Little-Known Details About the Hit Show Friends

Acting for a show like Friends requires a lot of skill, but it takes a whole other set of skills to perform while dealing with a phobia. Lisa Kudrow, the actress who played Phoebe, had to confront her fears several times whenever a bird was involved. She has ornithophobia, a fear of birds, which made filming scenes with Chandler and Joey's chick and duck especially challenging. At times, producers were uncertain if they could have Lisa Kudrow and the birds in the same room for certain scenes.

With so much backstory for each character on the show, it's not surprising that sometimes the writers failed to tie all the storylines together. Many fans didn't notice a significant plot hole spanning seasons 3 to 5 regarding Ross' age, likely because none of the characters on the show acknowledged it either. If you go back and rewatch the show, you'll find that Ross inexplicably doesn't age up for three whole seasons.

Courteney Cox and Jennifer Aniston are famously best friends both on screen and off. Their friendship appears to have withstood the test of time, as the actresses are still pictured out together to this day. However, apparently, this wasn't always the case for all three leading women of the show. Back when they were filming episodes, they were said to rarely eat lunch together, often preferring the company of themselves or others instead.

The audience always loved it when Hollywood actors and actresses made guest appearances on the show. However, it's easy to overlook the fact that the six famous Friends stars were exceptionally skilled at performing in front of a live studio audience. Not all celebrity guests could handle the stress of acting in front of a large, unfamiliar crowd. In the case of Reese Witherspoon, who played Rachel's sister Jill, she found the experience so difficult that she declined to film additional episodes.

Many fans believe that Monica and Chandler's undeniable on-screen chemistry meant that they were always meant to end up together. We were able to breathe a sigh of relief when their friends-with-benefits situation turned into a proper relationship. However, the show's co-creator revealed that the writers didn't actually intend for it to happen, as they had other plans for Monica and Chandler that didn't involve them being together in the long run.

It's often wondered whether an actor or actress is similar to the character they play in a movie or show. In the case of Courteney Cox, it seems we have our answer, as the Friends star is said to have been as much of a clean-freak as Monica. It's no wonder why Cox was hired to play the role, given their striking similarity. The actress even has her own line of luxury cleaning and household products!

Just like in life, sometimes things don't turn out quite how you expect. This was certainly the case for Monica and Joey's characters, who the writers originally had very different plans for. Instead of Monica ending up with Chandler, the original plan was for Monica and Joey to enter into a long-term romantic relationship. However, somewhere along the way, the showmakers decided that it simply wasn't meant to be.

The world was in shock following the events of 9/11, and the film and TV industry experienced repercussions just like everyone else. The writers of the show had to rework a particular episode after the tragedy occurred, as it included an inappropriate joke from Chandler about a bomb in an airport. During this sensitive time, with numerous conspiracy theories circulating about the September 11 attacks, it was deemed too risky to make such jokes.

You'd think that Jennifer Aniston would have a soft spot for the hairstyle that became so iconic and synonymous with the nineties. However, the reality is that the actress actually didn't like it at all - in fact, she hated it. While many tried to emulate the style and most of the world thought the Rachel Green bob looked amazing on her, Aniston never shared that sentiment about the shoulder-length hairstyle.

Gender pay gap is a hot topic in Hollywood at the moment, but back during the filming of Friends, it was less of a prominent issue. Regardless, the six stars of the show came up with an ingenious way to ensure that they all benefited from the huge success of the show. When the sitcom started raking in a lot of money, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry, and David Schwimmer approached the higher-ups together to negotiate better pay.

Phoebe's twin sister became a recurring character on the show, bringing a whole new set of challenges for her bohemian sister. Ursula was so iconic that she even had a role on another show, Mad About You, where her character actually originated. In Mad About You, Kudrow played the part of the ditzy waitress Ursula Pamela Buffay, who was slightly less of an antagonist than we were used to seeing.

Hiding the bellies of pregnant actresses on TV shows and in movies can pose a huge challenge for crew members. It often involves concealing baby bumps behind kitchen counters or dressing the stars in baggy clothes. However, the writers of Friends chose not to conceal Lisa Kudrow's pregnancy; instead, they incorporated her pregnancy into the storyline by making her character, Phoebe, pregnant as well. This approach eliminated the need to hide her at all.

Action star Bruce Willis played the role of Paul Stevens in Season 6 of Friends. It's hard to imagine the show without his hilarious character, but Willis actually only appeared on the sitcom because he lost a bet. In his 2022 memoir titled Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, he revealed that losing a bet with his close friend, the late Matthew Perry, led to his cameo appearance.

