Saturday 9

Saturday 9: I'll Be There for You (1995)
 
1) This song begins with, "So no one told you life was gonna be this way …" What do you wish you knew five years ago about your life now? "Oh, Gal, the weight you're gaining so easily is not going to be easy to take off!"

2) This is, of course, the theme from Friends, which is frequently shown back-to-back on TVLand and TBS. Have you ever "binge-watched" a show, catching episode after episode? NCIS, Law & Order, Will & Grace, Friends ... I don't rent them from Netflix, but if a network runs a marathon, I often watch.

3) On the show, Monica and Rachel shared a beautiful 2BR/2BA Soho apartment with a private balcony. It's estimated that such a pad would cost at least $3500/month in today's real-life New York. Describe your dream home. The Palmolive Building on Michigan Avenue. It's a beautiful, lovingly restored art deco building and that light you see is called The Lindbergh Beacon. It dates back to the 1930s when it helped pilots fly into Chicago from over the Lake. Of course with today's air traffic controllers it's no longer necessary, but it still shines every night, rotating a full 360º.

4) Of the six main characters, only Chandler was an only child. Do you have any siblings? Two sisters. I'm the middle one.

5) Gunther was the barista at Central Perk, the coffee shop where the Friends hung out. He had an ongoing, unrequited love for Rachel. Are you crushing on anyone right now? Does he/she know? Yes. I don't know.

6) Currently Matt ("Joey") LeBlanc stars in the Showtime series Episodes, playing a character named Matt LeBlanc. If there was going to be series

based on your life, who would play you? Carrie Fisher. We're very nearly the same age and have similar senses of humor. (Though my writing isn't as sharp as hers, and my life isn't as dramatic as hers, nor are my demons as fierce.)

7) Courtney Cox, who portrayed Monica, has the Twitter handle @CourtneyCox and has 628,000 followers. What was your last tweet? Gwyneth Paltrow for the Polly Bergen part. Then she and Nicky could consciously uncouple. Some classic movie fans and I were casting our own modern-day remake of an old movie called Move Over, Darling (itself a remake of My Favorite Wife).

8) The creators of Friends were massive soap opera fans. They named their characters after recurring characters on All My Children and had Joey appear on Days of Our Lives. Have you ever been hooked on a daytime drama? I watched AMC off and on throughout its run. I loved Dark Shadows when I was a kid.

9) The band who performed this song, The Rembrandts, took their name from the famous Dutch painter. Can you see any artwork from where you're sitting right now? Tell us about it (and yes, a school painting by your 7-year-old nephew counts). A pen-and-ink of San Francisco's Lombard Street.