It’s one of those weird truths of the history of television production that one of the biggest TV shows of all time—a network-saving miracle that dominated the haircuts and conversations of an entire nation for the better part of a decade—devoted a vast and unfathomable amount of its early run time to the antics of a monkey. Yes, we’re talking about Marcel the monkey from Friends, famously immortalized by co-star/soulmate David Schwimmer in an Entertainment Weekly interview that begins with “I hate the monkey.”
Schwimmer-feud notwithstanding, Katie the capuchin has had a long and relatively successful career in Hollywood over the last 20 years, including appearances on 30 Rock, and in a number of commercials. (She also met Ariana Grande, which is probably more than Ross has ever done.) Now she’s scored a prime primate gig indeed, with THR reporting that she’ll be playing Ampersand the monkey in FX’s upcoming (and long-anticipated) Y: The Last Man adaptation.
Ampersand is a weirdly major component of the original Y comic, which sees every male in the world (save one guy, and his monkey) abruptly drop dead. Besides offering up the occasional shit-related antic, Ampersand also helps underline exactly what kind of dude protagonist Yorick (played by Barry Keoghan in the show) is, i.e., a Ross-esque dumbass who thinks owning a monkey might be fun. (Spoiler: It pretty much never is.)
Anyway, Katie’s return to the limelight was noted by, of all people, FX president John Landgraf, who worked at NBC back in Friends’ heyday, and thought he recognized the former star when he was checking out the show’s early footage. “I recognize that monkey!” the incredibly powerful television executive was heard to remark.
THR confirmed that Katie was, indeed, co-starring in the project, as well as the fact that she’s now in her late-20s—roughly middle-aged for a capuchin, so kudos to Hollywood for overcoming its deeply entrenched ageism against female performers for once, we guess.
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The monkey is getting better gigs than David Schwimmer! Can it BE anymore embarrassing?
Counterpoint: Schwimmer gets about $20 million a year for a show that ended 15 years ago.
Why doesn’t Ross, as the largest Friend, simply eat the monkey?
This was the 30 Rock monkey who taught Tracy that women can be funny. I didn’t know she was so prolific.
I guess I’m glad Tracy didn’t show the monkey exactly how much he loved her.
“….wanna take that monkey behind the middle school and m…”
That’s a good point.
There was one time that Tracy was skipping rehearsals during a production dispute with Liz and he sent a gibbon wearing a “Tracy” t-shirt to take his place and that gibbon later tried to make love to Jenna’s head/face area, but that particular monkey actor wasn’t nearly as famous.
Guess it was either Marcel or Annie’s Boobs, and Annie’s Boobs are on Netflix.
Is that where my pen is?
Is that where your penis what?
Penis mightier.
Many stars at you, glorious one.
If they follow the comics eventually a second monkey shows up. My bet is Crystal(aka Annie’s Boobs and many other parts) will get a call
I’d rather they let this monkey play both, like on Bewitched.
I refuse to call him Marcel, and will only refer to him as Bob Buttons
Bob Buttons was what Mr. Heckles called the cat they had found (which later turned out to be Paolo’s). When he had Marcel in his apartment, he called him “Patty.”
No shit? Lol, thats what happens when you try to reference a show that you only saw 1 season of once as it aired 25 years ago.
They’ve been trying to make this thing for so long (since 2007!!!) that actually casting monkeys in entertainment productions has since gone out of vogue both for financial and ethical reasons and they’re now more often portrayed using CG. Gotta think that whoever cast the monkey from the TV show from the ’90s made that decision a long-ass time ago.
Remember when half the commercials you’d see from the UK involved a chimpanzee in human clothing with some posh overdub? Fucking seventies.
“a network-saving miracle”Am I forgetting about Seinfeld, the fact that Cheers just ended a couple years before Friends showed up, and all the other sitcoms and dramas that were playing on NBC every Thursday night? And NBC dominated that night for years on end?I guess ER never existed, and everyone watched Chicago Hope instead (oh I forgot, they switched to a different night after a year or two).
NBC’s Thursday block was always the weatherstone for the network, and when the Cosby Show / Family Ties / Cheers / Night Court block died it was a tense couple years till the next Thursday block came around. I think 227 was in that period.
