‘Friends’ 30th anniversary ‘tense’ after Matthew Perry’s death: Creators

30th anniversary Friends on Sunday, September 22, comes as fans and those who worked on the show continue to mourn star Matthew Perry, who died less than a year ago from the harsh effects of ketamine anesthesia. New information has recently emerged about Perry’s use of ketamine in recent days, as those who allegedly helped him obtain the drug have been arrested and charged.

And the creators of the hit NBC sitcom, Marta Kauffman and David Crane, and executive producer Kevin S. Bright, recognize how Perry’s death has cast a shadow over what would otherwise have been a time of celebration.

“It’s a huge loss and it does make Day 30 a little tense,” Kauffman said in an interview with Crane and Bright that aired Friday. Today show, Bright added, “He made us laugh every day.”

Returning to Perry’s highly publicized struggles with addiction and how he seemed to be doing better in the years leading up to his death, Bright said, “He fought for such a good cause for so long, and I really felt like from the cast reunion (2021) that he finally found some peace.”

Shortly after Perry’s death, according to those who knew and loved him, Friends the star paid tribute to him, Kauffman said Today that she spoke to Perry two weeks before his death and the actor was “happy and joyful. He didn’t seem overwhelmed by anything. He was in a really good place, which is why it seems so unfair.”

“He seemed better than I’d seen him in a while,” she said at the time. “I was so excited to see that. He was in a good emotional state. He looked good. He’d quit smoking. Yes, he was sober. He’d learned a lot of things through it, and most importantly, he learned that he wanted to help other addicts, and that gave him a purpose.”

However, over the summer, five people were charged in an investigation into Perry’s death that exposed a “widespread underground criminal network.”

In a separate anniversary interview for the British TimesBut conducted before the latest wave of arrests in Perry’s death, Kauffman and Crane spoke about Perry’s struggle with addiction.

“When we realized that, we were already a family on so many levels,” Crane said. “There was a point where we said to him, ‘Do you want to stop (being on the show)?’ And he was like, ‘No, this is really important to me.’”

Meanwhile, Kaufmann, repeating what she said Today She spoke to Perry via FaceTime last year “about two weeks before” his death, when Perry “seemed really good,” and said she hoped fans would remember one of the show’s beloved stars.

“I can think of two things (to honor him): one is to donate to addiction treatment centers — let’s fight the disease,” she said. “The other way is to watch Friends and remember him not as a man who died like that, but as a man who was funny and brought joy to everyone.”