Friends Family Tree

Anyone who knows me well knows that my love of television was first formed by my obsession with "Friends". As I've grown older, and my cable channels have increased, so has my appreciation for a variety of shows. Still, since "Friends" is my first true love I have to admit that even I'm surprised that it's not getting mentioned until my third post.

"Friends" is an interesting show to approach from a family tree angle (aka the "they were on that show then they made it big on 'their' show" angle). It's mainly difficult because although "Friends" ran for ten seasons, and had tons of guest actors, most of them were already famous and just wanted to be a part of the cultural phenomenon.

Here's a couple of people who really did jump start their careers by being on "Friends":

Aisha Tyler~

Sure, she's well known now, but it was really "Friends" that was her big break. She played Joey and Ross' girlfriend Charlie in 9 episodes of the hit show. She then went on to appear in 12 episodes of "CSI" (2004-2005) and 23 episodes of "Ghost Whisperer" (2005-2006).









George Newbern~

He had successful parts before "Friends" (mainly because he played Dr. Scott Frank on a season of "Chicago Hope", 1997-1998). Still, it wasn't until after his role as Rachel's boyfriend Danny on
"Friends" (1998) that he became a series regular in "Bull" (2000) and "Providence" (2002). And, to relate back to last week, what else did he later appear in repeatedly? "Nip/Tuck" (2010).