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The ultimate collection of behind the scenes facts about the TV show Friends created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman. Some of our 101 Friends facts include what Matt Le Blanc bought with his first paycheck, why Jennifer Aniston never wanted to do a tenth season and the romantic Ross (David Schwimmer) and Rachel storyline that should have made it into the final season.
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Friends is often named as one of the most popular television shows of all time; it is still aired daily in the USA and across the world. It was created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman and first aired on NBC back in September 1994. Friends accumulated 236 episodes across 10 seasons and has given audiences some of the best loved characters including Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston), Monica Geller (Courteney Cox), Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry), Ross Geller (David Schwimmer), Joey Tribbiani (Matt Le Blanc) and, Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow).
Friends follows the lives of 6 single young adults exploring New York City after graduating from college and moving away from their family homes. Monica Geller is perhaps the most successful of all 6 owning her Grandmother's large apartment which she shares with Phoebe. Rachel Green is an old school friend of Monica and also her Brother Ross, who comes back into the Gellers lives after fleeing her wedding and needs a place to stay. Ross Geller's College room mate Chandler Bing now lives across the hall from Monica and introduces the gang to his womanising room mate Joey Tribbiani.
If you're a huge Friends fan, you may think that you've read all of the Friends facts you can find however we've put together a bumper list of 101 just to make sure!
When auditioning for the role of Joey Tribbiani in Friends, actor Le Blanc only had US$11 to his name. When the cast got their first paychecks, the first thing that Le Blanc did was go out and buy himself a hot meal. In comparison, his co-star Courteney Cox bought a car.
Matt LeBlanc is also said to have turned up on the day of his audition with a large cut on his nose after he fell and hit his nose on the edge of a toilet seat. It’s a wonder he got the gig really!
Courteney Cox is now famous for portraying the favourite Geller sibling, Monica Geller, however she was originally asked to play Rachel Green. After reading the two parts in the Friends script, Cox preferred the role of Monica and asked to play her instead.
The artwork displayed in the famous Friends coffee house Central Perk was changed every three episodes in order to keep the set looking as close to a realistic working environment as possible.
Matthew Perry who played Chandler Bing in Friends is said to have walked straight past fellow actor Courteney Cox when she was dressed as the affectionately named “Fat Monica” for the first time as he didn’t recognise her.
In early versions of the Friends script, the creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman had originally written Joey’s character as difficult to get along with and the other characters would’ve seen him as a jerk. Matt LeBlanc questioned the writers and asked why on earth would the other characters want to be friends with him in the first place, so the character was changed.
Friends actor Matt LeBlanc admitted in an interview that he had a crush on Jennifer Aniston when he started filming the sitcom. He said, “Now I had a little crush on Jen in the very beginning, but I think the whole world did too, so what are you going to do?”
In the early scripts for Friends and before the actors were cast, Monica Geller and Joey Tribbiani were meant to be in a romantic relationship. However when the showrunners David Crane and Marta Kauffman met both Courteney Cox and Matt LeBlanc they decided that they didn’t have romantic chemistry. Instead they were paired with Chandler and Rachel as love interests.
The character Phoebe Buffay is well known for her eccentric songwriting skills but what’s more surprising is that Lisa Kudrow seems to have talent in writing them too! The song “Smelly Cat” was written by Kudrow and her best friend one night when they were drunk and it eventually got written into Friends.
A popular Portuguese comedy show named itself, "Gato Fedorento" which translates as “Smelly Cat” after the popular Friends song.
The iconic orange sofa that the Friends gang would sit on every time they met up in Central Perk was actually found in the basement of the Warner Brothers Studios.
One dedicated Friends fan worked out that over the complete 10 Seasons Joey Tribbiani owes Chandler Bing US$119,760 after having his acting classes and expenses funded over the years.
While filming Friends David Schwimmer (Ross Geller) organised an intervention for actor Jennifer Aniston as she kept turning up to the set late.
