The first season of Friends, an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, premiered on NBC on September 22, 1994. Friends was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television. The season contains 24 episodes and concluded airing on May 18, 1995. Reception Early reviews of the series were generally positive. In the Los Angeles Daily News, Ray Richmond named the series as "one of the brighter comedies of the new season", and the Los Angeles Times called it "flat-out the best comedy series of the new season". Tom Feran of The Plain Dealer wrote that the series traded "vaguely and less successfully on the hanging-out style of Seinfeld", while Ann Hodges of the Houston Chronicle called it "the new Seinfeld wannabe, but it will never be as funny as Seinfeld." Chicago Sun-Times Ginny Holbert found Joey and Rachel's characteristics to be underdeveloped, while Richmond commended the cast as a "likeable, youth ensemble" with "good chemistry"; Robert Bianco of USA Today was complimentary of Schwimmer, calling him "terrific". He also praised the female leads, but was concerned that Perry's role as Chandler was "undefined" and that LeBlanc was "relying too much on the same brain-dead stud routine that was already tired the last two times he tried it". The authors of Friends Like Us: The Unofficial Guide to Friends thought that the cast was "trying just a little too hard", in particular Perry and Schwimmer. People Magazine said that the "saving grace" is that the characters become more likable as time goes on. Legacy Collider ranked the season #9 on their ranking of the ten Friends seasons. They wrote that the best episode of the season which is called "The One Where Rachel Finds Out". Cast and characters (In particular, Introduced in season 1 or Only in season 1) Main cast Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Green Courteney Cox as Monica Geller Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay Matt LeBlanc as Joey Tribbiani Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing David Schwimmer as Ross Geller Recurring cast Anita Barone/Jane Sibbett as Carol Willick Mitchell Whitfield as Barry Farber Cosimo Fusco as Paolo Maggie Wheeler as Janice Hosenstein Jessica Hecht as Susan Bunch Vincent Ventresca as Fun Bobby Elliott Gould as Jack Geller Christina Pickles as Judy Geller Larry Hankin as Mr. Heckles Guest stars Merrill Markoe as Marsha, Ross' boss Jill Goodacre as herself Hank Azaria as David Morgan Fairchild