MrBing

This is the place to share Friends Stats and Facts (i know ive posted alot but read them, some are really interesting) anything you would like to share to everyone about friends that they may find interesting like Did You Know:

Courtney Cox was originally asked to play Rachel, but she asked to play Monica instead after reading the parts.

Jon Cryer (charlie sheen's brother on two and a half men) was originally offered the role of Chandler Bing.

Other titles considered for the show were "Friends Like Us," "Six of One," and "Across the Hall" and "Insomnia Cafe."

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.

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.

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

Before the show was cast, the main love interest was intended to be Monica and Joey.

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.

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.).

Courteney Cox is the only regular cast member to not receive an Emmy nomination for their work on the show.

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.

The orange couch used in Central Perk was found in the basement of the Warner Bros. studio.

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.

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.

The main characters from the show are named after "All My Children" (1970) 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Urrgh

Awesome thread
I (among others) just posted this on another thread, but it would only be fitting to post it here too:

'Pat the dog', Joey and Chandler big, white ceramic dog, was actually a good luck gift given to Jennifer Aniston on the first day of shooting and the producers wanted to use it in the show.

WeBuiltThePyramids

Wasn't Aniston asked to play Monica, too, and she thought she wanted to be Rachel so it was lucky that Cox wanted Monica? I think I saw that on the final big interview they did before the last two episodes.

Urrgh

Courtney mentiones in said interview that she didn't in fact audition for the part of Rachel, but that they did considered her for it.
Jennifer in turn mentioned that they first wanted her to audition for the part of Monica, but that she fell in love with Rachel and wanted to play her instead.

Btw, I noticed something else (WeBuiltThePyramids, aka Nicole please don't keep reading because I really don't want to spoil you more than necessary ) :

In 'TOW the Ultimate Fighting Champion' Ross says "Well, this is ironic. Of your last two boyfriends, Richard didn’t want to have kids, and from the looks of it, now Pete can’t."
In 'TOA the Beach' Chandler says: "Wait a minute, I know that hat! I was taken aboard that hat! They did experiments on me! I can’t have children!!".
In 'TOA 'I Do'' Joey says: "Slow swimmers?" to Chandler after it is revealed that Monica isn't pregnant.
This is all unintentional foreshadowing to the fact that Chandler can't have children (with his wife, at least), and that it's because his sperm is too slow

MrBing

sorry webuiltthepyramids i was unaware you have not watched all of friends yet, hope i didn't ruin anything.
and also enjoy this time watching Friends for the first time when you don't know whats happening is literally the best thing ever.
but don't worry even after you watch it, you'll be able to watch it again and again!

WeBuiltThePyramids

Oh don't worry. I know the basic stuff, who ends up with who, who dates who within the group, who has kids with who and all that. It's just the details I don't know. Like the season four finale, I knew "Ross screwed up his wedding" but I didn't know exactly what.

unagi

Ross was 29 for 3 years, (season 3 - 5)

In Series 3 he tells Chandler, "No thanks, I'm 29" when offered chocolate milk; in Series 4 when the guys try to party without Gandalf they all say they're 29; and in Series 5 when he's trying to reconcile with Emily, he says either he does, or he would get divorced for the second time before age 30.

WeBuiltThePyramids

Impressive!

Brucas4life

I'd never really payed attention to how old they were tbh, that's rather strange how Ross stayed the same age for 3 years though

WeBuiltThePyramids

Normally that kind of thing would bother me, but for some reason this doesn't.

What bothers me is Ross finds out Carole is a lesbian a year before the Pilot, but for some reason she doesn't move in with Susan until a year later and Ross finds out she's pregnant even after that. Not sure why she'd sleep with him 9-10 months after she and Susan start their thing...

TV-Guru

They did sleep together after that though because in "TOW The Boob Job" when Ross is talking to Phoebe about marriage in his flat he says "Me and Carole had a lot of good times before she was a lesbian... and one time after that" ok so thats not an exact quote but its near enough

I'm Not Dead

I had never really thought about that, but now you mention, I am surprised that Ross or Carol never quite explained how their one-nighter (if that's how it happened) came to be.

WeBuiltThePyramids

Yeah, I've seen that ep. And I think it may be an exact quote! Could be wrong, though.

I would have liked an explanation for how they had that one more time, though.

WeBuiltThePyramids

Okay, here's a question. I may have totally missed this being addressed in an episode, but I don't know.

So we saw in all those flashback episodes that Monica and Rachel were pretty close. But then in the Pilot, Monica was the only person Rachel knew in NYC that wasn't invited to her wedding. Even if Rachel didn't know many people in the city, why would she not invite Monica? When/what was their falling out? Did I miss them talking about that?

Urrgh

It was never addressed. But I assume they outgrew eachother, and that sometime during college (and then grew back in ). Maybe Rachel started hanging more with those stuck up girls that we see in some episodes (and became one).