If you’re reading this article, it’s safe to say that you have a masters degree in your knowledge of Friends. You know almost all the dialogues by heart. You know the lyrics to Phoebe’s songs, you know the show’s seasons by Rachel’s haircuts, and you have taken online quizzes to find out which Friends character you are multiple times until you got either Joey or Chandler as the answer. You know the dishes Monica is a pro at and you know that Ross’ best hairdo was when he was dating Elizabeth.
But you don’t know everything, after all!
Here are 18 things from the greatest show ever that we are sure you may have missed even after watching the series a hundred times:
1. Monica’s apartment changed from number 5 to number 20 when the show’s writers realised that ‘5’ wouldn’t denote an apartment on an upper-level floor. They changed Chandler’s apartment number also from 4 to 19.
2. In the opening credits of ‘The One After Vegas’ (Season 6 x Episode 1), every cast member has the surname ‘Arquette’ added to the end of their real name. This was, in fact, dedicated to Courteney Cox for her marriage to David Arquette.
3. Remember Phoebe’s stalker who confuses her with Ursula, Phoebe’s twin sister (Season 3 x Episode 3)? That’s him! That’s Courtney’s then boyfriend and now ex-husband, David Arquette. The two of them met each other on the set of Scream in 1995 and separated in 2013.
4. Courteney was actually pregnant in the last season of the show. To hide her pregnancy, as her character Monica couldn’t bear children on the show, she wears baggy clothes in the final episodes.
5. Phoebe’s wedding is not attended by any of her relatives including her twin sister Ursula, her father Frank Buffay, her birth mother, her brother Frank Jr. or the triplets she gave birth to.
6. Did you recognise the fact that Marcel was played by two monkeys, Monkey and Katie?
7. In ‘The One Where Chandler Doesn’t Like Dogs’ (Season 7 x Episode 8), it is revealed that Ross hates ice cream. One season earlier, however, we see Ross and Elizabeth enjoying ice cream on their first date. Also, Ross and Marcel share an ice cream when they reunite (Season 2 x Episode 13) after the monkey becomes a TV star.
8. When Frank Jr. asks Phoebe when’s her birthday in season 3, she replies February 16, whereas in ‘The One With Phoebe’s Birthday Dinner’ (Season 9 x Episode 5), they celebrate her birthday on Halloween.
9. There’s actually a jar for yelling at Monica’s restaurant, Javu’s.
10. June Gable, who plays Joey’s agent Estelle Leonard, also played a nurse in the episode where Carol gives birth to Ben.
11. Giovanni Ribisi plays Phoebe’s brother Frank Jr. but he also had a cameo in the earlier seasons. He plays the boy who accidentally drops a condom in Phoebe’s guitar case (Season 2 x Episode 6).
12. Gunther didn’t have a name until the middle of the second season and a line until the 33rd episode (Season 2 x Episode 9), in which he only had one word to say, ‘Yeah’. Ross is still trying to make peace with Rachel after the whole ‘Pros and Cons list’ episode and buys her a slinky, which she doesn’t appreciate at all. He ends up giving it to Gunther after he asks him if he has stairs at his place.
13. Winona Ryder and Susan Sarandon were both on Ross’ ‘celebrity list’. They both later guest-starred on the show as Melissa Warburton (Rachel’s friend from her sorority) and Jessica Lockhart (the character Joey replaces on Days of our Lives) respectively.
14. In the last episode, it is mentioned that all six characters have lived in Monica’s apartment at some point in time. They have all also lived in Joey’s apartment.
15. The balloons used during Ross’s bachelor party seem to be blown-up condoms. That is so Joey!
16. Monica introduces Rachel to Chandler in the pilot episode as if they’ve never met before when, in fact, it has been shown in ‘The One With All the Thanksgivings’ (Season 5 x Episode 8) that they knew each other since high school.
17. All of the six main characters have kissed each other at one point including the hypothetical ‘what if?’ scene in ‘The One With The Truth About London’ (Season 7 x Episode 16), where Monica and Joey kiss.
18. Rachel’s last name has an extra ‘e’ on her invitation to Ross and Emily’s wedding.
How you doin’ now? To make sure that we are not yankin’ you, watch the series again. You know that Friends is finally on Netflix, right?
Images: NBC, Warner Bros. Tv
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