“Friends” Is 30! 20 Behind-The-Scenes Facts You Didn't Know About Your Favorite Sitcom

The first episode of 'Friends' aired on Sept. 22, 1994, kicking off the iconic show that lasted another 10 years

Friends has become one of the most iconic shows since its inception in 1994.

The sitcom may have ended in in 2004, but its legacy has lived on in the two decades since. On Sept. 22, 2024, the show celebrated its 30th anniversary since the pilot aired.

Friends left an indelible imprint on all its fans as it followed the lives of six close 20-somethings — Monica, Phoebe, Rachel, Joey, Ross and Chandler — creating a life for themselves in New York City. The cast, which included Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Jennifer Aniston, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer and Matthew Perry — was close in real life too, and reunited for the HBO reunion special in May 2021.

Related: Friends Cast: Where Are They Now?

"It was just magic. Nothing was not exciting," Aniston told PEOPLE in April 2024 of her time on the show. "And it’s still exciting, but we’ve had more experiences. We’ve learned more lessons. There’s a little more behind us."

From who didn't want to play their character originally to which two cast members had a crush on each other, here are 20 fun, behind-the-scenes facts about Friends.

No one really liked the theme song and opening sequence

The iconic theme song, "I'll Be There for You," accompanied by the six friends splashing around in a fountain and settling together on the burnt orange couch, has become synonymous with Friends.

However, in a 2016 interview with BBC, Aniston shared that the cast of the show didn't necessarily feel as fondly toward it. "No one was really a big fan of that theme song," she said.

She added that she found it "a little odd" that they were all dancing in the fountain.

Schwimmer originally didn’t want to play Ross

Though the role of Ross was created with Schwimmer in mind, he didn't originally feel passionate about the part, according to former PEOPLE writer Kelsey Miller's 2018 book I’ll Be There For You: The One About Friends.

Co-creator David Crane said Schwimmer had had a negative experience working on a TV project and had resigned to a career in theater. Crane recalled during the 2021 reunion special having to "beg" and "beseech" Schwimmer to join the cast.

"[We] tried to get David, [but] David had quit television," he said. "He had a miserable experience doing another show. He moved back to Chicago to just do theater."

Perry also almost didn't play Chandler, as he had another pilot booked.

The creators originally wanted Cox to play Rachel

During Friends: The Reunion, Crane revealed they had a "hard time" finding the actress to play Monica, originally wanting Cox to play Rachel.

"We met with Courteney Cox and she explained to us why she didn't think she was a Rachel and that she, herself, was more of a Monica — and she was right," co-creator Marta Kauffman added. "Courteney brought this incredible joy to the character."

"Everything Courteney brought to it made Monica so much richer than what we had originally intended," said Crane.

The cast went to a casino before the first live taping to celebrate their last night of “anonymity”

Having a feeling that the show would blow up, director James Burrows took the young cast out to dinner in Las Vegas the night before the pilot premiered.

“This is your last shot at anonymity,” he told them, according to Miller's book.

He added that they wanted to “do whatever it was that hot young television actors were supposed to do when they flew into Vegas on a private jets," sharing that they wrote Burrows checks so they could have money to gamble with.

'Friends' takes the credit for making the term “friend zone” popular

Now well-known in pop culture, the term "friend zone" refers to when a person does not reciprocate someone's feelings but, rather, sees them only as a friend.

While the phrase didn't take off until the 2010s, it was originally coined by Joey in the season 1 episode "The One with the Blackout." He tells Ross that he has waited too long to confess his feelings for Rachel and is now certifiably in the "friend zone."

Monica was supposed to end up with Joey, not Chandler

While Monica was originally supposed to end up with Joey, the actors' chemistry changed the outcome of the show. After Monica slept with Chandler in the season 4 finale of the show, the creators knew that relationship was there to stay.

“When Monica and Chandler went to bed together the first time in London, the original plan wasn’t that they were going to then become a couple for the rest of the series,” Crane told Entertainment Weekly in September 2019.

He added, “It was one of those things where originally the thought was, ‘Oh it was just a big, quick, funny mistake and how are they going to get out of that?’ Then the more we explored it, the more stories it provided and it really reinvigorated the show.”

The audience also reacted so strongly, screaming loudly, that the creators knew they hit gold.

Set decorator Greg Gande found the iconic orange couch in a basement

Gande searched far and wide for a couch that would be the central meeting spot for the friends at their favorite café, Central Perk. He eventually found the perfect fit — a burnt orange, slightly torn couch — in the basement storage area at the Warner Bros. studio in Burbank, California.

