Max has greenlit a four-part Friends-themed game show in honor of the classic sitcom’s 30th anniversary this year.
Titled Fast Friends, the game show will “take place in the celebrated series’ iconic sets in a fast-paced competition event,” a press release states.
“From racing through Rachel and Monica’s apartment to darting across Joey and Chandler’s bachelor pad and grabbing a coffee at Central Perk, fans will re-live their favorite moments while being put to the test with trivia, puzzles, and games that will keep even the most die-hard FRIENDS fans on their toes. The quickest team will win the title of Ultimate Friends Fan.”
Touted as a first of its kind, the series is scheduled to begin production next month at The FRIENDS Experience: The One in New York City, “a NYC flagship location featuring 18 nostalgia-filled rooms, activations, and recreated sets, spanning two stories and 17,000 square feet dedicated to the show’s history.”
In addition to the forthcoming game show, the streamer will also pay tribute to the comedy by offering Max Ultimate Ad-Free subscribers the opportunity to enjoy their favorite Friends episodes in 4K UHD with Dolby Vision and HDR10 on supported devices.
This premium format is said to enhance the show’s viewing experience, allowing fans to spot “baby Ben before Joey and Chandler with sharper details, experience the iconic prom video and savor Joey’s Dr Drake Ramoray scenes with enhanced clarity, and have Ross’s unforgettable white-teeth mishap dazzle them on screen.”
Friends first debuted 30 years ago this month. The show, which follows a group of six twentysomethings – Rachel (Jennifer Aniston), Monica (Courteney Cox), Ross (David Schwimmer), Chandler (Matthew Perry), Joey (Matt LeBlanc) and Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) – living in New York City, ran for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004.
Aisha Tyler, who starred as Charlie, the series’s only recurring Black character, recently reflected on how the show changed her life.
“It did change my life,” she told The Independent, “but not in a ‘fame and fortune, and she rode in on a tiger, people are feeding her grapes’ sort of way. I still went back to the drawing board and was a working actor after that. But it made me more confident as a performer, to trust my instincts and my comic abilities.
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“And we’re still talking about it all these years later. I don’t know that there are a lot of shows that have been off the air for more than two decades that people still watch on a daily basis and new fans find all the time,” Tyler added.
“Little kids come up to me and say they love the show and I’m like, ‘You were not alive when I was on that show! You were not yet born’ It’s rare to be on a show like that and end up in the collective memory.”