Ross Gellar - David Schwimmer
Rachel Green - Jennifer Anniston
Chandler Bing - Matthew Perry
Joey Tribbiani - Matt Le Blanc
Monica Gellar - Courtney Cox Arquette
Phoebe Buffay - Lisa Kudrow
Trivia via IMDB.com
Courteney Cox was originally asked to play Rachel, but she asked to play Monica instead after reading the parts.
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Jon Cryer was originally offered the role of Chandler Bing. Cryer was later cast in the sitcom Two and a Half Men alongside Charlie Sheen who guest starred on this same show as Ryan in season 2.
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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.
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Other titles considered for the show were "Friends Like Us," "Six of One," and "Across the Hall" and "Insomnia Cafe."
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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.
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Ursula Buffay, Phoebe's twin sister, is a waitress in the TV show Mad About You. Fran (Leila Kenzle) and Jamie (Helen Hunt) visit the coffee shop and mistake Phoebe for Ursula in one episode of Friends.
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Three cast members from The Simpsons make guest appearances in the series: Dan Castellaneta, Hank Azaria, and Harry Shearer.
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Because of a bet between Matthew Perry and Bruce Willis on the set of The Whole Nine Yards (which Perry won), Willis appeared in his two-episode guest role for free.
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Joey's seven sisters are Veronica, Mary Angela, Mary Theresa, Gina, Dina, Tina, and Cookie.
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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.
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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).
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A Soviet propaganda poster on a wall of #19, with two people over a book, says in Russian: "To build, one must know. To know, one must learn." An antique-looking advertisement poster on a wall of #20 says in French: "Toys and Boxing-day presents".
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In Chandler's and Joey's room there is a poster with boxing kangaroos which says "Kangaroo Boxer" in Russian.
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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.
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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.
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James Michael Tyler was actually working in Bourgeois Pig, a coffee shop in Hollywood, when he got the part of Gunther. He kept his coffee gig for the first four seasons of Friends.
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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.
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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.
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Matt LeBlanc's character 'Joey Tribbiani' plays Dr. Drake Ramoray in a fictional version of the NBC soap opera Days of Our Lives. In real life, Jennifer Aniston's father, John Aniston, plays 'Victor Kiriakis' on the real Days of Our Lives.
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Is filmed on the same soundstage that was used for the filming of the sitcom Full Houseduring the last two seasons (1993-1995) of it's eight year run (1987-1995). The pilot of "F·r·i·e·n·d·s" was shot on stage 33 (the same stage as Living Single) at the Warner Ranch, and the first season was shot is Warner Bros Stage 5, now the home ofEverybody Loves Raymond) from 1987-1995.
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30-second commercial spots to take place in the final ever episode sold in the UK for £1.2 million (approx $1.8 million), the most expensive commercial slots of any TV program in England with the exception of sports.
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Jennifer Aniston agreed to return for the series' 2003-04 season, which was the series' 10th and final season, only if production on the show would be finished by January, 2004, so she could focus on her film career.
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The theme song performed by The Rembrandts became a #1 single on the American pop charts.
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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).
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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.
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After Rachel left her fiancée, Barry, at the altar in the pilot, her best friend Mindy then became engaged to Barry. Mindy was played by Jennifer Grey. Both Jennifer Anistonand Jennifer Grey played Jeanie Bueller in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Grey played her in the movie, Aniston played her in the television series.
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The creators of the Portuguese show "Gato Fedorento" say that the inspiration for the name of the show was the song "Smelly Cat".
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Spanish voices of the main stars of the series are dubbed by Concha Valero (Monica),Albert Mieza (Ross), José Posada (Chandler), Alicia Laorden (Rachel), Daniel García (Joey) and Alba Sola (Phoebe).
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Chandler's parents, Charles and Nora Bing, were named after the favorite Thin Man series character Nora Charles; one half of a very famous movie detective couple of the thirties.
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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'.
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In the opening credits to 'The One After Vegas', all of the names in the opening (actors and crew) were changed to have "Arquette" at the end of them, a gag on Courteney Cox-Arquette who had just recently married David Arquette.
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James Michael Tyler, Elliott Gould and Christina Pickles are the only non-Friends who were in all 10 seasons. Maggie Wheeler had a voice-over role in the episode where Chandler and Monica make Valentine gifts for each other in Season Six, but she had no camera time for the entire season.
