1. Courteney Cox originally auditioned for the part of Rachel
Green (played by Jennifer Aniston.)
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. In an episode made shortly after Courteney Cox married actor
David Arquette and considered taking the name "Courteney
Cox Arquette", the producers of Friends jokingly added "Arquette"
likewise to the end of the names of every actor in the opening
credits.
5. Other titles considered for the show were "Friends Like
Us," "Six of Us," "Insomnia Café,"
and "Across the Hall."
6. The first line of dialogue in the very first pilot episode
of Friends was "There's nothing to tell."
7. A 30-second commercial during the break in the show in America
cost advertisers £500,000.
8. According to Aniston, her famous "Rachel" hairdo
was created by accident when her "friend" Chris cut
her hair with a razor.
9. Perry's wit is so legendary that the scriptwriters have often
incorporated his gags into the show.
10. Central Perk, the café in which they all hang out,
is based on the Manhattan Café in New Yorks West Village.
11. Famous guest stars on the show have included ER's George
Clooney and Noah Wyle, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Chris Isaak and
Julia Roberts.
12. The whole cast huddle together before each episode to wish
each other luck. This made frequent guest star Tom Selleck feel
a bit left out.
13. When the pilot show was approved by the network, and a series
comissioned, the entire cast was sent on a free trip to Las Vegas.
14. The cast apparently get on as well in real life as they do
on screen. They play poker and Scrabble together, and the girls
often shop with each other. The rumor that they had made a pact
never to sleep together is untrue.
15. Friends is Channel 4's top-rating comedy, regularly attracting
three million viewers.
16. Marcel's trainer, Nerissa Pulizer, said of her charge: "If
Marcel were human, she'd be Meryl Streep".
17. The monkey was the first cast member to get a Hollywood movie
role, appearing in the movie Outbreak.
18. The opening footage of the cast dancing around a fountain
was filmed on the Warner Brothers lot in LA at five o'clock one
morning.
19. The first thing Cox bought with her Friends money was a brand
new Porsche.
20. The occupations of the characters are as follows: Ross, palaeontologist;
Monica, chef; Joey, actor/model; Phoebe, masseuse; Rachel, waitress;
Chandler, data processor.
21. Cox has said of her character: "She's obsessive, the
one who has to be perfect and please everybody. I'm so similar
to her it's frightening".
22. There's a book out called Cooking with Friends, full of comfort-food
recipes for when "it hasn't been your day, your month or
even your year" - a reference to the theme song.
23. The show's producers admit that the characters could never
afford the rents on the apartments they live in on the show.
24. Both cast members Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer have
directed at least one episode of the show.
25. Friends was released in the USA on September 22nd, 1994 and
in the UK on April 28th, 1995.
26. Jennifer Aniston's (who plays Rachel) actual last name is
Anastassakis but her family changed it to Aniston when they moved
to the United States. (Thanks to Dannah and IMDB)
27. Stage 24 (home to Friends from season two until now) is said
to be haunted. It is one of the oldest stages on the Warner Bros.
lot and rumors of late night "occurrences" have been
circulating for years!
28. Each episode enlists from 35 to 50 extras. James Michael
Tyler (Gunther) was an extra in season one. He was the only extra
who could work the cappuccino machine, which led to his recurring
role. Not until his first spoken line ("Yes." in The
One with Phoebe's Dad) did the writers give him a name.
29. The Wardrobe Department has an entire room just for handbags!
30. The artwork in Central Perk is changed every 3 episodes. The
art department showcases local, national and international artists.
Some artists create original pieces just for the show! (pictured
artist: Elise Margolis)
31. The shops across from Central Perk have meaning. Dottie &
Herman's Deli is named after co-creator Marta Kauffman's relatives.
Free Being Records is an homage to a Greenwich Village record
store that executive producer Kevin Bright frequented as a kid.
32. Paul Swain, the Electrical Best Boy, draws the art on the
Magna-Doodle board hanging on the back of Joey and Chandler's
front door. Sometimes he does a drawing that the writers request
or that relates to the storyline; otherwise, the doodle is usually
an inside joke with the crew.
33. Monica and Joey's refrigerators actually work (a TV rarity).
Monica's is filled with water and soda for the cast and crew.
Joey's is, um, pretty darn bachelor-like.
34. The sandwich board outside Central Perk references a crew
member who went above and beyond the call of duty. "Neighbor
Tim" has been appearing at Central Perk ever since his good
deed on the set.
35. In the cold open of "The One with the Princess Leia
Fantasy" (Season Premiere, 1996), the gang came in and found
other people sitting in their Central Perk spots. Those were the
show's writers for that season.
36. The show goes through 32 pots of regular coffee on show day
and over 100 cases of water a week.
