It’s a show about when you’re in your 20’s and your friends are your family. Brought to use by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions this show had great success during its run of 10 seasons on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004. However, the show continues to reach millions through its reruns on the famed Nick @ Night and was also a part of the streaming wars Netflix acquired the streaming rights to Friends in 2015 in a $100 million deal to become the platform’s second-most streamed show. Before WarnerMedia outbid Netflix to secure the show’s streaming rights for HBO Max in a $500 million deal.
As we all know this show follows the personal and professional lives of Rachel (Jennifer Aniston), Monica (Courteney Cox), Ross (David Schwimmer), Chandler (Matthew Perry), Joey (Matt LeBlanc), and Phoebe(Lisa Kudrow); six twenty to thirty-something-year-old friends living in Manhattan.
Today after the series end 17 years ago, the friends that would be there for each other when the rain starts to pour, reunite and reminisce about their time filming the bond they formed over the years while also talking about what made the show special. In a special reunion special on HBO Max.
The Friends cast playing the famous trivia game from the episode “The One with the Embryos,” where Chandler and Joey won Monica and Rachel’s apartment
The cast reunited on set similar to the Fresh Prince cast during their reunion special, as we see one cast member walking in after another the memories start flooding back for them as if it was yesterday. Being shoot in the latter half of the COVID-19 Pandemic the special differ from the Fresh Prince’s reunion by having an outdoor get-together seating on the same couch beside the famous fountain in the intro of the series. Other features were cast table reads of famous scenes like when Rachel and Phoebe saw Monica and Chandler kiss (among other things) from Ross’s apartment window or the scene when Ross and Rachel finally told one another how they felt. The crew also played the trivia game that won Joey and Chandler, Monica and Rachel’s apartment. And Man-on-the-street type interviews with fans all across the world speaking about how this series changed their life and even got them through hard times.
I personally became a fan of Friends like most my age in college, when I would pull all-nighters studying for a mid-term/final or wake up at 3 in the morning following a power nap to finish working on a 10-page paper that was due several hours later. While burning the midnight oil I would have my television on (for background noise) as Nick@Night would show reruns of Friends and hearing the Joey signature line “How You Doing?” would get me every single time.
Although some cast members have entertained the idea of continuing “Friends” before, The creators Kauffman and Crane wrapped up each character’s story “very nicely.” The cast was emphatic that there would not be any reboots or continuations of “Friends,” or even any more reunions.
“We’re not going to do this again in 15 more years,” said Cox.
When asked where would the grown-up “Friends” be at this point? Each cast member responded with what they believed the respective character would be. Monica and Chandler’s kids would have been young adults now but that wouldn’t stop Monica from heading up bake sales at a local elementary school or attending P.T.A. meetings. Phoebe and her husband, Mike (Paul Rudd), probably ended up in Connecticut and had kids of their own, and Phoebe probably stayed involved with the local schools, creating arts and music programs and being an advocate “for all the other kids who are a little different.” Ross and Rachel got married, have some kids. (No mention of Ben or Emma, the characters’ children on the show, who would be young adults by now.) And Joey is running a sandwich shop in Venice Beach, Calif. Sandwiches were his great love, after all.
The cast commemorating the reunion with a group selfie
You can watch the Reunion special on HBO Max as well as watch the series in its entirety.
