The 30th anniversary of Friends on Sunday, Sept. 22, arrives as fans and the show's creators continue to mourn the loss of star Matthew Perry, who passed away less than a year ago from the acute effects of ketamine.
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| Matthew Perry in 'Friends.' Courtesy of Everett Collection |
Recently, new details about Perry’s use of the drug in his final days have emerged, with individuals involved in supplying him being arrested and charged.
The show's creators, Marta Kauffman and David Crane, along with executive producer Kevin S. Bright, have acknowledged how Perry’s death casts a shadow over what would have been a celebratory occasion.
"It’s a huge loss, and it does make the 30th a little fraught," Kauffman said in an interview alongside Crane and Bright on Friday’s Today show. Bright added, "He made us laugh every day."
Reflecting on Perry’s well-documented battles with addiction and his apparent recovery in recent years, Bright commented, "He’d been fighting the good fight for so long, and from the [2021 cast] reunion onward, it really felt like he had finally found some peace."
Following Perry’s death, tributes poured in from those who knew and loved him. Kauffman shared with Today that she had spoken to Perry just two weeks before he passed and recalled him being "happy and chipper."
She added, "He didn’t seem weighed down by anything. He was in a really good place, which is why this feels so unfair."
"He seemed better than I had seen him in a long time," Kauffman had said. "I was so thrilled to see that. He was emotionally in a good place. He looked good. He had quit smoking. Yes, he was sober. He had learned a lot and had found purpose in helping other addicts."
Over the summer, five individuals were indicted in connection to Perry’s death, exposing a "broad underground criminal network" tied to the drug.
In a separate interview with the U.K.'s Times—conducted before the arrests—Kauffman and Crane discussed Perry’s struggles with addiction. Crane recalled, "By the time we became aware of it, we were already a family.
There was a point where we asked him, ‘Do you want to stop [being on the show]?’ And he was adamant: ‘No, this is really important to me.'"
Kauffman, echoing her earlier sentiments about her FaceTime conversation with Perry two weeks before his death, expressed how she hopes fans remember him.
"Two things come to mind [on how to celebrate him]: one is to donate to drug treatment centers — let’s fight the disease.The second is to watch Friends and remember him not as a man who died this way, but as someone who was hilariously funny and brought joy to everyone."