Monica Geller privileged, inexperienced childhood best friend Rachel (Jennifer Aniston), with whom she had long lost contact, suddenly arrives in her neighborhood unannounced as a runaway bride after abandoning her own wedding, Monica allows her to move in with her while she attempts to reorganize her life, and the two reconnect. Monica begins dating Dr. Richard Burke (Tom Selleck), an older man who is also one of her father's best friends and 21 years her senior. However, the couple mutually agrees to end their long-running relationship after realizing that Richard does not want children, while Monica aspires to eventually raise a family
Monica Geller to "The Hollywood Reporter", Hollywood professionals voted Monica the 47th best fictional female character. ChaCha collectively ranked Phoebe, Rachel and Monica the 11th, 12th and 13th best female television characters of all-time, respectively. Maria Tallarico of "Cosmopolitan" observed that a number of Monica's storylines, specifically one in which the character unintentionally has sex with a high school senior, "probably wouldn't fly on TV today". Writing for Mic.com, Samantha Allen believes that Monica helped "set the standard for how sitcoms could and would talk about sex" by both engaging in casual sex and dating a much older man. According to Dustin