TV

The Whole Cast Of ‘Friends’ May Finally Have Their First On-Air Reunion Next Month

OH. MY. GOD.

by Meg Watson  14 January 2016

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When Friends ended after a ten-year run in 2004, it left fans understandably distraught. The people they had grown up with — those who had assured them that adult life would consist of a devoted group of loving buddies, a series of goofy mishaps, and incredible cheap apartments in New York — had vanished. NBC then became home to The Big Bang Theory and the closest we could get to the old magic was Joey.

It was so unloved I couldn’t even find a gif from it.

Since then there have been endless rumours of both a Friends film and/or cast reunion special. Though viewers generally agree it was the right time to end the show, they still hang out for a shot to see the gang all together again. This was all then decidedly shut down by the show’s co-creator Marta Kauffman. “It’s not happening!” she told E! News in 2013 after presumably being asked way too many times. “Friends was about that time in your life when your friends are your family and once you have a family, there’s no need anymore.” That was that.

Now NBC have sneakily dropped this:

Speaking at the Television Critics Association Press Tour overnight, NBC chairman Bob Greenblatt has announced that the six core cast members — Jennifer Anniston, Courtney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer — are coming together for a two-hour NBC special to honour legendary TV director James Burrows. Burrows is known for shows such as Cheers and Frasier, and worked on 15 episodes of Friends including ‘The One Where Ross And Rachel Take A Break’. Later went on to direct 188 episodes of Will & Grace among other classic shows, and the upcoming special will have actors from all these shows coming together to celebrate his 1,000th episode.

A couple of catches: it’s not exactly the reunion special fans were hoping for in the fact it’s absolutely not a scripted episode of the original show. Also, the details aren’t yet ironed out with the stars’ schedules. “I’m hoping all six of them will be all in the same room at the same time, but I’m not sure if we can logistically pull that off,” Greenblatt said.

Regardless, everyone is keen as hell. This is a great day to pull out whatever panicky Ross pictures you’ve been religiously saving on your desktop for the past 12 years.

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The NBC special will air February 21 in the US.