Hard to believe, but it’s been ten years since Ross, Rachel, Monica, Chandler, Phoebe, and Joey took their final bow on NBC on “Friends.”
The series, which was the centerpiece of the Peacock’s Thursday night “Must See TV” lineup from 1994 to 2004, is still going strong in reruns on TBS and Nick at Nite.
But we thought it’d be fun here at Brief to celebrate the anniversary with a look back at some of the promos NBC ran over the years to market the series.
Starting with the oh-so-‘90s riff on underwear ads that ran ahead of the premiere, telling viewers that you could find the show between “Mad About You” and “Seinfeld.” (See above).
It was a theme that would get repeated midseason when the network moved the series to the coveted slot between “Seinfeld” and “ER” at 9:30pm:
By the Fall of 1995, “Friends” was in its second season and the series had moved to the time slot it would occupy for the rest of its run: leading off the Must See TV block at 8pm. The network decided to cross-promote “Friends” with the rest of the sitcoms on Thursday night (minus “Seinfeld,” natch) with a “Star-Crossed Thursday” that saw Ross head to “The Single Guy” and Chandler pop up on “Caroline in the City.”
Fast forward to Season 7, and Monica and Chandler were finally getting married. NBC decided to play up the slew of special guest stars, while teasing “the surprise that will have you talking all summer long.” And who can forget Kathleen Turner as Chandler’s transgendered dad?
For Season 9, which cost NBC a whopping $7 million per episode, the network went all touchy-feely in promoting the premiere, reminding viewers “they’re the friends we’ve grown to love,” and asking them to “cherish every episode.”
It was actually a tone that was echoed throughout NBC’s marketing that season. Check out this spot for the network’s premiere week that talks about the choices facing key characters across NBC’s sitcoms, and asking viewers to tune in for “some choices that may surprise you.”
And when it finally came around to saying goodbye, NBC kept up the sentimental theme, declaring that “it’s not very often that an event comes along that brings everyone together. And what better reason, than friends.”
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