I’ll be there for yoooouuuu. Again. After years of speculation, it’s finally been confirmed that a Friends cast reunion (minus Matthew Perry) will air on NBC on Sunday 21 February, as part of a tribute to veteran sitcom director James Burrows. Here’s a reminder of where we left the Central Perk sixsome 12 years ago – and what we imagine they’re up to now…
Rachel Green
(Jennifer Aniston)
Where we left her: Realising she loved Ross after all and getting off the Paris-bound plane that was taking her to a new job at Louis Vuitton.
Where is she now? Rachel opened a fashion e-boutique and made a mint. She spent some of it on getting “work done” but classily, so nobody’s quite sure if it’s just yoga and flattering lighting. Gunther’s stalking her online.
Ross Geller
(David Schwimmer)
Where we left him: Winning back Rachel with a dash to the wrong airport, JFK. Followed by another dash to the right one, Newark.
Where is he now? Divorced from Rachel. Hey, it’s what he does. But they might get back together. Hey, it’s what they do. Ross was also a consultant palaeontologist on Jurassic World but got fired for having a whiny puppy voice.
Phoebe Buffay
(Lisa Kudrow)
Where we left her: Married to pianist Mike and delaying Rachel’s plane by pretending there was a problem with its “left phalange”.
Where is she now? She and Mike moved to a Brooklyn brownstone just before the hipster boom and now run a jazz-and-falafel pop-up. They have a brood of kids called things like Aura, Kale, Apothecary, Bananahammock, Smellycat and, of course, Phalange.
Joey Tribbiani
(Matt LeBlanc)
Where we left him: Sulking about his buddies all moving on, then getting to keep “Duck Jr and Chick Jr”, his housewarming gift for Chandler and Monica.
Where is he now? Well, we know some of this, as he got a spinoff sitcom, the eponymous Joey. He moved to LA to further his acting career but that flopped (like Joey the show). Now he appears in low-rent reality shows, frozen pizza ads and the odd “adult thriller”. He visits Chandler and Monica regularly, where he sleeps in “the Joey Room”. It has an en suite branch of Subway.
Monica Geller
(Courteney Cox)
Where we left her: Moving to the Westchester suburbs with Chandler after they adopted twins.
Where is she now? The twins are approaching their teens, so after years of being a stay-at-home “soccer mom”, Monica’s opening her own restaurant, specialising in Thanksgiving dinners. Chandler wants to call it “ThanksgiveBing”. She prefers “Central Turk”.
Chandler Bing
(Matthew Perry)
Where we left him: Getting the last line of the series, as the friends decided to go for one last cup of coffee and Chandler quipped, “Sure... where?”
Where is he now? In rehab for, like, chronic addiction to sarcasm. Yeah, like THAT’s going to work. Could you BE any more deluded?
