‘F.R.I.E.N.D.S’ Trivia…

hmm…so it’s Exams time again, that time of the year…when we stare hard at recycled paper from Spectrum’s printing press!

as the title might have already indicated(if u r urbane enough i.e.!), this post is not about me screaming all over again, about the ifs & buts…of SNIST!

anyways do watch out for our semester ending special titled, “the what to do, for a 4-2, JNTU!” on the 1st of May!

as a concised take on that, here is one thing i did do,
10 seasons of F.R.I.E.N.D.S in 20 days…3 TIMES OVER!…beat that for an IdleBrain!:)
a recommended MUST…for all morons who don’t know about it! …i know!…that sounds sad!…but hey,…i bet 65 of the 71 souls in my class wouldn’t have even heard of it!…yeah u can ‘boo’!…and maybe yeah…they deserve it:(!

here is my way of saluting…what is probably the Greatest Comedy Series Ever!

* The First Episode was aired on 22nd September, 1994.

* Courtney Cox was originally asked to play Rachel, but she asked to play Monica instead after reading the parts.

* Other titles considered for the show were “Friends Like Us,” “Six of One,” and “Across the Hall.” “Insomnia Cafe” was also considered.

* The golden frame around the peephole was originally a mirror which one of the crew accidentally smashed. But because it still looked good they decided to leave it there.

* Ursula Buffay, Phoebe’s twin sister, is a waitress in the TV show “Mad About You” (1992). Fran (Leila Kenzle) and Jamie (Helen Hunt) visit the coffee shop and mistake Phoebe for Ursula in one episode of Friends.

* Three cast members from “The Simpsons” (1989) make guest appearances in the series: Dan Castellaneta, Hank Azaria, and Harry Shearer.

* Columbus State University has a paleontologist called Dr. David R. Schwimmer.

* Emma was played by twins – Cali Sheldon and Noelle Sheldon.

* Because of a bet between Matthew Perry and Bruce Willis on the set of The Whole Nine Yards (2000) (which Perry won), Willis appeared in his two-episode guest role for free.

* Rachel and Ross had sex a total of 300 times. Ross said in “The One with the Cop” that they’d had sex 298 times. The 299th time resulted in the birth of Emma. The 300th time was the night before Rachel leaves for Paris.

* Rachel’s favorite flowers are lilies.

* Joey’s seven sisters are Veronica, Mary Angela, Mary Theresa, Gina, Dina, Tina, and Cookie.

* When Matt LeBlanc auditioned for the role he only had $11 dollars to his name. When the cast got their paychecks, the first thing that Courteney Cox bought was a car. Matt LeBlanc bought a hot dinner.

* Joey’s pick-up line, “How *you* doin’?” was ranked #4 in TV Guide’s list of “TV’s 20 Top Catchphrases” (21-27 August 2005 issue).

* Rachel had a nose job during her time at college.

* In the last few months of shooting Friends, Courtney 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.

* 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.

* The first and last episodes are the only ones in the entire series that do not begin with “The One…”. The first episode is called “The Pilot”, and the final episode is called “The Last One”. However, the first episode has a different version of its name, namely “The one where it all began (The Pilot)” “The One Hundredth” also doesn’t perfectly fit this pattern.

* James Michael Tyler was actually working in Bourgeois Pig, a coffee shop in Hollywood, when he got the part of Gunther. He kept his coffee gig for the first four seasons of Friends.

* Gunther was not originally a speaking part.

* June Gable who plays Joey’s agent, June Gable, also played a nurse who delivered a baby for Leah Remini (who originally auditioned for the role of Monica) in the episode where Ross and Carol have their own baby. Joey assisted his future agent by being the breathing coach during labor.

* Lisa Kudrow was terrified of the duck that showed up in Season 3.

* Courteney Cox added Arquette to the end of her name after her marriage to David Arquette between seasons five and six. Her father, Richard L. Cox, died in 2001 and during the midst of the ninth season, she dropped the Arquette in her father’s memory.

