Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which premiered on NBC on September 22, 1994. The series revolves around a group of friends in the area of Manhattan, New York City. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television. The original executive producers were Crane, Kauffman and Kevin Bright, with numerous others being promoted in later seasons.

Kauffman and Crane began developing Friends under the title Insomnia Cafe in November 1993. They presented the idea to Bright, with whom they had previously worked, and together they pitched a seven-page treatment of the series to NBC. After several script rewrites and changes, the series was finally named Friends and premiered on NBC’s coveted Thursday 8:30 pm timeslot. Filming for the series took place at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California in front of a live audience. After ten seasons on the network, the series finale was promoted by NBC, and viewing parties were organized around the US. The finale, which first aired on May 6, 2004, was watched by 52.5 million American viewers, making it the fourth most-watched series finale in television history.

Friends received positive reviews throughout its run, and became one of the most popular sitcoms of all time. The series won many awards and was nominated for 63 Primetime Emmy Awards. The series was also very successful in the ratings, consistently ranking in the top ten in the final primetime ratings. Friends has made a large cultural impact. The Central Perk coffee house that had featured prominently in the series has inspired various imitations throughout the world. Repeats of the series continue to air worldwide, and all seasons have been released on DVD. Following the series finale, the spin-off series Joey was created.

Jennifer Aniston may scoff, but surely Matt LeBlanc would jump at the chance to star in a Friends movie – if it ever gets off the ground, that is

If you’ve been bored or lonely enough to follow the saga that is the Friends movie, there’s a good chance you are feeling confused. First it was on. Then it was off. Then it was on again, and then off. Then on. Then off. And now it’s back on again. Or at least it was for about five minutes this weekend, before everyone suddenly decided that in fact it had been off all along.

On Sunday, in one of his biannual reminders to the world that he still exists, James Michael Tyler – who played Gunther – said a Friends movie was “definitely on”, adding that it would be in cinemas by 2011. “I still keep in touch with a lot of the cast,” he said, “and they say that they are really keen.” However, almost before he had finished speaking, Jennifer Aniston, Lisa Kudrow and Courteney Cox all got their representatives to deny any involvement in the movie.

So what’s really going on? Let’s look at where all the principal cast members are:

Jennifer Aniston
As the most successful member of the Friends cast, Aniston probably feels she has outgrown the show, and would therefore be least likely to return. However, you’re only as strong as your last movie, and since Aniston’s last movie was the thuddingly awful Love Happens, there’s a fighting chance that her decision could be reversed at any moment.

Courteney Cox
Currently busy with her new TV show, Cougar Town, created by the man who came up with Scrubs. So expect her to start considering a role in a Friends movie in three or four years’ time, when Cougar Town disappears up its own bottom into a world of cloying sentimentality and bad indie music, like Scrubs did.

Lisa Kudrow
Definitely not interested. After all, everyone knows that Friends was merely Kudrow’s conduit to getting bit parts in Hotel for Dogs and Bandslam. She’s perfectly happy where she is, thank you.

Matt LeBlanc
Possibly the most eager of any of the Friends cast to make a movie because, let’s face it, he is Joey. He was Joey in Friends, he was Joey in Joey and he’s probably Joey right now, eating lots of food and bumping into things in a hilarious yet adorable way.

Matthew Perry
Not sure if he needs the Friends movie or not, actually. But on the off-chance that he or any of his representatives are mulling over a movie called The Whole Eleven Yards, then he should definitely do a Friends movie instead. Definitely. I really can’t emphasise that enough.

David Schwimmer
Should be forced into making a Friends movie even if it means drugging him first, because, though it’s bound to be smug, cloying and almost unbearable from beginning to end, it’ll still be a masterpiece compared to Run Fatboy Run.

James Michael Tyler
Yes. Definitely interested. Wants to start filming it now, in fact. What? A salary? No, don’t be silly. He’ll work for food. Leftover food if needs be. Raw, leftover food. You don’t even need to give him a costume, because he still has his Gunther outfit. He still wears it, too, when he goes outside, in the hope that someone will stop him and ask, “Hey, aren’t you Gunther from Friends?” But they never do. They never do.

