Everyone has heard of the iconic Friends theme song, ‘I’ll be there for you’. The 1995 single ‘I’ll Be There for You’ by The Rembrandts was written specifically for the iconic TV sitcom. And as it may have been intended, the song is the first thing that comes to our minds when we think of the sitcom. While fans have a different connection to the song and its shows, time and again, the actors have revealed that they may not have had the same reaction to it. David Schwimmer recently also opened up about how his relationship with the show changed over the years, as an actor and as an audience.
David Schwimmer Couldn’t Listen to the “FRIENDS” Theme Song
The star of the beloved NBC sitcom recently revealed on a recent episode of Matt Lucas and David Walliams’ Making a Scene podcast that the show’s iconic theme song, The Rembrandts’ “I’ll Be There for You,” was at one point extremely difficult for him to hear. Talking about when his child discovered the show, the 58-year-old admitted that “there was a time for quite a while that just hearing the theme song” triggered negative emotions for him.
Schwimmer explained, “I just had that reaction, I just had heard it so many times. Any time you’d go on a show or talk show or interview, that would be your intro song. I didn’t have the greatest response to it for a period of time.”
Fans were not happy about David Schwimmer’s Reaction
“That’s so Ross… always complaining about something lol,” someone wrote. Another added, “The dude won the lottery in life and finds a way to complain about it.” Pointing out the money involved, another said, “I mean, if I was getting literally thousands in residuals a day, I’d have a very different reaction to that theme.”
David Schwimmer Reveals How His Equation With Show Changed
Schwimmer added that when his daughter Cleo was around 9 years old, she discovered the show, and he’d hear her laughing, and that’s when things changed for him. The actor shared, ‘I’d be making breakfast or whatever, and I’d hear my kid’s laughter.'” This, he said, changed his “whole relationship to the song and the show” as a result.
David also went on to reveal that after filming, he had never watched the show. He thought of it as though “I did it, I’m moving on” and “never watched the show after we finished it” to relive the experience. But after seeing his kids react, “it was an incredible, life-changing chapter” for him as a person and an actor.
David Schwimmer Thought FRIENDS Overstayed Its Welcome
Talking about the show’s two-part series finale in 2004, he shared how he thought of it for the longest time. David added, “At the same time, yeah, there was part of me at least that was ready for the next chapter. It felt like it was coming to a natural end, maybe even overstayed its welcome a bit, but we were having so much fun doing it. It was time. I was ready for what’s next.”
David Schwimmer Reveals Finale Had Everyone In Tears
Recalling the last iconic episode, which was titled “The Last One,” he said it had “everyone” in tears on set. He was quoted by reports adding, “It was such an amazing professional and creative, life-changing chapter and we loved each other, there was so much love, the crew, the cast, the writers, it was just an incredible collaborative experience,” he remembered.
“Part of us knew we’d never experience anything like it again.”
David Schwimmer’s Career After FRIENDS
Since the conclusion of Friends in 2004, David has also dabbled in directing and producing. He has also helmed 10 episodes of Friends and two episodes of Matt LeBlanc’s spinoff series Joey. After earning an Emmy nomination for his performance on Friends as Ross, Schwimmer also got nominated for his role as Robert Kardashian in The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story. Two decades after the hit sitcom, the Friends: The Reunion also landed him another Emmy nod as a producer.
But for fans, it has been a relief that even after three decades of the show, all the co-stars have remained close. David Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow, and the late Matthew Perry were often photographed during friendly dinners or rare hangouts.
