Tuesday, April 25, 2000

Return of 'Friends' may depend on $700,000

Funny how money can come between friends. Or rather between "Friends" and their network. The castmembers of the popular NBC sitcom (7 p.m. Thursdays) are in contract negotiations that will determine whether Monica, Rachel, Phoebe, Joey, Chandler and Ross return to the purple-painted loft next fall or go their separate ways.
   Published reports say the six actors - Courteney Cox Arquette, Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer - have a unified agreement. NBC and Warner Bros., which produces the show, must re-up with better paychecks for all of the roomies or they all walk. They have been earning about $125,000 each per episode. They're asking for about $700,000, according to industry trade sources.
   By showbiz standards, that's not such an outrageous demand. NBC, after all, paid Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt each $1 million per episode for the last, low-rated season of "Mad About You."
   "Friends" still ranks as NBC's No. 2 show, behind "ER."
   The network and Warner Bros., already have earned hundreds of millions from "Friends," which also plays in nightly syndicated reruns on local stations. The actors get a small percentage of the profits under their old contracts, which expire in May, but they're asking for a bigger taste.
   Losing the show would bruise the ailing NBC, which has become a network with just a half-dozen hits: "ER," "Friends," "Frasier," "Will & Grace," "Providence," "Dateline." "Friends" kicks off NBC's still-kicking Thursday night lineup.
   The final episode of this season's "Friends" has already been shot and will air at the end of May sweeps (the important ratings period that starts this week). This Thursday's show starts a three-episode arc with guest-star Bruce Willis as the dad of Ross' college-age girlfriend.
   Will Duchovny return?
   Meanwhile, Fox is waiting to hear whether David Duchovny is willing to return to an eighth season of "The X-Files." Duchovny's seven-year deal with the Sunday night drama has come to an end. Co-star Gillian Anderson's contract extends one more year. But the renewal of the show probably is contingent on the return of Duchovny, who is starring in the feature film "Return to Me."
   Duchovny has said in the past that he'd be willing to do more "X-Files" movies, but isn't sure he wants to stay tied down to the weekly show.
   He takes some shots at the sillier aspects of "X-Files" in an episode airing Sunday (8 p.m.) titled "Hollywood A.D.," which he wrote and directed. In it Mulder and Scully are trailed by a movie writer who turns their work with the paranormal into a zombie epic starring Garry Shandling and Tea Leoni (Duchovny's real-life wife) as love-starved FBI agents.
   What's in, what's out
   During the first two weeks of May, all the networks will announce which shows are returning for another season and which are canceled. A few shows have gotten early green lights, including ABC's "Drew Carey Show" (two more years), "NYPD Blue," "Spin City" (with new star Charlie Sheen), "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" and "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire."
   CBS has renewed "Becker," "JAG," "Judging Amy," "King of Queens," "Everybody Loves Raymond," "Touched by an Angel" and "Walker, Texas. Ranger."
   Returning on Fox for sure are "Futurama," "King of the Hill," "Malcolm in the Middle," "The Simpsons" and "That '70s Show."
   NBC has renewed "ER," "Frasier," "Law & Order" and its spin-off, "Special Victims Unit," "Providence," "3rd Rock," "Third Watch," "The West Wing" and "Will & Grace."
   UPN has picked up "Star Trek: Voyager" and "WWF Smackdown!"
   The WB has already renewed "Angel," "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "7th Heaven" and "The Steve Harvey Show."
  
  
  

 
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