Friends is well known for having amassed a huge amount of famous guest stars including Brad Pitt, Tom Selleck and Bruce Willis. Two of these guest performances were so memorable that the actors actually won Emmys for their roles. Bruce Willis played Paul Stevens, the Dad of Elizabeth (Ross’ young student girlfriend) and Christina Applegate who played one of Rachel Green sisters Amy.
Some of the other notable celebrity guest stars on Friends have been: Charlie Sheen, Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon, Jeff Goldblum, Jane Lynch, Hugh Laurie, Billy Crystal, Gary Oldman, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Robin Williams, and Danny DeVito.
Matthew Perry has been very open in interviews about his struggle with alcohol and drugs during his Friends career. He admitted that he barely remembers filming Season 3, 4, 5 and 6.
During the episode “The One After Vegas”, the names of the cast and crew were changed in the credits to all include the surname Arquette. This was in reference to the fact that Courteney Cox‘s name had changed to Courteney Cox Arquette after recently marrying the actor David Arquette.
David Arquette appeared in the Friends episode, "The One With The Jam" as Malcolm, the ex-former boyfriend of Ursula Buffay who mistakenly stalked Phoebe.
Actor Giovanni Ribisi plays Phoebe’s eccentric younger brother Frank Junior in Friends however beforehand he appeared in a minor role as a young man who accidentally throws a condom into Phoebe Buffay’s guitar case instead of a coin. The same character later runs to pick it up out of the case in order to use it. There is still a debate among Friends fans as to whether or not Ribisi is playing the same character in both of these instances. What do you think?
Interestingly Joey's agent Estelle, played by June Gable, also plays a nurse in the first season when Carol was in the hospital.
Hank Azaria auditioned to play the role of Joey Tribbiani in Friends but was rejected. He begged to audition again and was then rejected again however he did later appear on Friends as David the scientist, Phoebe’s boyfriend who relocates to Minsk and fought for her affections with Mike Hannigan.
James Michael Tyler plays Gunther, the quiet yet demanding manager of the Central Perk Coffee House. He was originally meant to be a silent character throughout all of the seasons but he was later given a story line as one of Rachel’s admirers. He was only given the name Gunther in Episode Seven of Season Two.
David Crane and Marta Kauffman originally wrote the plot for Friends focusing on four characters only, Ross, Monica, Rachel and Joey. Phoebe Buffay and Chandler Bing were only meant to be supporting roles.
Also in the early scripts the writers toyed with the idea of making Chandler gay however they change their mind when they met the actor Matthew Perry.
Thankfully they changed the original idea and made all six characters lead roles.
At the time of recording the Friends episode “The One With The Lesbian Wedding”, the Producers hired 200 telephone operators to take calls from audience members anticipating complaints. They assumed they would get many due to the subject matter being a lesbian relationship which was a controversial topic at the time however they only ended up receiving 11 calls in total. See everyone loves Carol and Susan!
Both refrigerators in Monica and Rachel‘s apartment and Joey and Chandler’s apartment on the Friends set were actually plugged in and were used as fully functioning fridges. Monica’s was filled with water and drinks for the cast and crew whereas Joey's fridge was often featured in scenes so they kept it stocked with props.
One of Friends’ most high-profile guest stars was Tom Selleck; he played Monica’s older boyfriend and potential soulmate Richard. When Selleck entered the set to start recording his scenes the audience members were so loud with their cheering and clapping that his entrance shots had to be re-filmed without an audience present. He was even given standing ovations!
We all instantly recognise the Friends theme song, “I’ll Be There For You” by The Rembrandts, from the first couple of bars however this wasn’t always meant to be the theme. The song “Shiny Happy People” by R.E.M. was originally running.
According to The Rembrandts band members Phil Solem and Danny Wilde, the success of the Friends theme tune helped increase sales so much so they were able to send their children to college.
Jennifer Aniston has said in interviews that none of the cast members were fans of the theme song!
When Friends began to achieve success, actor Matthew Perry who plays Chandler Bing, sent a copy of People Magazine where he was featured on the cover to an old school teacher who had been negative about his future aspirations and success.
