America went five long months without being about to bingewatch Friends. It was a dark era between when the series left Netflix forever and resurfaced on HBO Max, which was finally made available this week. Apparently, Friends still remained very popular during that five months, as viewers did the unthinkable: they bought physical copies of the series. In 2020. Insane!

In any respect, as we all revisit one of the most popular shows of all time now that it has returned to streaming, it’s also worth revisiting the story behind the four quick claps in that iconic Friends theme song.

Anyone who knows Friends knows the theme song, and anyone who knows the theme song knows those four rapid claps. Those claps, however, were something of a fluke, more of a necessary afterthought than an intentional inclusion. As the story goes, Don Ohlmeyer — the president of the NBC network’s west coast division — watched the title sequence after the pilot aired and hated it. “What is that title sequence? It’s terrible. It’s awful,” he told Friends co-creator Kevin S. Bright. The first iteration of the title sequence only contained footage of the six actors at the fountain, and Ohlmeyer didn’t like what it insinuated, according to Generation Friends by Saul Austerlitz.

“It says to the audience, ‘We’re young. We’re hip. We’re dancing in a fountain and you can’t dance with us!’”

Ohlmeyer hated it so much that he demanded that the show reinstate the original title sequence, set to R.E.M.’s “Shiny Happy People.” As anyone can see, however, the original title sequence with the R.E.M. song is terrible:

After deciding against “Shiny Happy People” as the permanent theme, composer Michael Skloff — the husband of co-creator Marta Kaufman — wrote “I’ll Be There for You” for the show, which was inspired by the sound of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. They tried to get Michael Stipe (of R.E.M.), Natalie Merchant (of 10,000 Maniacs) and They Might Be Giants to perform the song, but they all declined. They eventually settled on The Rembrandts to record Skloff’s theme. However, Ohlmeyer was very enamored with the title sequence that accompanied the “Shiny Happy People” theme, which included clips of the various characters from the show. Kevin Bright came up with a compromise: He’d splice in clips from the show with footage of the fountain set to “I’ll Be There for You.”

There was only one catch. Skloff had used some processed sounds to provide a drum fill at one particular point in “I’ll Be There for You.” When an actual band, The Rembrandts, recorded the theme, the processed drum fill was removed, and the theme was sent to Kevin Bright to play alongside the title credits. “We have real drums now, so the drummer did what he felt was natural at that moment.”

“Where’s that drum fill?” Bright asked when he received The Rembrandt’s version of “I’ll Be There For. You.” He had already edited together the title sequence set to Skloff’s version. In Skloff’s title sequence, he had used the four beats of the drum fill to create four, fast visual cuts. Without the drum fill, the title sequence didn’t quite work, so Kevin Bright had to improvise. After some conversation, Skloff — along with two assistants — got behind a microphone and clapped along with the song to provide the basis for the quick cuts in the title sequence. Those claps would end up becoming the most remembered part of the song.

As Saul Austerlitz writes in Generation Friends: “The most memorable sequence of one of the most memorable television theme songs ever had just been recorded,” because they needed a sound to sync to the quick cut edits.

While NBA Self-Isolation Watch has been primarily concerned with the pastimes and activities of basketball players since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and as much as it can start to feel like it as we all live in varying states of lockdown, the things that get covered in this column aren’t happening in a vacuum. You could say, and I hope you do, that the nuance even in what is meant to be a lighthearted break during this very anxious time has always been about experiencing what is going on globally with solidarity, for the sake of comfort, of relief.

There can be neither while people of color are targeted and murdered in broad daylight, on video, without recourse. The killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis this week, and the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in late February, exposed the cruelty and terror experienced by black communities and communities of color regularly and reverberated through the NBA. If you are angry, and I hope you are, you can work to have uncomfortable conversations with friends and family and be an anti-racist advocate when you witness marginalization and racialized violence. If you’re financially able, you can also donate to support local organizations like the Minnesota Freedom Fund.

Thanks and thanks, as always, for being here.

