Zombie TV shows are popular right now, and no, I'm not talking about The Walking Dead. I'm talking about TV shows coming back from the dead. Several 90's sitcoms have clawed their way out of the grave, and came lurching back into our screens: Will & Grace, Roseanne, Murphy Brown. There have also been talks about rebooting Frasier and The Nanny. What's next - Family Matters? We need to know what Steve Urkel's up to today!
Actually, there's one 90's show people desperately want to come back: Friends, the sitcom that taught us spacious apartments in New York City are very affordable. Since all nine seasons hit Netflix, a new generation has discovered it, and fallen in love. Fans have fallen down wormhole of arguing over fan theories, and even which characters would have voted for Trump. The creator of Friends offered an update on four characters, but that's not good enough. Will the series ever come back?
Last February, Ellen DeGeneres asked Jennifer Aniston about the possibility of a reunion her talk show. Jen coyly replied, "Anything's a possibility." Now the 49-year-old actress has commented on the subject again, as part of a cover story with InStyle. She says she's down for a Friends reboot/revival/reunion/re-whatever:
"Before that show ended, people were asking if we were coming back. Courteney [Cox] and Lisa [Kudrow] and I talk about it. I fantasize about it. It really was the greatest job I ever had. I don’t know what it would look like today, but you never know.
"So many shows are being successfully rebooted. I know Matt LeBlanc doesn’t want to be asked that question anymore. But maybe we could talk him into it. Or we just give it some time and then Lisa, Courteney, and I could reboot The Golden Girls and spend our last years together on wicker furniture."
First of all, that reboot of the Golden Girls starring Rachel, Monica and Phoebe sounds amazing. But yes, one of the potential setbacks to the reunion is Matt LeBlanc. Matt played Joey on Friends, and the failed spinoff about his character moving to LA. While speaking to Brisbane radio station 97.3FM, he said it's beter not to do a reunion, because the show captured a moment in time.
"I don’t think anybody wants to see Joey at his colonoscopy. I understand people really want to see that reunion, but that show was about a finite period in these six characters’ lives, between 20 and 30. I think everyone’s imagination of what they (the characters) are doing is better. It’s not any one person. I think it’s better to just leave it."
Maybe Matt's right. What if they make a Friends revival and it's a disappointment? Isn't it better to go out on top? But I have to say, I'm definitely watching a revival if they titled it "The One With Joey's Colonoscopy."
Over the last few weeks, the TV show Friends has been creeping its way back into the news. First, it hit headlines in the UK after the hit show was released on Netflix, then the video subscription service decided to troll everyone with 2018 plotlines for the sitcom, and, most recently, a survey revealed which of the six main characters was voted to be the favorite.
Even though it's been more than 20 years since the show first aired, it seems that people still can't get enough of it. We've got literally hundreds of episodes to watch and rewatch, but we just can't accept that it had to end.
However, if Jennifer Aniston's recent comments are anything to go by, it might not have done.
In an interview with Ellen Degeneres, Aniston, who played Rachel on the show, got talking about her time on Friends. This prompted the audience to get a little nostalgic - especially when Ellen pulled up a photo of the cast all together. It's clear that the talk show host herself was a huge fan, too, as she turned to Aniston to say, "Y'all should do a Friends reunion."
And if anyone has the power to make something like that happen, it's got to be Ellen - right?
"I know people keep asking [for a reunion]," she went on, "is it even a possibility, is it even in the realm of possibility?"
To which Aniston replied: "Anything is a possibility, Ellen. Anything."
Ok, so it's not a surefire "yes" to a reboot going ahead, but it's certainly more reassuring than previous answers to the question. In fact, co-creator Marta Kauffman's once said there was "no way" she could ever be talked into going back to Friends, and that too many things in her own life had changed for her to work with the original format.
"I’m nagged all the time about it and my answer is that Friends was a show about that time in your life when your friends are your family, and in a weird way, this isn’t that different," Kauffman said. "Once you start having a family of your own, it changes, and the show was over."
She went on: “There’s no reason to continue doing it just because people miss the characters. Watch the old ones, there is no way we could win that, and there’s no way it would be satisfying and it’ll never happen. We’ll never do it.”
However, she also insisted that the crew would "never do it" - but Aniston doesn't appear to have got that memo.
Considering it's been over 14 years since the last season aired, it is difficult to imagine how the show would work now. Would Joey still be a bachelor? Have Ross and Rachel made it this long without taking another "break"? Does Gunther still run Central Perk? There's no question that a lot of us really want to know these things, but - ultimately - it is possible to have too much of a good thing, and it might be a better idea to just leave it as it is.
Jennifer Aniston has delighted millions of Friends fans around the globe by revealing she and her former Friends co-stars are "working on something" together.
The 50-year-old actress made an appearance on The Ellen Degeneres Show on Monday, and, of course, was asked about a potential reunion - a question she has become very familiar with over the past year.
In the same episode, Aniston and DeGeneres wowed the audience at The Ellen Show with a seemingly impromptu kiss:
Surprising Friends superfan, and star in his own right, Charlie Puth during his interview on the talk show, Aniston dropped a very juicy hint about potential Friends project.