Similarly, the Friends creator Marta Kauffman was asked to give a speech at her old school’s graduation, and she ended up discussing how her teachers told her she wasn't a good writer.
Due to a small budget and tight restrictions in Season One of Friends, the street and outside view from Central Perk were depicted by a painted backdrop. In later seasons, a whole set including the street had been created and was most prominently used in Season 10 as the setting for Phoebe and Mike‘s wedding.
Actor and director John Favreau was originally offered the part of Chandler Bing however turned it down. He later appeared in Friends alongside Courteney Cox as her boyfriend Pete, the Millionaire who had aspirations to become the Ultimate Fighting Champion. We do wonder if the storyline took any inspiration from the fact that Courteney Cox’s husband at the time, David Arquette, was involved in professional wrestling.
The second wife of Ross Geller, the British Emily Waltham, was played by actor Helen Baxendale. She became pregnant between Season Four and Five of Friends and subsequently couldn’t continue travelling from England as often as the writers would like. Therefore Marta Kauffman and David Crane had to write Emily out of the script much earlier than previously planned. In her last few scenes she is wearing very heavy clothing in order to hide her Baby Bump.
Jennifer Aniston, who plays Rachel Green, had to be convinced into doing a Season 10 of Friends as she didn’t think that she had “any more Rachel in her”. She was hoping to pursue a movie career instead of Television at the time. The production of Friends was offered an 11th Season but the cast turned it down because they felt it could ruin the sitcom’s reputation.
When the final episode of Season 10 of Friends aired in the UK, potential advertisers were offered 30 seconds of airtime for the massive amount of £1.2 million. This is still the most expensive commercial slot of any television programme in the UK with the only exception of sporting events.
In the US, advertising rates were US$2 Million for a 30 second slot which out did Seinfeld’s previously record-breaking figure of $1.7 Million.
Lisa Kudrow has referenced in interviews that she modeled Phoebe’s spiritual and hippy personality on fellow Friends cast member Jennifer Aniston.
Aniston and Perry were the only two cast members in Friends that previously knew each other before the pilot had been filmed.
Two of the most exciting guest stars on Friends were Rachel Green’s two sisters, Reese Witherspoon as Jill Green and Christina Applegate as Amy. However we weren’t originally meant to meet Amy Green. The original plan for the episode, “The One With Rachels Other Sister” was to bring Reese Witherspoon back in as Jill however she was unavailable therefore the Producer’s cast Applegate as the second Green sister.
One of Joey Tribbiani’s recurring jokes is that he was ‘going commando’ especially in the scene in which he wore all of Chandler's clothes simultaneously. The increased usage in the phrase because of Friends led to it being included in The Oxford English Dictionary.
One of Lisa Kudrow‘s biggest storylines as Phoebe Buffay was when she agreed to have her brother’s babies as a surrogate. The storyline was actually written in because Lisa Kudrow was pregnant in real life and it would make life onset easier to not have to cover up her baby bump. Yet when it was decided that Phoebe was going to give birth to triplets, David Crane and Marta Kauffman expanded her costume in order to make her bump look big enough for triplets.
At the same time that Lisa Kudrow was in Friends, she was also guest starring in Mad About You as Ursula 2 years before she debuted as Phoebe. Kauffman and Crane decided to make Phoebe Buffay be a twin sister to Ursula Buffay to create a crossover between the two shows.
These crossovers include Phoebe turning up to the restaurant on Mad About You to meet Ursula and Mad About You characters, Fran and Jamie (played by Leila Kenzle and Helen Hunt) turn up at Central Perk and mistake Phoebe for Ursula.
When the Friend’s Producers came up with a storyline for Chandler and Monica to hook up at Ross’ wedding to Emily, it was meant to be a one night stand. Fans in the live audience liked the reveal scene so much that they clapped and cheered for 27 seconds during taping. The Producers decided to keep them as a couple due to the reaction.
