Friends was the cult sitcom of the 90s. From 1994 to 2004, the 10 seasons of the series accompanied an entire generation to discover the value of friendship. With its memorable gags, moments of lightness and the most moving ones, Friends marked an era and, even today, it is one of the most popular sitcoms by the public.
Its protagonists have become celebrities and for those 10 years they have been the center of media attention. The actors who played Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Ross Chandler and Joey have established themselves in the world of cinema by collecting awards and covers.
Even after the end of filming, as they themselves tell, the cast remained united by a true and deep friendship. But from a professional point of view: which of them has been able to capitalize on the success of the series? Who, on the other hand, has disappeared from the radar of the Star System?
Let ‘s find out what they do and how they became the protagonists of Friends today:
1) David Schwimmer
David Schwimmer and the shy and awkward Ross Geller. In 1995 he was the first cast member of Friends to get an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series and, starting in Season 6, he also directed a few episodes. Despite his outstanding gifts, Friends was the high point of Schwimmer’s career. He took part in some movies and TV series, he dedicated himself to the theater and, in 2017, he returned to the limelight for having played the role of Robert Kardashian in The People v. OJ Simpson: American Crime Story. He is also known for voicing Melman,the giraffe from the Madagascar saga.
After a rather chatty relationship with singer Natalie Imbruglia and several flirts, David Schwimmer married in 2010 the English photographer Zoe Buckman with whom, the following year, he had a daughter. In 2017, however, as often happens to couples in the show, the marriage was interrupted with the announcement of the separation.
2) Matthew Perry
Matthew Perry is the actor who played the role of Chandler Bing. His career, after the sitcom ended, seemed poised to explode. Participations in major Hollywood productions and successful TV series were not lacking. To tell the truth, Matthew Perry’s stay in the cast of series of the caliber of Ally McBeal , Scrubs or The Good Wife has never been lacking.
At work, however, there is an increasingly unregulated life characterized by major problems with alcohol and drugs. In 2013 Perry manages to get out of the tunnel that had also removed him from the former friends of Friends . In that year he received the Champion of Recovery , an award given to him by the National Office for Drug Control of the White House for converting his Malibu home into a drug shelter.
3) Matt LeBlanc
Matt LeBlanc was the beautiful and damned Joey Tribbiani (in the Italian version modified in Joi Triviani). The American actor of Italian-French origins before the sitcom had worked as a model and had taken part in some small television and film productions. His character gave her great visibility, so much so that, from 2004 to 2006 , he was the protagonist of the spin-off Joey.
Between 2011 and 2017 he plays himself in the Episodes series , between 2016 and 2019 he becomes co-host of the Top Gear program and between 2016 and 2020 he takes part in the cast of Papa full time. Perhaps due to physical decay and stormy love life, Matt LeBlanc’s star is no longer as bright as it once was.
4) Courteney Cox
Courtney Cox is best known for being the Monica Geller of the series. Initially the role was entrusted to Jennifer Aniston but, during the auditions, the creators of Friends changed their mind and reversed the characters assigned to the 2 actresses. Although she was the only cast member to not receive any recognition for her participation in the series, she too continued her film career after the sitcom ended. In addition to having participated in several films, she also appeared in Scrubs – Medici at the first irons and was the protagonist of the Cougar Town series .
From 1999 to 2010 she was married to actor David Arquette, whom she met while filming Scream . The 2 had a daughter in 2004 and, despite the separation, they still work together in Coquette Productions , a television production company founded by the 2 ex-spouses. From her Di lei Instagram profile of her today, Cox also dispenses beauty tips and delicious recipes.
5) Lisa Kudrow
Lisa Valerie Kudrow and the famous Phoebe Buffay (Fibi in the Italian edition), perhaps the strangest character of Friends . This role earned her an Emmy , a Screen Actors Guild and a Satellite Award.
The American actress born in ’63, after the end of the sitcom, continued her career in the world of television series , obtaining some success – also in Italy – with Web Therapy. However, Lisa Kudrow’s best known character remains Phoebe. As evidence of this, she had caused a sensation when she appeared at a Taylor Swift concert during which they sang together Smelly Cat (mangy cat), a milestone of Friends .
Incredibly , Lisa Kudrow is still with Michel Stern , the publicist with whom the actress married in 1995 and with whom, in 1998, she had her first and only child Julian Murray Stern. The pregnancy in question was integrated into the plot of the series by creating the story of the surrogate mother for her stepbrother.
