Could ‘Friends’ Experience be any more Instagrammable?
Instagrammable tourism and extreme ’90s nostalgia met and had a baby. Congratulations, it’s “The ‘Friends’ Experience.”
Jonathan Mayers, the co-founder of Superfly X, which produces “The ‘Friends’ Experience,” said the exhibition is designed “to celebrate these television shows thatwe all love.” The showstarted as a 30day pop-up inNewYork City and Boston in 2019. They decided to bring it to Chicago, because “we love Chicago,” Mayers said.
The exhibition features props, costumes, and best of all, set re-creations that you can take pictures of yourself in. You can poke UglyNaked Guy, and yell “Pi-vot!” while trying to move a couch up a tight flight of stairs, although you have towear a mask while you do it. There’s awall chart that resembles a CTA map to track all the various romances of the main characters and a display of all of Rachel’s various hairstyles, including of course “the Rachel,” which became a sensation wherewe learned howvery few of us could pull it off.
What is it about “Friends” that endures? Although itwas tremendously popular and created one bona fide A-lister in Jennifer Aniston, the show has not exactly agedwell. Could it BE any more homophobic, or fatphobic, for that matter? It is roundly criticized, and evenwas in the ’90s, for its all-white cast ofNew Yorkers, and Monica’s impossibly huge apartment.
It makesmewonder howwe reckon with our past favorites compared to the current standards.
“I thinkwe don’t have control over the culture of our childhood and nobody does,” said SteveMacek, North Central College professor and chair of the Department of Communication andMedia Studies.
“I’m familiar with the nostalgia around ‘Friends.’ When Iwas in grad school I had a column in the student newspaper (The MinnesotaDaily) and got some of the most negative letters to the editor for the one I wrote about ‘Friends.’ ” In the column, Macek pointed out issues such as the all-white cast. “That’s one thing that I still stand by—
NewYork City projected by the showis a complete distortion of theNewYork of the time and to this day. It looked like a suburban strip mall circa 1990.”
“I’m a little older than the ‘Friends’ generation. I grew up in the ’80s. I still have a soft spot for that awful show‘Moonlighting.’ BruceWillis plays a horrible misogynist. It’s politically unacceptable and I’m embarrassed to admit it, becausewe don’t have control whatwas popular or interesting whenwe were growing up,” the Naperville professor said. “So It’s no surprise to me that thousands of people will go to this and take pictures with the sets.”
Still, Macek says things have changed, and probably for good. “Thirty years fromnowyou’re not going to have the same nostalgia for the streaming shows fromnow. There’s a defined niche for ‘Pose’ and another for reruns of ‘DuckDynasty.’ ”
The fans of those shows don’t connect with each other, Macek said.
In the 1990s and early 2000s, “Friends” was everywhere, and streaming services— including the recent launch ofHBOMax, which streams the show— provide new audiences all
the time. When itwas on, wewould allwatch the showon Thursday night, and then Fridaywe’d go to work and school and talk about it.
“We arewatching it at different times, but where are these moments where we can come together and talk about it?” Mayers said. “The ‘Friends’ Experience” will be there for you.
“When you think about it, these shows that you love, the onlyway you could really interact with themwas bywatching the show. We actually have these connections to these characters, to these sets, and in thisworld of Instagram, Iwanted to go deeper, and that’s what this experience provides. You can be so much more emotionally engaged with the
show,” Mayers said.
There are 12 rooms, including Joey and Chandler’s apartment, Monica’s balcony, and the Central Perk couch. There’s a store aswell, which is open to the non-ticket buying public, and sells items such as books, pins, mugs, and even a Joey’s beloved plush penguin, Hugsy.
In fact, the “Experience,” which is at 540N. Michigan Ave. and costs $35 per ticket, boasts in plentiful hand sanitizing stations that it is not just clean, but “Monica clean.”
Safety is obviously a huge concern at this time. Masks are required, social distancing markers and sanitizing stations are everywhere, and tickets are timed. Groups are stag
gered to enter every 10 minutes, and there is even an option to block out a private tour for groups of six to 10 people. The staggered entries give people a chance to “really enjoy the experience, because they aren’t rushed,” Mayers said. It provides the added benefit of no outside Joeys or Chandlers jumping in your pictures.
Timed tickets are sold from10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays; and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. someMondays, some Wednesdays and Thursdays. Closed Thanksgiving and Christmas.
The pandemic slowed down its plannedmove to Chicago, where it will be fromOct. 1 to Jan. 3. A portion of ticket proceeds will be donated toMy
Block, MyHood, My City.