Matthew Perry tribute: 12-hour 'Friends' marathon on TBS celebrates 'Best of Chandler'

Even as we mourn his passing at age 54, Matthew Perry is giving us comfort through the comedy legacy he left behind with “Friends.” On broadcast, cable and streaming, Chandler Bing is with us always.

To mark the work that made Perry a worldwide star, TBS is showing a 12-hour “Best of Chandler” marathon that runs from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesday and consists of 24 episodes from the classic NBC sitcom than ran from 1994 to 2004.

The celebration will continue at 6 a.m. Thursday with six hours of the “Best of Chandler and Joey’s Friendship” and at 10 a.m. Friday with two hours of the “Best of Monica and Chandler’s Relationship,” followed by encore episodes starting at 6 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

As Chandler, Perry became our most relatable TV friend of the 1990s and early 2000s. Like so many other young adults, Chandler’s go-to emotional response of sarcasm was a shield against social anxiety, while his self-deprecating jokes were a classic case of delivering the punchline about himself before anyone else could.

Perry had impeccable timing with his dialogue, but his real gift as an actor was his ability to peel back Chandler’s protective layers and let the solid, dependable good guy inside shine through with a throwaway line, a facial expression or a body movement (or sometimes, while only using his voice; see “The One with Chandler in a Box” at noon tomorrow).

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The episodes featured in Wednesday’s marathon are bursting with Perry’s brilliance on “Friends.” In the first season’s “The One with the Blackout,” Chandler is a ball of awkwardness when he’s stuck in an automated teller vestibule with Victoria’s Secret model Jill Goodacre. When Goodacre kisses him goodbye on the cheek, he turns to the security camera and pleads, “I don’t know if you got any of that, but I would really like a copy of the tape.”

Chandler gets all parental in “The One with a Chick and a Duck” as a result of Joey bringing home a baby chick (which he cuddles and coos over as Chandler quips, ”Easy, Lenny,” the best “Of Mice and Men” reference in sitcom history).

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Later, as Chandler becomes the prime caregiver for the chick, he complains to Joey, “I’m stuck here all day and then you come in and spend two seconds with us and then expect to go off gallivanting with your friends? Well I don’t think so, mister!"

The one that will break your heart during the marathon is “The One with All the Thanksgivings,” where Monica goes to Chandler’s apartment and puts, in this order, a turkey, a fez and a pair of giant sunglasses on her head and does a sexy dance.

“I love you,” says Chandler for the first time, unplanned and stunned that he actually said it out loud.

By the end of the show’s ten-year run, Chandler had grown so much. No longer focused on not getting hurt, he had finally faced his fear of commitment by stepping forward as a husband and father. Of course, Chandler probably would greet such analysis with, “Could you be any more serious?”

Laughter and tears go together perfectly sometimes. Chandler will be there for you, starting at 6 a.m. Wednesday on TBS.

Contact Detroit Free Press pop culture critic Julie Hinds at jhinds@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Matthew Perry tribute: TBS hosts 'Best of Chandler' 'Friends' marathon