Courteney Cox is quoted in interviews saying that Matthew Perry helped train her and is the reason that Monica became the character she was on Friends.
One of the most amusing storylines on Friends is where Phoebe Buffay tries to teach Joey Tribbiani to speak French in order to impress in an audition but he cannot grasp the language and ends up embarrassing himself on stage. What makes it even better is the fact that actor Matt LeBlanc is actually fluent in French in real life!
One of our favourite facts about Friends is that all of the main characters were named after characters on the successful American soap opera All My Children.
In the top rated Friends episode “The One Where Everybody Finds Out”, Joey Tribbiani has to unhook Phoebe Buffay’s bra in one swift move. In reality actor Matt LeBlanc took 12 takes to do it. That is why the audience reaction is so loud in the final episode!
Actor Matt LeBlanc has revealed in interviews that he had to dye his hair to keep his natural black/dark brown throughout filming Friends.
Out of the entire back catalogue of Friends, there are only three episodes that do not include the usual “The One Where…” in the episode title. These are Season Five Episode Three, “The 100th”, and the series finale two-parter, “The Last One Part One & Two”.
The pilot episode of Friends actually has three official alternate titles, “The One Where It All Began”, “The First One” and “The One Where Monica Gets A Roommate.”
In all of the Friends episode titles, Rachel's name appears in 27 which is the most of any of the main characters. Ross appears 24 times, Joey appears 16 times, Chandler appears 11 times, Phoebe appears 10 times, and Monica appears 8 times.
The complicated game Bamboozled which Joey has to learn and test before an audition was actually created as a real playable game for the Friends DVD extras. Wicked Wango cards and all!
Avid Friends viewers will know that we are told most of the full names of the characters including Rachel Karen Green, Joseph Francis Tribbiani and, Chandler Muriel Bing. We were never given Ross or Monica’s middle names in any of the Friends episodes but David Crane mentioned in a magazine article that Ross has the middle name Eustace and that Monica’s begins with an E.
When Phoebe introduces herself as Princess Consuela Banannahammock she also remarks that her Friends can call her Valerie. Valerie is Lisa Kudrow's middle name.
This is usually everybody’s go to Friends fact but we had to include it too! In the first couple of episodes Monica and Rachel’s apartment is listed as number 5 and Chandler and Joey live at number 4. The numbers were called into question as it was obvious that the apartments were not on the ground floor of the building. The showrunners swapped the numbers instead to have Joey and Chandler at 19 and Monica and Rachel at 20.
Before settling on the simple name of Friends, the creators had other titles in the running including: “Friends Like Us”, “Six Of One”, “Across The Hall”, and “Insomnia Café”.
Actor James Michael Tyler who plays Gunther isn’t naturally blonde. He had died his hair the day before his audition because a friend was studying hairdressing and needed to practice. When Tyler auditioned in front of the producers, they liked his hair, so much that they wanted him to keep it for the whole 10 seasons.
He bleached his hair every week for ten years; His natural hair color is brown.
You may remember that Joey Tribbiani says that he has scratched his pin number on the ATM on the corner of the block and it is 5639. This incidentally spells out Joey so he could remember it!
Friends was set in New York City at the time September 11th tragically happened. The creators of the show did not explicitly mark the terrible events however they subtly pay tribute to the city and its residents on set. In the 13th Episode of Season Eight, “The One Which Only Takes A Bath” we see Joey wearing a shirt with the name Captain Billy Burke on the back of it. Burke was the name of a Firefighter who sadly died at the World Trade Centre that day.
Also, on the board on the back of Joey and Chandler’s apartment door there was a message on the Magna Doodle expressing support for the city and the Fire Department of New York. Several of the other cast members were wearing shirts in support of the FDNY too.
While Joey Tribbiani plays the pretend character Dr Drake Ramoray on Days Of Our Lives in Friends, Jennifer Aniston’s father, John Aniston really played a character named Victor Kiriakis on Days Of Our Lives.
