DVD Best of Friends Season 1

"The One With The East German Laundry Detergent" is really the one that introduces Janet as Chandler's hyper-annoying girlfriend and where Ross and Rachel have their first date (in the laundry) and share their first kiss (foreshadowing).

"The One With The Stoned Guy," who is Jon Lovitz as the owner of a swank restaurant who shows up in that condition to taste test Monica's cooking as she auditions for a head chef position. Meanwhile, Chandler is promoted and Joey teaches Ross how to talk dirty to impress the curator of insects at his museum (it sounded like a good idea at the time).

"The One Where Underdog Gets Away" is the first Thanksgiving episode, which goes horribly wrong when everyone runs outside to see the Underdog balloon escape from the parade and they all get locked out of Monica's apartment. The first Thanksgiving episode, but nowhere near the best, although it does introduce the back story on Chandler's strange childhood.

"The One With The Birth" has the gang descending on the hospital when Carol goes into labor. Of course, Ross and Susan cannot stop fighting with each other. Not only do they get kicked out of the delivery room, they end up locked in a storage closet. Meanwhile, Rachel is flirting with a cute doctor and Chandler offers to have a baby with Monica if they are still both unmarried at the age of 40. This is the one true classic in this collection and the obvious nominee to have been included in the previous collections.

"The One Where Rachel Finds Out" is when Chandler lets the cat out of the bag at Rachel's birthday party. This is an important moment in the Ross-Rachel relationship, but the chief charm of the episode is Joey who has a hot new girlfriend but is required to be celibate because of a fertility study that is helping him pay the bills.

If we are talking top 10 episodes from Season 1 of "Friends," then "The One with the Stoned Guy" and "The One with the Birth" would both be on that list. They would have had a better collection if they replaced the other three with "The One with George Stephanopoulos," "The One with the Butt," and "The One with the Ick Factor." But clearly the idea here is to touch on key moments in the development of the characters rather than the really funny episodes. The end result is that "The Best of Friends Season 1" is going to be for those who have some reason for just not going ahead and purchasing the complete Season 1 set.