20th anniversary of “Friends” celebrated with episode marathon, Central Perk replica

Jeff Pfeiffer

12 years ago

On Sept. 22, 1994, the sitcom Friends began its 10-season run on NBC, eventually launching its cast — Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer — into stardom, winning a few Emmys, inspiring the “Rachel” haircut among some women, and ensuring itself of an extended life in reruns.

One of the networks that shows the most Friends reruns, TBS, will be celebrating the show’s 20th anniversary this Sept. 22 — 20 years to the day of its premiere — with a 20-episode marathon from 10am-8pm ET/PT. The marathon will consist of episodes chosen by fans to be the best (fans are invited to vote for their favorites by submitting their choices via Facebook and Twitter, using the hashtag #FavoriteFriends.

If you live in or are visiting New York over the next month and are a Friends fan, you’ll have another interesting way of celebrating the series’ 20th anniversary. This week, Warner Bros. Television constructed the pop-up replica of Central Perk, the coffee shop hangout for the gang on the show, seen below.

The fully functioning pop-up Central Perk coffee bar is located at 199 Lafayette Street (at the corner of Broome Street) in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood. It will serve free cups of Eight O’Clock Coffee, including a limited-edition Central Perk Roast, specially created for this occasion. There will be weekly in-store performances (a release says they will be akin to Phoebe’s improvised songs, such as “Smelly Cat”), and photo ops will be available on the re-created Central Perk set, including the actual orange couch from the show.

The shop’s business hours are Mondays-Fridays from 8am-8pm, and Saturdays-Sundays from 10am-8pm. It will remain open through Saturday, Oct. 18.

The TBS Favorite Friends marathon airs Sept. 22 from 10am-8pm ET/PT.

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