Lisa Kudrow: ‘Friends is still great. Matthew Perry was a genius’

# It’s 22 years since it ended but Friends still earns Lisa Kudrow £15 million a year. The actress reveals what went on behind the scenes — and why her own hit show was cancelled twice Everyone knows the US sitcom *Friends* is more popular now than it has ever been. The show ended in 2004 but it’s still one of the most watched series in the UK. The five surviving cast members — Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc (Matthew Perry, aka Chandler, died in 2023) — each earn $20 million (£15 million) a year from repeat fees. Why? “Because Phoebe Buffay was so great?” Lisa Kudrow speculates with a twinkle. And sure, Kudrow’s unforgettable guitar-playing ditz singing her song *Your Love* (“Your love is like a giant pigeon crapping on my heart”) was a big part of it. But there was something else. “After Matthew died I watched the show again,” Kudrow says, more serious now. “Before, I only saw what I did wrong or could have done better. But for the first time I truly appreciated just how great it was. I felt I did OK, but Jennifer and Courteney? Amazing. David and Matt? They had me laughing so hard. And then Matthew — he was just beyond us all.” Even that’s not the full story. Gen Zers born after *Friends* ended love the show maybe because the story of six youngsters living pre-social media lives has a prelapsarian innocence. At their Central Perk hangout, no one has laptops or smartphones; they chill on the sofa actually talking, flirting, having fun. Sure the internet existed, but it was still new enough for Chandler to get freaked out by a message from a “cyber chick”. “Yes,” Kudrow says. “*Friends* captured a kind of innocence that maybe a younger generation has never got to experience.” But was it really that innocent? “Oh no, there was definitely mean stuff going on behind the scenes,” Kudrow says. Famously, the cast were all friends in real life. At the start they were each paid $22,500 an episode, but instead of competing they negotiated as a team to secure $1 million an episode by the end. Kudrow, educated at the elite Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, upstate New York, reportedly took a lead in the discussions. As a result she, Aniston and Cox became the highest-paid television actresses in the world at the time. But Kudrow, 62, is talking about the show’s writers’ room on the Warner Brothers lot in Burbank, California, where the show was filmed. She says it contained 12-15 staff, mostly men, some of whose gags have made it into the culture (“Oh. My. God” as an expression of melodramatic outrage and, “We were on a break,” as an excuse for philandering originated in that room). And yet … “Don’t forget we were recording in front of a live audience of 400, and if you messed up one of these writers’ lines or it didn’t get the perfect response they could be like, ‘Can’t the b**** f\*\*\*ing read? She’s not even trying. She f\*\*\*ed up my line.’ And we know that back in the room the guys would be up late discussing their sexual fantasies about Jennifer and Courteney. It was intense.” In 1999 there was a sexual harassment court case brought by writers’ assistant Amaani Lyle, whose job it was to transcribe brainstorming sessions. She was shocked to hear *Friends* writers discussing sleeping with Aniston and Cox, feigning masturbation and receiving oral sex. Crucially, Lyle lost the case. At the time it was seen as a victory for creative freedom for the writers of one the most popular TV shows of all time. “Oh, it could be brutal, but these guys — and it was mostly men in there — were sitting up until 3am trying to write the show so my attitude was, ‘Say what you like about me behind my back because then it doesn’t matter,’ ” Kudrow says, waving her hands in front of her face with Phoebe-like distaste. You can find the full story [here](https://www.thetimes.com/article/96c0ec0d-c83b-498a-9cda-3fa6d772ddf7?shareToken=bb992fa9305a909b4725d01667d61f94)

Watching Friends now feels like a Time Machine.

Was he good at math or something?

She’s been really good in this new edition of The Comeback. Her wit and timing is still as sharp as ever. And she can still land a pretty hearty laugh with just a look or gesture. She’s aged like fine wine.

Yes, friends is indeed great. My favourite comfort show.

If it makes her feel any better me and my friends never thought of her as the “other” friend. We thought of her as the only one we’d realistically want to date. She was funny, creative, and not high strung like a house cat.

It’s my guilty pleasure show I fear I know it’s white as hell but DAMN it hits a spot somehow

The laugh track and music make me want to blow my brains out. But Ross and Joey are pretty funny. 

Show has always been dogshit

Friends doesn't hold up as well as it once did, but damn it had some funny moments.

I don’t like how they gloss over that it was in fact David Schwimmer that made sure they were all paid fairly and equally and was genuinely the brains and coordinator of the talent of that show. It wouldn’t have been what it was without him specifically. Not to mention that in general, Friends is a horribly offensive show by modern standards. Trans, gay, lesbian and all sorts of minority micro aggressions in every single episode …a lot of them from phoebe Great for its time, super culturally relevant at the time… but that time is far over and the show does not hold up to modern scrutiny Am I also the only one asking if people just sucked at acting in the 90s? It’s hard watching a lot of these shows. ER is another one I’m noticing this on. Started watching this again when it auto played after the Pitt and it’s just… bad, like, the acting is just super forced compared to modern shows.

Yeah. We know. He told us at least 70 times in his book.

The show jumped the shark when they started dating each other.

Friends was so corny 

Was he though? The writers are genius, obviously... but. Christian Slater's film.career was waning. Same age. David Boreanaz. Same age. David Suttcliffe. Jason Bateman... All the same age. F***, Trip from Enterprise... same age. Maybe, just maybe... He was a bad casting choice. Heresy I know but if you don't think Jason Bateman would have been stronger? Yeah, ok. Matthew Perry wasn't a genius and his SNL appearance really proved that FACT at the time.

It’s painful without a laugh track