Rudy Gay

Let’s ease into this one. For ourselves, like when you stretch before a prolonged burst of activity but this time for your heart, and for the sake of really taking this photo in. My initial thought is that this is an old photo that Gay shared after he found it doing what we all have, scrolling back through photos on our phones, nostalgic for a few months ago. His caption backs that up. But there is still a freshness and jolting quality to the picture, mostly thanks to Kyle Lowry popping up right in the foreground, grinning in sunglasses. Behind and to either side of him, his friends, DeMar DeRozan and Rudy Gay, in matching patterns. Gay’s gaz has caught on something in the middle distance and DeRozan looks as if he’s waiting, in no real hurry, for a response to something he’s just said. Lowry is, as always, perfect.

Rating: It’s like waking up from the most wonderful dream you don’t remember having.

Otto Porter Jr.

Porter Jr. took a much needed break this past long weekend from worrying about the deer who frolic in his backyard. The definitive answer to whether he’s transfixed or terrified of them remains unclear, but it was nice to see him relaxing in the pool, reclined on what must be one of the world’s largest unicorn flotation devices.

Rating: My Memorial Day going forward is celebrating the first time I saw this photo.

LeBron James

James went for a bike ride with his family this week and like the enhanced dad he is, filmed the excursion in its entirety. This included all the big sights like that 7-11 coming up on the right and the towering palm trees. He got home and relaxed in the yard, rewarding himself with rose straight from his personal tap.

Rating: Fun fact – “Well guess it’s time! Mid day rose life” is a popular magnet on the refrigerator doors of 78 percent of aunts everywhere.

Jimmy Butler

Jimmy Butler played dominoes outside in the sunshine with the intense concentration only Jimmy Butler could when playing a relaxed, fun game.

Rating: Right after this he stared down an ice cream cone until it melted completely, he didn’t eat it, the pleasure from watching it return to its natural form was enough.

CJ McCollum

McCollum took his growing gigantic puppy to a peaceful Pacific Northwest beach to watch the sunset.

Rating: If we could get a livestream of this going, that’d be great.

Serge Ibaka

Ibaka returned to Toronto this week with a little more than he left with — hair! Even when slacking, the number one truth in Ibaka’s universe is to always grow handsomer.

Rating: Powerful physics, even greater than gravity, at work over here.

Maurice Harkless

Taking social distancing seriously, Harkless went out for a spin on the ocean during the holiday weekend. Keeping your distance on the wide blue yonder is a love shared by pirates, sea turtles and now, Maurice Harkless.

Rating: Also no better way to socially distance your soul, that is realize its tiny impermanence, than spending some time staring out to sea.

Lonnie Walker

Walker met original (steal your) Wife Guy, Tony Parker, and the two talked shop at Parker’s palatial looking place. Walker was very thrilled with the encounter and hopefully Parker shared some solid Spurs secrets, like why the Coyote wears a shirt but no pants.

Rating: Lonnie Walker is so nice.

Kyle Kuzma

Kuzma has entered into an entirely new phase of isolation and that is, one no longer on his own! Is this NBA Self-Isolation Watch breaking news? Kuzma and model Winnie Harlow are dating! It started with pretty cute comments on each other’s IG’s and ended with Harlow taking an extended visit to Kuzma’s L.A. home where they visited some goats and he regaled her with all the things he knows about wine from LeBron James. It’s really cute!

Rating: Does Kuzma need to be disqualified from NBA Self-Isolation Watch MVP candidacy?

Tim Hardaway Jr.

I have to assume Hardaway Jr. was watching the original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for artistic research, maybe inspirations for the pop art movement given his coffee table book, because that movie is a glaring terror!

Rating: Wonka is a menace with a god complex at best, a common clown at worst!

Gordon Hayward

Aside from What’s App-ing his wife from the other room, Hayward has been off the grid this ISO. That changed this week when he came swinging (and swinging, and swinging) out of obscurity with a tiny hatchet he was prepared to weld for ever against the toughest defensive opponent he’s ever faced, a section of a dead tree in his driveway. His family looked on first in support, then judgement, as he made slow progress and took a few, huffing breaks. Eventually, he prevailed, and broke that little section off the larger whole, still lying in his driveway.

Rating: The Celtics legacy of greatness lives on.

