I was going to put a link into the USA Today web site for you all to read, but my experiments at work Thursday morning were unsuccessful. So, instead, I am posting the entire story here. I'm sure USA Today won't mind as I am giving their fine publication full credit and posting the article in full.
'Friends' in Flux By Gary Levin, USA TODAY
PASADENA, Calif. - Rachel and Joey are getting married on NBC's Friends next season. Or maybe not. Producers were coy about plans for the probable final season of TV's top comedy, as they all but ruled out - but not completely - the notion of another season or spinoff of the show.
When we left Friends in May, just after the birth of her baby, Rachel said yes to a surprise marriage proposal from Joey, who beat Ross to the punch.
"That leads to a lot of interesting complications," teases executive producer David Crane.
"Beyond that, there's a baby that needs taking care of, we're working on an interesting thing for Phoebe romantically, Monica and Chandler try to have a baby, and Chandler has an interesting work wrinkle."
Three Friends producers, appearing before TV critics here late Tuesday, say they're approaching this season as if it is the last, though no one wants to say it with absolute certainty lest the show's six stars change their minds. (Each actor will be paid $1 million an episode.)
"It's not something quite frankly that's in our control," says NBC chairman and CEO Bob Wright. "It seems like a very small likelihood that will happen. But if it does, I'd be thrilled."
So for now, look at the next batch of 25 episodes (including an hour-long finale and a one-hour clip show next May) as the end of an era, nine years after the show became a near-instant hit in 1994 along with ER.
"I think we have the feeling that creatively, we're there," says executive producer Marta Kauffman. "Not that we couldn't come up with another season ... but it does feel a bit like things are coming full circle, our characters are growing up, it may be time. Also, we don't want to overstay our welcome."
Among subjects left to be addressed are the resolution of the Rachel-Joey-Ross triangle, though that won't be strung out for too much of the season.
"One of the things that really surprised us about last season was how truly divided our audience was in terms of who they want Rachel to be with," Kauffman says.
As for the new arrival - a comedy-deadening event in shows such as Murphy Brown and Mad About You - "we don't look at the baby as the seventh friend," she says. "And it will affect lives, but not the majority of episodes."
As the show ends, "all six of them should be in some kind of a happy place, that they've arrived at a good place in their lives, whatever that may mean," Crane says. "We don't necessarily know exactly how to define what that is going to mean for each character yet."
Of course, NBC won't be in a happy place. Ratings for ER, though still strong, have declined, and NBC's longtime Thursday-night dominance - already eroded by CBS' Survivor and CSI - could abruptly halt.
That's partly why the notion of a Friends spinoff has been bandied about, with Matt LeBlanc's Joey Tribbiani most often mentioned as a possible lead.
The stars have yet to address the spinoff scenario directly, but the producers expressed great "reluctance" to be involved.
"Not only is it not a priority, but I'm not sure it's the right thing for us to be doing," says Kauffman, who prefers to move on to another project. (The producers' other post-Friends tries, Veronica's Closet and Jesse, proved short-lived.)
Besides, even contemplating a spinoff now is "a little bit like planning the memorial service before the person is dead," she says.
The funeral is still unplanned. "We haven't really figured out how we're going to end it," says Crane.
Kauffman notes the producers are inspired by "finales we've loved," citing Cheers and The Mary Tyler Moore Show but not Seinfeld. "We guarantee they won't end up in jail," says executive producer Kevin Bright.