NBCThe first details of what exactly we'll see the Friends cast do during their highly anticipated reunion as part of the upcoming special Must See TV: A Tribute to James Burrows are here, courtesy of the man of honor himself.
Speaking with reporters on a conference call to promote the tribute to his work, James Burrows shed some light on what Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer, and Matt LeBlanc got up to when the special taped last week. "They participated like all the other casts did. They had a question session on the couch with the host where they talked about what it was like working with me," he admitted. Could he be referring to the couch from Central Perk?! Sadly, NBC confirmed the special's use of a generic couch and not the iconic orange one we all know and love—but we'll take our favorite Friends on whatever couch we can get them.
Though the gathering of Friends stars was incomplete (Matthew Perry was unable to attend, sending a pre-taped message in his place instead) and Marta Kauffman, the series' co-creator, has stated there will never be a true Friends reunion movie, Burrows still faced the inevitable question over his interest in the possibility of a revival series a la the just-confirmed Gilmore Girls project at Netflix. "I don't think you should ever go back. I firmly believe in that," he said, not surprisingly. "They've talked to us about a Cheers reunion for years and we don't want to do one…I don't think the Friends—I have no control over this…I don't think they'll ever want to do a reunion again. It's what it was and it was a treasure in television…"
Burrows, who directed 15 episodes of Friends' first four years, showered high praise on the cast he met as relative nobodies while directing them in the pilot. "Over the first four years, they had grown into these enormous stars, and had not grown an ego, so that they still were—and still are—great friends," he said. "At the reunion, when they did my special, it was great to see all five of them together."
Must See TV: A Tribute to James Burrows airs Sunday, Feb. 21 at 9 p.m. on NBC.
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