ER debuted the same year Friends did.
They even did a crossover.
“ER premiered at the same time as friends.” “They even did a crossover.”To this day, they still deny that’s what it was.
people weren’t really watching seinfeld yet. it was a bit of a critical darling but it wasn’t until it started reruns that it became a juggernaut, and it’s noted that ER premiered at the same time as friends.
I’m amazed that monkey is still alive. I had no idea that they lived so long.
Me either, I assumed that this monkey like most TV dogs lived on only in repeats.
Natural life expectancy for capuchins is 15-25 years, but of course that includes predation. In captivity they can live up to 50 years.
Though it has to be said that if you want an environment rife with predation, Hollywood is it.
I had exactly the same thought about David Schwimmer.
I would have thought, given how monkeys die from eating stupid things, and given how this monkey on diverse movie sets would be around things to eat, that this monkey would have eaten something and should’ve been dead before Y2K.That this monkey is still alive is probably a testament to how much the trainer gets from her per day, compared to how much she’s insured for. I bet you can’t insure a monkey, because they’re the fucking worst.
“Bad dates.”
I said the same about Matthew Perry.
I remember seeing claims that the cat that played Salem in the Melissa Joan Hart Sabrina The Teenage Witch show is also still alive, but I don’t know how true that is. The cat would be around the same age as “Marcel”, probably.
Cats live longer then dogs and there are more cases of abnormally long lived cats.
Wasn’t that cat a puppet?
Both a puppet and live cat were used depending on the scene.
Domesticated felines generally have a lifespan of 20 years; apes (specifically bonobos) aren’t prone to mortality until 40 or 50. A little surprising, but Salem and Marcel are probably heavily insured, and I imagine receive round-the-clock vet care.
In my mind, I always pictured the monkey from Outbreak would be perfect for this role. Whatever, Hollyweird.
Goddamnit. Just went on a Wiki bender trying to figure out if the monkey cast in Outbreak was the same monkey cast in 28 Days Later.Thanks, Internet!
Well, what did you find? I’m sure as shit not going to research anything for myself on the Internet.
I don’t blame you.NOTHING! I found nothing! Apparently it was just some lousy, D-list Kathy Griffin monkey.
Goldfish can live over 40 years.
One of the best Friends gags is Ross randomly saying at the start of an episode years later “Remember when I had a monkey? What was I thinking?”
…This actually kind of makes me not want to watch. CG that damn monkey. We’re past needing live wild animals to perform for us.
What, were there too many lead roles for male monkeys that they had to gender swap for representation here as well? *I kid I kid*
I’m looking forward to seeing how effective her cgi penis is, if they get it wrong I’ll be furious!
“Ha-ha, look at the monkey.”
Wasn’t this monkey a terror to work with?
I like the self-referential line in one of the later seasons of Friends where Ross says, “remember when I had a monkey? Yeah…what was I thinking?”
That monkey may be cool, but she’s no Whiplash.
Are the producers so speciesist that they cast a female monkey to play a male monkey, thinking no one will notice? I mean, they’re right. No one will notice, but still.
On the flipside, the network probably doesn’t want monkey wangs on screen.
Thanks, Puritans!
Man, I’m so over the idea of this show. This is the prime example of an adaptation that has taken so long to get off the ground that it’s long past the point of being culturally relevant. Remember how Ralph Breaks the Internet felt like it was reflecting the internet of a decade ago, rather than current state of the internet? Yeah, that’s how I feel about this hypothetical show.
Maybe the series could be drastically rewritten to focus on 355 or Hero or Dr. Mann (God, those names don’t even feel cute anymore, they feel like frat-bro snickering) instead of on Yorick. But the premise honestly feels like a regressive throwback to the 60s-Star-Trek style of addressing hot button topics. We’re past the point where we need to use aliens as a metaphor for racial equality or LGBT rights; we’re also way past the point where we need a straight white male protagonist to make feminist issues relevant or understandable.
I never watched Friends. Was this monkey also the Rally Monkey for the Angels, as the picture implies? I have no opinion, other than the 2002 World Series was one of my favorites, mostly thanks to watching Barry Bonds play left field like he was on roller skates with busted wheels.
Irony that it’s a female monkey lol