37. Phoebe has performed over 25 original songs on the show since
the first season.
38. The Central Perk set is one of the few soundstage sets with
a real asphalt "street." This allows for more realistic
sound during exterior scenes, and allows for underground plumbing
to pipe-in real steam from the manholes.
39. The newspapers near the pay phone in Central Perk are six
months old.
40. 30,000 feet of film is used to tape one episode of Friends
41. The art department updates the food in Monica's kitchen cupboards
weekly. But types of food (ie: pasta, canned goods) are always
kept in the same areas, because Monica is so organized!
42. Monica and Chandler's kitchen has 7 spatulas in plain view.
43. The show orders pizza twice a night for the studio audience.
That's a total of 85 pizzas to feed the 300 audience members.
(The cast and crew sometimes get sushi too!)
44. When the original Magna-Doodle wore out, the prop department
had to find one on eBay to match the original.
45. Robin Williams and Billy Crystal did four takes of their
brief cameo in Central Perk.
46. Most of the copy on the Central Perk coffee board is the
original copy from the show's first season (typos included!)
47. The show spends $1,700 a week on lightbulbs or "globes."
48. Executive producer/co-creator Kevin Bright often directs
episodes. He also re-edits the opening title sequence twice each
year with new footage. Once for the first 12 episodes, then again
for the second 12.
49. Each script goes through three to five drafts - and often
times jokes are rewritten during filming, based on audience response.
50. It takes 366,000 watts of electricity to light all the sets
on Stage 24 for one Friends filming. That is the equivalent electrical
power of 12 large homes.
51. 25 to 30 people attend the weekly table reads. This is when
the cast reads the script for that week's episode aloud for the
first time.
Special - What is the life-cycle of the
typical show?
Brainstorming. Just the writers sitting
around, throwing out ideas, seeing what strikes a chord. This
takes four or five days, during which time we'll generate a dozen
or so things that feel like stories.
Story-breaking. We take each story
and break it down into individual scenes. This generally takes
a day or two per story, depending on its scale.
Mix-'n'-match. This is often the
toughest phase of the process -- picking from the bunch of stories
we have, and seeing what goes with what. (The basic rule is three
stories per episode.) We also have to make sure each of the six
characters is serviced in each show, and that the stories jibe
in terms of time sequence. This phase may also include some additional
brainstorming and story-breaking as we try to fill in the gaps
in each episode. For a typical episode, this would take another
coupla days.
Outline. We divvy up the episodes
and each writer goes off and does an outline. The producers give
them notes on the outline, and then they're off to...
Write a first draft. Generally the
writer has about a week to do this. The producers give them notes,
and then they...
Write a second draft, which we then
begin...
"Tabling". This is all
the writers in a room, going through the script line by line,
scene by scene, making it better. Punching up jokes, making sure
the story is telling itself properly, etc. This takes about four
(often very long) days, at the end of which we have a finished
script we're all pretty happy with.
Then a whole new phase begins: Production.
"Table read." This happens
on a Wednesday around noon. The actors sit around a table with
us and read through the script. This hopefully gives us some idea
what's working and what's not. It's also a chance for the network,
the studio and the director to give us whatever thoughts they
have. Based on this, the writing staff spends the rest of the
day and night doing a group rewrite.
Thursday run-through. After the
actors have spent much of the morning and early afternoon working
with the material, they run through the whole show for the writers
and producers. This is our first chance to see the show "on
its feet". Early notes are given to the actors on performances,
we see if the changes we made Wednesday night are working, and
then we spend Thursday evening rewriting the script *again*
Friday (network and studio) run-though.
Again, we get a feel for what's working and what isn't. The network
and studio contribute their thoughts. The director and cast may
offer additional ideas. The dreaded Friday night rewrite ensues.
Monday camera blocking. The director
runs through the show with the cast, figuring out what his or
her shots are going to be, finalizing the actors' blocking, etc.
There may be some marginal changes at this point if a particular
joke just isn't getting there, but at this point the script is
pretty much locked.
Tuesday night -- we shoot the damn
thing! [Note: As of October 1996, taping has been moved to Friday
nights. We will try to get a revised schedule of this process
to replace this one -ajw, 10/10/96]
Post-production. Cutting, recutting
and mixing the show can take anywhere from a week to three weeks,
depending on how close to the air date we are.
It's on TV!
You see it and post messages to the mailing list.
52. Joey's pin number is 5639 which if you look at the letters
in a telephone numbers actually spell out JOEY.
53.The characters of Ross's ex-wife Carol and her girlfriend
Susan are based on the godmothers to Kauffman's daughter.
54. The one and only time they took the Central Perk set down
was in TOI Vegas, in which they needed it for The Caesar's Palace
55. Central Perk, is based on the Manhattan Cafe in New Yorks
West Village.
