‘Friends’ Reunion Is Not Happening Like You Expected, Key Cast Member Is Out


When it was announced that the Friends cast was reuniting, fans went nuts about the possibilities. After all, Friends fans have been waiting for a Friends reunion since the show practically went off the air in 2004. That said, fans may be a bit upset that this isn’t truly a Friends reunion as one cast member won’t be there.

According to E!, the NBC special to honor Friends director James Burrows won’t reunite the whole cast of Friends as once believed. Matthew Perry, who has guest starred on a few of his Friends co-stars’ shows, will not be in attendance. It’s said that he will be in London rehearsing his play The End of Longing, and that begins previews on Tuesday, February 2, which is poor timing.

Although Perry won’t be joined with Friends co-stars Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, and David Schwimmer, he will be taping a video which will be shown at the ceremony.

The reveal of the special honoring Burrows happened at the 2016 TCA Winter Press Tour. It was then where NBC’s Robert Greenblatt was hopeful but not completely bursting with optimism about getting all the cast members together.

“Hoping that all six of them will be in the same room at the same time, but I’m not sure we can logistically pull that off.”

For years the Friends cast have been refuting rumors that they were going to do any kind of reunion together.

Cast member Lisa Kudrow didn’t seem like she was up for the idea when she was asked, saying, “I wouldn’t even have an interest in seeing what those people are doing 10 years later as parents that have to be responsible… It would be so different that it wouldn’t be Friends anymore. Have I talked anybody out of wanting a reunion?”

Matthew Perry had a regret about the series ending, saying, “If I had a time machine, I would like to go back to 2004 and not have stopped.”

And Kudrow agreed, commenting, “I would keep going. I figure there probably would’ve come a time anyway when someone would’ve said, ‘We’ve had enough,’ but why not have fun until they do?”

Courteney Cox, in an interview with Yahoo!, said the reason why we wouldn’t get a Friends reunion is due to the fact that one of the cast members has always turned down the idea.

“Dear lord, let it go people, we’re not doing it! We’ve not really had a Friends reunion,” she said. “We’ve gotten about 80 percent there, but there’s always one person who flakes at the end.”

Most people guessed that it was David Schwimmer, who, aside from his role as Robert Kardashian in the new Ryan Murphy mini series The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story, has disappeared as an actor and has worked behind the screen.

The closest we’ve come to seeing a reunion was when Jimmy Kimmel wrote a sketch and recreated a scene from the Friends show, which featured Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, and Lisa Kudrow returning to reprise their roles as Rachel, Monica, and Phoebe. It was a hit with the studio audience and did a lot for the ratings of Kimmel’s late show, and once again started up buzz that there might be a reunion.

The casts of Taxi, Cheers, Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, Frasier, Laverne and Shirley, and The Big Bang Theory will also all be reuniting during the special to honor the director who has recently just directed his 1,000th episode of television.

Still, getting five cast members on stage at the same time is quite the feat. Are you upset that Matthew Perry won’t be on stage to join for an official Friends reunion?

[Image via NBC]

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