Lisa Kudrow begs new Warner Bros owners not to shut down iconic Friends studio lot
Published in Entertainment News
Lisa Kudrow has begged whoever buys Warner Bros to not shut down the iconic Burbank studio lot.
The 62-year-old actress - who spent a decade on the WB lot filming Friends, and recently returned there for the third and final season of HBO show The Comeback - has urged the new owner of the company to keep things "as is".
Visiting the lot with Architectural Digest, she said: "It's hard for me to tell whether Warner Bros is just special to me, or if it's special to the whole city or industry. And I think it is.
"Everything changes ownership all the time, and then you don't know what's gonna happen.
"I think most people really, really hope that whatever happens next, is that this studio lot is preserved as is.
"It works! We just shot here. Whoever buys it, you don't need to change anything. It works, it works great.
"It really does, so congratulations to whoever's next. Please don't change a thing."
Netflix is "highly confident" it can close an $83 billion deal to merge with Warner, while Paramount Skydance Owner David Ellison is hoping to derail the bid and secure the studio for his own empire.
Lisa reflected on her own history on the lot, including auditions and Friends, which started on Stage 5 before moving to its iconic Stage 24 set from the second season onwards.
She recalled: "The show worked its first season, and we moved to a bigger sound stage, so we could have a 400 person audience - I think?
"Is that possible? Maybe only 200 - I'm not good with numbers! That was Stage 24, and that's where we were for 10 years."
As the show became a cultural phenomenon, the cast spent even more time on the lot.
Lisa explained: "After a point, we didn't leave the sound stage, even for lunch, 'cause there were tours and things. It was just easier to stay on the stage."
Lisa married Michael Stern a year into Friends' run in 1995 and welcomed their son into the world in 1998.
Her pregnancy was written into the show's fourth season, while her son loved growing up on the lot.
She recalled: "The fire department, my son had a lot of fun playing on the fire trucks."
Friends was filmed in its entirety on the WB studio lot from its launch in 1994 to the final episode in 2004.
Lisa co-created and starred in The Comeback the following year, before a revival in 2014, and a third and final season - premiering this year - shot on the same stage.












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