The Friends reunion / non-reunion telecast finally happened, and as we all know by now, it essentially served as a disappointing sitcom cronut: much anticipated, kinda disappointing. They gave a shout-out to missing cast member Matthew Perry though, so that was nice.
On the plus side, veteran sitcom director James Burrows – who was the reason behind the NBC telecast after all, and the man behind the helm of some of the most pivotal moments in Friends / Ross & Rachel history – has been giving away tidbits all ’round the place, and we’ll take the crusts to satiate our nostalgic cravings, thanks all the same.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Burrows (whose sitcom resume extends to former wildly popular sitcoms Cheers, Will & Grace, Mike & Molly etc, and to the inexplicably, wtaf popular The Big Bang Theory) gave away many fun lil’ anecdotes about all his sitcom babies.
On how he got the Friends cast to get comfortable with one another before directing the pilot episode:
“I sit with my cast, and I talk to them about their characters, and I try to get them to like one another because if they do, that’s going to come across onscreen. So I’ll try to do lunch together. Sometimes I’ll bring them here for a party, which I did with Mike & Molly. With the Friends kids, I took them to Vegas.”
[During the actual telecast, Matt LeBlanc said Burrows encouraged them to get along and basically be each others’ support network, thereby essentially made them friends IRL. :’) ]
On why Ross and Rachel had to break-up:
“It’s the same as Sam and Diane [from Cheers]. They flirted for a lot longer, but you have to shake it up. … If you don’t fight, and if you don’t get angry, you have no place to go.”
SO WERE THEY ON A BREAK OR NOT, JAMES.
On his best moment from Friends:
“One of my favourites was the prom video [during which Rachel finds out that Ross was prepared to be her backup date]. For me, one of the best things is at the end, when they’re all watching it, and Jennifer gets up and slowly crosses the stage to Ross. I remember [Friends co-creator] David Crane saying to me, “Isn’t that [walk] too long?” But it was a great moment. You don’t know what she’s going to do, and all of a sudden she kisses him.”
NBC has released two extended clips of the Friends reunion, but they are “not available in your country.” (But here’s 7 seconds of it, if ya’ want.)
Quite frankly, there’s never been a more exciting time to have a VPN.
