Behind Closed Doors (2016–…): Season 4, Episode 3 - Friends - full transcript
An inside look at how "Friends" came together; the writers who drew inspiration from their own lives; the actors who were, and some who weren't, cast; and how the sitcom became a cultural phenomenon;
-It's the television series
that would always
be there for you.
-When I met these actors,
you just thought,
"This is a good thing.
This is a good one."
-Sometimes I look at the show
and go,
"Wow, this is pretty good."
-Everyone I know loved the show.
-In 1994, "Friends" premiered,
changing
the television landscape.
-The most successful comedy
in the history of comedies.
-This just hit on all cylinders.
-The concept was simple,
but in the sitcom world,
very new.
-We lived in New York
in our 20s,
and your friends
became your family.
-We didn't have any big star.
Nothing dramatic happened.
-They don't fight crime.
They don't solve mysteries.
They don't do anything.
They just kind of sit around.
-The show took a chance on
six relatively unknown actors.
-Everybody was buzzing
about "Friends,"
and every actor
wanted to get in on it.
-This show "Muddling Through"
had the rights to Jennifer.
-And I was told,
"Oh, by the way,
you're gonna have to recast
Jennifer Aniston."
-How did the right mix
of actors come together?
And what happened when
the show made them stars?
-These were the people
that changed TV,
that changed celebrity.
-It's pretty amazing.
I mean, I think we're all really
sort of taken aback by it.
-But that level of fame
came with a steep price.
-They could never go
anywhere again
where they wouldn't be mobbed.
-Definitely had instincts of --
you know, were like,
"Get out of my face."
-The fist sign
that Matthew Perry
was in trouble
came on the show itself.
-There was a period that we had
to stop shooting
while Matthew was in rehab.
-I realized I was,
like, missing so much.
-"Friends" wasn't just
a television show --
it was a cultural phenomenon.
-Exhibit A -- "the Rachel."
-We would all love to just have
our three best friends
live across the hall from us.
-We all want to be them.
-For a decade,
we watched them grow up...
-They're both kind
of drama queens.
-...mess up...
-And then he says Rachel's name.
-...break up...
-We were on a break! [ Laughs ]
-...and create some of
our fondest memories.
-The moment we were
all waiting for.
-She doesn't even say a thing,
she just gets up and kisses him.
-Fall in love all over again
with the show
that never really went away.
This is "Friends:
Behind Closed Doors."
♪♪
♪♪
It's been called one
of the last great sitcoms
of a television golden era,
a dominating force in NBC's
Must-See TV
Thursday-night lineup,
and an iconic piece
of our '90s culture.
Welcome to "Friends:
Behind Closed Doors."
I'm Natalie Morales.
Since its premiere in September
of 1994, "Friends"
ruled the airwaves for a decade,
making us all dream
that we could find
a rent-controlled apartment
in New York City across the hall
from our best friends
and hang out
in a coffee show all day.
It gave a hairstyle its own name
and taught us what it means
to "be on a break."
But it was the incredible
on-set chemistry
of the six actors
at the center of "Friends"
that turned the show into
a multi-billion-dollar asset
and established its place
in television history.
♪♪
-Jennifer!
-Lisa!
-Lisa!
Lisa!
-Jennifer Aniston,
Matthew Perry, David Schwimmer,
Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc,
and Courteney Cox --
a decade of drinking coffee
at Central Perk
and breaking ratings records
made them stars.
-Matthew Perry!
-The cast achieved
a level of fame
that really would almost be akin
to teenybopper status.
They were getting mobbed places
that they went.
-They're in their 20s,
they're not terribly ambitious,
and they spend most of
their time just hanging out.
-Who didn't want to have,
like, five other amazing friends
that you lived across
the hall from,
that you hung out
with constantly,
that you did everything with,
that you lived
in these gorgeous apartments?
Like, this was such life
wish fulfillment,
and we all want to be them.
♪♪
-For Generation X,
it was aspirational television
at its most reassuring.
Even more appealing
was the knowledge
that the cast of "Friends"
really were friends.
-I love these people.
They're all so fun to be around.
-We just really got lucky.
There isn't a bad seed
in the group.
-We adore each other.
-We all genuinely
like each other.
-Matt LeBlanc is the nicest guy.
-He's got your back in a bar.
-Jennifer Aniston
is a sweetheart.
-When she laughs,
it just fills the room.
-And a genius
at physical comedy.
-Matthew Perry cracks me
up all day.
-One of the funniest men
I ever met in my whole life.
-David Schwimmer, I think,
is unbelievably talented.
He's got amazing timing.
-Lisa Kudrow is one of the few
people on the face of the planet
that I have no idea what's gonna
come out of her mouth.
-I defy you to find someone
who will be able
to say a line like Lisa Kudrow.
-Courteney's kind of
the advice woman.
-If you ever have any problem,
and you go to Courteney,
and she'll be like,
"Hey, just do this,
this, and that."
And you're like, "You're right."
-She just so grounded.
Nothing throws her from herself.
-You could just feel their bond.
They really did create a family.
-You can genuinely see
that they really do get along.
They do want to work together,
they like each other,
and that's part of why I think
this was such a huge phenomenon
and success.
-The chemistry was really good.
The writing, of course,
was great, and the direction.
It doesn't always happen.
We're not always that lucky,
having all of the stars align.
I mean, it was kind of magic.
-It holds up because
it's so well-crafted.
It doesn't matter how many times
you watch an episode
of "Friends."
It's really satisfying.
It's really fun.
It makes you feel good.
We need that in our lives.
-When you look at an ensemble
show, this ranks up
as one of the most important
and successful
and wonderful in history.
-The show that was created
to target Gen Xers
remains relevant decades later.
Reruns bring in
16 million viewers --
a number big enough to make it
a current hit on network TV.
And when Netflix licensed
the series in 2014
for a reported $500,000
per episode,
a whole new generation
of millennials
started streaming it.
-"Friends" never
really went away.
