Friends 4Ever

Friends 4Ever (Friends Forever) is a Philippine teen drama television series created by Mel Mendoza-del Rosario, developed by Ginny Monteagudo-Ocampo and directed by Mark Reyes and Veronica B. Velasco, starred by some of IBC Talent Center artists for today's hottest teen stars Janella Salvador, Marlo Mortel, Sue Ramirez, Khalil Ramos, Francis Magundayao, Liza Soberano and Diego Loyzaga. The series was aired on IBC and worldwide on Global IBC from March 2, 2014 to April 5, 2015. It aired every Sunday at 3:00 p.m. time slot after Hey it's Fans Day!.

The youth-oriented drama series that revolves the lives of a group of teens from different backgrounds in a campus setting have a fun and exciting ultimate barkada experience in a high school students, particularly known for school uniform. Its premised from babies to children and would be like to transform into were a teenagers.

Its popularity also set the trend for youth oriented drama series and marks the first Sunday afternoon dramas for IBC, Friends 4Ever is one of the most successful youth-oriented program in Philippine television.

Production
From T.G.I.S. and Gimik to Friends 4Ever as IBC's newest youth-oriented TV series starring some of IBC's new batch of young stars conceptualized a new program especially-made for teens. Developed a plan that would give a new batch of young stars an avenue to expose their acting skills.

This phenomenal teen drama series launched both their careers and their love team as well. Friends 4Ever became so popular that inspired by the rival networks came up with their own teen show with almost the same plot, Sunday afternoons were made feel-good, good vibes and exciting.

As the youth-oriented drama aired, the stars went on to become the country’s hottest stars, especially the teenagers and young adults focuses not only fall in love but also the struggles, relationship, romance and dilemmas of Filipino teenagers face such as friendship, first break-up, studying difficulties, family acceptance and other real-life high school and graduate the school features the hottest and cutest young stars of their respective TV stations.

According to the avid viewers, Friends 4Ever is the light-themed and feel-good type of teen drama series wherein the episode plots are more about family, friendship, and life of a student in school campuses and villages depicting the Filipino youth of the next generation.

Cast
The teen-oriented drama series consisted of IBC Talent Center artists, such as Janella Salvador who is also star in the phenomenal and top-rating primetime fantasy series Janella in Wonderland, which became the number 1 most-watched fantaserye, and launched the showbiz careers of Marlo Mortel, Sue Ramirez, Khalil Ramos, Francis Magundayao and Superstar Circle alumni Liza Soberano as the 1st winner and Diego Loyzaga as the 1st runner-up. This will be their first television project for Liza and Diego after Superstar Circle.

It revived the teen drama on Sunday which is inspired by the rival teen dramas in the 90's such as T.G.I.S. from GMA Network and Gimik from ABS-CBN in patterned than original compared to other youth oriented shows of teen barkada from the highly-watched Saturday series.

The program was about a set of friends facing together life’s challenges – like studies, vices, popular hobbies that time, and love.

Story
From children about preschool, elementary school and playground to grow up their teenagers for high school by wearing a school uniform and dress, Friends 4Ever is the teen drama series, following the friends of lucky and rich Bagets of students with a young love and fall in love again and revolves around a group of young people making the journey like a best friends forever of couple in friendship. The most memorable scene, favorite love-team, characters and feel-good story you loved.

Friends 4Ever revolves around the lives of 7 teenagers, the first-ever teen drama series on Philippine television history. It tackles the story of normal teenagers with their adventures and struggles in life and love with a fresh batch of graduate superstars. So that the good vibes about middle child, sibling rivalry, families, parent-child conflict, jealousy, love relationships and student life are just some of the 7 characters.

Synopsis
The story of their 7 classmates from babies to children - Nikki (Sofia Millares), Nicolo (Harvey Bautista), Libby (Ashley Cabrera), Carlos (Lance Lucido), Sanjay (Miguel Vergara), Sandra (Alyanna Angeles) and Tom (Aldred Nasayao) - as they try to do from preschool education to elementary school during school days with teacher and classes at children's pupils at the time. Kids will teach them from elementary school and so that they will now be grown up to the teenager classmates in high school. Nikki is happy and chases the kids in school bus, with Nikki on the classes. Nikki starts at 15 for them to come out, and Nicolo suggests they go to playground (the future) so that they will be grown up. Nikki says multiple a teenager random numbers in incorrect order before reaching 15, so this gives the kids time to into a time-travel. At the exact moment Nikki reaches fifteen, Nicolo send into the playground and there is a swirling vortex and the kids see themselves in the future.