In one of the brilliant flashback episodes on Friends you may remember the plotline in which Monica accidentally chops off one of Chandler's toes. This came about because Matthew Perry actually has the tip of one of his fingers missing, the middle finger on his right hand. In order to accommodate this, the Friends Producers David Crane and Marta Kauffman originally wrote that Monica accidentally cut off his finger in the episode “The One With All The Thanksgivings” but the studio deemed it too graphic so it was later altered to involve his toe instead.
Oh my God! Actor Maggie Wheeler based her portrayal of Chandler's obnoxious girlfriend Janice on the Fran Drescher from the 1993 sitcom The Nanny.
Whilst we know that one of Monica Geller‘s character traits is that she is scrupulously clean, Courteney Cox is said to also love to keep things tidy so much so she would clean up her fellow actors' dressing rooms.
The physical location of the Friends favourite hangout Central Perk Coffee House is never actually revealed. During a few of the episodes, characters have referred to it as being “downstairs” but exterior shots of the apartment show that the building on the ground floor is occupied by a restaurant painted red. Central Perk is painted green on the outside. Fans have decided that Central Perk’s given the exterior shot is an apartment building on the corner of Grove Street and Barrow Street in NYC, the most likely location would be on Hudson Street which is a block away from Grove Street.
During the DVD extras and audio commentary for Season 10, Friends co-creator David Crane revealed that in between episode 15 and 16 Ross and Rachel were meant to go to Paris together where they would fall in love all over again. The writers did not have enough time to include the Paris trip as they were only given 18 episodes rather than the usual 24 by the network. Therefore Rachel was given the Paris ultimatum in the final episode.
Ross Geller’s first wife Carol was actually played by two actors. We first see Anita Barone as Carol in Season One however by Carol’s second appearance Jane Sibbett took over and would remain in the role for the rest of the series. Anita Barone would go on to star in Seinfeld, The Larry Sanders Show, and Carol & Company.
Actor David Schwimmer was the first of the six main cast members to be agreed upon in Friends and Jennifer Aniston was the last. Kauffman and Crane wrote the character of Ross with Schwimmer in mind having worked with him previously.
Courteney Cox is the only one of the 6 leads in Friends not to receive an Emmy nomination for her work.
There are many rumours online and in interviews that the six main cast members of Friends were asked to sign a contract which meant they were not allowed to have sex with each other. If this was signed, we wonder how many of the cast members actually stuck to it! You would imagine, if it was real, it was drawn up in order to not create tension and change the chemistry between the characters on the show.
One of our favourite Friends facts is that before the pilot aired, the studio paid for all of the six main cast members to go to Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas to in their words, “have one last shot at anonymity”. The characters then went back to the location for the Vegas episodes of Friends.
Despite being on-screen siblings, Ben Geller, played by Cole Sprouse and Emma Geller Green, played by both Noel and Cali Sheldon, never appeared in a scene together. Ben was never seen visiting Emma when she was born and neither were any members of Rachel‘s family.
When we meet Rachel Green for the first time in Friends she runs into the Central Perk Coffee House dressed in a wedding dress after leaving her husband-to-be standing at the altar. Rachel’s fiance is originally introduced to us as Barry Finkel but it’s later his name changes to Dr Barry Farber when we meet him getting married to Mindy.
The writers of Friends obviously always wanted Phoebe to be a little bit more eccentric than the rest of the characters so they initially wrote her persona as a Goth. She later adopted a more spiritual and hippy vibe.
Before Lisa Kudrow was given the part of Phoebe Buffay, the role was going to go to Janeane Garofalo. Garofalo went on to star in many TV shows including Saturday Night Live, The Ben Stiller Show, Home Improvement and Felicity.
As of 2017 Friends was the most profitable television show in history earning the Warner Brothers Studio over US$1 Billion a year from syndication and streaming royalties. The six main cast members roughly earn US$20 million a year through syndication and streaming which is roughly the same as their salaries during the final few seasons (less when accounting for inflation).