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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.
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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."
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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.).
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In the pilot Barry's surname is Finkel. In later episodes, his name has been changed to Barry Farber.
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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.
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Courteney Cox is the only regular cast member to not receive an Emmy nomination for their work on the show.
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Joey's (Matt LeBlanc) picture on the wall of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy is a still from the short Leave 'Em Laughing.
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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.
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On the set, Matt LeBlanc was known as "LeBlanc" by all the cast and crew, and Matthew Perry was known as "Matthew" or "Matt". This was started by the crew to avoid confusion. Additionally, David Schwimmer was referred to as "Schwim" among the crew.
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Occasionally, NBC would air "Super-sized" episodes of their most popular sitcoms, including Friends. These episodes would run 40 minutes including commercials (or just around 30 minutes without). In syndication, a majority of the "Super-sized" episodes were cut down to fit a 30-minute time slot, except for the rare case where there was both too much plot info essential to the episode or series, and there were enough deleted scenes to make a two-episode story arc.
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The orange couch used in Central Perk was found in the basement of the Warner Bros. studio.
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For almost the entire first season, there wasn't a street outside of Central Perk, just a painted backdrop. They made the window a little blurry and put many plants in front of the window to hide it.
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Monica has eleven categories for towels. They include: "everyday use", "fancy", "guest", "fancy-guest", but the rest are not mentioned due to Chandler and Joey running out of time.
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Phoebe's alias name is "Regina Phalange." Phalanges are the small bones that make up the fingers and toes.
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The story line of Phoebe having her brother's babies was thought up when Lisa Kudrowannounced her real-life pregnancy. However, as she was not big enough to be having triplets, and the show was shot in "TV time", the costumers had to pad her to make her look bigger for the show.
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There have been eight Oscar winning actors/actresses who have appeared on Friends.Charlton Heston, Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon, Helen Hunt, Julia Roberts, Reese Witherspoon, Robin Williams, and George Clooney.
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When dubbed and aired in the Czech Republic, the Czech voice actors would say their names out loud every time one of the six particular actors would appear on the screen with his or her name superimposed.
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Of all the titles, the Friend's names appear individually as so: Rachel (21 times), Ross (19 times), Joey (13 times), Phoebe (10 times), Chandler (9 times), and Monica (7 times). Also, Ross and Rachel appears 4 times, Joey and Rachel appears 3 times, Monica and Chandler 2 times, and Ross and Monica appears once in the episode titles.
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The original plan for the season 9 Thanksgiving was to bring back Reese Witherspoonas Jill Green, however Witherspoon was unavailable so the writers re-wrote the role as Amy Green and cast Christina Applegate in the role.
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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".
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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?"
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Matt LeBlanc showed up on the day of the audition with a large ugly cut on his nose resulting from a tumble and a land on the edge of a sharp toilet seat.
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At least three performers, Bruce Willis, Christina Applegate and Paul Rudd have guest-starred on episodes of the show after doing a film with one of the regular cast members. Willis and Applegate won Emmys for their guest turns.
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The main characters from the show are named after All My Children characters. Ross for Ross Chandler, Joey for Joey Martin, Chandler for the Chandler family, Monica for Monique/Daisy Cortland, Rachel Greene for Janet Green, and Phoebe for Phoebe Tyler Wallingford.
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The shows original theme song was "Shiny Happy People" by R.E.M., but was changed later on to "I'll Be There For You" by The Rembrandts.
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In the episode 'The One with Frank Jr.', when Chandler makes out his "celebrity list", the fifth and final spot on his list was Jessica Rabbit. Jessica Rabbit was the fictional love interest in the movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit and was voiced by 'Kathleen Turner', who later played Chandler's trans-gender father Charles in the series.
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The poster in Joey's room during season 7 says "Grand Prix af Frankrig", and is a Danish poster celebrating a double victory by Mercedes-Benz cars (driven by Juan Manuel Fangio and Karl Kling) in the French Grand Prix (later Formula 1) in 1954.
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In an interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2004, Jennifer Aniston said she ordered Cobb salad for lunch almost every day of shooting during the ten years that the show lasted.
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Each of the main six stars has hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live apart fromMatt LeBlanc.
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Courteney Cox is actually older than David Schwimmer, though he plays her older brother on this show.
