TV GUIDE FLASHBACK: "Friends" Debut, 20 Years Ago

They were there for you... 20 years ago tonight. It's been two decades since "Friends" launched on September 22, 1994. To mark the milestone, here are some clips from the launch, as seen in TV Guide Magazine.







See also: How TV Guide Magazine covered the launch of "Lost," 10 Years Ago Today

Remembering The Era of "Must See TV"

(Pic by Kevin Parry Photography)

I first started covering the TV business in 1995, right after graduating from college -- and right at the start of NBC's 1990s "Must See TV" heyday. NBC was enjoying the fruits of a remarkable development season that yielded "ER" and "Friends," which joined a lineup that also included "Seinfeld" and "Frasier." Later, "Will & Grace" would join that schedule.

As I wrote stories every week about NBC's ratings juggernaut, the Peacock network's ratings advantage, particularly on Thursday nights, seemed unreal. In fact, the other networks pretty much rolled over and played dead on Thursdays for several of those years. Warren Littlefield, who headed up NBC Entertainment when he and his team built that powerful schedule, just wrote a book about those heady days. "Top of the Rock: Inside the Rise and Fall of Must See TV" is a fun read – a nostalgic look back at the days before the networks were managing for margins and picking up shows with a 1 rating in the demo.


David Nevins, me, Noah Wyle, Warren Littlefield, Marta Kauffman and James Burrows

On Monday I moderated a panel at the Paley Center featuring Littlefield; master TV director Jimmy Burrows (whose countless credits include "Cheers" and "Will & Grace"); "Friends" co-creator Marta Kauffman; "ER" star Noah Wyle; and former NBC exec David Nevins, now the entertainment president at Showtime. We chatted about the birth of "Friends," "ER" and "Will & Grace" and what it was like to launch those shows. We also talked about Burrows' knack as the "pilot whisperer" for directing shows that make it to air, and how shows like "ER" and "Frasier" almost didn't happen.

To prep for Monday night's panel, I combed through my old late-1990s issues of Electronic Media (where I worked during Littlefield's NBC tenure) and went through my own trip down memory lane. Here's my 1998 profile of Burrows:



And here's my 1998 profile of "Friends" creators Bright/Kauffman/Crane:



Littlefield was shown the door at NBC in late 1998; "Must See TV" itself was finally gone by 2004, the year that "The Apprentice" was given the Thursday 9 p.m. slot.

Since I was moderating, I couldn't take notes, but here's some coverage of the event:

The Futon Critic (Jim Halterman)

L.A. Weekly (Ali Trachta)

For more pics from the event, go here.

Hollywood Christmas Parade Catches Our Pal Jessica Off-Guard

Our pal Jessica brought her kids to the El Capitan in Hollywood yesterday to see "The Muppet Movie." When she came out, she was pretty much trapped from going home by the Hollywood Christmas Parade. KCBS/KCAL's cameras were there -- and caught her surprise! See above.

VIDEO: Jason Biggs in "Congratulations"

Congratulations! from Jason Biggs

Our pals Tony and Becky were the writers behind this short for Funny or Die, "Congratulations." A young expectant couple, a pregnancy appointment... and an unusual discovery. Watch, then click "funny"!

Another 99 Cents Only Store Haul

I had heard about the mythical 99 Cents Only wine deals -- but had never seen it with my own eyes. Until Wednesday night.

We were in Bellflower -- yes, Bellflower. It's off the 105, near Norwalk. Look it up -- Wednesday night to visit our pals Anthony and Candice, who just gave birth to Baby No. 2. Across the street from the Kaiser Permanente sits a strip mall with the two beacons of close-out shopping: Big Lots and 99 Cents Only. We, of course, headed straight to the promised land.



And there it was -- a full shelf of a wide variety of wines. None of which sounded familiar, and most of which came from Australia.

What the hell, it's 99 cents. We're gonna experiment. We picked up a shiraz from South Africa (Matuba) and a sauvignon blanc from the California Central coast ("Thirsty Fish"). I can't find much info about either brand -- particularly the mysterious Thirsty Fish -- on the Internet. Hmm. Not a good sign.


Our candy intake was small this time, and all in the 59 cent range: Milka (which expires this week, by the way); a strange and pretty terrible (yes, I already tried it) 3 Musketeers-branded bar called "Generation Max"; "Monster Malts"; and a Vanilla Latte-flavored granola bar branded by Caribou Coffee.

The 3 Musketeers Generation Max bar was "Chocolate Strawberry Brownie" flavor -- pretty much an insult to chocolate, strawberries and brownies.


One of our favorite and hard-to-find items at the 99 Cents Only store: Ink jet printer ink. Talk about saving money. Too bad it's hard to find -- this is the absolute only one we located at the Bellflower location.


Nectarines!


This is one of those things that we tend to buy then never actually use or eat. "Hey, I love chai, let's buy this and drink chai tea more often."

Cut to three years later, when I rediscover this container collecting dust in the back of the pantry.


The Koala Brothers! Not well known here in the U.S., but Evan was a big fan at one point.

Maria's Thursday Three

1. Not So Amazing Goths: I was so dissapointed that Goths Kynt and Vyxsin were eliminated on the last episode of The Amazing Race. Why they didn't yield Team Bickering Couple will forever be a mystery. And the slow realization that Jennifer and Nathan might just win the race annoys me. I'm now pulling for Nicolas and Donald to win, even though I thought they would be the first ones to get eliminated. Maybe doing something drastic like getting a tattoo for the race will give them good karma.

2. Rose Parade Aftermath: Driving down Colorado Blvd. on New Year's Day made me so angry, as people who camped out just left all their trash on the street. What a disgusting sight seeing trash everywhere. No wonder the businesses along the boulevard take extra precaution to use chain-link fences to protect their property.


3. Fomato Cards: Our friend Emmie is the creator of the very clever Fomato Cards. Go ahead, check her fun site and see samples of her greeting cards. When I see them at the store, I want to buy each and every one to give to people.

Serendipity in New York

Los Angeles is my town, but I gotta admit: New York can offer up some magical moments that just never happen back home.

Walking the streets of New York on Thursday, it happened to me not once, but twice: I randomly ran into two friends (both of whom, by the way, I have in my "friends + family" links in the bar to the right). Both of them spotted me first, and neither of them actually live in New York. What are the odds?

First up: Thursday morning, racing to Madison Square Garden to see the CW's upfront presentation, I walk past a guy with a shaved head. I don't really notice him, because I'm late to the CW -- and my mind is elsewhere. Suddenly, I hear my name being called.

"Mike?! It's Levi!"

My old Northwestern U. dormmate Levi -- I'd forgotten that he'd shaved his head, and didn't recognize him at first -- lives in Chicago and works for the University of Chicago Press, but was in Manhattan for business. How random that we bumped into each other on a random street in New York! We hadn't seen each other since two of our other dormmates got married a few years ago, but Levi and I have occasionally traded emails -- he even sent us a book a few months ago. But we obviously had no idea we were both in the city. Also interesting: We'd both met up with other -- but separate -- former dormmates while in town.

Then, Thursday night, while walking back to my hotel from the East Village at 1 a.m. -- yup, 1 a.m., I'm strolling down Park Avenue when I look up and see my pal Emmie from L.A. I knew Emmie would be in town for a greeting card trade show (check out her cool site here and buy some stuff, yo!) -- but I didn't get a chance to call her about meeting up, since we were both too busy. But fate intervened -- and we still bumped into each other, a thousand miles away from home -- on a virtually deserted street in the middle of the night.

Only in New York, kids, only in New York.

(Flickr pic by Helico.)