The 50th Friends episode, which is the second episode of the third season, named “The One Where No One’s Ready” takes place almost entirely in the living room of Monica and Rachel’s apartment.
This episode is known as a ‘bottle episode’ and was the idea of Executive Producer Kevin S. Bright as a way of saving money for other episodes by using a single set with no guest stars. This format would be used once per season thereafter including The One With Monica’s Thunder and The One On The Last Night. Bright also believes that these episodes are some of the best overall.
Interestingly the injury that Joey sustains by jumping on his bed during The One Where No One’s Ready was actually a real injury that Matt LeBlanc sustained during filming Joey and Chandler racing towards a chair and he landed upside down.
Despite many women changing their hairstyles to the iconic Rachel in the 1990s, Jennifer Aniston has gone on record several times during interviews saying that she now hates the Rachel haircut.
During a season two episode of Friends Rachel asks what is in a Cobb salad. This line came about because Aniston always ordered the same Cobb Salad for lunch almost every day while shooting Friends.
Some of you may remember the failed Friends spin-off Joey and most of us are trying to still forget it. Joey Tribbiani leaves Friends as the only single cast member but he later gets engaged to his next door neighbour Alex Garrett who is a highly educated yet ditzy Lawyer. The show Joey was cancelled before the writers could actually include the wedding scene but it is implied that they got married shortly after the last episode.
Joey Tribbiani’s iconic catchphrase “How YOU Doing?” may seem like it has been around forever but it was not used until the fourth season of Friends! It is now one of the most repeated lines from the show.
The actual real life address for the building in which Monica, Rachel, Chandler and Joey live is 90 Bedford Street, New York, NY 100 14. Phoebe Buffay’s address is 5 Morton Street, Apartment 14, New York, NY 100 014.
Apartment 19 where Joey and Chandler live in New York is actually the real life address of a restaurant called, The Little Owl. It is the restaurant beneath the Friends apartment building located on Grove Street and Bedford Street.
Successful movie actor Vince Vaughn originally auditioned to play Joey Tribbiani on Friends. He later went on to star in films such as 21 Jump Street, Zoolander, and, alongside Jennifer Aniston in the film The Break Up in 2006.
An unforgettable supporting character on Friends is Joshua Burgin, The rich divorcee who Rachel meets in the personal shopping department at Bloomingdale’s. When they go on a date and go back to his parents home, audiences are treated to Rachel’s awkward encounter with Josh’s Mum and Dad. The actor who plays Joshua’s Father in this scene is actually John Bennett Perry, the real life father of Matthew Perry.
John Bennett Perry also plays Matthew Perry’s father in Scrubs. He plays patient Gregory Marks and Matthew Perry plays Murray Marks.
Joshua is played by Tate Donovan who was an ex-boyfriend of Jennifer Aniston. When the pair were playing love interests on Friends they were actually going through a breakup at the time!
Talking of memorable Friends couples, you may remember that Chandler Bing has a crush on Baywatch actress Yasmine Bleeth. What you might not know is that in reality Matthew Perry was dating Bleeth at the time In 1995.
Matthew Perry later went on to date Julia Roberts after her guest performance on Friends as Susie Moss from 1995 to 1996.
Actor Téa Leoni was originally meant to play Rachel Green before Jennifer Aniston took the role. Since then she has played lead roles in films such as Deep Impact in 1998, Jurassic Park III in 2001 and in the political drama series Madam Secretary.
Elizabeth Berkley also auditioned for the role of Rachel Green.
Despite there being several hints on Friends, we never actually see Joey Tribbiani and Phoebe Buffay get together. While the idea to incorporate this pairing into the show was rejected, the creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman have both said in DVD extras that they would have liked to imagine that Joey and Phoebe were hooking up offscreen throughout the course of Friends.
Three main cast members of The Simpsons have starred in Friends. Firstly, Dan Castellaneta who is well known for playing Homer Simpson, Grandpa Simpson and Barney Gumbel in nearly 700 episodes. He also starred in Family Guy, Parks And Recreation as the DJ Derry Murbles and Frasier as Brad.