But especially after Netflix
acquired it,
it had this massive resurgence,
with people rediscovering it
and younger generations
really grabbing onto it
for the first time.
-There are 12-year-olds
who know all the lines,
and my granddaughter,
who's a college student --
they have huge "Friends"
events in college.
-My oldest daughter is 14,
and she started watching it.
-Especially in this dissociated
world of people
stuck on their freakin' devices
all the time,
where they're not remembering
to relate to one another,
I think we long
for that connection.
-It's about looking back
at a time
when we weren't beholden
to the Internet,
when we didn't have to look
on Twitter all the time
because we interacted
socially differently.
-This show resonates
with a young audience today
because everyone's still
interested in relationships,
everyone's still
interested in love,
everyone still struggles
to find themselves in their 20s.
-It's, like, love,
relationships, jobs.
"Your job's a joke,
you're broke,
your love life's DOA" --
that'll always be relevant.
-I mean, these same issues
from years ago
are the same issues today.
And I think it's more relatable
than half the stuff on TV now.
-Many of the themes that
they're dealing with,
millennials would be
dealing with today,
Gen Z will be dealing
with any day now.
It's pretty much
a timeless show --
the idea of "How do
I build my own life,
really build my new family?"
Because that's what happens
when you go out
into the world --
you leave one family behind,
and if you're very lucky,
you create another one.
And that's what's happening
on "Friends".
-It seems obvious now
that "Friends"
would stand the test of time.
But in the early '90s, when NBC
first set out to find a show
that would appeal to a young,
20-something audience,
the task wasn't so easy.
Warren Littlefield, then
president of NBC Entertainment,
had been on the hunt
for a while.
-I remember looking at
overnight ratings at 6:00 A.M.
every morning and thinking,
"Well, in all of those cities,
there are young adults
who have left college,
and they've gone out
on their own."
And each one of those cities,
I said,
"God, this is
incredibly expensive.
How do you break away
from Mom and Dad
and actually stand
on your own two feet?"
You can't!
You've got to do it
with a friend.
We hadn't seen a comedy
that really, right at its core,
looked at this moment
in time in young-adult lives.
And we developed
a couple of scripts
that went in that direction,
and they were awful.
They were absolutely awful.
-It's not until two young
New York writers come in
with a show called
"Insomnia Cafe"
that the concept starts
gaining traction.
-It was pitched by Marta
Kauffman and David Crane,
who were pretty much legends
at this time
in terms of their ability
to pitch something in a room.
-Marta Kauffman and David Crane
wanted to create a show
that was based
on their experiences
when they got out of college
and moved to New York
and were kind of
just figuring out life.
So they put together a show
about six people
that were
basically doing just that.
-One of the things
that influenced
what we did in the pilot
is that we lived in New York
in our 20s
and were in a group of people,
and you know,
your friends became your family.
-Well, it was
wildly entertaining,
and they hung out a lot
at a coffee shop.
And I was like,
"Huh. Coffee shop.
I don't know a lot of people
that go to coffee shops."
And the world changed.
-More than a decade before
pitching Warren Littlefield,
Kauffman and Crane were
playwrights in New York City --
that is, until they found
themselves in Los Angeles
in a meeting that
would change their lives.
-Somebody called and said,
"They have this idea
over at Universal.
They have the rights to all
these really,
really old black-and-white
television clips,
and they want to come up
with a show around them."
And they were like,
"We don't know.
We don't really know
what to do with it."
They got on the plane,
and by the time they landed
in New York, they had an idea.
And that idea became the show
"Dream On."
-"Dream On" was one of HBO's
first forays
into original programming,
in 1990.
-This was, obviously,
long before
"Sex and the City,"
long before "The Sopranos,"
long before cable
became prestige television.
And looking back on
"Dream On" now,
it doesn't really compare
so much to the later shows
that came after it,
but definitely put HBO
on the map in that way.
And it did the same for
Marta Kauffman and David Crane.
-The critically acclaimed series
also introduced
Kauffman and Crane
to producer Kevin Bright.
The three would form
a partnership
and together produce "Friends".
-The concept of "Friends"
is almost
shockingly low-concept.
It's about a group of friends.
You know,
they don't fight crime.
They don't solve mysteries.
They don't do anything.
They just kind of sit around,
finding their way in the world.
-The primary focus
for a lot of networks
was looking at family sitcoms,
looking at a nuclear family,
and this really gave
an alternate version.
It was still a family,
but it was friends
who created a family
with each other.
And that was kind of a void,
I think, at the time
that "Friends" really filled.
-It really was maybe one of
the first shows
where this is
a chosen group of people.
This was the family.
You love your own blood family,
hopefully,
but those that you choose
to hang out with,
those are your real family,
and that...
I think that many people relate
to that and wish for that.
-NBC executives agreed.
-We just kind of jumped up
in the air and said,
"This is great.
We love it.
Let's do this."
-The one change producers
insist on is the name.
-So they went through all
these different title changes.
It was called "Six of One."
It was briefly called
"Across the Hall."
-I think we had
"Friends Like Us"
and then ultimately
just "Friends."
-The legendary James Burrows
is tapped
to direct
the pilot of "Friends."
-He was a creator,
executive producer,
and directed almost
every episode of "Cheers."
He had done "Night Court."
He had done "Taxi."
Jimmy had such great pedigree
for sophisticated,
wildly funny, adult comedy.
And that's what we aspired to.
-When you're talking about
comedy directors,
there's Jimmy Burrows,
and then there's everybody else.
-Anytime you see his name
on a pilot, then and now,
in between,
you know
there has to be
something special about it.
Because he probably wouldn't say
yes to it if there wasn't.
-With a groundbreaking concept,
a witty script,
and a famous director on board,
NBC had only one
more box to check.
-All that was left
was to find the cast --
six separate personalities
who would complement each other.
-It's no easy feat for casting
executive Lori Openden,
who oversees the process.
