Everyone knows Friends featured incredible guest stars. Susan Sarandon, Bruce Willis, Brooke Shields, George Clooney, Charlie Sheen, Robin Williams, and Julia Roberts, to name a few, all showed up to deliver a captivating new character. Pictured here is the time Greg Kinnear and Aisha Tyler stepped in to create a love triangle that is anchored to Ross’ grant money. In Season 10, “The One with Ross’ Grant” Kinnear as Dr. Benjamin Hobart and Tyler as Ross’ girlfriend Charlie are exes, but Dr. Benji is not happy with that situation. So, he extorts Ross, offering his grant money only if he breaks up with Charlie.
Aisha recalls the time fondly. She said, “The cast was incredibly welcoming when I first joined.” She was the first black actor to land a recurring role on Friends. She shared an anecdote with In Style for a 2018 feature story, “The night of my very first live performance in front of a studio audience, as the cast came together to take a bow in front of the crowd, Matthew Perry made a point of saying to me as a quiet aside, ‘Get ready for your life to change,’ and it did!”
The Show Called ‘Friends’ Had At least Four Optional Titles
What if Friends wasn’t called Friends? The truth is, the writers considered calling it Insomnia Café, Six of One, and Friends Like Us. The pilot was actually called Insomnia Café when it was pitched to NBC, but then NBC changed it to Friends Like Us. Co-creator/writer Kauffman says Across the Hall was yet another working title. She said it was based off personal experiences in college when their friend group felt like family, an experience many college students can relate to.
Kauffman related an interesting story from when she and Crane were developing the show. NBC thought the show needed a representative from the older generation, like a cop, to hang out at Central Perk. The creators played around with the idea at first, calling him “Pat the Cop.” “And we realized it was a terrible idea,” Kauffman told Broadcasting+Cable. Whew! Friends was so great because it was only about one generation.
Monica’s apartment number goes from 5 to 20
With a sweeping city view, and also a peek into Ross’ apartment window, it didn’t take fans long to notice that Monica’s apartment could not be on the fifth floor. The show’s writers finally conceded and changed the number to 20.
To keep things consistent, Chandler’s apartment changed too. It went from 4 to 19.
Joey and Rachel Looking Cute Together
This pose was captured from Season 10, Episode 10, “The One Where Chandler Gets Caught.” A break from taping catches these two Friends stars being adorable. Aniston and LeBlanc were pretty tight. All the cast members were great friends, and Aniston has talked about the importance of the closeness of their real-life friendships.
When Aniston married Brad Pitt, LeBlanc couldn’t make the wedding because he was shooting a movie. She called him and “she was like, ‘You’re really not coming to my wedding?’” He asked for a reschedule, but film production said no. In retrospect, LeBlanc lamented that the film was low-budget production in Austria that no one even heard of in the end. Oh well.
‘We’re Working on Something’
Ellen DeGeneres got the scoop on a possible “Friends 2” show when Jennifer Aniston guested at the end of last year. The Friends diva said that she would love the idea and that they are trying to work on something. Something we do know is that the new Friends show will be on HBO Max. It was supposed to start filming in March 2020, but due to the coronavirus, production has been postponed until May. The group will return to soundstage 24, the original Warner Bros. studio in Burbank where the show was filmed, for a one-time production.
HBO Max President tongue-in-cheek called it “the one where they all got back together.” If you don’t believe it, check out Courteney’s Instagram announcement, “It’s happening. . . ,” featured in Variety earlier this year.