Jordan Bell

Bell has had a long journey in his career and an even longer journey this week, when he drove from Minnesota, through Iowa, an aptly tagged “Middle of Nowhere, Nebraska”. At the end of his first day on the road he’d reached Denver. He either called it a night there or chugged on a little farther, because the morning of day two saw him hitting the open road around Salt Lake City, a good 8 hours from where the sun had last set on his journey. I hope he slept?

He hit the very north-western tip of Arizona coming down Highway 15, and passed through the perma-mirage of Las Vegas. Please note the dead bug splatter accumulation on Bell’s windshield, that’s over 2,000 miles of insects.

Finally, Bell pulled into his hometown of Long Beach, California. I bet he’d never been so happy to see the ocean! His dog made itself right at home while a road weary Bell looked really happy to see his mom.

Rating: Honestly, the only version of “On The Road” I’d be willing to read again.

Jaren Jackson Jr.

Jackson Jr. has graciously tossed us a few of his ISO looks these last eleven weeks, ranging from “going to the gas station” to this, “standing beside flowering hedge in dreamy, introspective lighting”. Each is a real gift and welcome divergence from “same sad inside clothes everyday”.

Rating: The lens flare, the vest, the range.

JaVale McGee

McGee got into what I’m sure many have since being stuck at home through a season change or just feeling like “well I guess there’s no better time to look through all the dumb junk I live with” and cleaned out his closet. He started with ball caps and it really only got that far which, fair, because there were a ton of hats.

Rating: JaVale McGee labeling his storage container with baseball hats “BASEBALL HATS” for what ails you.

Wayne Ellington

The last few times we’ve checked in on Wayne’s world he’s been tracking the movements of a very large iguana around his backyard. He always kept a respectful distance from it and it, from him. For whatever reason, perhaps because Ellington decided this near mythic creature deserved to live in a real swamp rather than around his pool, he had it removed by professionals this week.

Rating: The lesson? It’s Wayne’s world, you’re just lucky to be an iguana living in it.

Dewayne Dedmon

One of the nicest glimpses ISO has given us is of the new routines players are establishing with their families. Dewayne Dedmon here shows the solemnity of morning bubble hour(s) with his young son on the porch.

Rating: The morning bubbles, they must go up.

Malcolm Miller

Miller’s dog, North, has a message for you.

Rating: And I have a message for Miller — thank you.

Terrence Ross

Ross took his family to a drive-thru wildlife park in Florida called Wild Florida. All the animals looked incredibly overheated and bored, and so did Ross.

Rating: There is something soothingly meta, maybe metaphoric for the way in which we engage with our natural world, captured in the photo of a bison as Ross takes a photo of a photo of the bison.

Marco Belinelli

Beli was gifted this uhh, gorgeous work of art. This and the excruciatingly detailed Jurassic Park Lego scene he put together earlier in ISO make me wonder if his heart has not stayed firmly snagged on the tip of a particularly tall, iconic Canadian tower and the city wherein it resides.

Rating: Toronto, I mean Toronto.

Enes Kanter

It’s getting to the point where there is less and less need to caption these more than weekly — I just spare you the bulk of them — food exploitations from Kanter than to launch a public inquiry into his waffle iron budget.

Rating: It is not clear if he is actually eating these things or what his casual candy cache looks like.

Chris Boucher

The Slim Duck witnessed a pretty scary accident in Toronto when he was out for a walk this week. Two cars appeared to collide and one continued, running into a storefront and catching fire. There was a cyclist who narrowly escaped the trajectory of the runaway car, jumping clear of their bike as it crashed. Boucher and the biker were ok but understandably shook up.

Rating: Just a gentle PSA that if you drive, don’t treat emptier than normal roads as grounds to be a total freak, there are a lot more people walking and biking out there.

Chris Bosh

Because Paul Pierce has been lost, apparently, to time itself, we will check in with Chris Bosh this week to get our retired NBA guy enjoying himself fix, a pastime for which Bosh never disappoints. CB4 took a relaxed stroll along some winding, canyon trails with a complimentary sweater tied around his waist to match his cap. He dropped a “dance like nobody’s watching” quote equivalent from Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius and called it a day.

Rating: Another, less attributed Aurelius quote is, “Damn, Bosh is chill as hell.”

