How Friends, the US$5 billion ’90s sitcom is still bringing in the fans in the streaming age

Morgan Kolkmeyer, a meteorologist for Chicago TV station WGN, has fond childhood memories of curling up next to her parents on a couch as they all watched episodes of Friends.

Two decades later, Kolkmeyer, 28, found herself perched on a replica of the signature orange sofa from Central Perk, the coffee house hang-out of the six 20-something characters on the series, as she introduced four of her favourite Friends episodes to WGN viewers on a Saturday night in November.

“I don’t watch a lot of TV shows, and I don't know a lot of actors and actresses,” Kolkmeyer said. “But I know every line of Friends.”

Kolkmeyer is among the legion of fans of the sitcom, and her hosting stint was part of a massive marketing campaign tied into the programme's 25th anniversary. The push precedes the arrival of the beloved series on Warner’s new streaming service HBO Max, which has the faces of the Friends cast members as the opening image in its first promotional spot.

Over the weekend, Kevin Reilly, chief content officer at HBO Max, confirmed the cast – Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Courteney Cox, Matthew Perry, Lisa Kudrow and Matt LeBlanc – will be reuniting for a one-off special.

Whether Friends can replicate its status as a streaming phenomenon on Netflix remains to be seen. But the show's track record for regenerating its success is one for the TV history books.

After 10 seasons as a major hit for NBC from 1994 to 2004, the programme has earned roughly US$5 billion from showing repeats on stations and networks in the US and worldwide. It took US$100 million in 2018 for its final year on Netflix, reflecting the ability of classic hit TV shows to capture younger audiences.

In 2019, WarnerMedia paid US$425 million to make it part of its new service HBO Max for the next five years.

HBO Max, which launches in May, is also reportedly ready to pay up to US$2.5 million to each of the Friends stars to appear in a reunion special where they would reminisce about their time on the show. They would not even have to learn any lines.

Even as streaming thrust Friends back into the nation's cultural conversation, the series remains a durable performer on traditional TV, where it continues to draw viewers who are willing to sit through commercials. The anniversary has reminded fans that, while they wait for its new streaming home, there are plenty of ways to access the show, including daily airings on cable networks and over-the-air local stations that show them after their late local news.

“There is a lot going on in the world and Friends provides escapism,” said Lisa Gregorian, president and chief marketing officer for Warner Bros Television. “When people watch the news, they are not feeling so great and they really don't want to go to sleep like that. So they are looking for a palate changer. It relaxes them.”

Seeing a world where people talk to each other instead of looking down at their phones every few minutes is part of the current appeal of Friends. Kolkmeyer said even her fellow millennials can feel nostalgic for that brief period early in their lives when landline phones predominated and digital technology played a less invasive role in everyday life.

“Friends brings you back to a time when you had to show up at someone's house to know what they were doing,” she said. “You kind of wish it was the way people still interacted.”

Friends creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane have watched in awe as the series they created 25 years ago still resonates with viewers. They have heard athletes from outside the US say they learned English from watching the show. They have listened to fans recount how the characters helped them get through difficult times in their lives.

“I think people want to spend time with them,” Kauffman said. “They’d like to be in that coffee house drinking coffee. They’d like to be sitting in Monica’s living room and talking to these people. And I think people can really identify with that time of your life, with looking for love, and looking for work, and how do you balance all your friends. I think it’s identifiable.”

Friends has even survived current-day critics who disapprove of the show’s gay jokes, lack of racial diversity and fat gags that would have trouble meeting current social standards.

“They’re not wrong,” Crane said. “Our perspective has changed. The only thing I can say is certainly nothing was ever done maliciously. The last thing we'd want is the show ever to make anyone feel bad. I think we’ve learned a lot, as the world has. And if we’d had a more contemporary perspective then, would we have done some things differently? Absolutely.”

But the Friends universe of 1990s Manhattan will never be altered. While Kauffman and Crane said they are game for participating in a reunion special, they will “never ever” agree to do an actual reboot of the series using the same actors, characters or even the children of their characters.

“We have pushed hard to make sure it never happens, because we feel as though the show is done,” Crane said. “The six actors could certainly do it, but it’s a different show. And I don’t think it would be as good as the show as we did. And so then why do it?”