"Literally in the back corner, shoved under another piece, was this sofa with beautiful carved wood," he told USA Today in September 2019.

He recalled that he had to spruce it up before it could go on air.

"I remember explicitly, there were network and studio notes because there was a rip in the back of the sofa and it was a little tattered on the arms," Gande said. "I had to redo some of the fringe."

Perry's favorite episode was one where he spoke the least

Though Chandler was known for his signature sarcastic humor, Perry's favorite episode was ironically one in which he had little dialogue.

In season 1's "The One with the Blackout," Chandler is stuck in a vestibule with Victoria’s Secret model Jill Goodacre during a city-wide power outage.

“The interesting thing about that episode was I didn’t speak much; it was mostly in voiceover,” Perry told Entertainment Weekly in 2004. “We prerecorded what I said, and I had to react.”

He added in the interview that the fact that he was acting opposite Goodacre didn't hurt.

"Let’s face it: Jill Goodacre is hot, so it wasn’t that difficult,” he said, adding, “I [remember] spitting my gum out, and it stuck to the wall. It was my choice to just stay frozen in fear and embarrassment."

The episode in which Ross and Rachel consummate their relationship has a unique title

Ross and Rachel consummate their relationship for the first time in season 2, with the episode aptly titled, "The One Where Ross and Rachel...You Know." It is the only episode to include two characters' name in the title.

Ross and Rachel's on-and-off relationship was a staple throughout the show, leaving off with the two of them finally getting together after a decade in which they welcomed a child and dated multiple times.

Perry had a crush on Aniston before the show started

When Perry first met Aniston, two years before the show started, he immediately had a crush on her, he told PEOPLE in October 2022.

"There was such severe indifference from her that I ended it," he said jokingly. "I think everybody probably figured it out. I never said anything. And I hid it. But then she married Brad Pitt, and I was like, 'I don't think I have a chance here.' "

Aniston and Schwimmer had crushes on each other

During the reunion special, Schwimmer revealed that he and Aniston both had feelings for one another at different points of the show, but nothing ever came of it.

"I mean, the first season, I had a major crush on Jen. At some point, we were crushing hard on each other," Schwimmer said. "But it was like two ships passing, because one of us was always in a relationship and we never crossed that boundary. We respected that."

Aniston added, "Honestly, I remember saying one time to David, 'It's going to be such a bummer if the first time you and I actually kiss is going to be on national television.' Sure enough, first time we kissed was in that coffee shop. So we just channeled all of adoration and love for each other into Ross and Rachel."

The cast hated working with Marcel, the monkey

A staple in the show, Marcel was Ross' pet for points in the first two seasons. However, the cast revealed during the reunion that they hated working with the monkey — especially Schwimmer.

"I love animals. I love primates. I have nothing against animals, I'm an animal lover. However, here was my problem," he said.

He continued, "The monkey — obviously, it was trained and it had to hit its mark and do its thing right at the perfect time— but what inevitably began to happen was we would all have choreographed bits kind of timed out, and it would get messed up because the monkey didn't do its job right. So, we'd have to reset, we'd have to go again because the monkey didn't get it right."

Bruce Willis starred on 'Friends' after losing a bet to Perry

Friends had a number of famous guest stars, including Bruce Willis, who worked alongside Perry in the 2000 comedy The Whole Nine Yards.

"Bruce hadn't been sure the film would work at all, and I'd bet him it would — if he lost, he had to do a guest spot on 'Friends,' " Perry wrote in his 2022 memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.

The movie went on to become the no. 1 movie in the U.S. for three straight weeks, leading Willis to appear in Friends for three episodes in season 6 as Paul Stevens, the father of a college girl that Ross dated. He also had a brief relationship with Rachel.

Willis' performance even earned him an Emmy for outstanding guest actor in a comedy series.

Gunther’s bleached hair was an accident

James Michael Tyler, who died in October 2021, originally was only on the show to play an unnamed barista to make the café look more realistic. However, over time, he built out his character, Gunther, to have a personality and undying love for Rachel, no matter how bad of a coworker she was.

He became known especially for his eccentric, dramatically bleached blonde hair — which turned out to be a result of an accident.

