Friends 4K Re-Release Would Look Amazing, Says Producer

Friends executive producer Kevin Bright says the show is a candidate for re-release in 4K. The smash-hit series created by Marta Kauffman and David Crane premiered in 1994 with “The One Where Monica Gets A Roommate.” The NBC show followed six twenty-somethings navigating life and love in Manhattan, a premise at least partially inspired by the success of Fox sitcom Living Single. Friends was critically acclaimed, heavily awarded, and the series finale is the fifth most-watched series finale in television history with 52.5 million American viewers.

Seventeen years after the sitcom aired its final episode, Friends: The Reunion brought the six main cast members back together to reminisce on their ten seasons together as Monica, Ross, Rachel, Phoebe, Joey, and Chandler. “The One Where They Get Back Together” also featured cameos from celebrity guest stars and fans of the show, including Reese Witherspoon and Mindy Kaling. Friends‘ run coincided with several other hugely successful sitcoms, but few shows have permeated the American zeitgeist with such intensity and for so long.

Executive producer and frequent episode director Kevin Bright revealed that while no new content is currently planned, the original run of Friends is a candidate to be re-released in true 4K. Speaking with THR, Bright said:

“I’d like to see all the shows remastered in 4K for the future. I remastered 12 of the episodes for movie theaters two years ago and got to see the original negatives and do color correction on them. It’s night and day, even from HD. That’s what I’d like to get over the fence next.”

Bright, Crane, and Kauffman all emphasized that they were happy with how the show originally ended and emphatically rejected calls for a spin-off series. Bright produced the 2004 spin-off Joey, which starred Matt LeBlanc as the beloved Joey Tribbiani, but told THR he wasn’t happy with the show’s storyline and that it didn’t capture the same magic of Friends. Crane described Friends‘ success as “lightning in a bottle with a perfect cast” and noted the low odds of recreating such a massive hit. Friends is currently available to stream on HBO Max in HD.

Several movies, music videos, and even cartoons have gotten special 4K re-releases in recent years, but a 4K re-release of the entirety of Friends would mean remastering 236 episodes. If Bright or one of his colleagues takes on this challenge, it could certainly take a while. But with such a strong fanbase and so much enthusiasm following the reunion special, a re-release will surely spur plenty of rewatches and maybe even entice some first-time viewers. There’s unlikely to be more brand new Friends content anytime soon given the seventeen-year gap between the series finale and Friends: The Reunion, so a 4K re-release might be exactly what the die-hard fans need to tide them over for another seventeen years.

Source: THR

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