The much awaited “Friends” reunion

Los Angeles, 26 May, 2021: The stars of “Friends” never truly left us, they were just on a break.

The cast of the darling 1990s sitcom around six attractive, straight, white New Yorkers with ridiculously Manhattan apartments, at last, rejoin Thursday for a much-hyped and long-delayed special.
With details under wraps, fans can expect a “table read” of a classic episode, a recreation of the famous “Friends ” quiz at Monica and Rachel’s apartment, and heaps of hugs, tears, and reminiscing.

“Where’s the tissue box?” asks an emotional Jennifer Aniston in a trailer that shows the gang reflecting on their ascent to fame and genuine friendship. “I love you all so much,” she adds during a group embrace.

Their bond keeps on being a profitable one. Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer, collectively negotiated million-dollar deals per episode by the end of their colossally popular 236-episode, 10-year run.

As an indication of the show’s enduring appeal, the cast are purportedly taking $2.5 million each for the reunion. Banking on nostalgia, parent organization WarnerMedia initially arranged the “unscripted special” as a blockbuster approach to launch its HBO Max streaming service feature a year ago.

As things were, filming was postponed by the pandemic, with producers resolved to bring the gang back face to face on iconic sets like the “Central Perk” cafe at the show’s original studio outside Los Angeles.
In a recent interview, Schwimmer said, “We wanted to do it a year ago, give back to everyone, to all the fans, especially in the dark times we were all experiencing,” said Schwimmer in a recent interview.
“Hopefully, a year later, people will still enjoy it.”

“The One Where They Get Back Together” airs 17 years after the show’s finale drew in excess of 50 million viewers, frantic to see if on again off again Ross and Rachel would wind up back together. On account of re-runs and now streaming, the show’s following has crossed generations, with viewers too youthful to even remember its original airing still quoting famous expressions like “We were on a break,” “How you doin’?” and “Pivot!”

“Regardless of what season of the day, where you are in the country, what sort of TV administration you have, odds are, you can, in any case, get to a scene of ‘Companions,'” said Nick Marx, Colorado State University film and media studies associate professor. Like “Frasier” and “Seinfeld,” “Friends” is one of “perhaps four or five American sitcoms” from the “last real golden age of broadcast” with such a wide audience, as opposed to the present “fractured” TV marketplace he added.

Still, while its portrayal of metropolitan life based on cafés and the most recent “Rachel hairstyle” was once seen as current, the show’s general absence of racial diversity was pummeled by critics even during its original run. Furthermore, storylines presently seen as fat-disgracing (youthful Monica) or trans-phobic (Chandler’s dad) have been called out, especially by some young viewers.

“Critics have noticed the craziness of the ‘New York City’ the characters inhabit – from the extravagant condos they would never bear to the luxurious apartments they could never afford to the White milieu they live and work in,” said Alice Leppert, Ursinus College associate professor of media. However, “sitcoms as a genre are traditionally reassuring,” she added.

British comic James Corden will host the reunion, interviewing the cast in front of the giant fountain on the sprawling Warner Bros Ranch used in the show’s famous opening credits. Returning guest stars will include Tom Selleck, Reese Witherspoon, and Maggie Wheeler, better known the world over as the perennially shocked Janice.

Outside the “Friends” universe, attending celebrities including Justin Bieber, David Beckham, Lady Gaga, and K-pop sensation BTS.

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