Friends’ David Schwimmer reveals way he celebrated show’s major milestone with co-star – following Matthew Perry’s death
FRIENDS star David Schwimmer has revealed the touching way he celebrated the show’s major milestone with one of his famous co-stars.
Known for being one of the biggest sitcoms in history, the cast lost one of their own when Matthew Perry died over a year ago.
Friends has thrilled fans ever since it burst onto our TV screen in 1994.
The show – which was about a group of twenty-somethings living in New York – made stars of its cast.
Along with David, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, and the late Matthew Perry all became global mega-stars and VERY rich in the process.
Fans couldn’t get enough of Ross, Rachel, Monica, Phoebe, Joey and Chandler, and at the height of their fame were reportedly paid a whopping $1M per episode.
The show celebrated it’s 30th anniversary last September, and actor David has opened up about how he celebrated it.
Whilst appearing on Aussie radio station Nova, host Smallzy asked the Friends star: “Do you reflect when you hit a milestone like 30 years? Do you think, ‘Wow what a great run’? Or do you go, ‘God, I feel really old, don’t say that’?”
“All of the above,” the TV star said, before explaining what “happened to be back in Los Angeles around the day that marked the 30th year of when we aired”.
He then revealed he was joined by co-star Matt LeBlanc, who famously played Joey Tribbiani.
“I took LeBlanc out to dinner, actually,” he shared. “We reminisced and toasted to the 30 years.”
How Friends started
Friends debuted on September 22, 1994 and ran for a decade, airing ten seasons and a whopping 236 episodes
Over that time the series won over an army of fans across the world and became one of the biggest shows in history.
It has since been revealed the series was almost called Six of One or Insomnia Cafe, before the show’s creators changed it to Friends.
The emotional finale, which aired on May 26, 2004, was deemed one of the most-watched TV finales of all time
Sad death
David and Matt – along with their other Friends co-stars – are still coming to terms with the tragic death of Matthew Perry.
The star was found unresponsive in the hot tub of his LA home on October 28, 2023, having suffered acute effects of ketamine and drowning, his autopsy revealed.
Matthew was a much-loved member of the cast, and was known for playing the quick-witted Chandler Bing.
Friends facts and figures
Dig into the facts behind the iconic 90s sitcom starring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer and the late Matthew Perry.
- Friends debuted on September 22, 1994. It ran for a decade, airing ten seasons and a whopping 236 episodes.
- The emotional finale, which aired on May 26, 2004, was watched live by 52.5 million viewers in America, making it one of the most-watched TV finales of all time.
- Friends also won a ton of awards over the years including a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, 6 Primetime Emmys, 2 SAG Awards, and 12 People’s Choice Awards.
- It was set in New York but filmed at Warner Bros. Studios in L.A.
- Friends almost had a number of different titles – sitcom creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman considered monikers like Friends Like Us, Insomnia Café, and Six of One before finally settling on Friends.
- The show’s iconic theme song was also meant to be different – Friends’ original theme song was Shiny Happy People by R.E.M. which was used for the unaired pilot episode, Friends Like Us. It was eventually changed to I’ll Be There For You by The Rembrandts.
- David and Marta originally planned for the show’s main couple to be Monica and Joey, but they weren’t romantically compatible unlike Monica and Chandler who had natural chemistry.
- The cast of Friends made a pact not to date or hook up – there really was no Ross and Rachel off-screen. “We didn’t want to jeopardise any of the great relationships and friendships we had established. It was kind of an unspoken rule,” David revealed.
- The cast always stuck together though, even negotiating their salaries increases as a group. When they started out their each earned $22,500 per episode but that steadily increased to $1,000,000 per episode by the finale season.