Friends (Trivia)
  • Courteney Cox was originally asked to play Rachel, but she asked to play Monica instead after reading the parts.
  • Jon Cryer was originally offered the role of Chandler Bing. Cryer was later cast in the sitcom “Two and a Half Men” (2003) alongside Charlie Sheen who guest stared on this same show as Ryan in season 2.
  • Jon Favreau was offered the role of Chandler Bing. He later returned as a guest star during the 1997 season as Pete Becker, Monica’s millionaire boyfriend.
  • Other titles considered for the show were “Friends Like Us,” “Six of One,” and “Across the Hall” and “Insomnia Cafe.”
  • The golden frame around the peephole was originally a mirror which one of the crew accidentally smashed. But because it still looked good they decided to leave it there.
  • Ursula Buffay, Phoebe’s twin sister, is a waitress in the TV show “Mad About You” (1992). Fran (Leila Kenzle) and Jamie (Helen Hunt) visit the coffee shop and mistake Phoebe for Ursula in one episode of Friends.
  • Because of a bet between Matthew Perry and Bruce Willis on the set of The Whole Nine Yards (2000) (which Perry won), Willis appeared in his two-episode guest role for free.
  • Joey’s seven sisters are Veronica, Mary Angela, Mary Theresa, Gina, Dina, Tina, and Cookie.
  • When Matt LeBlanc auditioned for the role he only had $11 dollars to his name. When the cast got their paychecks, the first thing that Courteney Cox bought was a car. Matt LeBlanc bought a hot dinner.
  • Joey’s pick-up line, “How *you* doin’?” was ranked #4 in TV Guide’s list of “TV’s 20 Top Catchphrases” (21-27 August 2005 issue).
  • In the last few months of shooting Friends, Courteney Cox became pregnant, but, seeing as Monica wasn’t supposed to be able to have a baby, they covered up her pregnancy by making her wear baggy clothes while shooting the show so no one could tell.
  • In the first couple of episodes Chandler and Joey’s apartment number was #4 and Monica and Rachel’s apartment number was #5. However, in the later episodes, they are 19 and 20 respectively because the producers noted that 4 and 5 corresponded to apartments on lower floors and the Friends’ apartments were higher up the building.
  • June Gable who plays Joey’s agent, Estelle Leonard, also played a nurse who delivered a baby for Leah Remini (who originally auditioned for the role of Monica) in the episode where Ross and Carol have their own baby. Joey assisted his future agent by being the breathing coach during labor.
  • Lisa Kudrow was terrified of the duck that showed up in Season 3.
  • Courteney Cox added Arquette to the end of her name after her marriage to David Arquette between seasons five and six. Her father, Richard L. Cox, died in 2001 and during the midst of the ninth season, she dropped the Arquette in her father’s memory.
  • Matt LeBlanc’s character ‘Joey Tribbiani’ plays Dr. Drake Ramoray in a fictional version of the NBC soap opera “Days of Our Lives” (1965). In real life, Jennifer Aniston’s father, John Aniston, plays ‘Victor Kiriakis’ on the real Days of Our Lives.
  • Before the show was cast, the main love interest was intended to be Monica and Joey.
  • The theme song performed by The Rembrandts became a #1 single on the American pop charts.
  • The characters’ full names are: – Rachel Karen Green – Phoebe Buffay (in “The One Where They All Turn Thirty” 7.14, she says that never knew her middle name since she had never seen her birth certificate and her twin sister, Ursula, had sold it to a Swedish runaway) – Joseph Francis Tribbiani Jr – Chandler Muriel Bing – Ross Eustace Geller – Monica E. Geller (her exact middle name is never revealed throughout all 10 seasons).
  • Out of the six friends, Chandler is the only one to not have any siblings. Rachel has two sisters, Monica and Ross are brother and sister, Phoebe has a twin and a half-brother, and Joey has seven sisters.
  • The opening credits sequence in which the stars dance in a fountain was shot in Warner Bros LA lot at 4am. The water was kept heated through a pump. The group was given the words to the Rembrandts song but it was not playing in the background because the song had not been recorded. Jennifer Aniston is the only cast member seen lip syncing in the opening credits, and this can only be see on the opening credits of ‘The Pilot’.
  • When Tom Selleck made his initial on-set appearances, he received standing ovations. These would render his entrances unusable, prompting the need for later re-shoots without the audience.
  • No Friend ever made more money doing the show than any others. They started out making $22,500 per episode and ended up making $1,000,000 per episode. All negotiations were done in unison. Kudrow said, “The six of us are far stronger than just one person.”
  • The original idea for the show was going to focus on four characters with Phoebe and Chandler in supporting roles. In the early stages the creators toyed with the idea of Chandler being gay. They changed their mind when they met Matthew Perry. They did, however, insert many jokes about Chandler having gay mannerisms (not knowing about sports, loving show tunes, etc.).
  • The refrigerators in Monica’s and Joey’s apartments actually worked. Monica’s was filled with water and other drinks for the cast and crew. Joey’s was usually virtually empty, unless the inside of the fridge was going to be seen in a specific scene.
  • Courteney Cox is the only regular cast member to not receive an Emmy nomination for their work on the show.
  • Joey’s statue of a white dog was originally given to Jennifer Aniston as a good luck present from her best friend when she started acting. She offered to lend it to the show for the episode where Joey became rich and bought a lot of stuff. After that episode, the producers decided to keep it.
  • The original plan for the season 9 Thanksgiving was to bring back Reese Witherspoon as Jill Green, however Witherspoon was unavailable so the writers re-wrote the role as Amy Green and cast Christina Applegate in the role.
  • All the friends have kissed each other, though one kiss is fictional (Monica and Joey in “The One With The Truth About London”), and two of the kisses appear off-screen (Rachel and Monica kiss to retain their apartment and Chandler kisses Ross at Joey’s birthday party before making out with Joey’s sister). Monica and Ross’s on-screen kiss is a quick peck. They also kissed off camera in “The One Where the Stripper Cries”.
  • Matt LeBlanc, who plays Joey in Friends, admitted in the exit interview for the book Friends…Til’ the End, that he had a crush on Jennifer Aniston who plays Rachel. 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?”
  • Giovanni Ribisi plays Pheobe’s brother, Frank Jr Jr in later episodes, but he also has a small cameo in the earlier seasons. He plays a boy who accidentally throws a condom into Pheobe’s guitar case instead of a coin.