Music: {allcanada} Matthew Perry Knows He "Will Never Be Involved in Anything as Big as Friends Ever Again"

Monday, January 12, 2015

{allcanada} Matthew Perry Knows He "Will Never Be Involved in Anything as Big as Friends Ever Again"

Friends, Jennifer Anniston, David Schwimmer, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry

There's no denying it: Friends was and still is the best TV show of all time.

Go ahead, try and disagree with us. Just try. You. Will. Fail.

Even its stars know that they truly struck gold with their sitcom, and when we caught up with Matthew Perry after his 2015 TCA Winter Press Tour panel for his new CBS sitcom The Odd Couple, he spoke candidly about how he's still amazed at Friends' success.

"I didn't envision living past 2000 so I had no idea [how big Friends would get]," Perry told a small group of reporters. "I never really thought about the future and I had no idea I would ever be involved in something as big as Friends and I will never be involved in anything as big as Friends ever again because TV is so different now."

And though Perry's previous attempts at launching a new sitcom didn't pan out—Go On and Mr. Sunshine both didn't last past their freshman seasons—he's optimistic about the rebooted Odd Couple's future.

"With the timeslot we have for The Odd Couple, it's ideal," Perry said. "It's exactly where we want to be, after the biggest comedy on television; our premiere episode is after The Big Bang Theory and before the final episode of Two and a Half Men. I couldn't ask for anything better than that."

Perry knows he owes a lot to Friends, including the ability to reboot a classic sitcom on a major network.

"Being on Friends has allowed me to have my pick of a lot of TV shows I want to do," Perry said. "I try to choose things that are generally off the beaten path. But [The Odd Couple] is straight down the line, just an attempt to be funny on a big hit show."

As for why Perry finds himself returning to a multi-cam format over and over again?

"I am doing The Odd Couple because my attempt at being a movie star failed," Perry joked during the panel.

He elaborated more after the panel ended.

"I have to work," Perry said with a laugh. "There was a time when Friends was over when I was like, 'Oh, I can retire now if I want!' I guess I did that for six months but there's only so many video games a man can play. I decided I needed to go back to work, and I've had fun writing, too. It's fun, and I need to do it. I need that creative outlet."

And now that all 10 seasons of Friends have made their way to Netflix, Perry is amazed at how many new fans are discovering the show decades later.

"That's what's interesting is that it's reaching a whole new audience," Perry said. "Younger people are now watching it and saying that it stands the test of time because we didn't do too many topical jokes, which makes it good."

For his part, though, Perry doesn't feel the need to watch old episodes. "I sometimes go back and watch the blooper reels, because they're so much fun to watch. But no, I don't go back to watch."

Even though all the Friends alums have shot down rumors of a reunion many times before, we still had to ask...because it's like standing at a water fountain, thirsty, without trying to drink water...any chance the cast will get together in any capacity?

"It's still on all the time!" Perry said with a laugh. "Listen, there's always talk about a reunion, but there's no real talk about that. There's been no talk about a reunion. We try to get together and have dinner once in a while, and even that's hard to do! We've just told all the stories that needed to be told. We told 237 of them."

Now excuse us while we go watch all 237 of those via Netflix. No, we're not obsessed, you're obsessed!