-Everybody was buzzing
about "Friends."
Everybody knew it was
a great script,
and every actor wanted to get
in on it and have a shot at it.
-Casting director Ellie Kanner
worked directly with creators
Marta Kauffman and David Crane,
filtering through
the massive amount of talent.
-Marta and David had impeccable
taste and demanded the best.
I would say I auditioned
probably at least 100 actors
for each role.
-As the immense search
for the perfect six friends
gets under way,
many well-known names
almost make the cut.
And it's hard to imagine now,
but if it was up
to the producers,
some of the friends
would've played different parts.
♪♪
-During the pilot season
of 1994,
a revolutionary idea
is born out of NBC --
a television show
that focuses on the young,
20-something experience.
The series "Friends," created by
Marta Kauffman and David Crane,
embodied everything the network
was looking for.
But everyone knew it would
only be as good as the group
of actors
they found to star in it.
With hundreds vying
for the parts of Joey Tribbiani,
Rachel Green, Ross Geller,
Monica Geller, Chandler Bing,
and Phoebe Buffay,
executives had a long road ahead
to finding the perfect cast.
One of the hardest questions
to answer would be,
"To go for the big names
or take on a bunch of unknowns?"
-I'm a firm believer in the fact
that TV makes stars --
stars don't make TV.
So that means, like,
you just need a good cast
and a good cast of actors,
and those people
will become stars on a show.
-The good thing about Monica
is sometimes
she's an obsessive-compulsive,
like, you know,
hard-driving girl.
But then, you know, next
episode, she won't even care.
She's not uptight all the time.
-Monica, I think, was supposed
to be somebody
who was,
you know, hard on the outside,
but you knew she had
a good heart on the inside.
-So, Monica, I believe,
David and Marta
wrote with
Janeane Garofalo in mind.
So of course, we offered
her the part,
but she was on "Larry Sanders."
So she passed, but she really
technically was unavailable.
-Many other actresses
were considered for the role.
-The role of Monica
was originally offered
to Jami Gertz,
and she passed on it.
Julianna Margulies, I believe,
read for Monica,
and she was really funny
and really good.
Leah Remini was a top choice.
-Another person who auditioned
for the role of Monica
was Nancy McKeon from
"The Facts of Life."
She was already very well-liked
in this arena,
you know,
as a TV comedy actress.
-The name Courteney Cox also
comes up in the casting room.
-Courteney had famously jumped
off the screen
in the Bruce Springsteen
"Dancing in the Dark" video.
-She gained recognition
on television
when she was cast as
Alex Keaton's girlfriend Lauren
on the hit sitcom "Family Ties,"
and then later
in a guest-starring spot
on an episode of "Seinfeld."
-On the big screen, one of her
most high-profile gigs
was a role in Jim Carrey's
"Ace Ventura: Pet Detective."
-Interesting enough,
that movie didn't really
do that much for me.
You can't really act
opposite Jim Carrey
and expect to be noticed.
I mean, he's just so fantastic
and hysterical.
The best time in my whole life,
doing that movie.
And I made great friends,
and I just had a great time.
We had no idea that it was gonna
be such a successful movie.
-But Courteney does stand out
to the casting directors
of "Friends" -- not as Monica,
but as another character.
-They were looking at me
for the part of Rachel.
I really feel that
I'm much more, um...
I understand Monica.
So I just think that's the way
it's supposed to be.
-She felt she was Monica.
She liked the strength
of that character,
the career
drive of that character.
-Courteney Cox read for Monica,
and she was pretty good,
but we still wanted her
for Rachel.
So what we decided to do was,
we said,
"Well, let's test her
for Monica,
since she really
wants to play Monica,
and then we'll just give her
the part of Rachel
because we love her as Rachel."
So that was our idea, sort of,
behind the scenes.
And then she came in,
and she read Monica
at the network,
and we were just like,
"Uh-oh, now what do we do?"
Because it sort of blew up
our plan of offering her Rachel.
-It was between Courteney
and another actress,
and we were all over the place
about what
our decision should be.
Warren Littlefield said
to the producers,
"You guys choose who you want.
We'll support whichever
actress you want."
And Marta and David --
and, I believe,
Jimmy Burrows, also --
took a walk around
the Warner Bros.
lot and came back and said,
"Courteney Cox."
♪♪
-People can relate to him
because he kind of wears
his heart on his sleeve
and just, you know...
He had a line like,
"I'm gonna die alone,"
and people probably think
that sometimes about themselves,
but they don't just walk
into a room and say them.
And Chandler does.
I was the Chandler.
I spent a lot --
most of my high school years
in the hallway outside of class
'cause I was saying my little
witty, smartass comments.
-Chandler as a character just
had wonderful, sarcastic edge.
He just made us laugh out loud.
And we looked at a lot of --
a lot of Chandlers.
-It's funny because I think
we always thought
Chandler would be
the easiest part to cast
because the script
that the actors auditioned
with was almost foolproof.
So actors who maybe weren't even
that funny would come in,
and I'd still laugh,
and I would still think,
"Wow, they were pretty good."
-Before Matthew Perry
ultimately scores the gig,
another up-and-coming
young actor
stands out to executives.
-Craig Bierko,
who is a wonderful actor --
he read for Chandler,
and we offered him
the role of Chandler.
-Bierko is a close friend
of Matthew Perry's
and actually worked
on the material with him
before his audition.
But Bierko declines the job.
-He didn't want to do
an ensemble.
He was really looking
to do something
where he was more of a lead.
-And by the time Matthew Perry
actually booked the audition,
he knew the material by heart
because he'd been working on it
with his friends so much.
-Well, Matthew came in
and just had a different
take on it that no one else did.
He just nailed it,
and you just knew.
It was like, "That's what
we were waiting for,"
but he was unavailable.
-Matthew Perry was already
committed
to a show called "LAX 2194."
-God, I love my life!
-It was about baggage handlers
at an airport in the year 2194.
