David Schwimmer Couldn’t Listen to Friends Theme Song for Years: ‘I Had Just Heard It So Many Times’

David Schwimmer was over the Friends theme song.

During an appearance on Matt Lucas and David Walliams’ Making a Scene podcast this week, the Friends star, 58, admitted that hearing the hit show’s theme song for 10 seasons really did a number on him.

“I never watched the show after we finished it,” he told the podcast hosts.  

Lucas, 51, joked, “Same, I never watched your show.” 

Schwimmer continued, “For me, it’s like, I did it, I’m moving on. I don’t really go back and revisit.”

However, it wasn’t until his daughter “discovered it around age 9 or something and started watching it” that his outlook changed. 

The Goosebumps actor is dad to Cleo, 13, whom he shares with ex-wife Zoë Buckman.

“I’ll be really honest, there was a time for quite a while that just hearing the theme song would really,” he said, unable to find the right words to describe the feeling. Schwimmer then let out a sigh. 

“You know what I mean?” he asked. “I just had that reaction. I mean, I just had heard it so many times.” 

Adding a bit of comedic comfort, Lucas said, “Well, no one told you life was going to be that way,” which is the opening line to the Friends theme song. 

“Correct, thank you,” Schwimmer replied. “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.”

He reiterated that Cleo discovering the series made him see (and hear) things differently. 

“I’d be making breakfast or whatever and I’d hear my kid’s laughter,” he recalled.

He admitted, “My whole relationship to that song and to the show changed.”

Friends made its television debut on Sept. 22, 1994, and followed six young men and women who lived in the same apartment complex and faced life and love together in Manhattan.

In addition to Schwimmer, the sitcom starred Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and late actor Matthew Perry.

Last year, the show celebrated 30 years since its release.

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“It was just magic. Nothing was not exciting,” Aniston, 56, told PEOPLE in April 2024 of her time on the show. “And it’s still exciting, but we’ve had more experiences. We’ve learned more lessons. There’s a little more behind us.”

The cast has maintained a close friendship since the series finale in May 2004. They’ve also had various reunions over the years, notably getting together for HBO’s Friends: The Reunion special in 2021.

Friends can be streamed on Amazon Prime Video and Max.