‘Desperate Networks:’ ‘Friends’ To The End, Part V

As soon as Zucker and Graboff left, Roth and Rosenblum satdown to discuss the offer, which Roth found stunning, exquisite,and remarkable. More than that, the executives acknowledged thatthe bold bid clearly meant Zucker?s need for the show was overwhelming.This was Warner?s network partner coming out and sayingit needed the studio to push for this show to go on and it waswilling to pay an enormous price to accomplish that. ?Jeff is ourpartner here,? Roth said. ?We can?t not support this.?

For Roth the unexpected NBC offer had additional impact,because it had the potential to alter a plan he had been working onfor months, a means to keep some of that golden Friends revenuestream flowing.

After the end of the previous Friends negotiation, with WarnerBrothers laying down its $10 million ransom note, Zucker planted aseed with Peter Roth. In a social conversation, Zucker kickedaround the notion of what NBC and Warner might do in terms of aspin-off to Friends.

In the conversation, Roth and Zucker had come to the same conclusion:The one potential sequel they could foresee would be ashow with Matt LeBlanc reprising his Joey character with a differentsupporting cast of characters. The perfect model was Frasier, inwhich a popular supporting player from Cheers was sent off to a differentcity to head his own show?with spectacular results.

Roth firmly believed Matt LeBlanc was coming into his own. Atthe start of the series, he had been considered the cast?s weak link,more a comic device than a character. His Joey character wouldcome into a scene, say something mind-bendingly stupid, get aquick laugh, and the scene would go on from there. He seldomdrove any story line, because there simply wasn?t that much to dowith him. And LeBlanc did not seem an overly gifted actor.

The first time that the Friends cast held out for a big raise,Warner and NBC had considered dumping LeBlanc from the castrather than pay him the same rate as the other, far more valuableactors.

But in more recent years the writers had fleshed out the Joeycharacter, increasing his role in the show. The audience responded.Joey?s popularity soared, particularly when the plot called for himto fall for Rachel (Aniston). In 2001?2002, Joey had a breakoutseason.

Roth had also developed a personal bond with LeBlanc. Hefound him to be smart, engaging, and really a good businessmanabout his career. The plan in the fall of 2002 was for Roth to pitchLeBlanc personally on the idea of continuing Joey in his own series,starting in September 2003. He met LeBlanc for dinner at an L.A.restaurant called Pinot Bistro. Roth let LeBlanc settle in beforegoing at him with the earnest, arm-around-the-back sincerity thatwas Roth?s personal style.

?Matt, I?m here tonight representing both Warner Brothers andNBC,? Roth said. ?We think you?re terrific. We want to do some-thing with you. Let?s let tonight be a very loose first conversationthat would incentivize you to do another show.?

?Sounds all right to me,? LeBlanc said.

?Okay,? Roth said. ?If you could wave a wand and have any showyou wanted, what would it be??

LeBlanc didn?t have to think about it. ?Well, the one thing Iknow is that I would not want to play Joey Tribbiani.? He also indicatedhe might prefer to take a year off before he did anything.

This was not what Peter Roth wanted to hear, of course. But hewas undaunted. ?You know, I?m a student of television,? Roth continued.

?I have been for thirty years. If you think about Seinfeld,each of the supporting actors waited a year and then played a differentcharacter in a new show. And that didn?t work out for any ofthem. Whereas Kelsey Grammer stayed as Frasier the very next yearafter Cheers, moved to Seattle, took advantage of the momentumand the popularity that the character had.?

Roth wanted to plant that thought and move on. ?But you knowwhat?I hear you and we?ll talk again.?

By the next meeting, a lunch, things had gotten serious. LeBlancbrought his lawyer and agent along. Now Roth revved into a passionatespeech.

?Guys, I need your help,? he said. ?I want a Joey sequel to happennext year. I?m well aware of the risks of a spin-off. I choose tolive my life half-full, not half-empty. I believe you could create historyhere, Matt. I really do. While people can certainly separateMatt LeBlanc from the character, people are in love with Joey. Wehave to take advantage of momentum. If we wait a year, lethargy willset in. It will never work.?

LeBlanc was still cautious. He had the most to gain by setting offon his own, but he also had the most to lose if he made a wrongchoice. The talks went on. Finally, in September, Roth arrangedanother dinner at Pinot Bistro. This time LeBlanc said words Rothwanted to hear: ?I?m open to it.?

In the following weeks, Roth approached Kauffman and Crane,more or less as a courtesy. He knew they would not want to con-tinue on a Joey sequel. But he needed their blessing to go on usingthe character they had created. They agreed and began talkingabout which members of their writing staff had the skill to bring offthe new show. Kauffman and Crane recommended Scott Silveri andShauna Goldberg, a writing team?and romantic partners in reallife. Roth had them lined up and thinking about a format for theJoey show, with Frasier as the prototype.

These talks were well under way when Jeff Zucker turned upwith his $10 million offer. Roth shut down the work being doneon Joey. The spin-off would still be there after another year ofFriends?and would likely even benefit from a year of gestation.

