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Jerry Seinfeld Jokes NBC Made Friends as a Better-Looking Seinfeld

The offhand line, delivered in a stand-up bit, revives talk about NBC’s sitcom playbook and the shows’ lasting legacies.

Overview

  • Jerry Seinfeld, performing Tuesday at Netflix Is a Joke at L.A.’s Greek Theatre, joked that NBC copied Seinfeld for Friends with “good-looking people.”
  • He used a crowd prompt about his all-time favorite TV show as the setup and never actually named one.
  • Both series aired on NBC, with Seinfeld debuting in 1989 and Friends in 1994, and each centered on a close group of New York City friends.
  • Coverage revisits Lisa Kudrow’s story that Seinfeld once told her “you’re welcome,” crediting Seinfeld’s lead-in for Friends’ surge in reruns.
  • Reports also note Friends’ enduring payday, with Kudrow saying the cast still earns about $20 million a year in residuals.