Before the tragic and untimely passing of Juice WRLD, the rapper had more material in the tank. His first posthumous release came via a guest spot on Eminem’s “Godzilla,” which topped charts around the world. Last month brought his first posthumous single, “Righteous,” and now the Juice WRLD estate has dropped another new track, “Tell Me U Luv Me.”

This one comes alongside a Cole Bennett-directed video, which includes footage of the two in a studio space, as well as animated clips and live video of Juice on stage. On the track, Trippie and Juice express their admiration for a girl. Trippie sings on the chorus, “Tell me you love me, tell me everything gon’ be okay / Tell me you love me, tell me you love me and you gon’ stay.” Meanwhile, Juice kicks off his first verse, “B*tch, I’m a druggie, so can you hide my drugs from me? / And when I get lonely, can you be my company?”

“Tell Me U Luv Me” could be followed by a wealth of new material from Juice to come: Last month, Chicago rapper Lil Bibby indicated that a posthumous Juice WRLD album is on the way.

Watch the “Tell Me U Luv Me” video above.

For her new HBO Max series Love Life (not to be confused with her other streaming show, Quibi’s Dummy, where she befriends a sex doll), Anna Kendrick declined to participate in any nude scenes. Sex scenes are fine, but the Pitch Perfect star would rather not bare all on camera. Love Life is the opposite of Normal People, in that sense.

“My personal feelings on nudity – that I’m not really interested in nudity for me – stayed the same. I’ve never had a problem with simulated sex scenes – that feels like it’s about the character, whereas I only get one body, so nudity is more about me,” Kendrick told the Sydney Morning Herald. She also explained what it’s like to shoot multiple romantic scenes over a full season (instead of canoodling with Scott McNairy every episode):

“When we started filming, it dawned on me that in every single episode I was going to be doing a kissing scene or a sex scene with someone brand new. It was definitely weird to know that we were going to meet and within a week we were going to be in bed pretending to have sex!”

Love Life, which we called a “promising debut” for HBO Max, is available now.

(Via Sydney Morning Herald)

This week’s protests over the death of George Floyd escalated on Thursday night in Minneapolis and other U.S. cities. The ongoing situation follows the termination of all four officers involved in Floyd’s death after bystander-filmed footage showed one officer pinning Floyd to the ground with a knee restraint (to Floyd’s neck) that’s been condemned by law enforcement as unwarranted in any situation. That footage continues to circulate during a reported federal investigation into what happened.

Amid these ongoing events, week-old video footage of Malcolm X star Denzel Washington in West Hollywood is going viral. TMZ first posted the clip that shows a masked Denzel acting as a Good Samaritan during a confrontation between a distressed homeless man and two police officers. The clip shows Denzel placing himself in between police and the man (as the actor comforted the man). TMZ reports that Denzel had already helped the man to safety after he’d blocked traffic, and although the man was briefly detained and released by the officers, the incident quickly resolved in a peaceful manner.

On social media, the footage is being reposted, including a tweet from retired NBA player Rex Chapman, who has praised Denzel for his selfless actions. “Denzel Washington saw a commotion in West Hollywood with cops and an unarmed distressed homeless man,” Chapman tweeted. “He got out of his car and served as a barrier between the man and the police — helping to diffuse a tense situation. This man was arrested safely.”

On Twitter, users praised Denzel for his decision to help the man. Journalist Ericka Goodman wrote, “Denzel is a gentleman, scholar and a real one. Continue to give him his roses. This is the right way to help.” And user OzzyMerc tweeted, “I’m proud of Denzel for his quick recognition and call to action, but it bothers me completely that we now have to be hyper vigilant when we see our fellow citizens being detained by police.”

(Via TMZ)

Protesters enraged over two unarmed black people killed by police led to a Minneapolis precinct being stormed and the activation of the national guard.

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Over the past decade, Gucci Mane has been phenomenally prolific, releasing what has seemed like a constant and endless stream of mixtapes, albums, and singles. That hasn’t been the case this year, though. He features on Doja Cat’s “Like That,” but he hasn’t released a single of his own in 2020. Rather, he hadn’t until now: Gucci has linked up with Lil Baby for “Both Sides.”