And even though we're in, like,
a "Jetsons" sort of space age,
there's still all
the same baloney
you have to deal with
at the airport.
I don't know why people thought
this was a good idea.
-We all agreed that we weren't
afraid of that pilot.
We were gonna take Matthew Perry
in what's called
"second position."
That was a risk, though.
-Second position is when
an actor already films
and is committed to a pilot,
meaning if that pilot does not
get picked up to go to series,
then we have a backup deal
with them,
and then we would be able
to have them.
-With Matthew Perry booked
for both pilots,
executives risk having to recast
the role of Chandler Bing
if "LAX 2194"
gets picked up as a series.
Ultimately, the baggage-handler
series is a no-go,
and NBC's gamble pays off.
-The more I learned
about the pilot
we were in second position to,
I was quite confident
that that would not bite us.
-I don't think she's dumb.
And spacey?
I guess.
To me, she just has a different
point of reference...
to everything...
just 'cause she's...
different.
It's hard for me to explain.
-Lisa Kudrow is brilliant,
in my book.
I actually read for that part,
and I think I did
the traditional idea
of what you might think
a ditz would be like.
And I felt like she did the
opposite, where she felt like
she was being really smart
in what she was saying,
and it made perfect
sense to her.
And she wasn't, like, playing
any kind of ditz per se,
and I thought that that
made it way more layered
and complicated and brilliant.
-Lisa Kudrow came in and read
for Phoebe, and we fell in love.
We were like,
"That's fantastic."
-She got a very special,
unique quality that is amazing.
Her way of doing comedy was like
nobody else I knew at the time.
-The producers are quickly sold
on Lisa Kudrow,
but she still has to audition
for director James Burrows,
someone she had recently worked
with on the show "Frasier."
-Lisa Kudrow was actually cast
as the original Roz
on "Frasier,"
and it was very clear from the
moment they started shooting
that it was going
to be not a good fit.
It just wasn't working.
So she was let go after
four days,
and she assumed
that James Burrows hated her.
-Of course, any actor would
think that it was their fault.
But I asked Jimmy Burrows,
and he said, "She was recast
because she wasn't right
for that part."
I was like, "Oh, okay,
'cause she thought
it was something that she did."
He was like,
"No, absolutely not."
So I told her that, and she
came in and read, and of course,
he had no notes
because we loved what she did.
-But producers run
into a problem
with their casting choice.
Kudrow already has a reoccurring
role on another hit NBC series,
"Mad About You," playing Ursula,
a forgetful waitress.
-So Marta Kauffman and David
Crane went to the showrunner
of "Mad About You" and said,
"Hey, we have this weird idea.
What if we made
Phoebe and Ursula twins?
Would you be okay with that?"
And the "Mad About You"
team said, "Yeah, sure, okay."
Which is kind of a miracle,
when you think about it.
-I believe a lot of the people
who watch "Friends"
watched "Mad About You"
and recognized her
and followed her to "Friends".
One of the lines was,
"Well, my twin sister
and I are not close because..."
-She's, like, this high-powered,
driven career type.
-What does she do?
-She's a waitress.
-Which was the part on
"Mad About You."
-It was an inside joke
that everybody loved.
-Executives still needed
three more friends,
and they go to battle
with another network
over one of them.
♪♪
-Welcome back to "Friends:
Behind Closed Doors."
In 1994, the pilot season at NBC
was the place to be,
with hundreds
of Hollywood hopefuls
competing for a role
on "Friends."
One actor stands out with some
pretty outrageous prep
for his audition.
-Joey was another tricky part.
Actors came in, but they
just weren't quite nailing it.
-The character of Joey
in the original script
was maybe a little
less well-defined
than some of
the other characters.
And he was also a little bit
more of a lech.
And they brought
Matt LeBlanc in.
He was definitely
the least experienced.
He seemed much "younger,"
they said, than everybody else.
-I don't think Matt LeBlanc
had much of a résumé.
Matt had been bouncing around,
trying to get roles.
-But he was charming, as well,
and this was certainly
an archetype
that he was familiar with.
He had been playing a lot
of vaguely Italian guys
in leather jackets for a while.
-But it wasn't just
Matt LeBlanc's acting abilities
that made the biggest impression
when he went for his audition.
-The night before his audition,
which he was so excited about,
he was working with
a friend of his
to work
on the audition material.
And his friend said,
"Okay, well, this is a show
about really good friends
who just, like, hang out.
So we should do what friends do
and go out
and get really, really drunk."
-What started, I think,
as somewhat of a work session
with one of his friends,
where he was working
on the character,
became a drinking session,
and he fell down.
-And Matt LeBlanc just
sliced his nose open,
and that's how he went
to the audition.
And he said, like,
one of the first things
Marta Kauffman said to him was,
"What happened to your face?"
-And he was just honest,
and I think that's part of
who Matt was.
And that just made you believe
his character even more.
Like, that's just
the kind of guys he --
you know, like,
he did something, and it's like,
"Okay, this is what I did."
♪♪
-I feel a lot of compassion
for Rachel.
People give her a hard time
because they think she's a bit,
um, spacey
and spoiled and bratty,
but she's got a good heart.
She's just a victim
of circumstances,
just how she was raised,
just the life she knows.
And now she's, you know,
venturing out into this world
and becoming independent
and you know,
seeing what that's all about.
She's very brave.
-Early on in the casting
process, actress Jane Sibbett,
who played Carol,
Ross's lesbian ex-wife,
first auditioned
for the part of Rachel.
-I had an incredible audition,
one of those auditions
that you dream about,
where everyone's laughing,
rolling on the floor laughing,
'cause it was brilliant writing,
with David, Marta, and Kevin.
And as I left the offices,
I got a phone call
immediately from my agent.
And I said, "Did you tell them
I'm pregnant?"
-Timing wouldn't work out
for Sibbett
to play a main character.
But fate opened the door
for Jennifer Aniston
to be considered for the role.