Coincidentally, they are now 10 years younger. Characters in school uniform as the cutie classmate sweetheart Nikki Santiago (Janella Salvador) who loves a popular boy Nicolo Angelo "Nic-Nic" Cortez (Marlo Mortel). On the other hand, a girl for the painting art and poser Libby Escueta (Sue Ramirez), is linked to a cool and wacky boy Carlos Escueta (Khalil Ramos), who comes from a family. When Bianca falls in love with Carlos, she gets caught between her lies and revealing her true feelings. Meanwhile, those attention is a boy next door named Sanjay Martin (Francis Magundayao), who is popular with the girls because of his good looks, charm, and affluence. There is also the kikay girl Sandra Reyes (Liza Soberano) who talks for gwapo guy Tom Domingo (Diego Loyzaga). Last but not least, the boy-loves-girl and the girl and boy type of relationship will definitely stir up the story.

So that the teenager, Nikki, Libby, Carlos, Sanjay, Sandra and Tom went to high school for their school uniforms, while Nicolo went to college. Their best friends forever will fall in love for Nicolo and Nikki, Libby and Carlos with Sanjay, and Sandra and Tom.

Main Cast
At present, the teen barkada of Friends 4Ever for 7 teen classmates as of March 9, 2014. The feel-good series boasts of today's hottest young stars.
 * Janella Salvador as Nikki Santiago - 15 year old teenage girl and a teen classmate sweetheart from high school wearing a school uniform. She develops a crush on her boyfriend Nicolo.
 * Marlo Mortel as Nicolo Angelo "Nic-Nic" Cortez - 21 year old popular boy from college and her high school classmate Nikki's love interest. Nikki fall in love for his boyfriend and calls him "Mallows".
 * Sue Ramirez as Libby Escueta - 17 year old girl from high school for the painting art and poser, she gets caught between her lies and revealing her true feelings to his high school boy Carlos.
 * Khalil Ramos as Carlos Escueta - 18 year old cool and wacky boy, he is a high school boy when he falls in love with her high school classmate Bianca.
 * Francis Magundayao as Sanjay Martin - 14 year old boy next door from high school.
 * Liza Soberano as Sandra Reyes - 16 year old “kikay” girl from high school.
 * Diego Loyzaga as Tom Domingo - 18 year old gwapo guy who develops a crush on her love interest Sandra.

Supporting Cast

 * Maricar Reyes as Mariel Santiago - Nikki's mom
 * Tonton Gutierrez as Marvin Santiago - Nikki's dad
 * Dimples Romana as Angelu Escueta - Libby and Carlos' mother
 * Jong Cuenco as Jeff Escueta - Libby and Carlos' father
 * Precious Lara Quigaman as Cheska Reyes - Sandra's mom
 * Richard Quan as Toto Reyes - Sandra's dad
 * Cacai Bautista as Bela Cortez - Nicolo's nanny.
 * Mymy Davao as Marlene Martin - Sanjay's mother
 * Noel Trinidad as Archie Martin - Sanjay's grandfather
 * Teresa Loyzaga as Tessie Domingo - Tom's grandmother
 * Tess Antonio as Teacher Miela - High school teacher.
 * Joseph Bitangcol as Benjie de Guzman -  Adviser in high school.
 * Sandy Aloba as Ces Concepcion - High school principal
 * Robert Ortega as Mang Delfin - School bus driver.
 * Yna Uy as Denise Ruiz (as of March 9, 2014) - Nikki's bestfriend/classmate.
 * Julian Estrada as Eman Rodrigo (as of March 9, 2014) - one of Tom's classmates.
 * Paul Salas as Pablo Rodriguez (as of March 9, 2014) - Sanjay's classmate/friend.
 * Chienna Filomeno as Eda Reynes (as of March 9, 2014) - Sandra's bestfriend/classmate
 * Bryan Santos as Aldred Labatos (as of March 9, 2014) - Nicolo's bestfriend from college.
 * Jiro Manio as Freddie Agustin - Nicolo's friend from college.
 * Devon Seron as Ashley delos Reyes (as of March 9, 2014) - Nicolo's biological sister from college.
 * Kiko Estrada as Paolo Sanchez (as of March 9, 2014) - Nicolo's friend from college.

