That's what's so crazy about Friends. Not only was it the biggest show in the US for 6 or so seasons, it was the biggest show worldwide. We'll never see that again.

You guys should watch the Reunion special. The creators talk about casting each person. They actually auditioned David Schwimmer for a previous show but didn't cast him for that. They kept him in mind for a future project and when creating Friends wrote Ross specifically for Schwimmer. Unfortunately he had given up on Hollywood and moved back to Chicago to just do theater. They had to lure him back. So he was the first one cast.

Jennifer Aniston on the other hand was the last one cast. They said they burned through 200 actress auditions before finding Aniston. They mention that the character of Rachel could come off as an entitled bitch (my words, not theirs) in the wrong hands. Aniston was the only one that could make the audience like her despite being entitled. Not sure her lineage played a part, not that we'll ever know.

I doubt a reunion will ever happen now, but if it did, the only thing I could think of is Paul Rudd basically taking the place of the 6th "friend" sice he was married to Phoebe on the show and is a fairly well liked actor.

The closest you're getting to another reunion is if they reboot the show and have them all stop by in various intervals.

They could do a special reunion episode called "The One with Chandler's Funeral."

Which sounds either really ghoulish or poignant in a meta way.

Revival or reunion shows often have to address the passing of an actor/ character. Most recently, Fraser has done this with John Mahoney. Dukes of Hazzard had to do this as well with Boss Hogg and Uncle Jesse. If done right, it can be done with some class. It would be awkward, not to have Chandler on a reunion, but it could work if done right. It's highly unlikely they'd ever do a reunion even if Matthew Perry was still alive. They're making enough money from residuals, to need to do it for the money. Yet, Fraser is probably making a fortune on residuals and he came back, so you never know.

I haven't seen Frasier in syndication in a while, but I see Friends on daily.

You mean another reunion? They did one in 2021.

I'm referring to a scripted reunion shows where they continue or add to the stories of the characters; not a reunion where the cast appears as themselves in a talk show style retrospective.

They had no interest in doing a reunion/revival before this, I doubt that will change anything.

I don't think they will either. But, many actors from other shows weren't interested in doing revivals until they were. Patrick Stewart said he was done playing Picard, yet played him again. Kelsey Grammer said he was done, yet just recently reprised his role.

Lately, most of these revivals haven't fared well, so it may be best to leave them in the past. Mad About You went out with a fizzle. Will and Grace lasted a few more seasons, but not very noteworthy. Fraser has received mixed reception. It's good to see the characters again, but if not done right, it may taint what came before it.

The cast of Friends and also Seinfeld are in a unique situation of still banking millions every year from Syndication. Even if they all had a change of heart and wanted to do a revival,their are financial incentives in place not to unlike with people in all these other revivals. A poorly recieved revival could dampen the popularity of a current Syndication juggernaut.

I don't think many people would be interested in a scripted reunion without Perry. They couldn't get away with having Chandler "out of town", which means they'd have to explain Chandler's death. And for a show about friends where all 6 characters were equally crucial to the show - it would be way too big of a bummer and would feel very off.

Regardless of any of our opinions, I'm 99.9% sure we won't see the show returning in any fashion.

I think Kelsey Grammer gets close to what the Friends cast gets in residuals, which makes me surprised he did the new show. It would have to be a situation where they wanted to for another reason other than making more money. Seinfeld hinted at some kind of reunion recently, which I don't see happening as they are all financially set and don't have much to gain other than doing something to make people think about the terrible finale episode.

Sometimes the reunion/ sequel shows go from sitcom to drama like with The Brady Bunch, Lou Grant, and Growing Pains. Usually, that doesn't work at all. I think Lou Grant and maybe Trapper John M.D. worked ok with the switch, but most wouldn't. I would be curious to see how they would approach a dramatic reunion type scenario. It's weird when a sitcom does a reunion but leaves out the laugh track when it was used in the original show.

If there was ever a group of people who did not need to reboot their old sitcom for any reason at all, it's the cast of "Friends".

I really don't consider Trapper John M.D. a sequel of MASH. The lead isn't the original actor - which Wayne Rogers could've played even though this show takes place about 25 years after the Korean War, since Rogers was only 5 years younger than Pernell Roberts... plus there's barely any reference to the MASH universe. They could've just made up a new character who was part of a MASH unit in Korea. This was just a dumb ploy to try and get more people to tune in.



Hell, MASH got rid of the laugh track near the end of the series - even though it was technically still a comedy (which in itself is kind of debatable).

They could always do what 90210 did...have a show where the cast is playing themselves while filming a Friends reunion series. Heck, 90210 even did it after a key cast member had died too.

I thought it was just the series finale and the operating room scenes that didn't have the laugh track.

Officially, Trapper John was a sequel to the movie Mash and not the tv series because they didn't want to pay royalties to the producers of the tv series. That may be a reason why they wouldn't use Wayne Rogers for the series. Unofficially, it was a spin off og the tv series.

I believe it was removed from the final season.
Yes, they definitely didn't have a laugh track during the OR scenes. That was the compromise they made when CBS wanted a laugh track added. I think the UK never had the series with a laugh track.

Yeah, I heard it go both ways... but either way, I don't think there was anything in the show that tied it to either the show or movie other than "Trapper John" working in a MASH unit in Korea.

Wow, I've taken us off topic. Could this thread BE any more off topic? (yes, I'm going to hell).

(At least) the M*A*S*H* DVDs had both tracks on it. I usually watched them without the laugh track.

The laugh track on M*A*S*H always felt of place since it was obviously not filmed on a stage. In most sit-coms, you just sort of roll with the laugh track because they're filmed on stages, often before a studio audience, so it feels like a play.

And then are examples of laugh tracks being included at really inappropriate times like when Edith was fighting off a rapist on All in the Family or when Arnold and Dudley were being groomed by a child molester on Diff'rent Strokes.

Huh?

Growing Pains was not a spinoff of anything else.
The only spinoff coming from Growing Pains was Just the Ten of Us, which was another comedy. GP's early 2000s reunion movies were still comedies.

Matthew Perry had a memorable 3-episode arc on Growing Pains as Carol's friend, Sandy. Spoiler, for the end of that arc, if you don't know it:


Later, he made a guest appearance on Just the Ten of Us and had the punchline in a memorable scene:

Even at the time I thought it was weird that even though the coach only had minor parts in like 5 episodes of Growing Pains, they tried to spin him off into his own show. During the shows run, did anyone even remember that character?

Coincidentally (or maybe not), the daughter Perry's character was dating was a co-star in Perry's "Home Free" sitcom a few years later.
Also, one of the daughters (in the pig-tails) was the artist girl in The Outfield "Your Love" music video.

No where in my statement did I say Growing Pains was a spinoff of anything else.