Whatever else happens in David Schwimmer’s career, he will always be quite famous, thanks to his time on one of the most popular sitcoms of all time. Friends was a huge hit in its day, and even today, over 30 years after it debuted, it’s still incredibly popular. It was apparently so ubiquitous at one point that the Ross actor admitted even hearing the famous theme song would exhaust him. However, that all changed for a very sweet reason.
In addition to Friends being one of the best sitcoms of all time, its theme song, “I’ll Be There for You” by The Rembrandts, was equally iconic. Even if you didn’t watch the show during its initial run, you likely still knew the theme song quite well (I certainly did).
Appearing on the Making A Scene podcast, Schwimmer explained that hearing that theme was not a pleasant experience for a long time. He said…
I’ll be really honest, there was a time for quite a while that just hearing the theme song would really… [Sighs.] You know what I mean? I just had that reaction. I mean, I just had heard it so many times. . . . And any time you’d go on a show or a talk show or an interview, that would be your intro song. So I just didn’t have the greatest response to it for a period of time.
It’s not all that surprising if the Friends theme song set off David Schwimmer for a long time. If there was anybody who had to hear the tune more than the rest of us, it was the cast of the show. Jennifer Aniston has said nobody in the cast really loved the track. And even if you like the song at the beginning, anything that you’re forced to hear over and over again for years is going to get old eventually.
Friends has remained popular over the years, even leading to fans getting incredibly upset when it leaves streaming platforms (you can catch the show now with a Max subscription). However, the sitcom and the song at least faded to a point where we didn’t see and hear it everywhere, which was likely a benefit for Schwimmer, giving him some separation from it all.
However, the show (and its theme) came back to him in recent years.
David Schwimmer says it was when his child was 9 years old (they’re 13 now) that they discovered Friends and started watching their dad’s show. Being re-introduced to the series through his child, Schwimmer says it completely changed his relationship to the comedy. He explained…
And then at about age 9, my kid discovered it and started watching it. And I’d be making breakfast or whatever, and I’d hear my kid’s laughter. My whole relationship to that song and to the show changed again.
It’s nice to know that David Schwimmer’s relationship with his most famous work is strong once again. Of course, if his kid doesn’t hit the “Skip Intro” button when watching Friends, it’s possible he might start to hate the theme song again. However, for now, I'd like to imagine that the whole Schwimmer family is joyously doing the clap with the theme song every time it plays.
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