In the early '90s,
she is the self-proclaimed
failed-sitcom queen.
-I've done many shows.
What's a miracle is they've
all gotten on the air
except for one.
But they'll last maybe
six episodes, 13 episodes.
I think the most I did
was 19 episodes of a show.
-But just before pilot season
in 1994,
Aniston bumps into NBC
President of Entertainment
Warren Littlefield,
and she shares
her insecurities with him.
-I was filling up for gas
at a Chevron station
on Sunset Boulevard,
and over on the other island
filling up her car was Jennifer.
And she came over and said,
"Is it ever gonna
happen for me?"
I was like, "God, I hope it --
We want it to.
Hang in there, Jen.
We believe in you.
We really want
to find something."
And that was genuine.
Lo and behold,
a few months later,
we had the "Friends" script.
-I was a huge fan,
as we all were.
So we decided,
"Let's send the script
to Jennifer Aniston
for the role of Monica
and see if she's interested."
She loved it,
but she called back and said,
"I want to play Rachel."
And she was right.
She was much more fit
for Rachel.
-Jennifer Aniston grew up
in New York City,
and she was surrounded
by Rachels,
even though she wasn't
really one herself.
She grew up with a single mom,
and she'd been working
like crazy for a long time.
She didn't have a lot of things
handed to her,
and she had often
envied those girls.
And so that's why, I think,
she felt she understood Rachel
to a "T."
-But again, there's a roadblock
in this Hollywood fairy tale.
Jennifer Aniston was
already booked on a CBS series
called "Muddling Through"
that is set to air
in the summer of 1994.
If she shows does well,
it will be extended
into the fall season.
-This was a big deal.
CBS and the producers
of this show,
"Muddling Through,"
had the rights to Jennifer.
-Marta Kauffman, David Crane,
Jennifer Aniston --
everybody tried to negotiate
with the showrunner
of "Muddling Through"
to try and get her out
of that contract
and let her come to "Friends,"
and nobody wanted to budge.
-We took a risk,
and we hired her
in second position.
-It's another gamble for NBC.
If "Muddling Through"
gets picked up,
Jennifer Aniston will need
to be recast in "Friends,"
which shoots a pilot
in May of 1994.
Two months later, in July,
"Muddling Through"
begins to air.
And though it's not
an obvious hit,
CBS isn't about to hand over
Jennifer Aniston that easily.
CBS knew that there was a lot
of buzz around "Friends."
And possibly to mess with them,
they did keep "Muddling Through"
going with a three-episode
order,
which is not necessarily
an optimistic episode order,
but it could have been enough to
throw a wrench into the works.
-Meanwhile, "Friends" continues
to shoot episodes
with Aniston as Rachel.
-So she was doing "Friends"
and "Muddling Through"
at the same time.
I was going on vacation.
The whole pilot had been shot,
and I was told,
"Oh, by the way, when you
come back from vacation,
you're gonna have to recast
Jennifer Aniston
because 'Muddling Through'
got picked up."
So, of course, I was devastated,
thinking,
"Oh, my God,
I already read everyone.
What are we gonna do?"
-Business Affairs come to me,
and they said,
"You have to recast this role."
And I said, "What?!"
We would've had episodes that
we didn't have the right to air,
or we would've had to re-shoot
everything that Jennifer was in.
-Littlefield and NBC
scheduling exec Preston Beckman
come up with an offense,
going to war on
"Muddling Through."
-We ran all these movies up
against "Muddling Through"
that we knew would attract
the same audience.
-The plan works.
"Muddling Through"
is finally canceled,
allowing Aniston
to remain on "Friends."
-I learn so much from each job.
And, you know, you end one,
and you think,
"That's sort of sad,
but there's a reason for it.
There's a reason for it."
And here's my reason.
♪♪
-He's a regular Joe.
He wants the good life,
you know?
He doesn't have dreams
about being, you know,
better than anyone else.
He just --
he wants to be married.
He wants to have kids.
He struck me as a family guy,
and he struck me as a guy
who is romantic
and who wants to be in love.
And I just thought,
"Oh, this is a guy I can play."
-The creators of "Friends"
thought so, too.
-My first meeting
with Marta and David,
they told me that they basically
wrote Ross for David Schwimmer.
-David Crane and Marta Kauffman
had auditioned David Schwimmer
for another show that didn't pan
out, and they really loved him.
They described him as having
this really endearing,
hangdog vulnerability.
And he had the ability
to be funny
while also being really,
really mopey,
and that's
a pretty unusual trait.
-I don't know if I'm blessed
or it's just a misfortune
that I have the hangdog face.
A lot of people thought I looked
like Nicolas Cage
for a long time.
We have the same kind of sad,
droopy face.
-Schwimmer had some television
experience,
including an appearance in
a dramatic role on "NYPD Blue."
But after working on a sitcom
called "Monty,"
in which he co-starred
with Henry Winkler,
Schwimmer says
he wasn't interested
in another television role,
preferring the collaborative
environment of theater.
He declines to meet
with the creators of "Friends."
-He had mixed feelings.
He had to be convinced.
But he loved the character,
he loved Marta and David,
and they sold him hard.
-What appeals most to Schwimmer
about "Friends"
is that it's a true ensemble.
That and a convincing phone call
from James Burrows
does the trick.
With all six roles
perfectly cast,
there was one final test --
would the chemistry be right
when they were all together?
♪♪
-The fresh concept of "Friends"
is finally coming to fruition.
On May 4, 1994,
the pilot is set to shoot.
Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston,
Lisa Kudrow,
Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry,
and David Schwimmer
will all meet on Stage 5
for their first day of work.
-In the beginning,
none of us knew one another.
So you take six people
that don't know each other
that are about
to play good friends,
and you throw them all
in the same room,
and everybody enters that
arrangement with the same goal,
which is to get along
as quickly as possible and bond
with one another
as quickly as possible.
And it really worked out great.
-It's not like they all read
together
and we mixed and matched.