* Matt LeBlanc’s character ‘Joey Tribbiani’ plays Dr. Drake Ramoray in a fictional version of the NBC soap opera “Days of Our Lives” (1965). In real life, Jennifer Aniston’s father, John Aniston, plays ‘Victor Kiriakis’ on the real Days of Our Lives.

* As with most sitcoms, episode titles are not shown. As a joking reference to this, the official names of Friends episodes take the form “The One where…” (or similar).

* Is filmed on the same soundstage that was used for the filming of the sitcom _”Full House” (1987/I)_ during the last two seasons (1993-1995) of it’s eight year run (1987-1995). The pilot of “Friends” was shot on stage 33 (the same stage as “Living Single” (1993)) at the Warner Ranch, and the first season was shot is Warner Bros Stage 5, now the home of “Everybody Loves Raymond” (1996)) from 1987-1995.

* 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 (approx $1.8 million), the most expensive commercial slots of any TV program in England with the exception of sports.

* The first member of the cast to get a role in a Hollywood film was Marcel the Monkey.

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

* Jennifer Aniston agreed to return for the series’ 2003-04 season, which was the series’ 10th and final season, only if production on the show would be finished by January, 2004, so she could focus on her film career.

* At least three performers, ‘Bruce Willis (I)’ , Christina Applegate and Paul Rudd have guest-starred on episodes of the show after doing a film with one of the regular cast members. Willis and Applegate won Emmys for their guest turns.

* The theme song performed by The Rembrandts became a #1 single on the American pop charts.

* The characters’ full names are: – Rachel Karen Green – Phoebe Buffay (in “The One Where They All Turn Thirty” 7.14, she says that never knew her middle name since she had never seen her birth certificate and her twin sister, Ursula, had sold it to a Swedish runaway) – Joseph Francis Tribbiani Jr – Chandler Muriel Bing – Ross Eustace Geller – Monica Elizabeth Geller

* Out of the six friends, Chandler is the only one to not have any siblings. Rachel has two sisters, Monica and Ross are brother and sister, Phoebe has a twin, and Joey has seven sisters.

* After Rachel left her fiancée, Barry, at the altar in the pilot, her best friend Mindy then became engaged to Barry. Mindy was played by Jennifer Grey. Both Jennifer Aniston and Jennifer Grey played Jeanie Bueller in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986). Grey played her in the movie, Aniston played her in the television series.

* The creators of the Portuguese show “Gato Fedorento” say that the inspiration for the name of the show was the song “Smelly Cat”.

* Chandler’s parents, Charles and Nora Bing, were named after the favorite Thin Man series character Nora Charles; one half of a very famous movie detective couple of the thirties.

* The opening credits sequence in which the stars dance in a fountain was shot in Warner Bros LA lot at 4am. The water was kept heated through a pump. The group was given the words to the Rembrandts song but it was not playing in the background because the song had not been recorded. Jennifer Aniston is seen lip syncing the song in the opening and closing credits.

* In the opening credits to part-two of the Vegas story line, all of the names in the opening (actors and crew) were changed to have “Arquette” at the end of them, a gag on Courteney Cox-Arquette who had just recently married David Arquette.

* The final episode aired on 6 May 2004.

* James Michael Tyler, Elliott Gould and Christina Pickles are the only non-Friends who were in all 10 seasons. ‘Maggie Wheeler ‘ had a voice-over role in the episode where Chandler and Monica make Valentine gifts for each other in Season Six, but she had no camera time for the entire season.

* Whenever Tom Selleck made his initial on-set appearances, he received standing ovations. These would render his entrances unusable, prompting the need for later re-shoots without the audience.

* 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 original idea for the show was going to focus on four characters with Phoebe and Chandler in supporting roles. In the early stages the creators toyed with the idea of Chandler being gay. They changed their mind when they met Matthew Perry. They did, however, insert many jokes about Chandler having gay mannerisms (not knowing about sports, loving show tunes, etc.).

* In the pilot Barry’s surname is Finkel. In later episodes, his name has been changed to Barry Farber.

* 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.

