It’s happening! The ‘Friends’ reunion has apparently finally taped, and fans are sharing photos from the set featuring the Central Perk sofa.
Could we BE any more excited? After over a year of delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the long awaited Friends reunion has apparently taped on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank, CA. Photos of the set where the actors sat to reminisce about their 10 years on the iconic NBC sitcom have hit Instagram on Apr. 9, and it appears that Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow , Matthew Perry, Matt LeBlanc, and David Schwimmer were seated on the yellow Central Perk sofa where the gang gathered for so many caffeinated hangs. The show’s original set decorator Greg Grande shared a close up shot of the sofa and two chairs — along with six yellow coffee mugs for the cast — in an IG photo on Apr. 9, which he quickly deleted. But it was seen at a greater distance in the set photos from an apparent audience member.
The sofa was placed in front of the fountain that is featured in the show’s opening credits, where the six actors dance around in the water. Other fan photos have showed signs on the Warner Bros. lot for “Friends: The Reunion” with the show’s logo spelling, and how Chandler and Joey’s as well as Monica and Rachel’s apartments were reconstructed perfectly for the HBO Max special. One fan’s photo even showed what appeared to be the back of Jen’s perfectly highlighted blonde locks hugging a former show staffer.
Several Friends fan accounts even showed a set pass for the reunion special belonging to an “Andrea R.” along with the lot’s Water Tower lit up in blue with “You wil just have to wait. It will be so worth it” written over it.
The special apparently taped on Thurs. Apr. 8, as the Instagram account @insanechandler showed photos taken on the Warner Bros. lot with signs saying “Friends: The Reunion” and directions as to where to head to the studio where the event was taking place:
Perhaps the most obvious sign of all that the reunion did go down was that Chandler Bing himself, Matthew Perry, shared an Instagram photo on Apr. 9 showing him in the makeup chair prior to the taping and referenced the reunion happening. He wrote in the caption to his open mouthed expression, “Seconds before eating a makeup brush. Not to mention reuniting with my Friends.”
Lisa Kudrow — who played Phoebe Buffay — revealed in Jan. 2021 that it was still full steam ahead for the reunion to happen, which has been pushed back twice since March 2020 due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The 57-year-old old told actor Rob Lowe on his Jan. 13 Literally! podcast, “There’s different facets to it, and we already shot packages of things. I pre-shot something for it already so we’re definitely doing it because I already shot a little something.”
She added the reminder that the special would be a reunion of the actors and not a reboot featuring their characters. “It’s not, like, a scripted thing. We’re not portraying our characters. It’s us getting together, which just doesn’t happen a lot and has never happened in front of other people since 2004 when we stopped,” she explained, while promising, “I think it’ll be great.” Apparently her prediction was right, with the fan who was present saying the wait was “worth it.” Lisa had also said that the producers were aiming for an “early spring” 2021 taping date, which would coincide perfectly with the date of Apr. 8th.