One of the most iconic visuals on the show is the yellow photo frame that surrounds the peephole on Monica's front door. Similarly, Joey and Chandler had something unique on their front door - a blue doodle board. It's seen in the background of many episodes, but few people realize that they were hiding little Easter eggs right in plain sight. From cute drawings to cheeky messages, the blue doodle board was almost always a point of interest.

The Friends intro music and video montage is condered to be an iconic part of TV, and fans worldwide love singing along to The Rembrandts' song 'I'll Be There for You.' However, the cast didn't share the same fondness for it. Jennifer Aniston spilled the beans on how none of her co-stars ever liked the show's intro, stating, "We felt it was a little, I don't know - dancin' in a pond, or like, a fountain felt a little odd."

We know the show as centering around six characters - Monica, Rachel, Phoebe, Ross, Chandler, and Joey. However, the original plan was for the show to focus on just four main characters, with Chandler and Phoebe in supporting roles. When the creators saw how talented Matthew Perry and Lisa Kudrow were, and how well audiences reposnded to them, they decided that they just had to bring them more into the fold.

Towards the end of Friends, most of the cast felt like they were losing steam. Jennifer Aniston was even thinking about not coming back for the finale of season 10. She had received more success than her other co-stars, which may have encouraged her feelings of wanting to leave the show early. Aniston wanted to leave the show on a high note while fans still loved it, and she hinted that she had "a couple of issues" influencing her decision.

There are several instances throughout the series when an episode ended on a cliffhanger. Interestingly, the showrunners decided to keep these suspenseful scenes a secret from the live studio audiences and filmed them separately from the rest of the episode. While this approach may have frustrated fans attending the filming, it was necessary to prevent plot leaks and keep audiences at home guessing. If they had filmed these scenes in front of a live studio audience, there was a higher chance that spoilers would have made it to the fans.

There are many things that the writers and showrunners did right with Friends. However, with 10 seasons under their belt, it's hardly surprising that they didn't get everything perfect. Most fans of the show agree that one of the worst storylines was when Rachel and Joey hooked up. After establishing such a solid friendship between the two characters, this plot development felt like a step in the wrong direction.

You'd never have guessed that the Duchess of York, Sarah Ferguson, suffered from stage fright. She's spent the majority of her life greeting crowds and making public appearances, but when it came to filming for the show alongside several professional actors, it terrified her more than she expected. Her daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, were huge fans of the show, so it was hard for her to change her mind when the fear struck.

David Schwimmer proved himself to be more than just a talented actor; he also directed several iconic Friends episodes. Among them are 'The One with All the Candy,' 'The One with Phoebe's Birthday Dinner,' and 'The One with the Red Sweater.' In total, he directed 10 episodes throughout the series, with his directorial debut being 'The One on the Last Night' in season 6. Each episode he directed became a huge hit with fans.

The showmakers sure know how to pick great guest stars. Every famous actor who has made a cameo appearance on the show has been a hit with fans. But in one episode in season 4, they chose someone closer to home when it came to finding the right guest star. In the episode titled 'The One with Rachel's New Dress,' Matthew Perry's real-life father, actor John Bennett Perry, was cast to play the role of Mr. Burgin, Joshua's father and Rachel Green's boyfriend.

Courtney Cox was the only actress with substantial acting experience prior to the filming of Friends. However, even she was relatively unknown, as were her five other co-stars. Among them, Matt Le Blanc was particularly in need of a paycheck, as he was virtually broke before landing his big break on the show. As of 2024, he is worth around $85 million, but it wasn't always the case.

Many aspects of Monica's storyline and character evolved throughout the show compared to the writers' original intentions. Her obsessive cleanliness was reportedly inspired by Courtney Cox's own germaphobic tendencies. Originally, her character was planned to be the most promiscuous among the group. When it comes to her storyline, the writers initially did not intend for Monica to end up in a relationship with Chandler, but the positive response from fans led to a change of plans.

One of Phoebe's most defining characteristics, playing the guitar, actually didn't come naturally to actress Lisa Kudrow. Despite the lessons Phoebe gave Joey in the episode titled 'The One With All The Resolutions,' Kudrow didn't have the skills for the role. She even took lessons to try and play more convincingly, but her progress was limited. Eventually, the showrunners decided to embrace Phoebe's lack of guitar-playing ability as part of her character, and somehow it worked. 

The creators had a lot of doubts about naming the show. While it's hard to imagine it being called anything else, there were actually many other options being considered. Insomnia Cafe was one option they came up with early on, which definitely would have set a different tone entirely. They scraped that idea for Friends Like Us once Marta Fran Kauffman and David Crane were brought on to write for the pilot episode. 

Things were different back in the nineties - the world wasn't as accepting of same-sex marriages as it is today, and NBC executives were well aware of this. The studio was nervous about how the Season 2 episode titled 'The One with the Lesbian Wedding' would be received by audiences and whether airing the episode would lead to more problems in the long run. But as it turns out, they had nothing to worry about.