Hello Again,

So lately, there have been many talks about a Friends Movie!
All our favorite characters of Friends, Chandler, Monica (and the babies :)) Joey, Phoebe, Ross and Rachel, even Gunther on the Big screen? What do you think?
I am curios, what everyone thinks about it?
yay or nay?

We would love to hear your opinion!

My best,
Emily

Hello Friends,

Everyone has their opionions about the greatest show ever made. But for me, it definitely has to be F.R.I.E.N.D.S
Otherwise how is it that I still laugh out loud to a joke that I have already heard tens of times before !! ( especially if it comes out Joey’s mouth ;))

Welcome everyone to our F.R.I.E.N.D.S site, dedicated to the infamous NBC Tv Show…

See you soon

FriendsForeverEmily

PLOT
Few ensemble sitcoms of the 1990s and early 2000s commanded as much love and devotion from its fans as the immensely popular NBC series Friends — and few such sitcoms generated as many “water-cooler conversations” as the characters’ lives and loves evolved over the series’ ten-year run. Set in New York City, the action largely took place in two neighboring loft apartments. One of these was the home of Monica Geller (Courteney Cox), who can be described as the series’ “rock” — or better yet, “den mother.” An assistant chef who later ran her own restaurant, Monica lived with her best friend, Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston), who had come to New York after running out on her wedding; employed as a waitress in the earlier episodes, Rachel later became a buyer for a retail fashion chain, and finally an assistant to a high-profile designer. Occasionally dropping into Monica’s apartment was her brother, Ross (David Schwimmer), a paleontologist who spent most of the first season coming to grips with the fact that his wife, Carol (Jane Sibbett), had declared herself a lesbian and divorced him (Carol would later give birth to Ross’ son Ben, whom she and her partner insisted upon raising themselves). Across the hall from Monica’s flat lived Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc), an aspiring actor whose professional luck was generally bad until he landed a continuing role on the daytime drama Days of Our Lives — as a man with a woman’s brain! Joey lived with “corporate guy” Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry), who was regarded as the class clown of the bunch. A frequent guest at both apartments was Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow), an airheaded will-o’-the-wisp who never quite got it all together at any one time.

When the “friends” weren’t at home or at work, they could be found hanging out at Central Perk, a Greenwich Village coffeehouse manned by Gunther (played by real-life “coffee guy” James Michael Tyler, who did not receive screen credit until well into the series’ run), where Phoebe occasionally performed as a folksinger. Gradually and inevitably, many of friends became lovers. First it was Ross and Rachel, a relationship that came to a screeching halt in season three when Ross slept with another woman when the couple was “on a break.” Ross then ended up marrying the prickly Emily Waltham (Helen Baxendale) during a jaunt to England in season four. That this alliance was doomed from the start was demonstrated when, during the ceremony, Ross said Rachel’s name instead of Emily’s. After the dissolution of the marriage, a drunken Ross and Rachel impulsively got hitched in Las Vegas at the end of season five, but they soon realized that they’d acted too hastily, and were themselves divorced. In season eight, Rachel gave birth to Ross’ baby, a girl named Emma. Meanwhile, Chandler and Monica, who after “getting it on” at Ross’ wedding ceremony tried to keep their relationship a secret from everyone, were married at the close of season seven. They would later discover that they could not have children, whereupon they adopted a baby from a woman named Erica (Anna Faris). In a similar vein, the whimsical Phoebe had earlier agreed to be artificially inseminated so that she could bear a child for her half-brother, Frank (Giovanni Ribisi), and his wife (and former teacher), Alice (Debra Jo Rupp). Ultimately, Phoebe gave birth to triplets. Phoebe also had another sibling, a twin sister named Ursula — actually the same character played by Lisa Kudrow in the earlier NBC sitcom Mad About You, which was still in production when Friends debuted on September 22, 1994.

