Although the hit NBC comedy Friends aired its series finale in 2004, the show is still incredibly popular, adored by thousands of fans today. Jennifer Aniston, who played Rachel Green on the show, sat down for an interview with Entertainment Tonight about her new Netflix film Dumplin’, and the actress shared her thoughts on the timeless classic.
Friends will hit its 25th anniversary next September. The show aired its pilot episode on September 22, 1994, and ran for 10 seasons until May 2004. And as Aniston recalled, she couldn’t believe it’s been almost 25 years already.
“Wow, that’s a long time. My brain just warped,” she said.
She went on to reminisce about the premiere of the series.
“That’s just very strange because it feels like yesterday,” she recalled.
“It really does. It feels like yesterday we all gathered together and watched the premiere of the pilot. So, that was 25 years ago, is that what you’re telling me?”
Aniston’s role on Friends led her to receive a Golden Globe Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series in 2003. She also received five Primetime Emmy Award nominations during her time on the show.
Friends follows a group of six very close adults–Chandler, Ross, Joey, Rachel, Monica, and Phoebe–as they live and work in New York City. The show has become known for its relatable situations and hilarious, quotable one-liners.
The NBC series arrived on Netflix in 2014, according to Entertainment Weekly, and has remained a binge-worthy choice for subscribers of the streaming service since. Earlier this week, however, fans noticed that the series had an expiration date of January 2019 on Netflix.
The expiration quickly turned into a crisis on social media, trending over the weekend through Monday. Fans expressed their anger and disappointment at Netflix for planning to remove one of their favorite shows.
“FRIENDS IS LEAVING NETFLIX ON JANUARY 1ST. In other news, I will be canceling my Netflix subscription on January 1st,” one user wrote.
Following the frenzy, Netflix addressed the show’s expiration date as a rumor, and the date was removed. The streaming service assured fans that Friends would stay through 2019.
The extension of the series’ shelf life doesn’t necessarily guarantee that Netflix will keep it forever, though. Netflix is now reportedly paying around $100 million to keep Friends for another year, a big jump in comparison to the $30 million the service previously paid, New York Times reported.
The money will go to WarnerMedia, the owners of the series, in exchange for Netflix to continue licensing the program.
WarnerMedia is also reportedly working on their own streaming service, where Friends will almost certainly have a home. Unfortunately, this also means pulling the show from Netflix eventually.
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