They also shared a video for the track, and it shows snapshots of life in the city, as well as plenty of firearms. That goes along with the hook, “It ain’t my business, it ain’t my beef, I ain’t on no side / Y’all got guns and we got guns but we don’t post ours / Look, you poppin’ like the giant, he just .45 / Told him hit ’em in the leg and make them n****s your size.”

Baby has become a frequent collaborator for Mane in recent years. This is their seventh collaborative effort, and they first came together on the 2017 Quality Control track “The Load.” They went on to swap guest appearances, as Mane appeared on Baby’s “Anyway” and “Realest In It,” then Baby featured on Mane’s “ICE” and “Tootsies.” Between that, they both hopped on Khao’s “Done With Her.”

Watch the “Both Sides” video above.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Netflix is wrapping up this month with the highly-anticipated streaming landing of another Steve Carell-Greg Daniels comedy series. Space Force sees Carell heading up a wholly different workplace comedy, one complete with territorial disputes on The Moon and congressional hearings gone wrong. After you get your fill of his ridiculously funny back-and-forth with costar John Malkovich, queue up another comedy legend. We’re talking about Adam Sandler, whose buzzed-about Safdie Brother’s project, Uncut Gems, has finally moved to the streaming platform.

Here’s everything coming to (and leaving) Netflix this week of May 29.

Space Force (Netflix series streaming 5/29)

Steve Carell reteams with Office creator Greg Daniels for a different kind of workplace comedy — one that comes with plenty of real-world political ties and outrageously funny mishaps. Carell plays an Air Force general forced to head up the president’s newly-created Space Force, with the aim of getting a military force in space within just a few years. He runs into plenty of problems — think Russian meddling, competition for drilling rights to the moon, and uncooperative space monkeys — but the best thing about this series might be Carell’s comedic chemistry with John Malkovich, who plays a scientist fed up with the idiots he’s surrounded by at work.

Uncut Gems (film streaming 5/25)

This adventurous mindf*ck starring Adam Sandler lands on Netflix this week, and our only advice before watching this criminally-good romp is this: prepare yourself for a wild, over-the-top ride. Sandler gives one of his best performances, and the Safdie Brothers prove they’ve got a knack for crafting thrillers textured with grit and a realness that just can’t be beat.

Here’s a full list of what’s been added in the last week:

Avail. 5/23
Dynasty: Season 3

Avail. 5/25
Uncut Gems

Avail. 5/26
Hannah Gadsby: Douglas

Avail. 5/27
I’m No Longer Here
The Lincoln Lawyer

Avail. 5/28
Dorohedoro

Avail. 5/29
Space Force
Somebody Feed Phil: Season 3

And here’s what’s leaving next week, so it’s your last chance:

Leaving 5/30
Bob Ross: Beauty Is Everywhere: Collection 1

Leaving 5/31
Austin Powers in Goldmember
Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
Dear John
Final Destination
The Final Destination
Final Destination 2
Final Destination 3
Ghosts of Girlfriends Past
Looney Tunes: Back in Action
My Girl
The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear
The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!
Outbreak
Red Dawn
Richie Rich

Leaving 6/1
The King’s Speech

Leaving 6/3
God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness

Leaving 6/4
A Perfect Man

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“You know the kind of guy who does nothing but bad things and then wonders why his life sucks? Well, that was me. Every time something good happened to me, something bad was always waiting around the corner: karma. That’s when I realized that I had to change. So, I made a list of everything bad I’ve ever done, and one by one I’m gonna make up for all my mistakes. I’m just trying to be a better person. My name is Earl.”

Most people do not remember this, but in the fall of 2005, NBC’s Must See Thursday line-up was in shambles. Cheers and The Cosby Show were long gone, Seinfeld left the air in 1998, and the network was two years removed from the last monster sitcom of the modern era, Friends. In the 2004-2005 season, NBC’s Thursday night line-up was running on the fumes of Will & Grace in its last two seasons, and Joey, the ill-fated Friends spin-off that was renewed for a second season because NBC didn’t have anything better to put on their schedule.

