'Friends' fans say final goodbye

Ross and Rachel, together again as "Friends" fades into history. Were you expecting anything different?

Along with millions of other views, about 15 Southeast Missouri State University students were glued to the set, waiting to find out how television's most popular comedy would all end.

During the hour-long episode, they laughed, gasped when it turned out that Monica and Chandler were going to be the parents of twins and cheered when Ross and Rachel got together.

After 10 years of the most popular TV comedy, which followed six New York coffee shop regulars as they moved from post-adolescence to something approaching adulthood, most of the television friends' futures were was pretty much set.

Phoebe's gotten married, Monica and Chandler are moving to the suburbs with baby in tow and Joey is heading west to get serious about his acting career. Thursday's suspense involved Rachel's plan to take a new job in Paris and whether Ross would try to stop her -- or join her.

The couple's tortured romantic past included a quickie Las Vegas wedding and a baby, born during last May's season finale and seldom seen since.

Not surprisingly, the finale reveals the two do finally get together, after Ross' requisite last-minute dash to the airport to tell Rachel he loves her and does not want her to leave.

There were no complaints from the Southeast students though, most of who have been watching "Friends" regularly for more than one season.

"I think it ended the way it should of," Lori Newbern said. "You always thought Ross and Rachel should end up together." Newbern had watched "Friends" since the very first episode. While most of that time she watched it with her mother, this was Newbern's first year in college and away from home. After the show was over she was hurrying to get back to her room so she could call her mother and talk about it.

When Ross and Rachel locked lips toward the end of the episode, student Mindy Reid said she thought she was going to cry.

Fellow student Omorhefe Salani said she could sum up the finale in one word: "Emotional."

In the final scene, the six friends gave up their key to Monica and Chandler's apartment.

"This is harder than I thought it was going to be," Monica said, before the six friends left for one last cup of coffee -- babies in tow.

NBC was hoping the hour-long finale would become a cultural touchstone like the last episodes of "Cheers" and "Seinfeld." The network was privately predicting around 45 million viewers would watch. That would make it second to the Super Bowl, which had almost 90 million viewers, as TV's most-watched event this year.

The number NBC likes best is $2 million, which advertisers were paying for a 30-second commercial on the final "Friends."

The six actors involved -- Matt LeBlanc, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox Arquette, Matthew Perry, David Schwimmer and Lisa Kudrow -- maintained an all-for-one spirit off-screen, even negotiating contracts together.

NBC will spin off LeBlanc's character, Joey Tribbiani, for a new comedy that will take the mother ship's Thursday time slot next fall.

Some of the Southeast students said they planned to watch at least one episode of the spin-off to see what it is like.

Staff writer Kathryn Alfisi contributed to this story