October 28, 2023: "Friends" Star Matthew Perry Dies

October 28, 2023: Actor Matthew Perry dies, drowning in the pool at his home in Los Angeles. He was 54 years old.

NOTE: While these entries are dated 2022, I decided to backdate the posting dates of events from 2023 onward to the same date in 2022.

Matthew Langford Perry was born on August 19, 1969 in the Boston suburb of Williamstown, Massachusetts, and grew up in the Canadian capital of Ottawa, Ontario. As a result, in an early episode of Friends, where his character, Chandler Bing, still had a cubicle job, he had a Toronto Blue Jays cap in the cubicle. At 14, he was already drinking. But 18, he was already an alcoholic.

In 1989, he had a three-episode arc on the ABC sitcom Growing Pains, portraying Carol Seaver's boyfriend Sandy, who dies in a drunk-driving incident. He was cast as a regular on the 1990 CBS sitcom Sydney, playing the younger brother of Valerie Bertinelli's character. In 1993, he starred in the briefly-airing ABC sitcom Home Free.

In 1994, he was cast as Chandler in Friends. The character was immediately revealed as being insecure, and using humor, frequently sarcastic, as a defense mechanism. Like Seinfeld's George Costanza, he was always complaining about having no luck with women. He actually had a few girlfriends, but none of them lasted, although one of them, Janice Hosenstein (played by Maggie Wheeler), was his on-again-off-again girlfriend: "Janice was my safety net!" At the end of Season 4, Chandler and Monica Geller (Courteney Cox) got together, and got married in the Season 7 finale. The show lasted 10 seasons, until 2004.

In 1997, Perry had a jet-ski accident, and took Vicodin as a painkiller, and became addicted. He later said that the booze and the drugs had affected his memory: He could see reruns of Friends, and have no memory of filming the episode. 

While starring on Friends, he also starred in films, including Fools Rush In, Three to Tango, The Whole Nine Yards and its sequel The Whole Ten Yards. In 2003, while Friends was still on the air, he made 3 appearances on the NBC TV drama The West Wing.

In 2011, he starred in Mr. Sunshine, as the manager of an arena in San Diego, with The Forum, former home of the Los Angeles Lakers and Kings standing in. ABC filmed 13 episodes, and canceled it after 9. In 2015, he played Oscar Madison in a reboot of The Odd Couple, with the character updated as a radio sports-talk host instead of a newspaper columnist. It lasted 2 years. In 2017, he played Ted Kennedy in the Reelz miniseries The Kennedys: After Camelot. There was some justice to that: Ted was a heavy drinker, and his son Patrick overcame a prescription drug problem.

In 2022, he published a memoir, titled Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing. "The big terrible thing" was his addiction. He dated actresses Yasmine Bleeth (which led to the inside joke of Chandler and Matt LeBlanc's Joey Tribbiani being obsessed with Bleeth's show Baywatch) and Julia Roberts (which led to her appearance on a 1996 episode of Friends). But he never married, and is not known to have had any children.

On October 28, 2023, Perry was found unresponsive in the hot tub as his house in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles, and was pronounced dead at 4:17 PM that day, at the age of 54. The cause of death wasn't clear: Despite being in a hot tub, he didn't drown. There was no sign of foul play, and there was no indication of drugs, legal or otherwise, being involved.

I'm 4 months younger than Perry. Friends was the 1st TV show that treated people of my generation as if we were adults, however immature. Season 1 was fantastic. Season 2 was really good. Season 3 was pretty good, until the show's "jump the shark moment": "Maybe we should take a break." In spite of the characters seeming to "grow up," they seemed to become caricatures of themselves, their worst traits getting emphasized. But the show remained beloved, and most fans of the show were happy that Chandler and Monica ended up together.

James Michael Tyler, who played Gunther, the manager of Central Perk, died of cancer in 2021. But of the 6 main castmembers of Friends, Perry was the 1st to die. One of the six had to be the first to go. Accidents and sudden illnesses happen, so it wouldn't have been out of the ordinary for that to have happened sooner. And, given his admission of past substance abuse, I'm not surprised that he's the first. But it's still a shock.

UPDATE: On December 15, 2023, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office released its toxicology report, saying that Perry died from "the acute effects of ketamine." His manner of death was ruled an accident.

He had reportedly been taking the drug as part of a ketamine infusion therapy, used to treat depression and anxiety. The report concluded, however, the amount in his system could not have been from his treatment, as his last-known session had been a week and a half before his death; and  said the method of the drug’s intake is unknown.

Ketamine, a disossociative anesthetic with some hallucinogenic properties, is used both recreationally and for medical purposes such as treating pain, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

“At the high levels of ketamine found in his postmortem blood specimens, the main lethal effects would be from both cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression,” the medical examiner added. In other words, he could have sunk into the hot tub, and been unable to get back up, so drowning could have been a factor.

But the thought that he had relapsed with drugs -- or had died due to a drug designed to counter the effects of his addiction -- made his death all the more disturbing.

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October 28, 2023 was a Saturday. Among the college football games played that day were these:

* Number 1 Georgia beat rival Florida, 43-20 at EverBank Stadium in Jacksonville.

* Number 2 Michigan and Number 9 Alabama were both idle that week.

* Number 3 Ohio State beat Wisconsin, 24-10 at Camp Randall Stadium in Madison, Wisconsin.

* Number 4 Florida State beat Wake Forest, 41-16 at Allegacy Federal Credit Union Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

* Number 5 University of Washington beat Stanford, 42-33 at the new Stanford Stadium in the San Francisco suburb of Palo Alto, California.

* Number 6 Oklahoma were upset by Kansas, 38-33 at David Booth Memorial Stadium in Lawrence, Kansas.

* Number 7 Texas beat Brigham Young University (BYU), 35-6 at Memorial Stadium in Austin, Texas.

* Number 8 Oregon beat Number 13 Utah, 35-6 at Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City.

* Number 10 Penn State beat Indiana, 33-24 at Beaver Stadium in State College, Pennsylvania.

* Number 11 Oregon State were upset by Arizona, 27-24 at Arizona Stadium in Tucson.

* Number 12 Mississippi beat Vanderbilt, 33-7 at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium in Oxford, Mississippi.

* Number 14 Notre Dame beat the University of Pittsburgh, 58-7 at Notre Dame Stadium in South Bend, Indiana.

* Number 17 North Carolina were upset by Georgia Tech, 46-42 at Bobby Dodd Stadium in Atlanta.

* Number 18 Louisville beat Number 20 Duke, 23-0 at L&N Stadium in Louisville, Kentucky.

* Number 19 Air Force beat Colorado State, 30-13 at Canvas Stadium in Fort Collins, Colorado. As for the other service academies, Army lost to Massachusetts, 21-14 at Michie Stadium in West Point, New York; and Navy had the week off.

* Number 21 Tennessee beat rival Kentucky, 33-27 at Kroger Field in Lexington, Kentucky.

Game 2 of the World Series was played. The Arizona Diamondbacks beat the Texas Rangers, 9-1 at Globe Life Field in the Dallas suburb of Arlington, Texas. This would turn out to be the only game the D-backs won in the Series, as the Rangers won in 5 games.

There were 7 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the New Orleans Pelicans, 96-87 at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans.

* The Washington Wizards beat the Memphis Grizzlies, 113-106 at the Capital One Arena in Washington.

* The Philadelphia 76ers beat the Toronto Raptors, 114-107 at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto.

* The Indiana Pacers beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 33-14 at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse (now the Rocket Arena) in Cleveland.

* The Detroit Pistons beat the Chicago Bulls, 118-102 at the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. Zach LaVine scored 51 points in defeat.

* The Minnesota Timberwolves beat the Miami Heat, 106-90 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

* And the Phoenix Suns beat the Utah Jazz, 126-104 at the Footprint Center (now the Mortgage Matchup Center) in Phoenix.

There were 9 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Vancouver Canucks, 4-3 at the Rogers Arena in Vancouver. K'Andre Miller scored the winning goal with 1:12 left in overtime.

* The New York Islanders beat the Columbus Blue Jackets, 2-0 at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus.

* The Montreal Canadiens beat the Winnipeg Jets, 4-3 in a shootout at the Bell Centre in Montreal.

* In an "Original Six" matchup, the Boston Bruins beat the Detroit Red Wings, 4-1 at the TD Garden in Boston.

* The Anaheim Ducks beat the Philadelphia Flyers, 7-4 at the Wells Fargo Center (now the Xfinity Mobile Arena) in Philadelphia.

* The Florida Panthers beat the Seattle Kraken, 3-2 at the FLA Live Arena (now the Amerant Bank Center) in the Miami suburb of Sunrise, Florida.

* The Ottawa Senators beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 5-2 at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.

* The Nashville Predators beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 3-2 at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. Roman Josi scored the winning goal with 2:47 left in overtime.

* And the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Los Angeles Kings, 4-3 in a shootout at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.

And in English soccer, Arsenal beat Yorkshire team Sheffield United, 5-0 at the Emirates Stadium in North London.

September 22, 1994: "Friends" Premieres

Left to right: Matthew Perry, Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer,

Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, Lisa Kudrow

September 22, 1994: The sitcom Friends premieres, at 8:30 PM U.S. Eastern Time, in between NBC's established hit sitcoms Mad About You and Seinfeld. It helped to make Thursday night fit the Peacock Network's slogan of "Must See TV."

The main cast, each of whom had some sitcom experience (though not all successfully), was as follows:

* Courteney Cox as Monica Geller, a 25-year-old chef from a never-specified town on New York's Long Island. She has an apartment in New York City's Greenwich Village. On the show, the address is given as 425 Bleecker Street. In real life, that address does not exist. The real building used for exterior shots was at 90 Bedford Street, on the corner of Bleecker. The apartment is secretly in her grandmother's name, and, between that and rent control, enables her to live there cheaply.

In such groups, there's always a leader, and, for this group, Monica is it, by force of personality. She is incredibly competitive, a control freak and a neat freak, who was fat as a teenager and worked it off through sheer willpower. Her love-life is bad: As Joey points out, when she begins the episode by saying she's got a date, "Come on! You're going out with the guy. There's gotta be something wrong with him!" This line gets retroactively funnier when she and Chandler end up together.

* David Schwimmer as Ross Geller, Monica's brother, 2 years older. He's an anthropologist who works at a thinly-disguised version of the American Museum of Natural History on the Upper West Side. He's a nerd who takes things personally. While Monica almost never mentions faith, Ross cares about being Jewish.

In the pilot episode, his wife, Carol (played in the 2nd episode by Anita Barone, and thereafter by Jane Sibbett), has just left him, after discovering at age 27 that she's a lesbian. In the 2nd episode, she is revealed to be pregnant, and, with son Ben's birth in the next-to-last episode of Season 1, Ross has to negotiate a three-way parenting thing.

* Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Green. A stereotypical JAP (Jewish-American Princess), she was Monica's best friend in high school, but they drifted apart. She got a nosejob and a dentist fiancée, but, in the pilot, she leaves him at the altar, runs into Central Perk, the coffee bar where the gang hangs out, finds Monica, and the two reconnect.

Rachel moves in with Monica, and, having to take care of herself for the first time in her life, gets a job waitressing at Central Perk. She's not very good at it, but Gunther (last name never revealed, played by James Michael Tyler), the manager, keeps her on, because he has a serious crush on her.

Not as serious as Ross, though: He'd been in love with her ever since high school, but, in the present as well as in the past, he can't bring himself to tell her.

(NBC had debuted the hospital drama ER 3 days earlier, and it had a character named Rachel Greene, with an E on the end, the daughter of the show's initial main character, a preteen at that point. She gets phased out after her parents' divorce, only occasionally reappearing, including in the finale, where she's graduated medical school and interning at her late father's hospital.)

* Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay. Her father left when she was little, and her mother committed suicide when Phoebe was 14, so she lived on the street until meeting Monica, and became her college roommate. She eventually moved out due to Monica's issues. She's a masseuse, who moonlights as a singer, with weird songs based on her weird life, often performing at Central Perk.

Kudrow had previously appeared on another NBC Thursday night sitcom, Mad About You, as Ursula, the ditzy waitress at a bar called Riff's. In Friends' 1st season, it is established at Phoebe are identical twins, albeit with very different personalities. This becomes a problem later on when Ursula dates Joey, and later still when uses Phoebe's name to star in porno movies, including Buffay the Vampire Layer. It's only when Joey notices a tattoo that Ursula has but Phoebe doesn't that they know it's not Phoebe.

* Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing. Also a product of a broken home: His mother is a romance novelist, and his father is a drag singer in Las Vegas, who left the family when Chandler was 9, right after Thanksgiving dinner. Chandler had been Ross' college roommate, and has a cubicle job at the show's beginning, but soon gets promoted to an executive job -- a vague job that is never really defined.

* And Matt LeBlanc as Joey Tribbiani. The Staten Island native, now Chandler's roommate in an apartment across the hall from Monica and Rachel, is an actor and a womanizer. At first, he seemed to be of reasonable intelligence. But, as the show went on, he got dumber.

And that was typical of the show: Over the course of 10 seasons, the characters eventually became parodies of what they originally were, their annoying characteristics getting worse. Ross and Rachel got together, then split up in Season 3 (the show's "jump the shark" moment), went back and forth, had a baby together in Season 8, and finally ended up together in the series finale. Monica and Chandler got together in the Season 4 finale, married in the Season 7 finale, and, after fertility issues, adopted twins in the series finale. Phoebe married someone from out of the circle (played by a pre-Avengers Paul Rudd), and Joey went to Hollywood to pursue his acting dream. The spinoff Joey did not do well, its last episode airing on August 23, 2006, ending the franchise after 12 years.

Monica and Ross' parents were played by Elliott Gould and St. Elsewhere actress Christina Pickles. Rachel's parents were played by Marlo Thomas and Tony-winning Broadway star Ron Leibman. Phoebe's birth parents were played by Teri Garr and Bob Balaban, familiar to NBC Thursday night viewers as NBC executive Russell Dalrymple on Seinfeld. Joey's parents were played by Brenda Vaccaro and Robert Costanzo, an actor who usually played blue-collar guys (as he did on that show) and mobsters. And Chandler's parents were played by Morgan Fairchild and... Kathleen Turner, to emphasize the fact that his father wasn't just gay, but transgender.

Which brings me to this point: In addition to the characters' bad points getting deepened as the show went along, a lot of things about the show don't hold up well. The cast was nearly all-white, with very few minority characters. The gay jokes -- about the actually gay characters, and the perception that straight characters might be gay -- now seem really insensitive. And Ross' transformation from a lovable loser to a nasty jerk, acting as more of a control freak where Rachel was concerned than Monica ever was with anyone, is a black mark on the show.

Still, the show remains a favorite among people of Generation X, people who grew up in the 1970s and '80s, like me. It was the 1st TV show to show us as adults, however immature. The 1st season was wonderful; the 2nd, really good; the 3rd, pretty good; but as soon as Ross and Rachel went, or didn't go, "on a break," it never really recovered. It reached 10 seasons, lasting until May 6, 2004, mostly on inertia.

UPDATE: Matthew Perry was the first member of the main cast to die, on October 28, 2023. James Michael Tyler, who played Gunther -- never quite "The Seventh Friend" -- died on October 24, 2021.

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September 22, 1994 was a Thursday. Baseball's Strike of '94 was on. But there was a score on this historic day, in college football: Virginia Tech, ranked Number 14 in the country, beat semi-rival West Virginia, 34-6 at Lane Stadium in Blacksburg, Virginia.