Friends: Game show Fast Friends in the works for series’ 30th anniversary

Back: Matt LeBlanc (left) as Joey Tribbiani, Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay, David Schwimmer as Ross Geller, Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing; Front: Courteney Cox (left) as Monica Geller and Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Green. Photo / Getty Images

Friends is returning as a special game show to celebrate the much-loved series’ 30th anniversary.

The iconic NBC sitcom first aired in 1994 and ran for 10 seasons.

Now, streaming service Max has announced plans for Fast Friends, a new competition game show filmed at New York City’s interactive exhibit “The Friends Experience”.

“From racing through Rachel and Monica’s apartment to darting across Joey and Chandler’s bachelor pad and grabbing a coffee at Central Perk, fans will relive their favourite moments while being put to the test with trivia, puzzles and games that will keep even the most die-hard Friends fans on their toes,” a press release for the four-part show said.

The quickest team will be crowned the “Ultimate Friends Fan”.

Production is slated to begin in October, but a release date is yet to be confirmed.

Friends followed the lives of six pals - Monica Geller (Courteney Cox), Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston), Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow), Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc), Ross Geller (David Schwimmer) and Chandler Bing (played by the late Matthew Perry).

The show’s creators, Marta Kauffman and David Crane, recently revealed they often get pitched ideas of a Friends reboot involving the characters’ children.

“I would imagine it’s kind of what it must feel like when your kid turns 30 and you’re like, ‘How did that happen?’” Kauffman said.

“We get that a lot. I get emails about it all the time. Everybody has a great idea, and the great idea is their kids, grown up, doing a Friends show.”

However, Cox has since admitted she isn’t convinced.

“It’s hard to try to redo anything. Anything with ‘re’ in front of it with this group… I think it’s so special,” she told People.

The actress added she is in disbelief that the show is celebrating its 30th anniversary.

“It’s just insane to me because it feels like time, it goes so fast and I don’t realise it,” she said.

“We used to say, ‘Oh, I can’t wait for this month’ or ‘God, it feels like forever’, ‘I would never say that line anymore’.”

The show’s creators have since admitted that Perry’s death has made the 30-year milestone “a little fraught”.

The 54-year-old died in October 2023 from the “acute effects” of ketamine in the pool of his Los Angeles home.

“He’d been fighting the good fight for so long, and it really did feel like, from the [2021] reunion, that he had finally found some peace,” executive producer Kevin Bright told The Today Show, while Kauffman said: “It’s a huge loss, and it does make the 30th a little fraught.”

“He made us laugh every day,” Crane added, while Bright said: “David [Crane] always said [Matthew] was the funniest man in a room.”

Matthew Perry, who played Chandler Bing on the hit sitcom, died aged 54 on October 28, 2023. Photo / Getty Images

Speaking previously about how fans could honour Perry amid the show’s 30th anniversary, Kauffman told The Times: “Two things come to mind: one of them is to donate to drug treatment centres - let’s fight the disease.

“And the second way is to watch Friends and remember him not as a man who died like that, but as a man who was hilariously funny and brought joy to everybody.”

- Additional reporting by NZ Herald.