I remember liking 'Friends', and then later thinking I was too good for it, thinking it was a show about a bunch of ridiculous people. I do find that when I ask my ESL students what shows they like, almost all of them mention 'Friends', and I guess it has helped many people learn English. I guess that's certainly a testament to its staying power, so I guess there are a lot of things that writers can learn from it.
I didn't get the jellyfish reference, but I looked it up... pretty funny.