D.O.A.?

‘Friends’ Star Begs Netflix Not to Destroy Iconic Fountain

Lisa Kudrow wants to keep the magic alive.

Friends star Lisa Kudrow would like to see the iconic fountain from the series’ title sequence remain on the studio lot, regardless of who buys Warner Bros.

Kudrow toured the studio lot in a new video for Architectural Digest, where she explained what the studio means to her—and why she hopes its new owners will leave things as they are.

“Ownership changes all the time, and you don’t know what’s going to happen,” Kudrow said. “I think most people really hope whatever happens next is that this studio lot is preserved as is.”

“It works,” continued Kudrow, who just finished filming the third and final season of her show The Comeback on the same lot. “I mean, we just shot here. Whoever buys it, you don’t need to change anything! It works great.”

Netflix is undergoing the DOJ’s approval process to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s studio operations, streaming properties, and content library after a hostile bid from Skydance Paramount. “Congratulations, whoever’s next,” Kudrow said, but “Please don’t change a thing.”

Kudrow, who played Phoebe on Friends for all 10 seasons, has a sentimental connection to the lot—and the now iconic fountain featured in the series’ title sequence. “We shot the fountain thing, the opening credits, after we shot a show, and it was late, and we were tired. They said it would just be real quick,” she recalled.

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“It was like 3 hours later, and then we’re wet and trying to look happy and dancing and frolicking and yeah, that was tough. But Matthew was so funny,” she added of the late Matthew Perry, who died in 2023. “They’d say, ‘Alright, we just need to do one more,’ And he’d say, ‘Oh, are we doing one more, again? We’re just doing one more. Okay, can’t remember a time I wasn’t wet. Can’t remember a time I wasn’t cold.’”

“When you see us laughing, it’s because Matthew had just said one of those things,” she added.

The fountain sequence was shot on a backlot in Burbank, but it has since been relocated onto the main Warner Bros. studio lot, where fans can visit during studio tours. The fountain has also appeared in other TV shows and films from the studio, like 1993’s Hocus Pocus.

“I don’t know if Warner Bros. is just special to me, or if it’s special to the whole city or industry,” Kudrow said after growing emotional, but “I think it is.”

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Eboni Boykin-PattersonEntertainment Reporter

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