Fair-Weather 'Friends'?: the Clock Ticks on Tv's Favorite Sitcom

This interview is from the current issue of The TV Guide (Canada):

Kevin Dickson
c. TV Guide Canada

Most television shows end each season with tried-and-true cliffhangers. But this year "Friends," one of the world's most beloved sitcoms, ends its seventh season with the real cliffhanger taking place off camera, involving nothing less than the fate of the series itself.

Co-star Courteney Cox Arquette has said on a number of talk shows that the show's next season, its eighth, will be the end of the line for what remains one of television's most popular programs. That could be a negotiating tactic - contracts for the six stars expire after next season, and they proved in 1996 that they were more than capable of bare-knuckle negotiations - but it might also be the simple truth.

"That's possible," series creator/executive producer David Crane concedes, "because the actors' contracts are up ... But I don't want it to end. I feel like we could keep doing this thing forever. We have a ninth season in us."

Speaking by telephone from the New York set of her upcoming film, "Marci X," co-star Lisa Kudrow doesn't sound as optimistic.

"I don't know," she says slowly. "The odds are getting slimmer and slimmer."

David Schwimmer, who plays Ross, is on the telephone from Slovakia, where he's filming the NBC miniseries "Uprising." He seems to regard the matter as settled.

"End of the run?" he says. "Yeah, that's my understanding. That's my feeling. How I feel about it ending is hard to say - I'm sure it will be sad, in a huge way, but it could also be exciting."

"It will probably be both."

If "Friends" does indeed end after next year, it will most likely go out at the top of its game, with its ratings, its humor and its quality all intact, as "Seinfeld" did three years ago.

Despite its track record, that's something of a surprise. After all, the show faced an unprecedented number of obstacles this season, and many experts had predicted that it would be unable to surmount them.

First and foremost was "Survivor." CBS scheduled the second outing of its top-rated series to run opposite "Friends," forcing the Central Perk sextet to go head-to-head with the 16 castaways enduring life in the Outback. It was the first time in years that an opposing network had not basically conceded that slot to NBC.

"We were in some ways spoiled," Crane admits. "We had six years without any real competition. And `Survivor's' a well-done show - I understand why people watch it. But, on the other hand, I want them to watch our show."

But "Survivor" was only the start of the show's problems. Earlier this year co-star Matthew Perry very publicly stumbled in his long struggle with drug addiction. His sudden retreat into rehab called into question his long-term viability on the series.

On the other hand, it also triggered the remarkable solidarity between the show's six stars, a highly unusual all-for-one-one-for-all attitude that they have maintained throughout the series' long run.

"Real friendship, mutual respect and, you know, we really like each other," Schwimmer says. "We're a family at this point, at times perhaps a dysfunctional one."

"The key for us has always been honest communication," he adds. "If any of us are having a problem or is angry, we talk about it - and I think that has saved us. Certainly in some of the very public battles we have had, whether it be with our own publicity or with the renegotiations, the thing that really kept us together has been our mutual respect and our ability to communicate."

That cohesion was tested this past season for Schwimmer in particular, as his character became little more than a supporting player in the main story lines. Though Schwimmer insists that he's having fun on the show, he admits that, since Ross's abortive wedding to Emily ended the 1998/99 season, his character has been set more or less adrift.

"Yeah, I would agree," Schwimmer says. "I think the writers have been focusing on the Chandler/Monica relationship over the past two years. The writers try to be fair to every character ... it's difficult when there are six of us."

"Maybe they'll come up with some more creative stories for Ross and more of an arc for him next year."

If the writers have been neglecting Schwimmer this season, it's understandable. After all, they spent the past year trying to plan a spectacular wedding for television's most demanding, most compulsive and most competitive character, Monica Geller (Cox Arquette).

"Believe me," Crane says with a laugh, "it's hard enough to please ourselves, but to have to try and please that character too ... It's very hard."

In the final episode, viewers witnessed the results of that hard work, as Monica and Chandler (Perry) finally walked down the aisle. The finale came complete with the now-customary celebrity cameos, this time including Gary Oldman and Kathleen Turner. And now the show is on vacation, leaving writers, actors and fans alike to ponder exactly what a final year of "Friends" might be like.

"It would be great if, by the end of the show, Ross was actually happy," Schwimmer muses. "And he could make a career change. That's something I've pitched to them a few times, just to give him a change of life."

Kudrow says she has no wish list for her character, Phoebe.

"I used to," she says. "Now I just think whatever happens is fine. This show is so slice-of-life, in a way, I don't know if you can wrap it up. They'll come up with something credible for the end of the series."

Of course, given the popularity of "Friends," the rumor mill is already grinding with speculation about what will happen on the final year of "Friends." A current favorite is the rumor that Aniston's husband, a little-known actor named Brad Pitt, will be appearing on the show.

"It is certainly not confirmed," Crane says firmly. "Jennifer has said it might be something that Brad would be interested in doing. Obviously we think he's phenomenal, and it would be more a question of `Do we have a great idea for him?' and `Would he be available?' It's something that might happen, but it's not something that's committed to at this point."

The other item that tops the wish lists of longtime fans is a reunion between Ross and Rachel (Aniston).

"I can understand the investment," Schwimmer says. "When Jennifer and I play these characters we have really good chemistry, and we both enjoy doing scenes together. I hope, given the history between the characters, there is another last round for them."

As for the prospect of actually having an empty schedule this time next year, Kudrow can only laugh.

"It's a little intimidating," she says, "because it's like a blank canvas. So I don't know what I'll do. But I do know that I will be spending more time with my son, and maybe working on having another one."

"You never know, maybe having another child will be my next project."

2001-06-12