In its sixth season, "Friends" remains arguably the best comedy on television. That's something that even David Schwimmer, who stars as Ross, finds somewhat surprising. And it's something that makes him anxious to go to work every day.
"It is, amazingly, still a blast to do this show," he said. "And I think a lot of it has to do with the chemistry, not only between the six of us, but between the writers and the cast. We just genuinely enjoy making each other laugh. And it's really ego-free. It's the best job."(Schwimmer, of course, shares the stage with fellow actors Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox Arquette, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and Matthew Perry.)
"Friends" (Thursdays, 7 p.m., Ch. 5) turned out to be a better gig than Schwimmer anticipated when he signed on.
"I'm surprised at my own excitement to show up for work," Schwimmer said. "Five years ago when we all signed the contracts for a five-year commitment, which you do when you sign up for a pilot, I mean, I was dreading it. I was like, 'Oh, no. Five years of my life. Are you kidding? Playing the same character with the same people?'
"But I'm just as surprised, five years later, to be really enjoying it and finding new areas to take the character and new directions that the show can go in. It's amazing."
Schwimmer is certainly not the only actor who has expressed at least the fear of being bored from a long-term commitment to a TV series.
"It was never a goal of mine. I like to grow. I guess the only way you grow, as an actor, is by challenging yourself by playing different roles and doing different stories. At least that's the way I was educated and trained. And that's who I am. I get bored easily. That's why I feared it so much."
But he has found he can do that by playing other roles in movies and theater, in addition to some directing duties (including a recent episode of "Friends") that keep his creative juices flowing.
"By doing different characters in different stories, I'm never bored," Schwimmer said. "I find it's still really fun to come back to Ross."
Not that he's entirely happy with what has happened to his character over the past couple of years. And he has expressed his concerns to the show's writers.
"Last year, I didn't like the direction Ross was going. He seemed to be really whiny and sort of self-pitying. I said, 'This year, let's get him out of that. Let's change his direction. Let's empower him more and bring him back to the first-year Ross, which was much more confident and naive and suave," he said with a laugh. "And innocent in some way."
When the show began, Ross was indeed rather naive. And his marriage had just ended when his pregnant wife discovered that she was a lesbian.
Since then, Ross has had that on-again, off-again relationship with Rachel; fallen in love with, married and quickly gotten divorced from his British girlfriend, Emily; then married Rachel when both were drunk at the end of last season.
"My character has been thrown a lot of curves over the last couple of years. When I started the show, I never thought I'd be playing guy who was divorced three times. Never," Schwimmer said. "I had a lot of arguments -- heated discussions -- with the writers about even playing a guy who would be. Because I see Ross as a role model, for some people at least. And it kind of irked me that it would be a guy who has a history of three divorces."
Schwimmer said he doesn't really know where the Ross-and-Rachel relationship is headed.
"My feeling is, and it's just my opinion, that they need to have fun together. Just get back to having a blast together and get out of the muck that the recent marriage caused," he said.
And he's still enthusiastic about the challenge of playing Ross.
"It's trying to take what the writers throw at me and keep it as honest as I can," he said. "And, unfortunately, I feel we got stuck in a few decisions, such as the Emily-Ross story of London and that marriage. I never saw how that could come out in a good way. To introduce a character like that that my character was going to marry. I never thought we could recover from that. I think we finally are getting past it. But we were bogged down by that a lot last season.
"But now I'm getting back to a little more rational, a little more fun Ross. I think the trick is, for me at least, to just have fun with the guy and get out of the self-pitying, kind of loser that I think he was turning into last year."
Despite his less-than-enthusiastic feelings about Ross' recent history, Schwimmer remains enthusiastic about the show. While none of the "Friends" are signed to the show beyond this season, he sounded quite confident that the show would return for a seventh season -- and possibly beyond.
While it's significant that contract negotiations for a seventh season have not even begun, it's also significant that Schwimmer seems completely unconcerned.
"We honestly haven't talked about it in months. We just concentrate on our work and having fun," said Schwimmer, who didn't exactly seem anxious to discuss the subject of contract renewals.
"I think it's premature at this point. Until we're approached by, I guess, Warner Bros. (the production company), we'll have that discussion when the time comes."
Of course, given the huge publicity that surrounded the last "Friends" contract negotiations, who could blame Schwimmer for not wanting to make a big issue of it this time around?
"We are, as a society, obsessed with how much people make. That's just a fact in America," he said. "What's interesting is how the press decides to interpret or spin it. There was not a lot of flak given to the (supporting) cast of 'Seinfeld' for making $650,000 a week. There was a lot of flak given to us for making $125,000 a week." But he doesn't want to sound as whiny as his character.
"Let's make something perfectly clear. To make even what we're making now is a ridiculous amount of money for anyone to be making for having as much fun as we're having," Schwimmer said. "When you think about it, you just have to be incredibly grateful, as we all are. It's all relative."