Before that, though, she disappointingly revealed that the hugely successful sitcom would not be getting a reboot. "Listen we would love for there to be something, but we don't know what that something is. So, we're just trying," she said before adding, "We're working on something."
You hear that? They're working on something. God knows what that "something" is, but it's definitely something to look forward to.
Naturally, Ellen prodded the actress for further details, asking if there would be a movie. "Huge, huge, huge movie," Jennifer replied in jest. "No. We don't know."
Jennifer Aniston tells TODAY that Ross and Rachel from "Friends" would still be together today:
This exciting piece of news comes months after hopes of a Friends comeback were quashed by showrunner Marta Kauffman. Viewers were very disappointed to learn that a reboot was not on the cards. In fact, the 62-year-old insisted that a revival would only serve to disappoint fans.
Speaking to Rolling Stone, Kauffman explained: "There are several reasons. One, the show is about a time in your life when your friends are your family. It’s not that time anymore. All we'd be doing is putting those six actors back together, but the heart of the show would be gone."
Who knows what will happen with the Friends gang? But if everyone's favourite waitress-turned-fashion-exec says they're working on something, then that's certainly enough to get us all excited!
Although I was technically still a youngster when the final episode aired, I feel like the hit NBC sitcom Friends has - and will continue to have - a huge effect on pop culture moving forward.
Most people reading this would have been around during the show's original 10-year run from 1994 to 2004, but I doubt there are many people without an opinion on which Friend best represents them (I'm personally a Ross-Phoebe combination, with a hint of Chandler sprinkled in) or who you side with in the age-old question of Ross and Rachel (Ross was clearly on a break so Rachel hasn't got a leg to stand on).
Anyway, let's press on before I stop writing this article and go watch Friends reruns on Netflix instead. Stay with me, here; you can't do it if I can't do it. With it being 2018 and all network executives now being terrified of putting out anything new at any point, we've had a ton of reruns come to light.
The return of Roseanne will end up being less short-lived than initially expected after the show survived Roseanne Bar's crazy racism, while recently, we're going to be treated with the return of the cat-eating alien ALF. Will and Grace, Frasier, Seinfeld; the list goes on. But nobody actually asked for any of these TV shows; when will we actually get to see Friends, the definitive 90s sitcom, return?
You can bet that Jennifer Aniston is asked this question all of the time. In fact, if you were to come across Aniston on the street, she's probably so tired of that question that you'd probably have better luck asking her if she's still bitter about Brad Pitt. Don't do that. She'd hurt you.
With that in mind, it's surprising you can ask that question in an interview without Aniston burning down the building from which you were conducting that interview. What's more, speaking to InStyle, Jennifer Aniston revealed that since Rachel got off the plane back in 2004, she's been dreaming about a return to Central Perk.
“Before that show ended, people were asking if we were coming back. Courteney Cox and Lisa Kudrow and I talk about it,” Aniston revealed in her interview. "It really was the greatest job I ever had. I don’t know what it would look..."
Unfortunately, there's a cast member who apparently doesn't want to be there for us, no matter how loudly we blare the theme song through our various speakers. Who could it be? Judging from Jen, it's not Courteney Cox or Lisa Kudrow (who was my instinctive first guess - sorry, Lisa), so who could it be?
"I know Matt LeBlanc doesn’t want to be asked that question anymore. But maybe we could talk him into it. Or we just give it some time and then Lisa, Courteney, and I could reboot The Golden Girls and spend our last years together on wicker furniture."
Say it ain't so! Matt LeBlanc, better known as Joey Tribbiani? I know that since Friends, he's had some other shows to enjoy, but how could he not want to do Friends anymore? Let's hope that the whole gang can get together and hopefully talk Matt into it, because although I'll never get tired of reruns, sometimes, you want some new episodes. Please!!
Jennifer Aniston has revealed that the 'Friends' cast would almost certainly be willing to do a reunion show.
Should it occur, it would be the first time that the fab five have been together on the small screen since 2004.
She made the revelation in an interview with Ellen DeGeneres that's set to air today. A clip of this exciting statement was shared on the talk show host's social media ahead of the episode.
In the video below, Anniston reveals how she feels about a potential Friends reunion:
The talk show host asked Aniston, who played Rachel Green in the iconic show, if she would be willing to reprise her role, and like other cast members before her, she said that she'd be willing to.
"Okay, why not? 'You know what, because listen, I told you this. I would do it," Aniston, 50, revealed. "The girls would do it. And the boys would do it, I'm sure."
"Listen. Anything could happen."
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Anniston's comment comes after Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe Buffay) said that she and Courteney Cox (Monica Geller) had discussed the possibility of the cast reuniting to mark the 25th anniversary of Friends.
"Courteney and I were talking about that, we should all get together," she said in an interview with Extra TV.
"Courteney and Jennifer are good planners. I'm that annoying person that's like, 'Hey, do either one of you want to put that together?' My role is like, here's an idea and have someone do it."
In her interview with Ellen, Aniston added that she and her former Friends stars remained grateful and proud to have been part of such a well-loved TV show fourteen years after it last aired.
