Six years after the iconic sitcom went off the air, two members of “Friends” return in different midseason sitcoms, bolstered perhaps by the success of a third former castmate.
Matthew Perry plays the manager of a regional arena in a sitcom he helped write, “Mr. Sunshine” for ABC. Matt Le Blanc meanwhile, who fizzled in the one “Friends” spinoff, “Joey,” returns for a January comedy “Episodes,” on Showtime in which he plays a dimmer version of himself cast for a British remake.
They’ll join Courtney Cox firmly ensconced in a returning comedy, “Cougar Town” on ABC.
Writers at the TV critics press tour were quick to push their past hit when the new titles were unveiled this week.
“It’s just a character that David [Crane, also from ‘Friends’] and Jeffrey [Klarik]wrote that happens to have the same name as me,” Le Blanc says of his “Episodes” character. “There are some similarities, but for the most part, it’s a fictitious character.”
How did he get cast for the part, one reporter asked.
“[David]Schwimmer said ‘No.’” deadpanned LeBlanc. “So did Perry. So did Lisa [Kudrow].”
Another asked: Could we see some “Friends” cast members pop up on this show, if not this season, the next one?
“Well, we know not this season becaus e we’re done,”says Klarik, a former producer of “Mad About You.”
And David Crane, who was also a producer of “Friends,” adds, “Who knows? It’s certainly not something that we’re planning on. But it’s not impossible.”
Declares British co-star David Managan, “I could play Schwimmer!”
For Perry’s part, he said, “There’s a lot of talk about will I ask some of my former cast mates to be on the show, and I think ultimately, yes. But in the very beginning, we want to convey to people that this is something new. You know, so in the third season, when we’re all excited, then maybe some of them can come back, but I don’t want to use them as sort of a launching pad.”
The question of reunions come up every time there’s one cast member on the show.
“In fact,” said executive producer Jimmy Mulville, “Matt gets asked that — the character Matt gets asked that — in the show. He’s involved in an accident, and at the wrong time a Star Tours bus turns up and starts to ask him all these very personal questions. And it’s a kind of snapshot from his life.”
It comes amid the question: “Are you ever going to work again?”
For Andrea Anders, who costars in “Mr. Sunshine” along with Alison Janney, it’s the second time she’s shared a sitcom with a former “Friend.” She was also in Le Blanc in “Joey.”
“Friends” was an influential show for her, she said. “It started when I started college. So it was kind of perfect for the timing of that story,” she said. “I was a big fan and yeah , really shocked that I worked with Matt LeBlanc and also David Crane and Jimmy Burrows and now Matthew and also David Schwimmer. I just really want to be a Friend.”
For Le Blanc — the actor not the character – dealing with his past success is a daily thing, when fans keep spouting his catch phrase “How you doin?” back to him constantly.
Le Blanc says he heard “a couple on the way in today.”
But he’s OK with that. “My job is to make you believe what I’m saying, right? That’s the actor’s job. So if people really believe me as that character, than, in my opinion, I’ve done my job.
“So I don’t look at it as a negative thing when people come up and say, ‘Hey, Joey.’ I’m always, ‘Hey, hi.’ I take it as a compliment because it tends to happen a lot.”
Besides, he adds, “it’s easier on me to look at it that way.”
“Episodes” begins Jan. 10 on Showtime; no premiere date has been given for the midseason “Mr. Sunshine.”