“I had a friend who wanted to be a hairdresser and wanted to practice bleaching someone’s hair, so I offered what hair I had left at the time,” Tyler told BuzzFeed in 2014. “It came out white and that was the night before I was called in for the first day of shooting the first season.”

“I bleached my hair every week for 10 years,” Tyler said. “I did it myself after a while. It was just easier instead of coming in early to do it. I would just do it the night before.”

The turkey in “The One With All the Thanksgivings” was not real

In one of the most beloved Friends episodes, the six friends each shared their worst Thanksgiving memory. For Joey, it was when he got his head stuck in the turkey Monica was preparing as a meal — that Monica later got stuck in herself.

Luckily for the cast, the turkey was a prop.

"That is absolutely not a real turkey," Crane told Entertainment Weekly in November 2016. "I think there are so many health issues about actually putting a turkey on someone’s head."

"We wanted — I especially wanted — a real turkey. Just because I wanted Matt to have to put his head into a turkey," writer Greg Malins added. "The prop department did their due diligence, but it didn’t exist."

He continued, "The biggest turkey ever for sale is not big enough to fit a human head. I remember them coming to us and saying, 'We have to build it.' So we made it out of foam."

Kudrow’s pregnancy was written into the show

When Kudrow discovered she was pregnant near the end of season 3, she told creators Kauffman and Crane right away. Crane explained he hadn't wanted to do the classic TV stint of hiding her behind objects for the duration of her pregnancy, so decided to go against the grain and write the pregnancy into the show.

The two came up with the idea of Phoebe going through IVF to become pregnant with her brother's children and serve as a surrogate for him and his wife. However, when they first presented the idea to Kudrow, she was hesitant.

“It’s really early on. I understand that this serves the story really well, but if, God forbid, something happens to my pregnancy, I’m still stuck playing a pregnant woman," the creators recalled her saying, per Vulture.

Kauffman and Crane assured her they could easily switch the storyline should anything go wrong, and they went forth.

The show was filmed in front of a live audience that would sometimes have to be swapped out if filming went on too long

In an effort to always stay true to their audience, Friends filmed in front of a live crowd, adapting and changing the lines to fit what led to the best reactions.

The creators didn't shy away from continuing to make tweaks as often as necessary, sometimes leading shoots to go on as late as 1 a.m. or 2 a.m. When they went for so long, they would switch out the audiences to keep them as fresh as possible, per Vulture.

“They would sometimes laugh at setups to jokes, ’cause they knew the characters so well. They were ahead of us, more than not," Kauffman said.

Kudrow asked Perry’s permission to do a scene the way Chandler would

Kudrow recounted in a 2020 Actors on Actors Variety special with Aniston that one of her favorite scenes to shoot was when her character discovered Monica and Chandler were hooking up while she was at Ross'. Phoebe saw them start undressing across the street (the apartments faced each other) and had a drastic reaction — which she said she asked Perry's permission for as it was inspired by his sarcastic humor.

"[I’m like], 'My eyes! My eyes!' That’s how Matthew Perry said things. I actually asked his permission before we shot it," she said.

Kudrow continued, "I was like, 'I don’t know if you’ve seen the rehearsals, but I’m saying ‘My eyes! My eyes!’ the way you do. So I just need to know that that’s OK with you. If not, I’ll say it a different way.' And he was like, 'Yeah, go for it.' "

Kudrow did not enjoy playing Ursula

Throughout the show, viewers got to know Phoebe's estranged identical twin sister, Ursula. However, as Kudrow didn't actually have a twin, she played both roles, with her real life sister stepping in as a body double.

Director Kevin Bright told Entertainment Weekly in September 2019 that Kudrow actually disliked shooting the scenes, especially having her sister in the role.

"Lisa really did not have a good time doing them," he said. "She did not like acting with a double, and in a way she might have made it more difficult for herself because her double was her actual sister, [Helena]."

There were a lot of people interested in playing Ugly Naked Guy

Perhaps one of the most iconic — yet nameless! — Friends characters, Ugly Naked Guy made a number of off-screen appearances in the show as the unattractive nude man in the apartment across from Monica and Rachel's.

The friends would often see him across the street going about his day, in the nude. Though he was mainly not shown, in the few instances he appeared on camera without even his face visible, the crew admitted they had no issue finding someone to play him.

"Surprisingly, there are people who want to play 'Ugly Naked Guy.' They do," Kauffman told EW. "It's just [shot] from the back, they don't have any lines, it wasn't an audition — it was just about, physically, what do we imagine?"

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