Editing Friends (section)

=== Conception ===
{{blockquote|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.|sign=The original treatment used by David Crane, [[Marta Kauffman]] and [[Kevin Bright]] to pitch the series to [[NBC]].<ref name="friendsorigins1">{{Cite web |last=Lauer, Matt |date=May 5, 2004 |title=''Friends'' creators share show's beginnings |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna4899445 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131002162908/http://www.nbcnews.com/id/4899445/ |archive-date=October 2, 2013 |access-date=May 4, 2005 |website=[[NBC News]]}}</ref>}}

David Crane and Marta Kauffman began developing three new television pilots that would premiere in 1994 after their sitcom ''[[Family Album (1993 TV series)|Family Album]]'' was cancelled by [[CBS]] in 1993.<ref>Wild, p. 206</ref> 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.<ref name="Kolbert1">Kolbert, Elizabeth (March 8, 1994). [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C06E6DF163DF93BA35750C0A962958260 "Birth of a TV Show: A Drama All Its Own"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090122060730/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C06E6DF163DF93BA35750C0A962958260 |date=January 22, 2009 }}. ''The New York Times''. Retrieved on January 19, 2008.</ref> (Film director and screenwriter [[Cameron Crowe]] has asserted that the concept originated with [[Warner Bros. Television Studios|Warner Bros. Television]] wanting him to make his 1992 movie ''[[Singles (1992 film)|Singles]]'' into a television show.<ref name=":1">{{Cite magazine |last=Sottile |first=Alexis |date=2017-09-18 |title='Singles' at 25: Cameron Crowe on Making the Definitive Grunge Movie |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/singles-at-25-cameron-crowe-on-making-the-definitive-grunge-movie-118103/ |magazine=Rolling Stone |language=en-US |access-date=2023-05-01 |archive-date=May 1, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230501120632/https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-features/singles-at-25-cameron-crowe-on-making-the-definitive-grunge-movie-118103/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=DeRogatis |first=Jim |date=July 27, 2015 |orig-date=September 3, 2000 |title=As Crowe flies |url=https://www.wbez.org/stories/on-the-set-of-almost-famous/2395201a-f25a-4c6a-9191-8f99524b95af |access-date=2023-05-01 |website=[[The Chicago Sun-Times]] |language=en |via=[[WBEZ Chicago]] |archive-date=May 1, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230501120633/https://www.wbez.org/stories/on-the-set-of-almost-famous/2395201a-f25a-4c6a-9191-8f99524b95af |url-status=live }}</ref> Crowe alleges that when he refused permission, the idea was then taken over by Crane and Kaufman, who changed some details from the premise of the movie while developing the show.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" />)

Crane and Kauffman presented the idea to their production partner Kevin Bright, who had served as executive producer on their [[HBO]] series ''[[Dream On (TV series)|Dream On]]''.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Behind the Scenes |url=http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/488124/415695 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090203061651/http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/488124/415695 |archive-date=February 3, 2009 |access-date=January 10, 2009 |publisher=[[TV2 (New Zealand)|TV2]]}}</ref> 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."<ref name="friendsorigins1" /> They found the concept to be interesting, as they believed "everybody knows that feeling",<ref name="friendsorigins1" /> and because it was also how they felt about their own lives at the time.<ref name="friendsorigins1" /> The team titled the series ''Insomnia Cafe'' and pitched the idea as a seven-page [[Film treatment|treatment]] to NBC in December 1993.<ref name="friendsorigins1" /><ref name="Kolbert1" />

At the same time, [[Warren Littlefield]], the then-president of [[NBC Entertainment]], was seeking a comedy involving young people living together and sharing expenses after he regretted passing on the Black sitcom ''[[Living Single]]''. Littlefield wanted the group to share memorable periods of their lives with friends, who had become "new, surrogate family members."<ref name="friendsorigin" /> 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.<ref name="friendsorigin" /> NBC bought the idea as a [[put pilot]], meaning they risked financial penalties if the pilot was not filmed.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Stallings |first=Penny |title=The Ultimate Friends Companion |publisher=Channel 4 Books |year=2000 |isbn=0-7522-7231-4 |location=London |pages=102–103}}</ref>

Kauffman and Crane took three days to write the pilot script for a show they titled ''Friends Like Us.''<ref name="friendsorigins1" /><ref>Wild, p. 215</ref> 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.<ref name="friendsorigin" /> NBC liked the script and ordered the series. They changed the title to ''Six of One'', mainly because they felt ''Friends Like Us'' was too similar to the [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] sitcom ''[[Ellen (TV series)|These Friends of Mine]]''.<ref name="friendsconcept">{{Cite news |last=Kolbert, Elizabeth |date=May 9, 1994 |title=The Conception and Delivery of a Sitcom: Everyone's a Critic |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9405EEDF1239F93AA35756C0A962958260 |url-status=live |access-date=December 30, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090122060548/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9405EEDF1239F93AA35756C0A962958260 |archive-date=January 22, 2009}}</ref>