THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 23, 1995 TAG: 9502220049
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 80 lines
WHILE IT'S still cool to watch ``Melrose Place'' - Kimberly is completely out of control! - it's even cooler to get all wrapped up in ``Friends.''
The NBC sitcom tonight settles into the 9:30 time slot after ``Seinfeld.''
To make it a special night for ``Friends,'' the network has scheduled a two-part episode that begins at 8:30 and picks up at 9:30 when ``Seinfeld'' signs off. It's a sweeps week stunt that has characters from two other popular NBC shows, ``Mad About You'' and ``ER,'' mixing it up with Rachel, Phoebe, Joey and their friends who hang out at a Manhattan coffee house.
When they talk, it's about nothing much.
``So, you know what, Monica?
``Every day you are becoming more and more like your mother.''
This kind of empty chatter among unmarrieds living in Manhattan worked for ``Seinfeld,'' and it's working for ``Friends.'' It took a while for ``Seinfeld'' to catch on, while ``Friends'' has emerged as a top 20 show - once it finished No. 6 - in its first season.
``It's been an incredible ride,'' said Matt LeBlanc, who plays struggling actor Joey Tribbiani, a key player in tonight's two-parter.
A year ago, he was a struggling actor for real.
``I was in a little slump. . . .''
Today, he's one of the six hottest actors in prime time television, in the cast of a show that speaks for that young, spoiled, unsettled, untested-by-war group that somebody labeled Generation X. ``Friends'' is a charming ensemble piece with the ingredient found in all successful series: the characters have heart and are eminently likable.
It doesn't hurt that all six have sex appeal.
One of the six, Lisa Kudrow, has a role on both ``Friends'' and ``Mad About You.'' She's Phoebe Buffay to her five friends on ``Friends,'' and to Helen Hunt and Paul Reiser of ``Mad About You,'' she's Ursula, the ditzy waitress.
Somebody at the Bright-Kauffman-Crane producing team got the idea to cast Kudrow as twin sisters in tonight's episodes. They wrote a scene in which Hunt and her friend from ``Mad About You,'' Leila Kenzel, drop in for coffee and cookies at the place where Phoebe and her friends hang out.
They see Phoebe and think she's Ursula.
Later, two more friends from ``Friends,'' LeBlanc and Matthew Perry, drop in at the place where Hunt and Reiser eat. They see Ursula and think she's Phoebe.
The producers extracted an hour's worth of laughs from this situation, plus another little story in which two more friends on ``Friends,'' Courteney Cox and Jennifer Aniston, meet two doctors from ``ER.''
Enter George Clooney and Noah Wyle.
LeBlanc gets to date Ursula and kiss Phoebe.
He said he is astounded by the show's high ratings, hearing the constant buzz about the series, seeing his face on magazine covers after less than 20 episodes have been on the air. Why is it all happening so fast for ``Friends''?
LeBlanc said he has it all figured out.
``There are so many of us on the show, and we are all so different from one another, that the audience finds somebody to identify with every week,'' he said. ``They yell at the screen, `Hey, I do that. That's me!' If the guys watching are not like me, they're probably like the characters played by Matthew or David. If you're a woman, you can identify with Courteney or Jennifer.''
That would be Jennifer Aniston. David is David Schwimmer, who gets all tied up in Lamaze class tonight.
LeBlanc said he had never met Cox, Aniston, Kudrow, Perry and Schwimmer before the pilot was filmed.
``We were six strangers, six actors with similar intentions to do a good show. We clicked just like that,'' he said.
Yes, the cast clicked. And they benefit from sharply written dialogue and crisp direction by James Burrows of ``Cheers'' that stretches the viewer's attention span. Who would dare reach for the remote when Phoebe is about to say something profound?
Note to female Xers: Hunky Le-Blanc is single. His passion is motorcycles. ILLUSTRATION: NBC color photo
Lisa Kudrow...Matthew Perry
by CNB