Friends is officially turning 30. The groundbreaking show—in case you’re somehow not familiar with it—was created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, and starred Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer as five twentysomething pals in NYC. Now, three decades after its pilot episode aired, these 30 behind-the-scenes facts showcase why it’s more beloved than ever. Keep scrolling for more.
- The show was almost called Insomnia Cafe, Friends Like Us, Across the Hall and Six of One before the creators decided that Friends was the best option.
- Producers originally wanted Monica (Cox) and Joey (LeBlanc) to be the show’s central couple, and they even explored this in season 3’s “The One With The Flashback.” This episode also explored how fans felt about couplings between Rachel (Aniston) and Chandler (Perry), Monica and Chandler, and Phoebe (Kudrow)and Ross (Schwimmer).
- Monica and Chandler’s season 4 finale hookup was originally written as a one-time thing, but after overwhelming fan response, production decided to make their relationship permanent.
- The artwork in Central Perk changed every three episodes and often reflected what time of year episodes were set.
- Actress Anitia Barone was originally cast as Ross Geller’s ex-wife Carol Willick, but she was replaced by Jane Sibbett after one episode.
- Emily Waltham (Helen Baxendale) was originally supposed to appear in more episodes in season 5, but the actress’ real-life pregnancy made it harder for her to leave England; Emily was written out of the show a lot quicker than intended.
- The main reason Mike Hannigan (Paul Rudd) and Phoebe ended up together was because cast and crew wanted to keep Rudd on the show.
- James Michael Tyler was cast as Gunther because he was the only extra on set who knew how to use a coffee machine.
- After Friends wrapped its final season, each of the six main cast members were given a piece of the sidewalk outside of Central Perk.
- Just like Monica Geller, Cox is obsessed with cleaning, and was often found organizing her castmembers’ dressing rooms.
- Aniston, Cox, Kudrow, LeBlanc, Perry and Schwimmer appeared in every single episode.
- Carol and Susan’s wedding was the first-ever wedding between two women to be shown on network TV, and NBC was so worried about viewer response that they hired phone operators to field what they expected to be a high volume of hate calls. They only received 11.
- Schwimmer hated working with Marcel the Monkey in season 1 so much that producers wrote the primate out of the show.
- Phoebe and Chandler were originally written as supporting characters.
- Throughout the show, Chandler had the least number of romantic relationships.
- Although each episode had a run time of 22 minutes, shooting them took about 5 hours. All the episodes were filmed in front of a live studio audience.
- Ross and Rachel have the same initials, “R.G”.
- None of the three female leads have a baby in a so-called “traditional” way. Monica adopts, Rachel is a single mother and Phoebe serves as a surrogate for her brother Frank (Giovanni Ribisi) and his wife Alice (Debra Jo Rupp).
- The late Perry was the youngest cast member.
- Monica and Phoebe are the only characters that never kissed.
- The first line of the show, “There’s nothing to tell. It’s just some guy I work with,” was spoken by Monica, and the last line—“Sure. Where?”—was delivered by Chandler.
- Rachel’s last name is spelled differently throughout the show’s run. Sometimes it’s Green, while other times it’s Greene.
- Monica’s name is featured in only eight episode titles, the fewest of the six friends. Rachel’s name was featured the most, with 27.
- Chandler is the only friend who does not have a sibling.
- Rachel is the only friend that has kissed every other friend (although her kiss with Chandler happened in a dream, and her kiss with Monica was never shown.)
- Ross is the only main cast member to never be seen living in Monica’s apartment.
- Joey is the only character who does not have a wedding featured on the show. He is also the only character who does not end up with someone by the 2004 finale.
- Besides the series finale in season 10, seasons 2 and 6 are the only seasons that don’t end with a cliffhanger involving Ross and Rachel’s relationship.
- Each character has been unemployed at one point or another.
- Finally, the word “friends” is said 302 times throughout the show’s run.