Zucker followed up his gambit at Warner Brothers by scheduling abig meeting with the myriad representatives?managers, agents,lawyers?of the six-person Friends cast. NBC was going to be payingthe full costs of the show?at $10 million an episode, WarnerBrothers would finally not need to deficit a cent?so nobody fromWarners had any reason to be involved in the negotiations with thecast. Zucker put Graboff in charge.

He began by putting the same offer as the season before on thetable: $1 million per star for each of twenty-four episodes. NBC alsoset a deadline to close the deal of early December?knowing fullwell somebody would try to stretch that out.

In most of the previous five-act negotiations with the Friendscast, David Schwimmer had played the Hamlet role, always unsure,expressing reservations about going on with the show, about stayingtoo long, about needing to do other things in his career. In general,the most amenable stars were Courteney Cox and Jennifer Aniston.That?s what Graboff expected to encounter again.

This time it was just the opposite. Schwimmer?whose foraysinto ?other things in his career? had mostly fizzled?was happily onboard early. Cox, on the other hand, was instantly resistant. Graboffand Zucker could not quite grasp what her objections were; sheseemed to be trying to be difficult for the sake of being difficult. Butit seemed resolvable.

Aniston, however, had NBC genuinely worried. With her Rachelcharacter having given birth at the close of the preceding season,and then becoming confused about which guy she really loved,Aniston had sincere questions about the future story lines forRachel. She also had the most promising shot at a film career. Withher marriage to movie icon Brad Pitt, Aniston was now also thehighest-profile star in the Friends firmament.

As always with the Friends negotiations, it was all for oneand one for all, so NBC could not hope to break one star off andstill have a show. After much wrangling, Aniston finally agreed to atleast the concept of one more season, but she would only agree toparticipate in twelve episodes. That wasn?t going to carry NBCthrough a full season of Thursday nights. NBC still pushed fortwenty-four.

The haggling went on. Zucker himself got on the phone severaltimes with the cast members. NBC tried to break the impasse byattempting a compromise: It dropped its order to twenty-twoepisodes, then twenty. Still Aniston would not come to terms.With the deadline looming NBC made a final offer of eighteenepisodes, the minimum it felt it could stretch out to a full season?srun. Aniston generously deigned to say yes?as did the rest of thecast.

Of course, some financial issues remained. Things got stickyagain.

At 3 P.M. on Friday, December 20, the last business day beforethe holiday season (when all of Hollywood shuts down tight), Rothgot word: The deal was off. NBC was walking away. The negotiationshad broken down over?what else??money. Roth went off tothe Warner Brothers holiday party that evening depressed. He wasconvinced it was over.

As it happened, Friday was taping night for Friends, so the castwas at the sound stage working. Roth periodically interrupted thepartying at the Warner offices to take a call about the talks. Theonly good news he heard was that Kevin Bright was offering himselfas arbiter, but the prospects still seemed dim.

The NBC executives were feeling exasperated, but not defeated.

The cast members (through their agents) were pushing for themoon: they wanted to be paid for twenty-four episodes even thoughthey would now only shoot eighteen. They were asking for biggertrailers, use of company planes, the Hollywood works. Zucker andGraboff realized that if they were ever going to conclude a deal, itcouldn?t be this way, with concession after concession. They werebeing bled dry. They were going to have to reach deep and send amessage.

So at 3 P.M. Zucker and Graboff put out word that they werewalking away. The demands were too much. Zucker sent a note toBob Wright, saying, ?We tried, but we couldn?t get a deal done.? Itsounded like a concession speech, but it wasn?t. It was an all-outgame of chicken.

Graboff stayed in his office late into the night, wondering if theFriends side would cave?and condescend to take the fortune thatNBC was laying at their feet. At the same time, on a stage not faraway in Burbank, during breaks in the taping of the episode, thecast convened in what they called their ?clubhouse? and sent messagesout to Kevin Bright, who would periodically call Graboff andupdate him on where things stood. The agents no longer seemed tobe involved.

With NBC threatening to take its money and go home, it becameclear to the Friends cast that they could agree to scarf up their $18million each, or walk away and leave that boodle on the table. At 11P.M., the call came. The cast would accept NBC?s last offer?withone modification. One of the eighteen episodes had to be a clipshow; the stars essentially insisted on getting $1 million apiece for ashow they didn?t work on at all. NBC gave in.

Peter Roth, home from his party at this point, got a call tellinghim it was all going to work out after all.

NBC would get a final season of Thursday nights under the safekeepingof its ten-year-old hit comedy; Warner Brothers would collectthe biggest haul ever doled out for a half-hour television series,$180 million; six comedy actors would walk off with more cash forseventeen weeks of work than Chaplin made in his career; and JeffZucker would get one last chance to make his bones in Hollywoodby finding a real hit he could stick his name on.

Back to the wall, Zucker would somehow have to find the showthat could hold on to Thursday night, the most valuable piece ofreal estate on television, the house that Cosby, Cheers, Seinfeld, andFriends built.