The Couch from 'Friends' Is Touring Australia If You Want to Take Your Obsession to the Next Level
Watched all 236 episodes (at least twice)? Go sip coffee on the orange couch and pretend you're at Central Perk.
If furniture could talk, the couch from Friends would have plenty to say. For a decade up until 2004, the orange-hued lounge played a pivotal on everyone's favourite 90s sitcom, as Rachel, Ross, Monica, Chandler, Joey and Phoebe whiled away the hours in Central Perk, reclined upon the sofa's comfortable-looking cushions, drank copious amounts of coffee and nattered non-stop about their lives.
As far as on-screen seats go, it's up there with the most famous. And Australian streaming platform Stan bringing it Down Under. The current home of Friends in Australia, the service is celebrating the show's 25th anniversary — and while it can't bring Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer to our shores to mark the occasion, it can whip up a replica of the couch they plonked their butts on for ten seasons.
Keen to sit where your TV besties once did (or on a settee that resembles the one they sat on, to be precise)? Then you can do just that between Thursday, August 29 and Sunday, September 22. Stan's couch pop-up is touring Aussie shopping centres during that period, spending different weekends in various spots in Victoria, Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia. We can't promise that the sofa will always be empty, like it magically was whenever Monica, Rachel and the gang wanted to grab a caffeine hit, but you will be able to see and touch the replica either way.
An adjacent coffee cart will also serve up drinks, an acoustic performer will set the mood by playing 90s covers (including Phoebe's memorable ditties) and there'll be themed merchandise on offer, naturally. There's not much more to the promotion, other than showering Friends fans in nostalgia, letting everyone snap a selfie on the sofa and serving up a reminder that the show is available to stream. That said, if you take a pic, post it to your social media network of choice and tag Stan, you can win prizes, including a trip to New York City.
COUCH DATES AND LOCATIONS
Melbourne Central, Vic — Thursday, August 29 (10–9pm); Friday, August 30–Sunday, September 1 (12–5pm)
Robina Town Centre, Qld — Thursday, September 5 (3–9pm); Friday, September 6–Sunday, September 8 (11–4pm)
Westfield Tuggerah, NSW— Saturday, September 7–Sunday, September 8 (11–4pm)
Westfield Chatswood, NSW — Saturday, September 7–Sunday, September 8 (11–4pm)
Burnside Village, SA — Saturday, September 14–Sunday, September 15 (12–5pm)
Westfield Southland, Vic — Saturday, September 21–Sunday, September 22 (12–5pm)
Broadway Shopping Centre, NSW — Saturday, September 21–Sunday, September 22 (12–5pm)
The Friends couch is touring the country between Thursday, August 29 and Sunday, September 22. Visit the Stan Facebook event for further details.
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