Special Participation
Originally, those children of Friends 4Ever from preschool to elementary school on March 2, 2014. Note: Their babies are Nikki was a baby at 2-year-old, Nicolo as a 8-year-old child, Libby was a 4-year-old, Carlos was a 5-year-old child, Sanjay was a baby at 1-year-old, Sandra was a baby at 3-year-old and Tom is a 5-year-old child.
 * Sofia Millares as young Nikki - 5-year-old, kid.
 * Harvey Bautista as young Nicolo - 11-year-old, kid.
 * Ashley Cabrera as young Libby - 7-year-old, kid.
 * Lance Lucido as young Carlos - 8-year-old, kid.
 * Miguel Vergara as young Sanjay - 4-year-old, kid.
 * Alyanna Angeles as young Sandra - 6-year-old, kid.
 * Aldred Nasayao as young Tom - 8-year-old, kid.

Guest Cast

 * Errol Abalayan as Albert Daza - Tom's best friend. (March 23, 2014)
 * Ella Cruz as Chichay Bustillos - Sanjay's girlfriend. (March 30, 2014)
 * Michelle Vito as Angeline Aguilar - Sandra's best friend. (April 6, 2014)
 * Jerome Ponce as Bryan Gonzalo - Nikki's best friend. (April 13, 2014)
 * Cherryz Mendoza as Trisha de Guzman - Sanjay's girlfriend. (April 27, 2014)
 * Miguel Aguila as Miguel Bautista (August 17, 2014)

Production team

 * Director: Mark Reyes and Veronica B. Velasco
 * Executive In-Charge of Production: Ginny Monteagudo-Ocampo
 * Supervising Producer: Tessie Taylor
 * Writer: Keiko Aquino Galvez, Jimuel dela Cruz and Raymond Diamzon
 * Creative Director: Marissa Kalaw
 * Executive Producers: Rowie O. Valencia and Lorna J. Feliciano
 * Producer: Leny C. Parto
 * Editors: Jeffrey Panillio, Kathryn Jerry Perez and Joy Buenaventura
 * Cinematography: Monino Duque and Jay Linao
 * Asst. Director: Aya Topacio
 * Production Designer: Danny Jota
 * Lighting Director: Jeffrey Panillio and Jay Mendoza
 * Production Writer: Leny C. Parto
 * Researcher: Marcia de Jesus
 * Motion Graphics Artist: Dexter Boncolmo
 * Non-Linear Editor: Ronie Gonzalez
 * Make-Up Artist: Rowena Legaspi
 * Associate Producer: Macarius Jason Quema

Reception
The series became a hit when IBC launched as the very first teen drama every Sunday afternoon, like the past teen dramas such as T.G.I.S. and Gimik on Saturday afternoon in the 90's.

It became a trending topic on popular micro-blogging site Twitter and on Yahoo! Philippines during the time it was airing of hashtag #Friends4Ever with a teenage stars. The official Friends 4Ever Facebook page, which was put up on March 2, had 2,130 likes prior to the airing of the pilot episode when it zoomed up to 3,006 likes post-pilot. To date, the page is already nearing 5,000 fans with the numbers growing every hour with the most memorable scene, your favorite love-team, character and feel-good love story.

Soundtrack

 * Friends 4Ever (composed by Melchora Mabilog) - Janella Salvador
 * Trouble (Shampoo) (composed by Melchora Mabilog) - Janella Salvador, Sue Ramirez and Liza Soberano
 * Perfect Two (Auburn) (composed by Melchora Mabilog) - Janella Salvador

Special episodes

 * Roxas City (April 20, 2014)
 * Batangas City (May 11, 2014)
 * Novaliches, Quezon City (August 18, 2014)

Awards and nominations

 * 11th USTv Student's Choice Awards (Students’ Choice of Youth-Oriented Program) - Won
 * 2014 Anak TV Seal Awardee (Most Well-Liked TV Program) - Won
 * 28th PMPC Star Awards for Television (Best Youth-Oriented Program) - Won
 * 36th Catholic Mass Media Awards (Best Youth-Oriented Program) - Nominated

Trivia

 * It is also the third project of Be Careful With My Heart star Janella Salvador and Marlo Mortel under IBC with their first project for the fantaserye Janella in Wonderland and the sitcom Maya Loves Sir Chief.
 * The second project of Sue Ramirez after 5 Girls and Daddy.
 * The first project of Khalil Ramos under IBC.
 * The second project of Francis Magundayao after 5 Girls and Daddy.
 * This was also the first project of Superstar Circle alumni Liza Soberano and Diego Loyzaga.
 * This is IBC's first youth-oriented series, which began when T.G.I.S. premiered in July 8, 1995 and Gimik premiered in June 15, 1996, while Viva-produced H2K: Hati-Hating Kapatid aired from 2000 to 2001.