POP CULTURE REPORT: Preparing For 'Friends' To Be Different ... At Least For A While

James Michael Tyler's grim cancer diagnosis sets new tone for sitcom which has always been timeless, youthful

Editor's Note: If you consider The Washington Current as a newspaper of sorts, think of “The Pop Culture Report” as our Arts & Entertainment section. Enjoy!

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For me, and so many other people, the TV sitcom Friends will be associated with youth.

I was just 24 years old — the same age as the characters, really — when I watched the series from its premiere on NBC in 1994.

Friends also has always been extraordinarily timeless. This is what makes it as successful — if not moreso today — than it was even in its wild heyday two decades ago.

Even what anachronisms it shows have always been more charming than glaring.

So, this sitcom — which is really all about youth, and growing up — has always been set, for me, in a kind of amber: watching it invariably transmits, to me, that feeling of youth and timelessness every time I sit down for an episode.

And these feelings, of course, have been coaxed along by the fact that the cast has aged incredibly well. Yes, some of them have begun to show their middle age more than the others, but the main cast has remained essentially healthy and free from tragedy.

That is, until now.

Just in the last week, actor James Michael Tyler's gone public with his grave metastatic, Stage IV prostate cancer diagnosis.

And, make no mistake, Tyler — who played Central Perk barista and Rachel's secret-crush-until-the-end Gunther — is as much a part of the main cast as the others.

Actor James Michael Tyler, who played barista Gunther on “Friends,” just recently revealed a grave cancer diagnosis

Appearing as a recurring character in 148 episodes, Tyler delivered a memorable presence as Gunther in more than half of all of the episodes.

In interviews since revealing his condition, Tyler's said that his cancer's traveled from his prostate, to his bones.

“Late stage cancer. So eventually, you know, it's gonna probably get me,” he's said.

You can't get much more grim than that.

TODAY @TODAYshow

We're celebrating 25 years of "Friends" with @slate_michael, who played Gunther!

So, without putting a number on it, sometime in near future, this talented actor — and braver man — will leave us.

I'm sure that he wouldn't want it this way, but Tyler's eventual passing will make watching Friends a very different experience — at least for me, and at least for a while.

For tragedy will have finally popped my amber cocoon of youth and timelessness.

But, even still, we shall always have the laughs.