Friends. Season 3, Episode 10. "The One Where Rachel Quits" Christmas 1996.
Three recurring elements of Friends appear here. A character makes a major life-changing decision, Phoebe does something kooky and someone is played as if it's something else to get laughs.
Rachel quits being a waitress in this one. The show was very good at making the main characters into believable people, and the show's semi-serial structure allowed that to happen very easily. We got to see move from job to job, relationship to relationship, much as our real life flesh and blood friends. Watching this again, after all these years, there is still something very satisfying about watching Rachel decide to follow her dream.
Phoebe seems like an easy go-to character for the writers. When they need a b-plot, it sometimes feels like they go to Phoebe and concoct something wacky for her to do. In this episode she has a passion for saving old Christmas trees. Because it's Phoebe you don't need any more than that.
Finally, Ross is selling cookies for a girl scout (Mae Whitman) that he injured and there's a great gag around Monica becoming addicted to eating the cookies that is played as if it's drug addiction, with Ross being the pusher, etc.
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Friends. Season 3, Episode 10. "The One Where Rachel Quits"