"We were all really grateful that we had each other, the other five of us, to keep us in check and check in with. Like, this is weird right? Did that happen to you?"
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However, while the stars of Friends might be willing to come together for a reunion, the show's co-creator, Marta Kauffman, is not in favor of bringing it back, telling Rolling Stone that it would "disappoint" fans.
"One, the show is about a time in your life when your friends are your family. It's not that time anymore," she said.
"All we'd be doing is putting those six actors back together, but the heart of the show would be gone."
But, as the old saying goes, the customer is always right. Listen to the people, Kauffman! And Jennifer Aniston!
When Friends debuted back in 1994, every Thursday night on NBC, Rachel, Phoebe, Monica, Chander, Ross, and Joey promised to always be there for us because we were always there for them. But when the show ended in 2004, many of us were abruptly left with a gaping Friends-sized hole in our hearts.
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Sure other sitcoms have come along, trying to fill that hole like Courtney Cox's Cougar Town and Matt LeBlanc's Joey spin-off, but none have managed to bring the same level of universal joy and camaraderie that the original Friends series did.
Perhaps sometimes an impeccable combination of actors, writers, and producers come together with perfect chemistry to make television magic. Ah yes, Friends seemed to define a generation and when one thinks back to the 90s, that wonderful show about six best friends trying to make it in New York City will never be forgotten.
Here's how they designed Monica's iconic New York apartment:
Even now, nearly 15 years later, the show still holds up. Personally, I love watching an episode or two on Netflix to unwind and have a good laugh with my old TV pals. Plus, a whole new generation is discovering just how amazing that old gang was.
Alas, all good things must come to an end, and after 10 great seasons, Friends aired its last episode, leaving everyone wanting more. However, as it turns out, some of the cast members might be looking to fulfill that wish with a Friends reboot.
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Yes, that's right! Jennifer Aniston recently told InStyle that since the finale where Rachel famously got off the plane to stay in New York with Ross, she's been thinking about what might have happened to the iconic couple.
What's more is that apparently, Aniston has actually been talking about it with Courteney Cox and Lisa Kudrow. So we've got three friends on board, what about the others? Here's what she told Instyle:
"Before that show ended, people were asking if we were coming back. Courteney [Cox] and Lisa [Kudrow] and I talk about it. It really was the greatest job I ever had. I don’t know what it would look..."
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Perhaps the recent success of other recently rebooted television shows like Will & Grace, Arrested Development, Queer Eye, and Gilmore Girls is fueling Aniston's ambitions. On top of that, other 90s icons have also recently confirmed or hinted at returns to the small screen.
Kelsey Grammer confirmed that a Frasier reboot is in the early stages, while Jerry Seinfeld said he's open to the possibility of bringing back Seinfeld. And if it wasn't for Roseanne Barr's racist Twitter tirade, the Roseanne reboot was looking like a real 90s comeback success story.
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However, Friends reunions, never mind any reboots, have been attempted in the past with little success. The closest we came to seeing all six cast members in the same room together was in 2016 when five of the six actors came together to celebrate Friends director, James Burrows.
At that time, Matthew Perry was absent because he was performing in a play in London, and while it might be a safe bet that he would be the last to come on board on a potential series reboot, this time around it's a different 'friend' that isn't interested in returning.
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While all of the cast members have gone on to have successful careers in Hollywood and all could be committed to other projects, it turns out that none other than Matt LeBlanc who portrayed Joey is standing in the way of a reboot simply because, as Aniston says, he is tired of being asked the question.
Surely, all of the cast members have been asked ad nauseam about Friends reunions and reboots, but Aniston, and seemingly Cox and Kudrow, are still open to discussing the possibility. Here's what she told InStyle about LeBlanc:
"I know Matt LeBlanc doesn’t want to be asked that question anymore. But maybe we could talk him into it. Or we just give it some time and then Lisa, Courteney, and I could reboot The Golden Girls and spend our last years together on wicker furniture."
Hey, I'd watch that Golden Girls reboot, too, especially if they found a way to still keep Betty White in it! However, as much as I love Joey, do we really need him for a reboot? Here me out. I've got an idea.
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At the end of Freinds, Joey moved to LA to focus on his acting career, so let's assume he got really famous out there and decided to stay. The remaining five friends could then star in the show and occasionally we'd see clips of Joey on TV.
Everyone could comment on how famous he is and it would be like a running joke. The TV clips could even be from the shows Matt LeBlanc did after Freinds, wouldn't that be cool?
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It's kind of like when they rebooted Full House without the Olsen twins and everyone just remarked about how fabulous Michelle's fashion career was and how well she was doing on the opposite coast. Hey, it worked for Full House, it could totally work for Friends, right?
While we might not be getting a Friends reboot anytime soon, here's hoping that perhaps someday down the road it still might happen. In the meantime, let's all look forward to seeing what Frasier Crane's been up to all these years. Tossed salad and scrambled eggs, anyone?
But one 90s show that definitely won't be returning to our screens is Sex And The City, especially after Kim Cattrall's explosive comments regarding her co-stars: