So, Friends is over and all we’re left with is hundreds of hours of reruns on any number of local and cable stations until, someday, the show makes its way over to Nick at Nite.

I won’t assume that everyone loves Friends, as I’ve heard quite a few people grouse about its predictability, whininess, and lack of realism. But why is it we show up at our TVs — as viewers — ever? For me, when I tune in to Friends, it’s to watch some really good actors do a lot with fantastic writing, staying true to the characters they created in a pilot presentation ten years ago.

It’s true that I cannot watch TV without “shopping” for actors. I make notes during commercials of actors I want to track down (in fact, an actor I cast in a feature film recently is someone I saw in a car commercial last year and whose name I obtained by putting the word out on an actors’ web-board that I was desperate to learn the name of the actor running wildly through the woods. Within ten minutes, another casting director had provided me with the actor’s name, agency and management contacts, and rate for commercial work) and, when I watch a show like Friends, I look at the guest stars and keep lists of actors whose work I like enough to track them down and bring them in, when the right role comes along.

What about actors? Do actors who despise Friends do so because they went out for the pilot, all those years ago, and can’t put behind them the fact that they would be making millions of dollars, had they been cast? Is it because they see the technical work behind the delivery of every line? Is it impossible to simply be a consumer of the show and get lost for a half hour?

My Theory

I think this explains why so many actors love reality shows. Now, I know what you’re saying: “How can an actor love a reality show? Reality shows take jobs away from actors! They are evil and must be stripped from the air!” Right?

Hm. Well, on that premise, I believe that reality shows are last decade’s news magazine shows (remember when there were three nights a week of PrimeTime LIVE and another three nights of 48 Hours?) and they’re the answer to the old variety hour or the primetime game show, if you dial back the clock even more. There has always been alternative programming on TV. Sure, reality TV is a lot cheaper to produce than a variety hour or even a news magazine show and therefore there are more of them, but I don’t think the reality show has removed job opportunities from actors to the extent we might assume. Heck, I see at least three actors a day on Elimidate, Blind Date, or The 5th Wheel! You can’t fool me, “substitute teacher” dater! I have your headshot!!

Back to my theory.

Most actors I know love at least one or two reality shows (and I mean really love them — their TiVos pick up Showbiz Moms and Dads or The Mole, they can’t wait to dish about American Idol or Queer Eye for the Straight Guy). Why is that? I believe that it’s due to the fact that most actors cannot turn off their inner acting class while watching scripted television. They either rework the scene the way they would’ve done it or remember using those sides in an acting class or relive the audition they had for that exact role or remember sitting in a waiting room with the guy playing that part. That’s work!

So, where “normal” people look to scripted television for escapism, actors often turn to unscripted television, as it gives them something other than their day job to look at during primetime.

Just a theory.

Anyway, so long, cast of Friends. I hope that every actor out there will have the opportunity to read for a pilot that evolves into the mega-hit that Friends has been, all these years. In a world where most shows never make it past the pilot presentation stage into that first, pre-maturely cancelled season of doom, we should all be so blessed as to work on something with that kind of staying power!

Bonnie Gillespie is living her dreams by helping others figure out how to live theirs. Wanna work with Bon? Start here. Thanks!

Originally published by Actors Access at http://more.showfax.com/columns/avoice/archives/000036.html. Please support the many wonderful resources provided by the Breakdown Services family. This posting is the author’s personal archive.