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(May 2009) In a poll conducted by The O'Reilly Factor, host Bill O'Reilly revealed that this sitcom was voted the 3rd worst TV show in broadcast history. Other dubious nominees included: (1) My Mother the Car / (2) The Jerry Springer Show / (4) The Gong Show and (5) Cop Rock.
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Matthew Perry and 'Matt LeBlanc (I)' both guest-starred on the sitcom Just the Ten of Us, Perry in the second season and LeBlanc in the third season, . They both dated sister Wendy Lubbock, played by Brooke Theiss. Additionally, Perry and Theiss starred together in a short-lived sit-com of their own in 1993 entitled Home Free.
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Winona Ryder and Susan Sarandon were both on Ross' "celebrity list". They both later guest-starred on the show as Melissa Warburton and Jessica Lockhart.
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Lisa Kudrow based her hippie character Phoebe on her co-star Jennifer Aniston - because of the actress' interest in "spiritual" subjects.
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This was first time Teri Garr played the mother of Lisa Kudrow's character. She later portrayed her mother in Kabluey.
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Bob Balaban and Teri Garr who played Phoebe's parents both starred in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
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As with most sitcoms, episode titles are not shown. As a joking reference to this, the official names of Friends episodes take the form "The One where..." (or some variation). The only exceptions to this are the series finale ("The Last One") and the third episode of season 5 ("The One Hundredth"), though these episode titles are distinctly similar. ("The Pilot" is often incorrectly regarded as an exception, however, it has two official alternate titles: "The One Where It All Began" and "The One Where Monica Gets a Roommate.")
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Some of the celebrity guest stars who have been on the show are Charlton Heston',Charlie Sheen, Tom Selleck, Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon, Helen Hunt, David Arquette,Billy Crystal, Gary Oldman, Julia Roberts, Reese Witherspoon, Christina Applegate,Jean-Claude Van Damme, Robin Williams, Dakota Fanning, Danny DeVito, Brad Pitt,Anna Faris, Ben Stiller, Paul Rudd, and George Clooney, among many others.
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Giovanni Ribisi plays Pheobe's brother, Frank 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.
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In the pilot episode's credits Rachel is seen mouthing the words to the song. It is not seen again after that episode in the beginning credits however on the last episode of each season they show at the end an extension of the friends dancing in the fountain and sometimes again including her mouthing the words.
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Entertainer 'Ellen Degeneres' asked Lisa Kudrow (Phoebe) during an interview in 'Ellen: The Ellen DeGeneres Show' (2003)_ about the idea of doing a "Friends" movie, to which she answered: "Yeah, it would be really fun, but I don't think it's happening. I don't think it's really been a plan." She also asked Courteney Cox about the same thing during another interview to which she joked: "Has that 'Sex and the City' (1998)_ movie come out yet? We'll see how that does!".
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The show debuted at a time when networks were beginning to eliminate theme songs during the opening credits; however, with the popularity of this theme song, "I'll Be There for You" which went to #1 on the "Billboard Hot 100" and had incessant play on both the radio airwaves and television video channels, the show helped quell that trend.
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Ross, Chandler and Joey all watch Die Hard and talk about this film in several episodes. The star of Die Hard, Bruce Willis, appears in later episodes as Paul, Ross's student girlfriend's father.
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When 'Courtney Cox' was on The Tonight Show she told Jay Leno a story about filming Friends. During filming one day, Cox kept reciting a line by Anthony Michael Hall which goes, "Chicks cannot hold their smoke, dat's what it is." Matthew Perry thought it was from Weird Science but Cox was adamant it was from The Breakfast Club. After asking around (sound men, production staff etc), they couldn't come up with a definitive answer. They began betting starting off with $20 then making it larger. Perry actually joked that if he won Cox would have to sleep with him and if she won he would have to sleep with her. They then heard Judd Nelson (Hall's cast-mate in The Breakfast Club) was filming Suddenly Susan in a nearby stage, so they went over and asked him and found out it was Breakfast Club. Leno asked her what the bet was to which Cox sneezed and then rang a bell. Perry walked out from backstage with a tissue in his hand. Cox then told Leno, Perry was going to be her man slave for five more months.
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Joey's (Matt LeBlanc) picture on the wall of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy is a still from the short Leave 'Em Laughing
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