6) Jennifer Aniston
Jennifer Aniston and Rachel Green , recognized as one of the 100 greatest female television characters in the United States. The actress born in 1969 and became famous thanks to the 236 episodes of the sitcom that earned her a Golden Globe , an Emmy and a Screen Actors Guild Awards . Jennifer Aniston continued her brilliant career in film, collecting hit comedies and, in 2020, also earning major recognition for a dramatic role in The Morning Show.
His love life is at least as famous as his professional one. After a love affair with actor Tate Donovan, in 1998 she met Brad Pitt , with whom she married in 2000. The Hollywood dream couple divorced in 2005 and, in 2015, the ex Rachel Green marries Justin Theroux. Today the 52-year-old actress, who received a star on the Walk of Fame in 2012 , is single even though she, in a recent interview with People , said she was ready for a new relationship.
Her beauty is indisputable and it seems that time has stopped for her. In 2004 and 2016 she was declared the most beautiful woman in the world by People magazine while, in 2011, she earned the title of sexiest woman of all time by Men’s Health magazine .
7) The creators of the series
The creators and producers of the Friends series were David Crane and Marta Kauffman. The 2 met at the time of Brandeis University and were a team for more than 20. They had in fact started working together in the production of plays and musicals and then moved on to cinema and TV.
Kauffman and Crane began developing the sitcom called Insomnia Cafe between November and December 1993. They pitched the idea to Bright (who will become co-producer) and together pitched it to NBC . After much work and script changes, including a title change to Friends Like Us , the series was then presented simply as Friends .
Their artistic partnership was sealed by an unexpected success of the series that lasted 10 years. The 2 producers then went their separate ways. David Crane was the creator of other TV sitcoms including Episodes , a series in which Matt LeBlanc (the Joey of Friends ) plays himself. Marta Kauffman instead slowed down her run, limiting herself to a couple of projects. The most recent dates back to 2015 when she, for Netflix, she creates the series Grace and Frankie with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin.
8) The locations of the sitcom
As everyone knows, the Friends series is set in New York. The building in which the protagonists’ apartments were located and in front of which the external shots were shot is actually in the Big Apple, precisely in the West Village, between the Grove and Bedford Street.
The apartments, on the other hand, were nothing more than studios set up ad hoc at the Warner Bros headquarters in Los Angeles. Same thing goes for the legendary Central Perk . The coffee shop in the heart of Greenwich Village has never existed in the real world even if, in 2014, it was a faithful reproduction in Manhattan and, for a month, it was open to welcome hordes of fans. The plan of these sets included, in addition to the 2 main settings, also a central position for the direction and for the public. Laughter? No, they weren’t registered.
9) Friends, una serie cult
Friends is one of the most popular series ever. It has received a huge amount of prizes and awards but, above all, it has always been very popular with the public. The show ranks 21st in the ranking of the best comedy series of all time. The episode Come due lobsters (whose original title is The One with the Prom Video ) of 1997 entered the list of the 100 most beautiful episodes in the history of TV by Guide TV magazine . The last episode, broadcast on May 6, 2004, was seen by 52.5 million Americans, making it the 4th most watched series finale in television history and the most watched of the decade.
Accompanied by mind-boggling numbers, Friends is definitely a cult series. Over the years she has been able to influence the comedy and style of her fans becoming a real costume phenomenon. Friends was also an important stepping stone for the actors who took part in the cast. Some of them were very lucky, others less so. In any case, over the course of the last season each of the 6 friends has come to earn an astronomical figure of 1 million dollars per episode.
10) The meeting
Since, in 2004, the curtain closed on the series of records, there have been many talks about possible revivals and reunions . Over the years, in a way, the desire to see Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Ross Chandler and Joey together has come true. In fact, they crossed paths on the sets of the Cougar Town , Web Therapy and Scrubs series .
In 2016 the hopes of a reboot of the sitcom seemed to have become more real but were later denied by the historical creators / producers. “There are mainly two reasons. One of these is that we will not do a reunion because it is a show about a very specific period of life, in which your friends are your family. And when you have a family, everything changes. But the other reason is that we wo n’t be able to match what we have done ” had landed Bright, Kauffman and Crane.
Despite this, in April 2021 the shooting of Friends: The Reunion took place , distributed starting from May 27, 2021. In Italy it was made available on Sky and NowTV simultaneously with the United States. It is a 104-minute film during which all the protagonists and guest stars who participated in the series return to visit the studios and iconic places of Friends . An amarcord documentary that fans needed.
