It’s been three decades since the world found six new Friends in Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston), Monica Geller (Courteney Cox), Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow), Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry), Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc), and Ross Geller (David Schwimmer). Now, Max is honoring the beloved sitcom with a new four-part game show.
Fast Friends features pairs of some of the most devoted Friends fanatics, who compete for the title of The Ultimate Fast Friends Champion through Friends-inspired challenges. Host and fellow Friends fan Whitney Cummings thought she knew a lot about the sitcom, until she heard the questions that contestants were faced with.
“They were beasts with the trivia,” she told DECIDER.
Shot at The Friends Experience: The One in New York City, contestants were transported to iconic parts of the Friends set, including Central Perk, Monica and Rachel’s apartment, and Joey and Chandler’s apartment.
During a visit to the set, OGX Productions‘ former SVP, Revenue Operations Allison Niedermeier explained to DECIDER that the show’s creators approached them about “build[ing] out Monica’s Closet of Doom,” which she said was an addition to The Friends Experience’s flagship location.
“As a Monica, [it] was a really fun thing [to] add,” Niedermeier added. “It’s just really Monica’s secret little closet of treasures. So that’s been a new add that the contestants will be playing with that isn’t traditionally in the Experience, but hopefully we’ll be able to keep it.”
Despite there being “so many amazing” moments on those sets while filming Fast Friends, Cummings felt that “something really magical” took place while shooting in the show’s taxicab, which she called an “unsung hero” of the series.
“To me, the best drug at this point, I’ve tried them all — most of them — is nostalgia,” the comedian quipped. “I think just being in a cab, much less the Friends cab, where so many iconic moments happened, there was just something so comforting about it.”
As for her favorite Fast Friends game to film, she recalled the one where contestants were tasked with listening to voicemails from the infamous Janice (Maggie Wheeler) — Cummings’ “favorite character from Friends” — who actually makes an appearance on the game show.
“Watching the contestants see Janice in person… it was very overwhelming,” she shared. “To see Janice in the living room of the Friends set, it just took it to another level of just being completely surreal. “
Cummings gushed about Janice’s “shrill” persona, teasing that her own similarities with the character allowed her to believe she could be on television.
“I came into this business and all the girls on TV were like the blonde, cute girl next door,” Cummings explained. “They were the setup girls. They were never the punch line girls.”
Citing The Golden Girls, Married… with Children, and Martin — and also giving a “special shoutout” to The Nanny star Fran Drescher — Cummings pointed out how comedic female roles on those shows, and especially Friends, gave her hope.
“All the characters on Friends, the women were always so complex,” she said. “I hate saying ‘strong woman’ because to me that’s redundant, but just unique and specific. They had self-respect and boundaries and could be messy, but also super together. There were so many great female characters on that show, but Janice in particular was a really big deal for me.”
Cummings also highlighted how Friends “had a huge impact on [her] making sitcoms,” commending the “warmth” and “studio audience element” of such shows.
“Once I got to Hollywood and wanted to make a multi-cam, I was being told, ‘Those are outdated. It’s corny. It’s cheesy,'” she remembered. “And I’m like, I don’t buy that, because why are all my friends and family still watching Friends reruns all the time instead of any of this stuff, you know? So Friends really helped me trust my gut and go, ‘You can make a great multi-cam’ and the ‘laugh track,’ which is an audience. Just don’t worry about the negativity. Just keep going, make a great show, and people will find it the way that they did with Friends.”
After seeing “a couple of advance cuts” of Fast Friends alongside loved ones, Cummings said “the coolest thing” about the game show has been seeing them “playing along” as they watch.
“Interactive television I think is so not only just entertaining and so fun, but for when the holidays roll around, [Fast Friends is] a show where you can sit around with your family and play along,” she said. “To be able to give people the opportunity to have an hour with your family that does not involve politics or talking about any current events or fighting about news.”
She also pointed out how the show spans generations in terms of its fanbase, meaning so many people can bask in the “pure entertainment and pure fun” that is Fast Friends.
“I think it will really bring people together in a wholesome, super fun, super cool way,” she said.
Fast Friends premieres on Thursday, Dec. 19 on Max. New episodes of the four-part game show will debut subsequent Thursdays through January 9. Check out the trailer above.