In that same 2004-2005 season, NBC decided to try an American adaptation of the most beloved UK comedy of all time, The Office. No one in the critical community thought it would work, and most audiences were hugely skeptical of an Americanized version of British sitcom, particularly after the disastrous and short-lived American version of Coupling, which was cancelled after only five episodes the season before, illustrating again how low the Must See Thursday lineup had sunk.

The Office premiered in the Spring of 2004 as a midseason replacement. The first season aired only 6 episodes, and it wasn’t particularly well received. Or, rather, the pilot episode was poorly received. It was seen by 12 million people willing to give it a chance, but after its tepid reception, it lost nearly 50 percent of its audience in its second week. Though The Office continued to shed viewers in that first season, it gained a critical spark that convinced NBC to renew it for a second season. After all, NBC didn’t have anything better to air, so it decided to take a risk on the talent that had been assembled for The Office.

Still, in the 2005-2006 season, NBC’s Thursday night line-up was in tatters. Joey was kicking off its second season in the Friends old time slot of 8 p.m., although Joey would struggle so badly that it would be cancelled before the season ended. Will & Grace was in its final season, having lost over half of its peak viewership. Meanwhile, The Office — a poorly rated show that was barely renewed — slid into the 9:30 p.m. slot before E.R., huffing fumes itself in its 12th season.

Amid the flopping Joey, the struggling Will & Grace, and upstart The Office, which basically got a second-season pity renewal, came a new comedy from Greg Garcia (Yes, Dear) called My Name Is Earl. Earl starred Jason Lee, a guy at the time probably best known for his work in Kevin Smith’s films, and Ethan Suplee, another Kevin Smith regular who was five years removed from probably the biggest role of his career, a 7th billed actor in Remember the Titans. Beyond those two, Earl starred two little known actresses at the time named Jaime Pressly and Nadine Velazquez.

The premise of My Name is Earl is about as high-concept as they come: It’s about a bad person named Earl (Lee), who wins a $100,000 scratch ticket and immediately loses it after being run over by a car. While in the hospital, Earl sees Carson Daly talking about the concept of karma on his late-night television show. Earl likes the concept of karma so much that he decides to live his life by Carson Daly’s philosophy. He makes a list of 258 wrongs in his life, and he decides to right them all. The decision to do so immediately brings the $100,000 scratch ticket back into his life, validating his decision to live by the rules of karma.

That’s My Name is Earl in a nutshell, except that it barely scratches the surface of how fantastic the main characters were. They can probably best be described as lovable trailer trash, and America fell instantly in love with the comedy. The premiere was seen by 15 million viewers during a time when its lead-in, Will & Grace was getting only half of that. It wasn’t just the highest-rated new show on NBC, it was the highest rated new or returning comedy on any network in the 18-49 demo.

My Name is Earl was an instant smash-hit for NBC in 2005, and no show benefited from that more than the comedy that came on after My Name Is Earl on the NBC lineup: The Office. Viewers who had otherwise tuned out after the first season returned after Earl spiked the audience for The Office in its second season, a crucial time for the Greg Daniels’ series, as now classic episodes like “The Dundies,” Sexual Harassment,” and “Office Olympics” were airing. The combination of Earl and The Office was so successful for NBC that the next season, after Will & Grace exited, NBC moved up Earl and The Office to the 8 p.m. hour to anchor the night (while the reliable Scrubs took the 9 p.m. slot to help launch 30 Rock).

Of course, by the end of the second season, The Office could hold its own, after the ratings on My Name is Earl essentially nurtured The Office into its massive success. By Earl’s third season, it was anchoring the 8 p.m. hour and The Office had moved to 9 p.m. Sadly, that’s also when Earl started to slide creatively. It was the unfortunate nature of the show’s high-concept premise: It could only sustain itself for so long. However, Earl did manage to survive for four seasons, and before it went out, it helped NBC to launch one more successful comedy, Parks and Recreation, which was sandwiched between Earl and The Office in its first season before essentially replacing Earl on the schedule the next year.

Still, My Name is Earl is remembered fondly by most who watched it (and it is currently streaming on Hulu), even if its legacy is that of a show that was eventually overshadowed by the comedy it helped to find an audience.