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 While
the ninth season of Friends premieres on Zee English on 10
October, the channel will be airing a special curtain raiser which
takes the audience through each season of the critically acclaimed
sitcom.
 Starting
2 October, the week long curtain raiser is anchored by actor Rahul
Khanna and ex-MTV VJ Nafisa Joseph. Taking a cue from the popularity
of the Emmy curtain raiser anchored by Gul Panag, the Friends
curtain raiser attempts to take viewers down memory lane.
Produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane production in association with
Warner Bros Television, the show, which debuted on US television
in 1994-95, began airing in India in 1998.
The popularity of the show prompted the launch of the Indian version
Hello Friends on Zee, produced by actor Ajit Pal. Unfortunately,
audiences failed to warm up to the weekly that launched on 6 September
1999. Starring MTV VJs Cyrus Broacha, Nikhil Chinnapa, Maria Goretti,
Aparna Tilak, Simon Singh and Anil Dimbri, the spin-off received
a lukewarm response vis-a-vis the Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox
Arquette, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer
show and was subsequently pulled off.
 While
the channel is yet to announce the dates, the candid, unsparing
and self-deprecating Curb Your Enthusiasm is the next launch
of the season. The show brings the off-kilter comic vision of the
Larry David co-created and co- produced another Zee English alumnus
Seinfeld.
The series blurs the lines between reality and fiction, as David
(playing himself) and a cast of real and fictional characters are
followed around Los Angeles by a ubiquitous camera that chronicles
the private, often banal world of a relatively public man. It features
footage of writer Larry David at home, at work and around town,
as he gets into predicaments with fictional and real-life personalities.
The show shot without a script, also stars Jeff Garlin as manager
Jeff Greene and Cheryl Hines as wife Cheryl. The cast is given scene
outlines and often improvise lines as they go.
Speaking about the popularity of sitcoms, a channel spokesperson
says that the 'association' factor with the sitcom is the prime
reason of its popularity with the metro audience. While the channel
remained noncommittal about whether they intend to get the spin-off
Joey on board, Zee MGM will definitely be airing the final
season of Friends next year. The channel has also planned
a couple of contests around the ninth season.
Based on the friendship of three men and three women who frequently
gather at each other's apartments and share sofa space at Greenwich
Village's 'Central Perk' coffeehouse, the show has been one of the
regular features on the channel.
While new acquisitions like Six Feet Under, Hidden Hills
and The Norm Show have managed to register, the channel continues
with reruns of the NBC show Fresh Prince of Bel Air and the
ABC show Full House beside Friends, owing to the popularity
of the old shows.
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