Friends, popular American television sitcom that aired on the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) network from 1994 to 2004. Friends, was created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman and is about a group of six young adults who are either roommates or neighbours in New YorkCity’s Greenwich Village. It won six Emmy Awards, including outstanding comedy series, and from its second season until the end of its run maintained a top five or better Nielsen rating, hitting number one in its eighth season. The program revolves around the characters’ individual and collective search for sex, commitment, and meaning. The friends consist of three men and three women, whose varied personalities and shortcomings allow for both broad audience identification and abundant comedic moments. At the beginning of the show, Monica Geller (played by Courteney Cox) is a chef who often changes jobs and boyfriends in her search for the perfect match. Her brother, Ross (David Schwimmer), is a paleontologist and divorcé (three times over by the end of the series) with a child. He has a long-standing crush on Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston), a fashion-minded woman who grew up in a wealthy family but works (for a time) as a barista at Central Perk, a café and popular meeting spot for the group. Eventually she lands a job with Ralph Lauren. Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow) is a ditsy masseuse and would-be musician with a quirky outlook on life. Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc) is a mostly struggling actor and buffoon who often confides in Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry), a well-off statistics and data analyst who has terrible luck with women and in time develops an eye for Monica. Throughout the series, the friends live together or apart in different combinations. In the early 1990s, Friends co-creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman wrote a seven-page pitch for a new sitcom titled Insomnia Café. In addition to the different title, the plot itself was quite different from what came to be known as Friends. For example, Ross and Rachel weren’t the key relationship; instead, Joey and Monica were supposed to be love interests.
Director James Burrows, who went on to direct a handful of episodes for the show between 1995 and 1997, brought the six cast members to Vegas because he “had a feeling about the show.” While they were at Caesar’s Palace, he encouraged the group to enjoy themselves. “This is your last shot at anonymity,” Burrows told them. “Once the show comes on the air, you guys will never be able to go anywhere without being hounded.” Later, Caesar’s Palace played a key role in the fictional world of Friends as well. In “The One in Vegas,” the season 5 finale, Joey is seen playing a gladiator at the Vegas hotel. This is, of course, the same episode where Ross and Rachel get married in a drunk stupor and come stumbling out of a Vegas chapel while Monica and Chandler, who were about to get married, look on. During the first season, each cast member was receiving around $22,000 per episode. But allegedly, by the second season, each actor had a slightly different salary. In 1997, all six cast members refused to work until they all earned an equal salary of $100,000 per episode. This was big news. “Stars of hit shows often threaten to boycott their series in pursuit of higher salaries”, The New York Times reported, “What is unusual is this cast’s effort to use solidarity as leverage.” This negotiation worked very well. By the final season, each cast member was earning $1 million per episode. As the show progressed, each character became a household name and each cast member a celebrity; they moved on to careers of varying success in motion pictures and television. The cast was renowned for its closeness and ensemble approach to their work on the series. The finale of Friends was watched by more than 52 million people. Joey (2004–06), a spin-off starring LeBlanc, was much less successful. The Friends theme song, “I’ll Be There for You,” performed by the Rembrandts, was a minor pop hit in its own right.
The first teaser for the Friends reunion special, starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer, is out.
The teaser, which features an acoustic version of the theme tune and the cast walking into the distance, reveals the release date of the Friends reunion special titled Friends: The Reunion. It will premiere on streaming service HBO Max on May 27. HBO Max is currently not available in India. The makers on Thursday also announced the guest list for the episode. It includes celebrities like David Beckham, Justin Bieber, South-Korean worldwide sensation boyband BTS, James Corden, Cindy Crawford, Cara Delevingne, Lady Gaga, Elliott Gould, Kit Harington, Larry Hankin, Mindy Kaling, Thomas Lennon, Christina Pickles, Tom Selleck, James Michael Tyler, Maggie Wheeler, Reese Witherspoon and Malala Yousafzai.
Courteney Cox recently talked about the Friends reunion special in a conversation with talk show host Ellen DeGeneres. During the interaction, Cox said it was “unbelievable” to meet and film with her co-stars again. She also remarked that the reunion “was so emotional” and there are “a lot of special surprises.”
