After what seemed like an endless wait, the cast of Friends reunited on stage (opens in new tab) Sunday night during an NBC special in honor of celebrated TV director James Burrows. Well, the whole cast except for Chandler Bing himself, Matthew Perry, who was busy acting in a play in London.
Perry was on everyone's minds, and he even recorded a sweet introduction to their segment during the special. "And now, please welcome to the stage, my friends who happen to be the cast of Friends," Perry said. After they sat down, Matt LeBlanc shouted out their sixth friend. "There's one missing, we wish we could see him," he told moderator Andy Cohen. "Matty, we miss you."
The five stars showed up to pay tribute to the director who brought them all together and fostered their friendship. "He really gave us the opportunity of a lifetime and probably the best ten years of our acting careers that we will forever remember," Jennifer Aniston said. David Schwimmer said he used to shadow Burrows to learn how to direct television himself.
The cast also mentioned that Burrows helped them forge an important bond with one another. "I think it was sort of unspoken, but we instinctively felt like, we need to be friends, we need to get along, we need to connect. And so we started playing poker," Lisa Kudrow said. "And Jimmy gave us his [dressing] room so we could have a bigger hangout room." That hobby became a Friends episode, "The One With All the Poker."
That led to a bond that last until this day. "We really just wanted to hang out with each other. We really just fell in love and adored each other instantly, and would hang out at each other's houses and watch the show together," Aniston said. Kudrow added that they would give each other feedback, inspired by Courteney Cox, who had observed the cast working together on Seinfeld.
The reunion produced a few more fun facts, like the fact that Aniston, Kudrow, and Cox would eat lunch together every day for 10 years, and always had the same meal. And no, nobody had to sign a contract promising not to sleep with a costar—or at least Kudrow didn't have to. Though the chat could have been so much more—could you imagine taping a new episode entirely?—it's always nice to see the group get back together. Next time, bring Chandler, please!
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