We all cast them separately,
and then they came together
on the stage and were magical.
It happens rarely,
but it happens.
-There's no way that anyone else
could've played those parts
just like that.
It was magic.
Magic.
-When you think about it,
there was
no weak link in that show.
-I think, in all of the casting
of "Friends,"
something brilliant
and wonderful happened.
There was an alchemy,
where the sum of the parts
became explosively,
wonderfully brilliant.
And I don't know if we ever
would've had the magic
if it hadn't been
those six actors.
-Early on, it is Courteney Cox
who set the tone
for working together.
-Courteney Cox had just
recently shot
an episode of "Seinfeld,"
and she had been
really impressed with the way
they were saying,
"Hey, what if we tried
it like this?
What if we tried it like that?"
There was a real
ensemble spirit,
and she really suspected
that that played a huge role
in making "Seinfeld"
so successful.
-From the first day
we came on the set,
we just all kind of
got together.
And I know I definitely said
to them,
"Listen,
this is an ensemble show,
and if there's something
you think
that I could do funnier
or vice versa,
I think the main goal
is to make the show good.
Please, feel free."
So I don't think there was ever
any attitudes with anybody.
I think that we just
all got a job.
-The kids were wonderful
to watch on the set
because they supported
each other.
Like, if one kid was having
trouble with a moment
and thinking,
"Yeah, I don't know.
Should I do it this way,
that way?"
one of them would say,
"How about doing it this way?
What do you think?"
And they'd try it,
and they'd say, "Thank you.
That worked."
It was wonderfully supportive.
-The cast's undeniable
chemistry gives
NBC President of Entertainment
Warren Littlefield confidence
about the show's prospects.
-Our hopes were caught up.
Our hearts were there.
We thought, "Wow.
If we get this right, then
it would be kind of special."
No one else was playing
in this territory.
-But one network concern
is that the cast is too young.
-I think that people
were worried
that it would only appeal to,
you know, people in their 20s,
just because
that's where we are.
Doesn't matter how old you are,
if something's funny, you're
gonna laugh at it and like it.
So hopefully, that's what
we do every week.
-People like to worry.
When you're in fresh territory,
there's a lot of risk.
There's fear.
-Even though they were
really eager
to target this up-and-coming
Generation X audience,
they felt like, "There's
no adults in the room,"
so they floated the idea
of adding
just one recurring
older character,
like you know,
"a cop on the beat"
or something like that is,
I think, how they described it.
-I kind of scratched my head.
I wasn't sure about that one.
-Creators Marta Kauffman
and David Crane write a script
that includes a character
they refer to as "Pat the cop."
They hate it so much, they beg
the network to can the idea.
Their compromise -- to bring
in the characters' parents.
-I think bringing the parents
just gave it
another level of comedy,
of experience.
You have a bigger audience.
So it just broadened it a lot.
-I think it showed
the children's reaction
to the parents,
of how they felt about it.
And in that,
they were universal,
because most people love
their parents
and are irritated by their
parents
and find their parents
very annoying quite often,
and that's simply
the way life is.
-Over the course of the series,
many Hollywood heavyweights
join the cast as Mom or Dad --
Marlo Thomas, Elliott Gould,
Morgan Fairchild,
and Kathleen Turner,
to name a few.
For Ross and Monica's mom,
Judy Geller, James Burrows
is the one who suggests
Christina Pickles.
-I was doing a pilot
for Jim Burrows.
He told them that they must
use me as the mother.
And they did, and I was
very grateful to James.
-Judy Geller is definitely
one of the most underrated
characters on the show
because at the beginning of the
series, you don't love her,
'cause she's Monica's mean mom
and she's hypercritical and...
a relatable thing,
but not lovable.
-Monica, no matter what she did,
it was just not good enough.
-It was a very
dysfunctional mother,
but tons of fun otherwise.
-Judgmental mother Judy Geller
isn't the only one scrutinizing
her daughter Monica.
Some executives at NBC
have an issue
with the character's story line
in the pilot episode
about a one-night stand.
-That was controversial
for some of the older executives
at NBC --
whether that was appropriate,
whether that wouldn't be,
for Monica,
irresponsible sexual behavior.
Someone said, "Won't the
audience think Monica's a slut?"
And our feeling was, "Nope.
They're gonna think
that Monica is real.
She exists in the time and place
that we're presenting --
New York City in the '90s."
-Because this was
such a sticking point,
they agreed to put out
an audience questionnaire,
asking the audience
what they thought
of the character of Monica
for sleeping with a guy
on the first date.
And they used different
language,
but it was basically asking,
"So, how big a slut
do you think Monica is?
And do you not like her
because of it?"
The audience did not care.
-The pilot episode of "Friends"
is good enough for NBC
to pick up
for a 24-episode season.
There's just one last-minute
casting change.
-I get home from the hospital
after delivering my child,
literally walked in the door,
put the baby down,
the phone rings.
Pick it up, and it's my agent
saying, "'Friends' just called.
They have released the woman
who was playing
the pregnant lesbian.
Can you start work tomorrow?"
Ooh, gosh.
They said, "Please,
will you do this?"
I said, "Yes."
My son was two days old,
and I started work.
-Before the show premieres,
James Burrows has an idea
of how to celebrate
with the cast.
-He said, "Let's just go have
a night together in Vegas."
So he got the Warner Bros. jet,
and they had a night
at the MGM Grand.
And Jimmy looked at them
and said,
"This may be the last night that
you actually get to do this --
out in public, hanging out,
where you are anonymous."
-He was convinced that this was
their last shot at anonymity,
and he told them so.
-On Thursday,
September 22, 1994,
"Friends" premieres at 8:30 P.M.
on NBC.
It's title, "The One
Where Monica Gets a Roommate,"
inspires a conversational
naming convention
for each episode in the series.
Every episode title all famously
start "The One With."
-"The One With the Blackout."
-"The One With the Embryos."
-"The One With Ross's Wedding."
