The one with the best of ‘Friends’: Writers share their favorite episodes

We asked MSNBC.com staff members and freelance writers to share memories of a favorite episode.

Rest in peace, Mr. Heckles
In the early second-season show “The One Where Heckles Dies,” the cantankerous old man below Monica and Rachel has a heart attack after one too many sessions of broom-banging his ceiling to get the women to be quiet. Surprisingly, in his will he bequeaths everything he has to them.

As the Friends go through his belongings, Chandler finds Heckles’ old yearbook and is stunned to discover that Heckles was the class clown when he was younger, just like Chandler. Chandler suddenly sees himself turning inevitably into a cantankerous hermit, dying alone and unloved. He freaks out, and calls his infamously nasal-voiced ex, Janice. This episode was a fine bit of character development for Chandler, maybe the most complicated member of the sextet and certainly my favorite of the group.

The “Heckles” episode helped raise him from being just the sarcastic one to a person with deep-seated fears that, over the rest of the series, he’d overcome. Meanwhile, Ross is aghast to discover that Phoebe doesn’t believe in evolution, and becomes desperate to convince her of his way of thinking. Though I’m a little disquieted by the way the subplot was resolved, it’s a great example of the series’ ability to get mileage out of the conflict between two Friends’ personalities — in this case, Ross’ driving need to be smarter than the others, and Phoebe’s one-two combination of superficial ditziness masking a tricky, even slightly cruel, steel-trap mind beneath. —Christopher Bahn

Originally published May 3, 2004 on msnbc.com. Read the complete article.

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