* Joey’s address is 90 Bedford St. Apt. 19, New York, NY 10014.

* Monica’s address is 90 Bedford St. Apt. 20, New York, NY 10014.

* Phoebe’s address is 5 Morton St. Apt. 14, New York, NY 10014

* Gunther didn’t have a name until the middle of the second season.

* Courteney Cox is the only regular cast member to not receive an Emmy nomination for their work on the show.

* Joey’s (Matt LeBlanc) picture on the wall of Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy is a still from the short Leave ‘Em Laughing (1928).

* The artwork in Central Perk is changed every three episodes.

* Joey’s statue of a white dog was originally given to Jennifer Aniston as a good luck present from her best friend when she started acting. She offered to lend it to the show for the episode where Joey became rich and bought a lot of stuff. After that episode, the producers decided to keep it.

* On the set, Matt LeBlanc was known as “LeBlanc” by all the cast and crew, and Matthew Perry was known as “Matthew” or “Matt”. This was started by the crew to avoid confusion. Additionally, David Schwimmer was referred to as “Schwim” among the crew.

* Occasionally, NBC would air “Super-sized” episodes of their most popular sitcoms, including Friends. These episodes would run 40 minutes including commercials (or just around 30 minutes without). In syndication, a majority of the “Super-sized” episodes were cut down to fit a 30-minute time slot, except for the rare case where there was both too much plot info essential to the episode or series, and there were enough deleted scenes to make a two-episode story arc.

* The orange couch used in Central Perk was found in the basement of the Warner Bros. studio.

* For almost the entire first season, there wasn’t a street outside of Central Perk, just a painted backdrop. They made the window a little blurry and put many plants in front of the window to hide it.

* Monica has eleven categories for towels.

* For all the cliffhangers they had to remove the audience then continue filming so that nobody knew what was going to happen.

* Chandler’s father’s gay Las Vegas burlesque show is named Viva Las Gaygas.

* Phoebe’s alias name is “Regina Phalange.” Phalanges are the small bones that make up the hands and feet.

* The story line of Phoebe having her brother’s babies was thought up when Lisa Kudrow announced her real-life pregnancy. However, as she was not big enough to be having triplets, and the show was shot in “TV time”, the costumers had to pad her to make her look bigger for the show.

* There have been eight Oscar winning actors/actresses who have appeared on Friends. Charlton Heston, Sean Penn, Susan Sarandon, Helen Hunt, Julia Roberts, Reese Witherspoon, Robin Williams, and George Clooney.

* Of all the titles, the Friend’s names appear individually as so: Rachel (21 times), Ross (19 times), Joey (13 times), Phoebe (10 times), Chandler (9 times), and Monica (7 times). Also, Ross and Rachel appears 4 times, Joey and Rachel appears 3 times, Monica and Chandler 2 times, and Ross and Monica appears once in the episode titles.

* The original plan for the season 9 Thanksgiving was to bring back Reese Witherspoon as Jill Green, however Witherspoon was unavailable so the writers re-wrote the role as Amy Green and cast Christina Applegate in the role.

* Behind the scenes, the show was known for its unusually cohesive and unified cast. The six main actors made deliberate efforts, from early on, to keep the show’s ensemble format and not allow one member to dominate; notably for a show of its length, the six principals each appeared in every episode of the run. This included requesting that all actors on the show be nominated either for the same category of award (Supporting Actor until 2001, then Lead Actor from 2002 onwards) or not at all, and entering collective instead of individual salary negotiations. The actors became such close friends that one guest star, Tom Selleck, reported sometimes feeling left out. The cast remained good friends after the show’s run, most notably Cox and Aniston, with Aniston being godmother to Cox and David Arquette’s daughter, Coco.

* Several times throughout the series the cast can be seen with Safeway Select products, which are available in California where the show is taped but not in New York where the show takes place.

for more, read: Wikipedia, TV Summary.com, IMDB

P.S: Sourced from the Internet Movie DataBase!:)
a ‘boo’ is also intended universally for all morons, who are apparently missing out on the joy of a lifetime!