Secondly Hank Azaria joined the Friends cast as David, Phoebe's scientist boyfriend but is also well known for playing several Simpsons characters in nearly 700 episodes including Moe Szyslak, Chief Wiggum and Carl.
Thirdly, the actor Harry Shearer stars in both Friends as Dr. Baldharar and the Simpsons as Ned Flanders, Principal Skinner and Mr Burns for nearly 700 episodes.
Lisa Kudrow is the only Friends cast member to later guest star in an episode of The Simpsons as Alex Whitney in the episode Lard Of The Dance in 1998.
You may remember that Phoebe Buffay’s scientist boyfriend David played by Hank Azaria left New York City to do his research in Minsk, the largest and capital city of Belarus. Coincidentally Lisa Kudrow had ancestors who emigrated from a village in Minsk to the USA.
In a strange continuity error, Ross Geller was 29 for three years on Friends and celebrated his birthday twice in one season.
For securing the unforgettable role of Janice, Chandler's loud ex-girlfriend, actor Maggie Wheeler originally auditioned for Monica Geller. Either way she would’ve been with Chandler!
Alongside Friends, Wheeler went on to start as a recurring character in Everybody Loves Raymond, Ellen and has appeared in How I Met Your Mother.
Leah Remini also auditioned for the role of Monica but went on to guest star as Lydia in season one.
Before the Friends Producers settled on Matthew Perry as their Chandler, the role nearly went to John Cryer who is well known for playing the co-leading role in Two And A Half Men which was a huge success for 12 seasons.
Craig Bierko was also in the running to play Chandler. The Friends creators later found out that he was coached for the role by Matthew Perry.
Strangely five of the Friends main characters have sung live on the show. Phoebe Buffay, obviously, did many performances in Central Perk as a singer-songwriter. We see both Monica singing Delta Dawn and Chandler perform Joy To The World at Mike Hannigan‘s Piano Bar in Season 10. Joey sang in a musical about Sigmund Freud, and Rachel gives an awkward rendition of the Copacabana at her ex-fiance’s wedding. Ross is the only friend not to sing however he does perform with his keyboard at Central Perk.
Phoebe Buffay has the codename of Regina Phalanges which she uses several times throughout Friends. What you might not know is that Phalanges are actually a real thing, they are small bones that make up the fingers and toes. So in reality we all have Phalanges!
Chandler and Joey keep a chick and a duck as pets in their apartment throughout Friends. The duckling is called Dick and the chick being called Chuck.
As well as playing Ross Geller on Friends, David Schwimmer actually directed 10 episodes. They are:
When the final episode of Friends was filmed, each main cast member was given a piece of the street/sidewalk from outside the Central Perk Coffee House as a keepsake.
Jennifer Aniston and her husband at the time Brad Pitt celebrated the end of Friends by hosting a dinner party at their house. The couple served bottles of wine that Executive Producer Kevin S. Bright had saved from the first season in 1994.
When the cast were filming the final Friends episode, their make up had to be reapplied several times due to the amount of tears that were shed during scenes!
James Michael Tyler took home some of Gunther's wardrobe including the tie he wore where he professes his love for Rachel.
In order to avoid confusion, actor Matt LeBlanc was referred to as "LeBlanc" by all the cast and crew, and Matthew Perry was called "Matthew" or "Matty".
David Schwimmer had his last name shortened to "Schwim" among the crew to again avoid confusion with David Arquette.
Every one of the lead cast members on Friends developed a quotable catchphrase over the series. These are:
Paul Swain, an electrician on the Friends crew, was the man behind the ever-changing Magna Doodle drawings on the door in Joey's and Chandler's apartment.
Matt LeBlanc said on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon that he took the Magna Doodle and gave it to Paul when the final episode had ended.
