Burrows had asked then-president/CEO of Warner Bros. Television,Les Moonves, if he could “borrow the corporate jet to take the young cast to Las Vegas.” The trip probably proved to be one of the best decision Burrows and the network ever made.
“I made a reservation for just the seven of us at Spago. I asked for the center table in the restaurant, where everyone could see us,” Burrows recalls. “I knew the show had a chance to really take off and told the kids, ‘This is your last shot at anonymity. Once the show airs, you guys will never be able to go anywhere without being hounded.’ None of them believed me. None of them had any money at that point either, so I gave each of them a couple of hundred bucks to go gamble.”
He continues, “I laid out $1,400. If the math doesn’t seem right, it’s because[Matt] LeBlanchad no idea how to play craps and he lost his $200 in seconds, so I gave him another $200,” he continues. “They went back to Los Angeles, the show premiered, they’ve never had a shot at anonymity since, and they each wrote me reimbursement checks for the money I gave them.”
Friendscast.Reisig & Taylor/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty
Friendsran on NBC for 10 seasons airing between 1994 and 2004, starring LeBlanc (Joey Tribbiani),Jennifer Aniston(Rachel Green),Courteney Cox(Monica Geller),Lisa Kudrow(Phoebe Buffay),Matthew Perry(Chandler Bing) andDavid Schwimmer(Ross Geller).
Burrows shares in his memoir that it took two episodes for him “to get a shorthand with the cast,” and the group was able to become “real friends” thereafter.
“It was about bonding,” he adds. “They genuinely adored one another. A director and cast live for that kind of connection.”
(L-R) David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc, James Burrows, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox and Lisa Kudrow.Chris Haston/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty
As Burrows tells it, he was instrumental in the cast banding together to negotiate their famous raise to each get $1 million per episode.
“After the first season, the group sought my advice about how to renegotiate their contracts,” he writes. “I advised them to negotiate as a group and stay in lockstep financially. Negotiating with the six individually would have given the network leverage against each of them. Since it was clear that there were no subsidiary characters in the series, it made sense to me for them to stick together.”
He explains, “The show was a home run. If the network could pay six million dollars an episode to the group, you could only imagine how much money they were making. By negotiating separately and pitting them against one another, the network could have easily destroyed all the chemistry they’d developed. If you have equally talented people who become a family, you need to treat them that way. It’s the right thing to do and it’s also good business.”
Of course, the move became a game-changer for the industry: “In what made international news at the time, it became precedent for sitcom stars to be paid the same amount. After the second season, each of theWill & Gracestars also got paid the same amount for the duration of the show, for the same reason that theFriendsstars did — they had all become equals.”
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In the years since its departure from air,Friends' popularity has only grown amid the streaming age. Last year, the continued love for the series remained evident when the entire cast came together foran HBO Max reunion special.
“It was an incredible time,” Cox, 57, told her costars during the reunion. “Everything came together. We became best friends through just the chemistry, the whole thing. It was life-changing and it forever will be — not just for us, but for people who watch it, and that’s such a great feeling to carry forever. I’m really thankful, and I love you guys so much.”
source: people.com
