TVSquad

Anyone else been watching F/X lately? During the past few episodes of Nip/Tuck, there have been nothing but advertisements for the new Courtney Cox-Arquette drama Dirt. The show premieres this coming January but what about The Shield? Ever since it's mid-season finale last March, there's only been one promo for the rest of the season and it aired during the season premiere of Rescue Me -- that was just over five months ago! I always thought Vic Mackey and Co. were coming back in January and that's clearly not the case now.

Dirt has already received a full season 13-episode order, and assuming F/X sticks to it's current trend of only airing new shows on Tuesday nights at 10PM, we won't see the remaining season five Shield eps until at least March or possibly April. Boooooo.

I'll be honest. Dirt might be the first F/X series that I'm not excited about. The promos that have been airing just don't do it for me. Add in news that they've cast Rick Fox (Rick Fox?!?), the ex-Boston Celtic and L.A. Laker, to guest star and I think I'm even less excited. At least The Shield is getting a sixth season. There's something to smile about.

I guess this holiday season will be the season of the complete set. First The West Wing, then Alias, now comes word that a DVD set containing all of the Friends episodes will be released on November 14.

Note to family: you probably won't be getting any gifts from me this year.

Not only will the set include all 10 season sets from the show, there will be tons of extras, including 25 commentaries, 25 documentaries, a gag reel, and trivia. In this special set will also be a 60 page collector's book with the history of the show, photos, and the original pitch the creators made to the network.

Like most sets, it will go for around $300, but Amazon and other places will have it for much less.

Last night, Jonathan wrote about a report that claimed the six main actors from Friends were going to reunite for a series of one-hour specials.  It also mentioned that the three male leads -- Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer -- were going to star in a spin-off. Readers responded by either getting their hopes up or cursing NBC for digging up the corpse of a series that died a year and a half ago.

Well, we've got more news for you: It ain't gonna happen, at least according to NBC.

Here's the update from Jonathan:

"Consider this rumor dead as most of us wisely assumed from the get go. Access Hollywood had this to say earlier today, with a direct quote from Jeff Zucker (CEO of NBC Universal's TV Group) squashing the rumors.

Also, many thanks to TV Squad's own Ryan j Budke, who spent numerous hours on the phone this morning with NBC's Media Relations Department, who had this to say: 'There are currently no plans to have any follow-up to Friends other than Joey, which is still a major part of our comedy line-up and we whole-heartedly support. The rumors started this weekend are just that; rumors. We wish the rest of the cast of Friends continued success in their careers, and would welcome them back at any time, but there are currently no plans for them to appear in their Friends roles.' "

Well I suppose this had to happen sooner or later... I was just expecting it to be later. Much later. But I figure a failed and unfunny spin-off (sorry Joey fans... if there are any of you) will get the gears in motion faster. Okay, here goes: just a little over a year and half since the airing of the series finale, all six principle cast members of the NBC hit sitcom Friends have agreed to star in four one hour specials. Wait, that's like eight regular episodes... I rule at math.

Writers are already blasting out the scripts and we can expect them to air sometime in 2007. So we've got a bit of a wait but in the meantime we can also continue to salivate at this: the potential for another Friends spin-off. This time, Perry, Schwimmer... and yes, LeBlanc would star in a new sitcom tentatively titled It's a Guy Thing. Executives have hinted at it, but nothing is set in stone. Can't say that I blame them though. With the nose dive NBC took this season, I'd be milking the Friends teat for all it's worth too. Granted, this could all be bogus because you never know with a story like this but fingers are crossed so take it for what it's worth.

[Thanks so much to Dave for bringing this to our attention.]

UPDATE (1/23): Consider this rumor dead as most of us wisely assumed from the get go. Access Hollywood had this to say earlier today, with a direct quote from Jeff Zucker (CEO of NBC Universal's TV Group) squashing the rumors.

Also, many thanks to TV Squad's own Ryan j Budke who spent numerous hours on the phone this morning with NBC's Media Relations Department, who had this to say: "There are currently no plans to have any follow-up to Friends other than Joey, which is still a major part of our comedy line-up and we whole-heartedly support. The rumors started this weekend are just that; rumors. We wish the rest of the cast of Friends continued success in their careers, and would welcome them back at any time, but there are currently no plans for them to appear in their Friends roles."

So there ya go folks. Sorry if we got your hopes up.