It turned into a 'Friends' rip off at season 3.

It turned into a show about 20somethings' romances and should have been renamed "Three Guys and Two Girls" or "Friends -1."

I didn't hate it, but it should have stayed a show about how three college buddies maintain their friendships as they enter adulthood. And if they kept the pizza place that could have been the thing that kept them together.

The show would probably have lasted beyond season four if the writers and producers hadn't gotten rid of the pizza place early in season three. If the pizza place were going to become a thing of the past for the characters, that should have been saved for the end of the series.

I read somewhere that series producer Kevin Abbott said the reason the pizza place was done away with was because it "didn't fit the characters anymore." So there were clearly creative issues involved in the change. Still, the change was a big mistake.

After the show lost the pizza place early in the third season, it was lucky to have maintained enough viewership to convince ABC to renew it for a fourth season. But the move from Wednesdays to Fridays for season four caused the show's ratings to slide so low that hopes for a fifth season were dashed.

In retrospect, the show clearly lost some viewers when the pizza place was dropped from the show. Undoubtedly, there were also other viewers who halfheartedly continued to watch the show, only to gradually stop watching the show, realizing that they couldn't adjust to the change in the show's direction. As a result, a lot of enthusiasm for the show disappeared by the time it went into its fourth season, making it a lot tougher to save the series from cancellation. :-(

@track100.

You say it became a Friends rip-off, but you also say they should have kept the pizza place. Surely the pizza place was the equivalent of Friends' Central Perk?

I still kinda enjoyed it but introducing Germ working at the hospital? that was just stupid