In an emotional appeal to the future owners of Warner Bros. Discovery, actress Lisa Kudrow has urged them to preserve the legendary Burbank studio lot, where ten seasons of the iconic “Friends” sitcom were shot.
Amid a high-stakes corporate bidding war, the actor, famed for her role as Phoebe Buffay in the globally loved sitcom, urged that the historic grounds remain untouched.
In a recent interview, Kudrow said she views the lot as a “sacred” landmark that belongs to the industry’s collective heritage, rather than just being a piece of real estate.
“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,” she said.
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Reflecting on frequent changes in studio ownership, Kudrow added that she hopes the lot will be “preserved as is,” noting that it continues to function perfectly for modern productions.
She made a specific plea to protect “Jack Warner’s roses,” a long-standing feature of the studio grounds.
Warner Bros. has been the filming home of several landmark projects, including “Casablanca”, “Blade Runner”, “The Matrix”, “Inception” and “Goonies”.
For Kudrow, however, its significance is deeply personal. She worked on the lot for at least 10 years while filming “Friends”, which ran for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004.
The sitcom, which also starred Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer, was primarily shot on Stage 24.
Following the series finale, the stage was officially nicknamed “The Friends Stage” in recognition of the show’s cultural impact.