The 10-year anniversary of the Friends series finale may be this May, but cocreators Marta Kauffman and David Crane still finished each other’s sentences like they haven’t taken a day off during a NATPE Q&A last week moderated by B&C editor-in-chief Melissa Grego.
The duo weighed in on a range of topics, from the chances of a reunion for the show (Crane: “As far as we’re concerned, zero.”) and their advice to The Big Bang Theory producers on what to do during cast salary negotiations to the state of the network sitcom and the worst notes they ever received. The talk was part of the storyteller track of the conference that also included Q&As with James L. Brooks, Terence Winter, Andy Cohen, filmmaker Jon Chu, Grace Helbig and Brian Robbins. Highlights of the conversation follow.
CAST NEGOTIATIONS:
CRANE: “Stay out of it.”
KAUFFMAN: “Our thing was they’ve got to be paid the same amount. Beyond that, bye-bye. You guys figure it out.”
CURRENT STATE OF THE NETWORK SITCOM:
CRANE: “I will never do a network show again.”
KAUFFMAN: “The sitcom has got to be reinvented if it’s going to work on network TV.”
WORST NOTES THEY EVER RECEIVED:
KAUFFMAN: “We were planning an episode where it was Rachel’s birthday, and the question from the network was: ‘How will we know it’s her birthday?’”