The series’ tenth and final season (2003-2004) wrapped up several loose plot strands. Having admitted that he always loved Rachel, Joey proposed to her, but the marriage never came off — and in an eleventh-hour decision, Rachel forsook plans to move to Paris, and returned to Ross. After several desultory relationships, Phoebe married a nice guy named Mike (Paul Rudd). And as Friends approached its two-part finale, Erica, the birth mother of Monica and Chandler’s soon-to-be-adopted baby went into labor — and surprisingly delivered twins, which they named Erica (after the “real” mom) and Jack (after Chandler’s dad). After the storyline of the series ended, Joey would end up moving out of New York, heading to L.A. to pursue a film career, thereby setting up the premise of Matt LeBlanc’s spin-off sitcom Joey. At or near the number one ratings slot throughout most of its run, Friends also earned a veritable warehouse of Emmy Awards — not to mention full-fledged stardom for all of the series’ regulars. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Courtesy of www.danmeth.com

Here’s a handy map for the rest of the world, pointing out the exact location of NYC sitcoms. Oddly enough, these were all probably filmed in California.  

Ever wonder where your favorite New-York-based sitcom took place?

Dan Meth, creator of the Streamy-award-nominated cartoon The Meth Minute, did the research, and came up with this nifty map.

Friends looks about right, but I always thought I always thought Seinfeld was further south

DID YOU KNOW THAT ?

The characters of Ross’s ex-wife Carol and her girlfriend Susan are based on the godmothers to Kauffman’s daughter.

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

Central Perk, is based on the Manhattan Cafe in New Yorks West Village.

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.

Courteney Cox originally read to play the part of Rachel.

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.

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.

It took Matt LeBlanc twelve times to open Phoebe’s blouse correctly in TOW Everyone Finds Out

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.

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!)

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.

When Ursula is on the show, Lisa Kudrow’s sister doubles for the shoulder shots

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.

Does the Friends set look familiar?? Well, its where the popular ABC show Full House was taped.

The fist line of dialogue in the very first, pilot episode of Friends was: “There’s nothing to tell.”

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.

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.

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. 
 

DID YOU KNOW THAT ? …

TOW George Stephanopolous…

* When Phoebe, Monica and Rachel were out on the balcony, Rachel knocks her pillow over the edge. That wasn’t really supposed to happen, but they left it in anyway.
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TOW Five Steaks and an Eggplant…

* Matt LeBlanc was according to script supposed to grab the phone when Jade called and say “Bob here!”. But when jumped for the phone he missed and fell and the editors chose to go with that instead of Joey answering the phone.

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TOW Phoebe’s Husband…

* A cut line: When Rachel is jealous of Julie, she says with a phony voice “Julie’s so smart, Julie’s so special”. Originally she added “Does she put on a cape and fight crimes at night?”

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TOW the Baby on the Bus…

* Giovanni Ribisi (Frank Jr) appeared in this episode as the guy who drops a condom in Phoebe’s guitar case.

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TO After the Superbowl Pt 2…

* Monkey and Katie (the monkeys who played Marcel) actually played the monkey in “Outbreak”.

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TOW the Ultimate Fighting Champion…

* You remember the appearance Billy Crystal and Robin Williams did in the beginning of “TOW the Ultimate Fighting Champion”?? That wasn’t in the original script. They were by coincidence in the same building-, or the one across the street from where “Friends” is shot and the writers asked if they wanted to make a guest appearance. This was apparently the day of shooting, so it was just quickly thrown in.

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TOW Rachel’s New Dress…

* Joshua Bergen’s dad was played by Matthew Perry’s dad.

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TOW Ross’s Wedding…

* A cut line: It was the scene when Rachel realized she still loves Ross. Originally it was:
Phoebe: “God, that would be like telling Monica, “Hey, you like things clean.” Or, you know, hey Joey, you’re gay.
Rachel: What!?
Phoebe: Oh, please, she’s always got a broom in her hand.

But they just kept it at:
Phoebe: God, that would be like telling Monica, “Hey, you like things clean.”

