I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking that no one told you life would be this way. That your job’s a joke, you’re broke, and your love life? Well, you know that’s DOA.
But it’s not all bad. If you’re a Friends fanatic like me, then these10+ Friends behind the scenes secrets are sure to brighten your day and leave you smiling. Remember, I’ll be there for you…
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The show wasn’t always going to be called *Friends*.
The first working title for Friends was actually Insomnia Cafe but it wasn’t the only suggestion. Others included Friends Like Us and Six of One .
Thank goodness those were scrapped!
Originally, the show was going to revolve around four *Friends*.
The show focus was going to be on the lives of Rachel, Joey, Monica, and Ross. Chandler and Phoebe were intended to be recurring characters.
Can you imagine what the show would have been like without the everyday presence of its two funniest characters?!
The part of Ross was written with David Schwimmer in mind.
“We held auditions where we saw about 500 actors between New York and Los Angeles. David Schwimmer we worked with before, and the writers had him in mind for the part of Ross,” according to executive producer, Kevin Bright.
Matthew Perry was signed to another pilot series when *Friends* came around.
The show was called LAX 2194 . It revolved around the lives of baggage handlers who worked at an airport in the future.
I think it’s safe to say that Matthew made the right career call on this one.
The frame around Monica’s peephole used to be a mirror, but a crew member broke it.
Some things are just meant to happen I suppose.
Were it not for the actions of one clumsy crew member , an entire generation of Friends fans would be left wondering what to do with their own peepholes?
Ursula was around long before Phoebe came into the picture.
Lisa Kudrow had a recurring role on Mad About You (which aired right before Friends ). In the show, she played a waitress named Ursula.
In order to avoid confusion from viewers watching the shows back to back, Phoebe was introduced as Ursula’s twin sister.
Matt Leblanc was totally broke before landing the role of Joey.
If you asked a young Matt LeBlanc “how he was doin?” the response would probably be anything but humorous.
According to Matt’s own admission , he was down to his last $11 dollars before being offered the part.
Jennifer Aniston hated the ‘Rachel haircut’.
When speaking about the show’s stylist, Aniston said:
“I love Chris, and he’s the bane of my existence at the same time because he started that damn Rachel , which was not my best look. How do I say this? I think it was the ugliest haircut I’ve ever seen.”
Lisa Kudrow wrote the melody for Smelly Cat.
“First of all, Phoebe ‘s song lyrics were not ad-libbed. The writers wrote them. And I got to come up with the tunes. Because I play guitar so poorly it would be too hard to learn how to play that badly,” Kudrow said during her Reddit AMA.
There was never an audience for cliff-hanger episodes.
For good reason too! You couldn’t expect a room full of 300 people to keep quiet after seeing something like Ross and Emily’s wedding!
However, on every other occasion, the audience was present and the laughter that you hear is real.
Matt LeBlanc hated the idea of Rachel and Joey together.
“In the beginning, Matt LeBlanc did not want to do that story. He was very firmly against it, saying that he’s Ross’ friend, and that the type of friend that Joey is would never go and take someone else’s girlfriend.”
Each episode took approximately five hours to film.
On average each season of Friends has anywhere from 18-24 episodes. That means that each season would take roughly 90-120 hours to film.
If we presume that the cast operated on an 8-hour workday, then each season would technically have been filmed in only 11-15 days.
Monica’s apartment number changes from 5 to 20 as the show goes on.
If you watch any episode from the first season, you can clearly see the number on Monica’s door is 5, and Chandler and Joey’s across the hall is 4.
The numbers were changed to better reflect the fact that Monica lived on a higher floor in the building.
Bruce Willis made his cameo on *Friends* because he lost a bet to Matthew Perry.
Willis and Perry co-starred in The Whole Nine Yards . The bet centered around the box office results of the film.
Perry apparently had faith in the film’s success, while Willis did not.
Monica and Joey were supposed to have a romantic relationship.
“When we were originally conceiving the show, we actually thought that Monica and Joey might become a thing and then we cast it, and just went ‘that’s not the right energy’ because now they’re faces and they’re people,” said creator David Crane.
