BFFs? Fonda, Tomlin reunite for Netflix's new comedy 'Grace and Frankie'

Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin are such good friends in real life, they're enjoying the challenge of playing women who aren't.

The former “9 to 5” co-stars reunite in “Grace and Frankie,” a Netflix comedy series premiering Friday, May 8. Following the streaming service's pattern of releasing an entire season of a series at once, 13 episodes will be available. The title characters are left by their husbands, played by Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston, who embark on their own relationship together ... leaving Grace (Fonda) and Frankie (Tomlin) to bond over that situation and others pertinent to women of their age.

“It's easy to not be friendly with Lily,” Fonda jokes during an interview with both of them. “I had no problem at all with that.” And Tomlin's typically droll response? “I welcome her animosity.”

In tandem with Dolly Parton, Tomlin and Fonda had huge success with the 1980 workplace satire “9 to 5,” which Fonda's company produced. “It's fun to do something totally new with somebody you worked with 35 years ago.”

Tomlin adds, “One of the interests we had in doing this was in talking about the issues that face older women in this culture.” However, Fonda notes, “We wanted to do it in the context of a comedy that's also reality-based.”

Another engaging element of the show for Fonda and Tomlin is that each has worked with the other's “husband”: Two-time Oscar winner and AFI Life Achievement Award honoree Fonda recently wrapped up a run opposite Waterston on HBO's “The Newsroom,” while four-time Emmy and two-time Tony winner — and Mark Twain Prize and Kennedy Center Honors recipient — Tomlin worked with Sheen during her time on “The West Wing.”

“In our marriage,” Tomlin reports, “Sam's character, Sol, and mine were good friends and sort of suited for each other ... both a bit eccentric. Robert (Sheen) and Grace were less so.” Indeed, Fonda notes her ex-spouse couple in the show was “more uptight and conservative, and we didn't have the sort of touchy-feely closeness that they had. To work with Sam and Martin is a thrill, because they're both fantastic.”

Brooklyn Decker and Ethan Embry also are in the cast of “Grace and Frankie,” created by sitcom-veteran executive producers Marta Kauffman (“Friends”) and Howard J. Morris (“Home Improvement”).

“The overall feedback that we're getting,” Fonda says, “from people who have seen this is, ‘It's not what we expected at all. It's way more real than we thought, and there's nothing like it on television.' It's not facile, and it's not stereotypical.”