get Phoebe at Rachel’s workplace. Phoebe claims to have made out with Ralph Lauren in the copy room. Of course Rachel is flabbergasted. Funny stuff.
Now it’s time for Joey to contemplate the femininity of his apartment. He has a talk with Janine and she is a bit confused at just what he’s getting out. Famous photographer, Anne Geddes, gets name dropped. One of the jokes it that Joey doesn’t know what a curling iron is. He also learns the potpourri aren’t chips. It’s an okay scene if not a little obvious and over the top at times.
Here comes Rachel. She’s getting on an elevator at work. Her boss, Kim, is on the elevator with her. Rachel want to get Kim’s attention and bond with her but it isn’t working. That is until she hits Kim with the hot gossip about Phoebe and Ralph Lauren. Kim even hits the “Stop Elevator” button so she can hear more. I wonder if anyone has ever done that in real life? I think it’s just a TV thing. Hitting the “Stop Elevator” button for no serious reason is bound to get you noticed and to get you in trouble.
Back to Central Perk. Ross has had his teeth whitened and now they’re too white. They’re almost glowing. He did it for his date with Monica’s coworker, Hillary. Rachel drops by to tell Monica and Chandler about Phoebe and Ralph Lauren. Phoebe drops by too. Turns out it wasn’t Ralph Lauren she made out with. It was Kenny the copy guy. Now Rachel’s gossip was all wrong and she’s afraid her boss will hate her for it.
Time for a Ross’s apartment scene. Monica is trying to help Ross downplay his bright teeth. She’s trying to talk him into wearing some makeup to lesson the white of his teeth. Phoebe walks in and yells “Demon” at Ross’s teeth. Good old weird Phoebe. I dig her!
Now we’re back at Monica and Chandlers’ and he’s had enough at helping her out with girlie stuff so it’s off to Joey’s for some male bonding. Meanwhile at Joey’s he is learning to knit from Janine. Goofy stuff. Chandler walks away disappointed and goes over to Ross’s where Ross is trying on the make-up that Monica gave him. There is no manliness for Chandler to find!
We go back to the elevator at Ralph Lauren’s where Rachel tries to tell her boss the truth about the kissing. That it didn’t happen. Of course it boomerangs back on Rachel as it was her ID card that was made to make the copies. Now Kim thinks it was Rachel who made out with Ralph Lauren. And then Ralph Lauren walks into the elevator, says nothing, but Kim really doesn’t believe Rachel now.
We finally get Ross’s date. Lots of awkwardness as Ross tries not to show his teeth. Not the funniest scene ever. Kind of painful.
That was quick. There really isn’t a lot to Ross’s plot line so we move back to Joey’s apartment as he’s showing Monica his new flower arranging skills. Chandler walks in. He can’t take it anymore as he yells at Joey to be more of a man. Not a whole lot of funny stuff in that plot line. It’s more typical sitcom stuff.
Meanwhile at Central Perk Rachel and Phoebe are talking over Rachel’s problem with her boss. They come up with no answers but make some funny jokes.
Back to Ross’s date. There is really not much there but the punchline is that when his date turns off the lights it turns out she has a black light so Ross’s teeth glow in the dark. A fun moment.
Another elevator scene where Kim thinks Rachel is sleeping with Ralph so Rachel tells her that he dumped her. Ralph Lauren walks into the elevator again and Kim thinks he was giving Rachel the cold shoulder so she believes the breakup story now. Here come the credits.
The final scene is between Joey and Janine. It’s an amusing little wrap up.
Now lets see what was cut out form this episode for syndication. One of Chandler’s “You’re not man enough” lines from the opening scene. No great loss. A couple of the Ross marrying jokes were cut. I liked those. A Ross highlighter joke and one of the jokes of the final scene. Those last two were okay cuts.
I’m not sure what I’d rate this one. I kind of enjoyed it but I haven’t watched an episode in weeks so that might have something to do with it. Being that two of the three plots were just okay (I like the Rachel plot best) I should probably give it two out of five stars but I’m going to give it a three. I liked it well enough and to me three out of five means it’s an average episode. Average means good when I like something Let’s see what I rated it years ago. Looks like I gave it three stars back in 2013 too. So there you go. I hoped you liked the episode too.