NBC prepares to say goodbye

NBC’s two biggest comedies, “Friends” and “Frasier,” will end with two-hour finales on May 6 and May 13, respectively, and the network will move up the launch of its first fall schedule without those landmark shows, announcing Wednesday it will begin its fall television season in August.

The two series’ finales will begin with a one-hour retrospective of classic scenes, followed by a one-hour concluding episode. The finale for “Frasier” will also air on a Thursday, when the show aired in its first season in 1993-94. “It will give the proper send-off to these two classic comedies that have been so important for NBC,” Jeff Zucker, president of the network’s entertainment, news and cable group, told a gathering of reporters in Hollywood for the industry’s midseason press tour.

The network also plans to take advantage of the millions of viewers expected to tune into NBC for the Summer Olympics by launching most of its new and returning shows at the end of August instead of the end of September, when the new television season traditionally begins, Zucker said.

“All the old rules of when you launch shows are changing,” Zucker said, reiterating one of his favorite recent themes. “It’s clear we are in a 52-week schedule already. We’re all evolving into that. Given that we are in year-round programming already, we would be silly to wait three weeks until after the Olympics, lose that promotional base, to start the season.”

Zucker called the prospect of a season without “Friends” and “Frasier” daunting, and added that the fate of the troubled “Miss Match” is unclear. He acknowledged it had been a particularly tough season for NBC, which missed the mark with “Coupling” and “The Lyon’s Den.”

The cast of “Friends” began rehearsing the final episode this week and will tape part of it in front of a studio audience on Jan. 23. The audience will leave before the end of the taping, keeping the final moments a secret.

“We want the ending to be happy and OK and for the audience to feel good about saying goodbye to them,” said co-creator and executive producer Marta Kauffman, who along with the cast and other producers, met Tuesday afternoon with reporters on Warner Bros. Stage 24. “We want it to still feel like an episode of the show.”

Cast members described the difficult and emotional week ahead of them as 10 years of working together winds down.

“We’re like very delicate china right now speeding toward a brick wall and the inevitable pain of that,” said Jennifer Aniston. “So that sounds fun, huh?”

Other NBC announcements Wednesday:

* Michael J. Fox will star in two episodes of “Scrubs,” on Feb. 5 and Feb. 12.

* The network will counter-program the Super Bowl on Feb. 1 with three episodes of Bravo’s “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.”

* Tennis legend John McEnroe will host an ensemble topical talk show on CNBC beginning Jan. 26.

* “Shrek” will air Feb. 15 with additional footage not available on the DVD.

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‘Friends’ CountdownNBC Wednesday announced its schedule for the final days of its 10-year Thursday night hit “Friends.” Here are some key dates for the sitcom.

Jan. 23: Final episode tapes on Warner Bros. Studios’ Stage 24.

Feb 5: Danny DeVito guest stars as the stripper for Phoebe’s bachelorette party.

Feb. 12: Phoebe gets married.

March 4 through April 8: NBC will air viewers’ six favorite episodes, with extra footage that has never aired. Viewers can vote for their favorite episodes for broadcast on AOL until Feb. 1.

May 6: A one-hour retrospective begins at 9 p.m. followed by the hourlong final episode.