The Friends episode where Phoebe thinks her Mother’s spirit has been reincarnated into a cat was written by Marta Kauffman when her own mother had passed away. She dedicated the whole episode to her. Fellow writer David Crane said in an interview that this storyline would have been shot down at the table read, but nobody wanted to say no under the circumstances.
In the episode where Chandler and Monica get married, Rachel is frantically trying to find a new priest for the wedding. She finds a Greek Orthodox Priest coming out of a wedding between an Anastassakis and a Papasifakis. Anastassakis is Jennifer Aniston's real surname.
Monica worked as a chef at The Moondance Diner which the same diner Mary Jane Watson, played by Kirsten Dunst, worked in Spider-Man as a waitress.
The number 27 is used throughout Friends. Monica, Rachel, and Phoebe wear firemen's hats that have 27 on them. Monica says 27 is a dangerous eye age, they stop on Route 27 on the ski trip, Chandler gives Ross US$27 when he feels bad seeing Monica and Joey weighed 27lb when he was born.
Before the network NBC decided to commission Friends, they considered another pilot from Matthew Broderick centered around a group of Friends who hung out at a coffee shop. The series was called, "Maxwell House".
One avid Friends fan has worked out that 16 chickens appear in the plot of Friends. These include: Little Yasmine, the chicken that pooped on Julie’s lap in China, the plastic chicken Paul's parents got him, nine chickens on a piece of Central Perk art, a member of the band Numbnuts, the chicken suit that won't go with Monica's new boots, the chicken suit Chandler had at a new job, and Joey and Chandler’s Chick.
In the opening titles of Friends, the actor’s names are listed in both alphabetical and height order.
By the last episode of Friends, a staggering 52.2 Million Americans tuned in to see the gang shut the door of apartment 20 for the final time. The finale aired on 6th May 2004 and is the fifth most-watched series finale in television history. Friends was beaten to the top spot by the M*A*S*H finale which amassed 105.9 Million viewers, Cheers with 80.4 Million, The Fugitive with 78 Million and Seinfeld with 76.3 Million.
The Friends casting director shortlisted the 1,000 actors who applied for each of the 6 main roles down to 75. The auditions took place in New York and Los Angeles.
Once NBC picked up Friends, Kauffman, Crane and Bright reviewed speculative scripts from young writers based on other popular shows at the time including Seinfeld. Unlike many other shows, the team chose seven young writers straight out of college because, “When you’re 40, you can’t do it anymore.” Also the just coming out of college and making your way in the world was the time they were aiming to recreate on Friends.
The iconic opening sequence of Friends where the six of them are seen playing in a fountain at the Warner Brothers Ranch was shot at 4AM in Burbank.
The Executive Producer Kevin S. Bright felt that filming outside the studio setting made the show less funny as the live audience was integral to the series’ success due to their reactions. These days many viewers and critics have questioned inaccuracies about New York on Friends including how the gang were able to afford such large apartments being in their early 20s. Bright discussed in an LA Today interview that they needed to have such large sets in order to execute the multitude in each script gags successfully.
Friends is credited in helping non-English speakers learn the language. Kaplan International English colleges conducted a survey in 2012 that found that 26% of its students felt Friends was the best television show to help them improve their English. A few well known celebrities have also cited Friends as a resource that helped them learn the English language including football manager Jürgen Klopp, BTS band member RM and golfer Thomas Pieters.
One of the most memorable props from Friends is the golden picture frame that hangs on the back of Monica and Rachel’s door placed over the peep hole. Originally this prop was actually a mirror but it was broken by Ricky Parker, a crewmember, but it was left up because it looked intentional.
Outside of the main Friends cast there were only three other supporting cast members who starred in all 10 seasons this included, James Michael Tyler as Gunther, Elliott Gould as Jack Geller and Christina Pickles as Judy Geller.
Maggie Wheeler had a voice-over role in Season Six of Friends but wasn’t physically present on camera.
All six main actors appear in every episode. James Michael Tyler, who plays Gunther, is the only other cast member to appear in over one hundred episodes; he has a total of 151.
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