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October 5th, 2003
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Friends To Spawn Half-Dozen Spinoffs |
Not Even Cancellation Will End Their Wacky Hijinks, Witty Banter
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Society - The wildly popular sitcom Friends, which has now entered its final season, will spawn six spinoff series, each featuring one of the original Friends characters, according to Robert McAllister, a spokesman for NBC.
Even the two characters who were married on the show, Monica and Chandler, will get divorced during the final Friends season and move on to their own programs. Chandler's show, entitled Bing!, will focus on his efforts to deal with a new set of life-crippling neuroses he develops after the divorce. Chandler will join a support group consisting of two other male patients, two female patients and a female therapist.
"Bing! will take sitcoms in a whole new direction," McAllister says. "The show will center on the relationships between the characters - who's got a crush on who, and that sort of thing - as well as frequent wacky hijinks and hilarious misunderstandings. And, most importantly, witty banter."
Monica's show will focus on her new career as a police officer. "We're really excited about the possibilities for Monica: NYPD," McAllister says. "In the opening episode, Monica and her partner get together after their shift and spend the night getting drunk. They come back to Monica's apartment and pass out, and the next morning, they both think they've had sex! It takes the whole rest of the episode for them to realize their misunderstanding. And here's the best part - the partner is a woman!"
Monica: NYP will feature Monica and five other young, attractive cops who engage in frequent witty banter at the local Dunkin' Donuts.
Matt LeBlanc's series, Poor Joey!, will center around Joey's life as a homeless person after he loses his job and his apartment and turns to whiskey and heroin for comfort. "Poor Joey! is a comedy, but it will also have a serious and dramatic side," LeBlanc says. "It'll deal with very topical issues like homelessness and alcoholism. In the first season, Joey will have a relationship with a homeless woman, but he'll break up with her because she smells bad. But then, when his friend Charlotte at the soup kitchen tells Joey that he smells bad, too, he'll realize his mistake and beg for her forgiveness. But by that time, she'll already be dating Rich - Joey's boxmate!"
McAllister is particularly excited about Jennifer Aniston's show, in which her character, Rachel, becomes a stripper. "Take It Off, Rachel going to be a great vehicle for Jennifer," he says. "It'll be all about the strippers, bouncers, and bartenders and their relationships with each other. In the first episode, Rachel discovers that one of the other strippers has a secret - that 'she' is actually a man! Then Rachel has to start telling more and more lies to help him keep his secret, and hilarity ensues."
"Also, there will be lots and lots of witty banter," McAllister adds.
In Ross' series, he and five other paleontologists will be shipwrecked on an island, where they will have nothing but fighting for survival and trading witty banter to occupy their time. Finally, Phoebe, in her sitcom, will participate in a genetic experiment that goes horribly awry, giving her superhuman powers. She and five other young, attractive superheroes will fight crime, defend animal rights, and hang out at superhero headquarters, exchanging witty banter.
McAllister says that the network's only regret is that it was unable to develop more sitcoms for some of the show's secondary characters. "We wanted to have a show featuring Mike, David, Charlie, and a few of the ex-boyfriends and girlfriends," he says. "But then, we thought, all right, we've got a show featuring a half-dozen young, attractive people. But what will they do all day? What kind of interpersonal activity could they engage in? And, frankly, we couldn't think of anything. It's not easy coming up with all these ideas, you know."
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