By akademiotoelektronik, 14/03/2022

Nostalgia, luxury guests and big fees: behind the scenes of the special episode of "Friends"

Seventeen years after the end of "Friends", Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Ross, Joey and Chandler return, the time of a special program full of nostalgia, broadcast Thursday.

During a special broadcast, the six heroes of Friends find themselves on the set of the cult series, to immerse themselves in the memories of a television that has now almost disappeared, with a host of prestigious guests.

They are in their fifties, a few wrinkles and sometimes overweight. The six friends may have good plastic surgeons, but they no longer fit in with the dashing image of Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Ross, Joey and Chandler, their characters from "Friends" (1994-2004).

But their public does not care, too happy to find, Thursday, those who, by the admission of David Schwimmer (Ross), met all six, in April, only for the second time in 17 years since the end of the series.

Lady Gaga and BTS

Filmed in public for the HBO Max platform, which owns the rights to the Friends series in the United States, this show presented by British host James Corden will not be a 237th episode, but "a very entertaining interview", according to David Schwimmer .

On the program, anecdotes, a reading of several famous scenes, or even a quiz inspired by an episode. The series, famous for the "guests" who paraded on its set, from Bruce Willis to Robin Williams, via Julia Roberts and Jon Favreau, will welcome for its special episode some distinguished guests, including Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga, David Beckham, Kit Harington, Cara Delevingne and even the South Korean group BTS.

According to Variety magazine, each of the six historical actors negotiated a fee of 2.5 million dollars for this single show, during which the production recreated, in the studios of Burbank (California), the famous apartment of Monica and Rachel.

"We started crying"

The set "was exactly the same," said Courteney Cox (Monica). “It was so emotional that we started crying” when we discovered it.

Nearly 27 years after its debut on NBC, Friends remains one of the very few 20th century series to find success in today's crowded television landscape. The series indeed seduces both nostalgic quadra and young viewers, who were not born when the series began.

"It's no surprise that Friends remains popular," because "it's always been on screen," whether it's reruns or streaming today, observes Ursinus College professor Alice Leppert. in Pennsylvania and author of a text on the series.

90s sitcoms like Friends, Seinfeld and Frasier “are made to bring people together across age categories and borders,” says Nick Marx, professor specializing in television at Colorado State University.

For him, it's also the chronology that makes this series "unique", because it comes just before television transformed itself, in the late 1990s.

Sanitized universe

With the multiplication of channels, in particular platforms, the priority today is for series with "small, very loyal audiences", he says. "There is no longer any incentive to bring together 20 or 30 million people", because the audience is too fragmented, except for a few Super Bowl type events.

In the context of a television today much more open to diversity and social issues, the six "Friends" and their fairly sanitized universe are out of step.

Recent hit sitcoms like Black-ish, One Day at a Time or Schitt's Creek take a much sharper, more realistic look at today's world." the characters" of Friends, recalls Alice Leppert, "from the luxurious apartments that they could never have afforded" in real life "to the arch-white environment in which they live and work".

On the same subject

Despite this, Friends continues to make people laugh. Perhaps because it is above all a feel good series, both timeless and without social problems. A series on friendship, too, in tune with its credits "Ill be there for you".

MR with AFP