——————————————————————————–

TOW Everyone Finds Out…

* This is what Chandler and Monica says at the start when Phoebe sees them through the window:
Ch: Look, we have to talk. Your shirt is really bugging me.
Mon: Wow, that’s so weird ’cause your pants are really bugging me.
Ch: Well, let’s make each other happy and get rid of them.

* One of the reasons the audience laughed so much in this episode is when Joey told Phoebe it wasn’t the first time he opened a blouse like that is that it took MLB around twelve times to get it open.

* A Chandler and Monica line that was never used:
Ch: Why is it so hard to believe that Phoebe is attracted to me?
Mon: It’s not. I believe all the girls are attracted to you because you’re part bunny.

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TO In Vegas…

* The one and only time they’ve taken down the Central Perk stage was in “TO in Vegas” when they needed that part of the stage for Caesar’s Palace.

* Phoebe says Joey’s pin number is 5639. If you look at the letters under the numbers on a telephone, 5639 spells out ‘Joey’.

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TO After Vegas…

* To commemorate Courteney Cox’s marriage to David Arquette, the entire cast is credited with Arquette after their names.

* In the original script for “TO After Vegas” Monica’s reply to Chandler’s “oh my god, is EVERYBODY getting married?” “I don’t know, but we were next!”.

* The editor has got laughs on a computer that he can add to the episodes. This was, for example, used when Rachel said “this is not a marriage, this is the world’s worst hangover”. In that case they used it because the next line was over-laughter. JA continued to speak before the audience quieted. They changed the laughter into a shorter one because they couldn’t use one where JA had waited because that would take too long.

* After Chandler tells Joey that the waitress isn’t coming ’cause it’s a buffet, Joey’s reply in the original script wasn’t “oh, here’s where I win all my money back!”, it was “and it’s in trouble”.

* The writers and producers weren’t sure weather people would understand that Phoebe had once gotten married in Vegas and they ended up having to ask the audience.

——————————————————————————–

TOW Ross’s Library Book…

* Australian swimmer, Ian Thorpe, was an extra in Central Perk. You can clearly see him sitting at a table near the right of the screen talking to a woman.

DID YOU KNOW THAT…?

    
Friends Fountain - Large circular fountain seen on the situation comedy FRIENDS/NBC/1994-2004.

At the opening and closing of each episode, the cast of the series is seen dancing and frolicking in a fountain. This activity is counterbalanced by the lyrics from the theme song “Ill Be There For You” written by Allee Willis and performed by The Rembrandts.

At the end of the spot, the show’s cast members pull out multi-colored umbrellas and pop them open. Reportedly, these fountain hijinx took place at 5 O’clock one morning.

One might assume that the fountain is located in New York City where the TV characters lived, but in reality, the fountain is located at the Warner Ranch at 401 N. Hollywood Way, about a half mile from the studio in Burbank, California where the series was filmed
 

DID YOU KNOW THAT…?

In the last few months of shooting Friends, Courteney Cox became pregnant, but, seeing as Monica wasn’t supposed to be able to have a baby, they covered up her pregnancy by making her wear baggy clothes while shooting the show so no one could tell.

At one point, Jennifer Aniston was shooting this series, Bruce Almighty (2003) and Along Came Polly (2004) at the same time.

30-second commercial spots to take place in the final ever episode sold in the UK for 1.2 million GB pounds (approx $1.8 million), the most expensive commercial slots of any TV program in England with the exception of sports.

No Friend ever made more money doing the show than any others. They started out making $22,500 per episode and ended up making $1million per show. All negotiations were done in unison. Kudrow said, “The six of us are far stronger than just one person.”

The refrigerators in Monica’s and Joey’s apartments actually worked. Monica’s was filled with water and other drinks for the cast and crew. Joey’s was usually virtually empty, unless the inside of the fridge was going to be seen in a specific scene.

Before the show was cast, the main love interest was intended to be Monica and Joey.

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 because the producers noted that 4 and 5 corresponded to apartments on lower floors and the Friends’ apartments were higher up the building.