Given how much money the show made over 10 seasons, it can be hard to remember that in the earlier days of the show, there was less money to work with. In season three the showrunners were forced to cut costs in a big way, so they filmed a whole episode on the Monica apartment set to save money. In the episode titled 'The One Where No One’s Ready,' the six friends attempt to quickly get ready for Ross's fancy black-tie benefit.

None of the cast members were professional stunt people, so if a more dangerous scene had been involved, they would have used stunt doubles to ensure everyone's safety. However, during one episode, Matt Le Blanc suffered an unexpected injury when he dislocated his shoulder. It happened during the filming of Season 3's 'The One Where No One's Ready' when Le Blanc tripped and fell badly, forcing him to make a sudden hospital visit.

In the 2021 special Friends: The Reunion, David Schwimmer shared a little secret with fans: the main cast had a pre-show ritual before going on set. This tradition became even more important after Matt Le Blanc accidentally dislocated his shoulder during the filming of Season 3. The day Matt got injured was the one day they decided not to engage in the huddle ritual, and they all felt they had learned their lesson after that.

Many Friends fans fell head over heels for the set design, particularly Monica's apartment. The style of her apartment was intentionally eclectic, perfectly matching her personality and budget. The set designers aimed for a realistic and lived-in feel, so they thrifted most of the pieces seen in the flat. As a result, her home felt realistically affordable and delightfully mismatched, which only added to its charm.

When Friends filmed their pilot episode, they had no idea how big of a hit it would become. They originally cast actress Anita Barone for the role of Ross' then-wife Carol in the first episode of the first season. However, they quickly replaced her with actress Jane Sibbett, who played the role for the rest of the series. Barone decided not to stick with the NBC show because they couldn't offer her a permanent position, so she looked elsewhere for more consistent work.

Each episode of Friends was approximately 23 minutes long, extending to about 30 minutes with ad breaks. However, to capture just a few minutes of usable footage, they often had to film for an average of five or six hours per episode. This meant that all the actors, crew members, and the live studio audience had to be on-set for extended periods of time, which could definitely be tiring.

There isn't a more famous TV barista than Gunther from Central Perk, played by James Michael Tyler. From his peroxide blonde tuft of hair to his robotic demeanor, Tyler truly made the role his own and became a beloved supporting character. What you may not have realized is that Tyler wasn't just pretending to be a coffee maker - he was actually a real-life barista when he wasn't on set.

Arguably, there's no such thing as an 'animal actor,' as animals are not pretending to be anything; they simply respond to their trainers behind the scenes or react to their environment. Perhaps that's why the crew at Friends found the animals they worked with so challenging to manage. Whether it was Ross' white-headed capuchin monkey Marcel, Phoebe's cat, which she believed was her reincarnated mother, or Joey and Chandler's chick and duck, there were many instances when animals were present on set.

Helen Baxendale, who played the part of Emily, was pregnant during the filming of Seasons 4 and 5 of the show. Rather than write her pregnancy into the storyline of the show, the creators decided that it would make more sense to hide her growing baby bump and continue with the story as planned. This meant that they had to come up with a variety of creative ways to conceal her pregnancy belly, which included dressing her in looser clothes or filming her in unsual places.

They say that Hollywood is a small place where everyone knows everyone. This was certainly the case for actress Christina Applegate, who appeared on the show in the last two seasons playing the part of Rachel's little sister, Amy. She had several connections with the cast before she was even hired to make guest appearances, so it's no wonder that she fit in so well and was asked to return.

No one could have played the part of David, Phoebe's on-again-off-again love interest who moved to Minsk, better than Simpsons voice actor Hank Azaria. But he actually envisioned an entirely different role for himself on the NBC sitcom - that of Joey Tribiani. He was so keen to land the role that he actually auditioned for it twice, but was rejeced both times in favor of Matt Le Blanc. 

Being a five-time Emmy Award nominee didn't make accomplished actor Tom Selleck exempt from feeling nervous about filming for Friends. He admitted he was "scared to death" in his role as Monica's love interest, Dr. Richard Burke. Selleck explained, "I had done Taxi a long time before, but I hadn't done a sitcom. So, I was really nervous. Courteney helped a lot. That group is incredible. They obviously became friends in life as well as on the show. And it shows. It was a wonderful place to work."

Award-winning TV director James Burrows had a strong belief in Friends even before they filmed the first pilot. He was confident that the show would be a massive success, so much so that he encouraged the six relatively unknown actors to fly out to Vegas together and savor the last moments of anonymity that they would ever experience. Amazingly, his prediction about their futures couldn't have been more accurate.