When "Friends" came to an end after 10 seasons and 236 episodes in May 2004, 52.5 million viewers tuned in to say goodbye to Monica Geller (Courteney Cox), Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry), Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston), Ross Geller (David Schwimmer), Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow) and Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc).
The numbers "Friends" brought in -- not only for its series finale -- are difficult, if not impossible to achieve today and no one is more painfully aware of that fact than Matthew Perry, whose latest comedy effort, NBC's "Go On," was canceled after its first season in May. So ... why did "Friends" end? Perry is now asking himself that same question.
During a chat with more of comedy's leading men -- Jim Parsons ("The Big Bang Theory"), Jake Johnson ("New Girl"), Eric Stonestreet ("Modern Family"), Adam Scott ("Parks and Recreation") and Fred Armisen ("Portlandia" and "Saturday Night Live") -- for The Hollywood Reporter's Emmy roundtable (above), Perry admitted that he had it good back in the day on that comfy Central Perk couch and if he could, he'd go back.
"It's just really, really completely, completely a different thing," Perry said of working on NBC today versus in the "Friends" era at about the 18 minute mark. "It's all changed so much. I had no expectation of ['Go On'] even being close ... It just feels night and day."
After Parsons noted that "Friends" was a multi-camera, meaning Perry worked in front of a live audience, he said, "That show was ridiculous -- it's in front of a live audience, it was like a 10-4 kind of job, and we only worked a third of the time ... On my show, I work like 15 hours a day every day. And I was like, 'Why in the world did we stop?' We all decided, 'You know what? Let's stop.' I'd love to get in a time machine right now and go, 'Let's not stop.'"
"I don't think anyone wanted you to stop either," THR's interviewer Stacey Wilson noted.
"Friends" fans have been itching for a reunion or movie since the show ended and recently, they got a little bit of what they wanted. When Jennifer Aniston co-hosted the "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" in May, the "Friends" alumna stopped by Perry's place for some advice and found out he was sleeping with Courteney Cox as well as the talk show host and her wife Portia de Rossi.
It might not have been exactly what "Friends" fans hoped for in April, when rumors of a Thanksgiving 2014 gathering had fans of the NBC sitcom in a frenzy, but the sketch certainly made waves on the Internet.
During Aniston's time on "Ellen," the host and her wife Portia de Rossi, who was a guest, asked if she would do a proper "Friends" reunion. The actress admitted, "Doing that little bit with Matty and Court, we all were very nostalgic and miss working together and love each other ... It's a great thing to get to go back to your family like that and also know that people will love it and enjoy it."
Shortly thereafter, however, Perry was asked about a "Friends" movie or reunion on "Good Morning America" and he had this to say: "It would be terrible to do something and have it not be good ... It was so terrific ... If we did a ['Friends'] movie and it sucked, then it would, you know, blemish it.”
Do you think "Friends" should've continued? Would you want a movie or a reunion?
"Friends"
Related
Sign up for Peacock
to stream NBCU shows.