The following are texts that I've used in teaching that contain passing references to 'Friends'. Works with a primary focus on the series are fewer. Additionaly it might be worth building a search around the term "time porn" where references to 'Friends' are more frequent, alongside mention of sitcoms such as 'Cheers' and 'Frasier'. Television Women from Lucy to Friends : Fifty Years of Sitcoms and Feminism by Lynn C. Spangler Empire's New Clothes: Reading Hardt and Negri by Paul A. Passavant, Jodi Dean (The above deals with 'Friends' and race, but only in passing) Bitch : In Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel Dispatches from the Culture Wars: How the Left Lost Teen Spirit by Danny Goldberg Blonde Like Me : The Roots of the Blonde Myth in Our Culture by Natalia Ilyin Working Girls: Gender and Sexuality in Popular Cinema by Yvonne Tasker Heroes, Monsters, and Messiahs by Elizabeth Hirschman The Future of Advertising : New Media, New Clients, New Consumers in the Post-Television Age by Joe Cappo Service Magic : The Art of Amazing Your Customers by Chip Bell, Ron Zemke (about the service industries but uses Central Perk as a model as I recall) Good luck Ian McKay Su Holmes <[log in to unmask]>@BAMA.UA.EDU> on 10/27/2004 02:43:34 PM Please respond to Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]> Sent by: Film and TV Studies Discussion List <[log in to unmask]> To: [log in to unmask] cc: Subject: [SCREEN-L] Sources on 'Friends' Does anyone know of any good work on the sitcom 'Friends', as despite its popularity, academic work seems thin on the ground? Thanks! ---- To sign off Screen-L, e-mail [log in to unmask] and put SIGNOFF Screen-L in the message. Problems? Contact [log in to unmask] ---- Screen-L is sponsored by the Telecommunication & Film Dept., the University of Alabama: http://www.tcf.ua.edu