Monica Geller based the six main characters on some of their own friends and family; Monica is based on Kauffman herself. Observing that each main character was originally written as a "one-note stereotype", Jonathan Bernstein of "The Daily Telegraph" identified Monica as the group's "uptight fun-killer". When "Friends" first aired, the majority of its earliest episodes revolved around Monica, via whom each character appears to be interconnected; "Friends" stars the character's brother, her best friend, her former roommate and her two neighbors socializing in Monica's apartment. In the pilot, Monica is dumped almost immediately after sleeping with her new date Paul on
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