56. Joey hurting his arm (falling of his bed in TOW The Jam)
was not part of the storyboard, it was just thrown in as Matt
dislocated his shoulder on the set.
57. Courteney Cox originally read to play the part of Rachel.
58. Other titles considered for the series included "Once
upon a time in the West Village", "Insomnia Cafe"
and "Across the Hall". The original title "Friends
Like Us" was shortened to the current one-worder.
59. A break up scene was written for Ross and Julie, but the
writters decided to skip it, because everyone's hearts would be
with Ross and Julie if they kept it in, instead of with Ross and
Rachel.
60. It took Matt LeBlanc twelve times to open Phoebe's blouse
correctly in TOW Everyone Finds Out
61. The opening footage of the cast dancing around a fountain
was filmed on the Warner Bros. lot in LA at five o'clock in the
morning.
62. The golden frame around the peephole on the door was originally
a mirror which one of the crew accidentally smashed. But because
it still looked good they decided to leave it there. (get one
of your own!)
63. Helen Baxendale, who played Emily, was pregnant while filming
the part. This is why they decided that Ross should get divorce.
If you noticed, they only showed her from the shoulders up when
she was in London telling Ross never to see Rachel again.
64. Some of the writers on Friends have guest-stared on the show.
Michael Curtis was a police officer in TOW Heckels Dies and was
on Wheel of Fortune as the guy who couldn't guess Mount Rushmore.
Various writers appeared in the teaser for TOW the Princess Leia
Fantasy, Ira Ungerleider appeared as the noisy, upstairs neighbor
in TOW Chandler Can't Remember which Sister,Wil Calhoun was "Freak"
in the coffeehouse whose order was too complicated for Rachel,and
Greg Malins was a priest in the museum when Rachel and Ross wake
up in the diorama.
65. hen Ursula is on the show, Lisa Kudrow's sister doubles for
the shoulder shots
66. At the end of TOW Five Steaks And An Eggplant, Joey was supposed
to pick up the phone and say 'Bob here' but it was so funny that
they left it like that. The same happenned with the pillow dropped
in TOW George Setphanopoulos.
67. Does the Friends set look familiar?? Well, its where the
popular ABC show Full House was taped.
68. The fist line of dialogue in the very first, pilot episode
of Friends was: "There's nothing to tell."
69. The whole cast huddles together before each episode to wish
each other luck. This made frequent guest star Tom Selleck feel
a bit left out.
70. The cast apparently gets on as well in real life as they
do on screen. They play poker and Scrabble together, and the girls
often shop with each other. The rumour that they had made a pact
never to sleep together is untrue.
71. Monica and Chandler's relationship was going to last a couple
of episodes but when the writters saw how big of a hit they were,
they decieded to keep them together longer.
72. The day he auditioned for Friends, Matt LeBlanc had a big
scab on his nose and forehead after falling down drunk on a bender
the night before. And was down to his last $11.
73. When David Schwimmer first met Matt LeBlanc he was sceptical.
Matt was wearing leather jeans, and Schwimmer thought he was "Joe
Cool Stud" and hated him on sight.
74. David Schwimmer accused the handlers of his on-screen pal
Marcel the monkey of being "too possessive". He claims
he was never allowed to bond with the creature.
75. Marcel's trainer, Nerissa Pulitzer, said of her charge: "If
Monkey were human, she'd be Meryl Streep."
76. To direct Marcel he had to be yelled at which drove everyone
crazy.
77. The shot of Marcel dancing "The Lion Sleeps Tonight"
is a loop.
78. Matthew's father John Bennett Perry appeared in the 4th season
episode "TOW Rachel's New Dress".
79. The fridge at Monica's apartment actually works, the one
at Joey's doesn't.
80. Robin Williams and Billy Cristal's appearence wasn't prepared,
they just happened to be in the building and joined them.
81. The show's producers admit that the characters could never
afford the rents on the apartments they live in on the show.
82. Matthew Perry's wit is so legendary that the scriptwriter
has often incorporated his gags into the show.
83. According to Aniston, her famous "Rachel" hairdo
was created by accident when her "friend" Chris cur
her hair with a razor.
84. Bruce Willis donated the money he made for his appearence.
85. Matthew Perry dated Julia Roberts after her appearance on
the show.
86. A 30 second commercial during the break in the show in America
costs advertisers around £500,000
87. The reason that the black chairs were stolen actually was
that they were like BLACK HOLES for light on the set. Our DP made
us make the change.
88. They didn't use a stunt guy for the actual filming of "The
One With Chandler In A Box" that was actually Matthew Perry
in the box.
89. In TOW Sandwich Matt LeBlanc really shaved his leg, no 'stunt'
legs were used.