-Despite its coveted time slot,
the ratings are decent,
but less than anticipated.
-It was not a massive hit,
but it was doing well.
And again, we were sandwiched
between "Mad About You"
and "Seinfeld,"
so it was a place
where it could safely grow.
-A few months into
the first season of "Friends,"
the cast sits down
for an interview
with "The Today Show"'s
Katie Couric.
-So, joining me here on
the "Friends" couch
are all six members
of the "Friends" cast --
Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox,
Lisa Kudrow,
Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry,
and David Schwimmer.
Good morning.
-Good morning!
-Good evening.
Can you believe we got up
this early to do this?
Thanks, you all, for coming in.
-What do you mean, "get up"?
-Yeah.
-We're still sleeping.
-Are you still sleeping?
-We were just here
rehearsing, anyway.
-Yeah, this is the time
we normally rehearse.
They like us to be
really wide awake.
-Really fresh.
-3:00 or 4:00 in the morning
is when we do our best stuff.
-Matt, are you surprised that
the show has been so successful?
It's like, the number-two
comedy, isn't it?
Is that right?
Yeah. It is.
-Are we?
-It is!
-Number-two new comedy.
-Really?
-Yeah! Did you know that?
-No!
-Yay!
-Ohh!
-Didn't know that.
-I mean, it...
yes, you did.
You guys are pulling my leg,
aren't you?
-No, we really didn't know that.
-You didn't?
-Well, gosh, I'm so glad I could
educate you here this morning.
But, I mean,
is it kind of a shock --
-It's not really
number one, but...
-Is it kind of a shock that
the show has been so successful?
Or what do you think about it?
-It's pretty amazing.
I mean, I think we're all really
sort of taken aback by it
because to us down here,
it just seems like we're all
just sort of a theater group.
You know, we're all
a really tight ensemble,
we get along really well,
and it's just a real
productive environment.
-Yeah.
-We have a great time.
-It really showed, in some ways,
how naive they were
and how very much
in a bubble they were.
Because when you're shooting
a television show,
you're, you know, on set.
You're in this world.
You're not really in sync
with the rest of the world.
You're just, like, with the same
group of people all the time.
It's kind of like summer camp.
And then they went out
in the world
and suddenly realized
that they were famous.
-Do you worry about
staying power?
I mean, I would think that
getting there is one thing,
and then just worrying
that you're gonna be
a flash-in-the-pan success...
Is that something
that concerns you?
Or are you just sort of enjoying
things as they are right now?
-Well, we're enjoying things,
absolutely,
but the work is important.
You can't sort of get lazy
and sort of sit back and say,
"Hey, we're a hit.
We're gonna be fine."
-Yeah.
-You got to keep up the, uh...
-The momentum.
-...up the momentum
and keep up the goods.
-Season 1 of "Friends"
continues to grow an audience,
but it's reruns
in the summer of 1995
that cause viewership
to explode.
-The network stuck
with "Friends."
This was a show that was allowed
to find its audience.
And, boy, when it did,
that audience was massive.
-NBC moves "Friends"
to the 8:00 P.M.
time slot in their Thursday
night lineup for Season 2.
-We promoted the hell out of it.
And with all the promotion,
that's it.
"Friends" solidified themselves
as a bona fide monster hit.
And that's where they would play
for the rest of the decade --
Thursday at 8:00.
-With the early success
of "Friends," writers decide
to dive into some
more provocative story lines.
But when it comes time for air,
some NBC affiliates refuse
to broadcast.
♪♪
-After a rigorous casting
process and a buzzworthy pilot,
"Friends" debuts
in the fall of 1994
and delivers
a solid first season.
-It's all such a crapshoot.
You never know.
But I knew that
it was really funny.
I just thought the writing
was different.
It was very hip.
But I could tell you, the pilot,
which I thought was really good,
doesn't compare
to what I think the series is.
I think it's gotten
so much better.
But I had no idea
that it would get this good.
-"Friends" comes back
for Season 2 fully loaded
with celebrity guest stars
and headline-making episodes,
including "The One With the
Lesbian Wedding."
-This was definitely
a landmark episode.
And it was one where they pushed
some envelopes --
not just being
a network comedy show,
but being a network comedy show
on the biggest night
on the biggest network
of television.
-Actress Jane Sibbett,
who plays Carol,
one of the brides,
is at the center of what
would become a controversy.
-It was a big deal, and it was
probably one of the best things
that could've happened
for this issue
of the right
to marry who you love.
It caused a lot of press.
It caused a lot of conversation,
a lot of upheaval,
people really asking about it.
And I come from an intensely
Christian background.
I've read the Bible many times,
backwards and forwards.
And I wasn't even thinking that
I would have to do "battle,"
but I was.
I had to do battle with people
who were asking me
to look into the Bible.
I had people from my old church
saying that I was
gonna burn in hell.
-A local affiliate in Texas
and one in Ohio
black out the show that evening.
-I think everybody expected
negative feedback
from that episode,
and the network
was certainly concerned
with the volume of calls
and mail they might get.
They took on a lot of extra
staff for the night
that that show aired.
In the end, they got, like,
under five calls.
I think they got maybe a couple
letters later, but nobody cared.
-At the time, "The One
With the Lesbian Wedding"
is the most-watched show of
the week and the highest-rated
"Friends" episode to date,
with 31.6 million viewers.
But the very next episode
of "Friends"
smashes its own record.
-Very famously,
there was the post-Super Bowl
two-part episode,
which was packed
with movie stars.
It was Jean-Claude Van Damme
and Julia Roberts
and Chris Isaak.
-I think the fact that they were
able to get the time slot
after the Super Bowl
in Season 2 spoke volumes
about how well the network
thought they were doing
and how well
they actually were doing,
given that that's a prime time
slot for any show.
-140 million Americans tune
in after the game.
-It was one of the most
highest-rated nights
in the history of television.
More people watched NBC
on that night
than almost any other night
in television history.
-By this time, "Friends"
is an undisputable
pop culture phenomenon.
-Exhibit A -- "the Rachel."
-I can't think of another
haircut in history
that has had such an impact
on regular women
wanting it so badly,
perhaps except for the Farrah
Fawcett haircut in the mid-'70s.
-I have to admit,
I got the Jennifer haircut.
-I did have the Rachel.
I think a handful of my friends
had the Rachel at the time,
and I know, obviously,
we were not alone in that.
That became as iconic
as the show
and the characters in the show.
-According to Aniston, though,
the cut was never meant to be.
-It was a mistake.
I mean, this is
a very simple story.
I went in, I hadn't cut my hair
in years, really,
and my manager said,
"Why don't you just go in
and meet this guy
that I'd like you to meet?
Just have a consultation."
And I went in,
and he started cutting my hair.
And all of a sudden,
people started saying,
"Hey, nice haircut!"
And I was like, "Thanks."
It's flattering,
but you know what?
You start to --
There's definitely a part of you
that says,
"Hm, why am I getting noticed
for my haircut
and not for my work?"
-Jennifer Aniston had
every reason,
at the peak of her fame,
to feel annoyed by the fact
that more people were talking
about her hair than about her.
-Meanwhile, "Friends" writers
lay the groundwork
for what would be the most
enduring relationship
across the series.
-There was no bigger couple --
like, in real life or on TV --
than Ross and Rachel.
-I loved those two together.
I thought they were so funny.
-I was a great fan of Rachel
ending up with Ross.
-They're cute together.
-The will-they/
won't-they/will-they-again
relationship became a story line
that would remain relevant up
until the series finale.
-I don't think, actually, Rachel
is really necessarily
right for Ross.
I think Rachel has some growing
to do herself.
But I think Ross is just
obsessed and in love with her.
-It was really David
and Jennifer's chemistry
that it felt like propelled
the story forward.
And in the pilot,
you do get the sense
that Ross's crush on Rachel
that has been there since high
school hasn't fully gone away.
It's maybe been re-ignited
by seeing her again
and realizing she's single
at a time he's single.
-The question was, how long
can you prolong that?
What are the obstacles
you can create?
It's almost a Chinese puzzle,
and there need to be many doors
that have barriers and blockades
that you can't get through.
Because we know we want that
to happen,
and we're rooting
for it to happen,
and yet we're gonna deny it.
-In Season 2, one of the first
obstacles to Ross and Rachel's
happily ever after
is a character named Julie --
Ross's new girlfriend,
played by actress Lauren Tom.
-It just felt like this gift
that dropped right into my lap.
I was excited 'cause the show
was already
starting to build
into something special,
and I kind of got to jump
on that wagon there.
Little did I know that the live
audience would actually boo me
as the episodes went on
because they wanted so badly for
Rachel and Ross to get together.
-Besides being infamous for
keeping the star couple apart,
the character Julie helps
"Friends" in a lot of ways.
Often criticized for having
an all-white cast,
the show expands.
-It was a milestone,
because I think
I was the first person of color
on that show.
You really didn't see
that that often --
an Asian character was speaking
without an accent.
-The character of Julie
is really important,
and I think that she did
a lot for the show
that people don't realize,
because she brought out
another side of Rachel.
Julie brought out her
competitive side
and her jealous side
and really, her human side.
And I think that it made her
much more relatable
to the audience,
and it allowed Jennifer Aniston
to be funny in a new way.
-38 episodes into the series,
fans get a taste of what
they've been waiting for in
"The One With the Prom Video."
-It's one of the most iconic
episodes,
I think, on television,
as far as love stories go.
-Monica winds up with a box of,
like, her old stuff,
and she comes across
her old prom video.
-And they watch
Monica and Rachel
getting ready for the prom.
-Visually, they were so funny.
She had her old nose,
and Monica was very heavy.
And I had incredibly curly hair,
some huge wig.
You know how people used
to have that kind of hair?
-And they notice that Rachel's
date isn't showing up,
and we see Ross in the old video
just, like, looking at Rachel.
-So, Ross's dad, Jack Geller,
says to him,
"Why don't you go
put on a tux, take her?
It'll make her so happy."
Obviously, Ross loves Rachel,
so he does put on a tux,
and you know,
he comes down the stairs.
And as all of that is happening,
Rachel's date comes,
and you know,
the camera then pans to...
-Chip!
-... Rachel and Monica running
out the door with their dates.
Ross looks heartbroken.
-When Rachel sees the romantic
gesture from years past,
it finally ignites
the on-screen romance.
-She doesn't even say a thing,
she just gets up and kisses him.
-The moment we were all waiting
for, after a season and a half.
Yep.
-That moment, that kiss...
When they finally get together,
it's after so much strife,
you're like, "Please, just...
-Stay.
-...stay together!"
-The challenge, I think,
will be what happens
after Rachel and I get together.
I think that's where
the challenge will be
for not only the actors,
but for the writers.
You know, where do you go after
that tension,
that chase is over?
But I believe in, you know,
the talent of the writers,
so I'm sure we'll
come up with something.
-And that's exactly
what they do.
-They managed to almost
immediately turn it
into just a new kind of tension.
Because, as you see, they're
only kind of a happy couple --
like, a no-problems couple --
for, you know, a blip.
They get together.
They're both kind of
drama queens,
and so there's always
drama between them.
-Ultimately, the writers decide
to break the couple up.
After an iconic fight,
Ross sleeps with someone else,
igniting one of the most
debated arguments
and quoted lines of the series.
-We were on a break! [ Laughs ]
-We were on a break.
-We were on a break.
-[ Laughs ]
Were Ross and Rachel
really on a break?
I think to -- Wow.
-Yes, of course they were
on a break!
-You could fight this back
and forth, but she said,
"We're gonna take
a break from us."
And he just looked at her,
remember,
and shut the door
and walked out.
So that would mean
they were on a break.
So, if they were on a break,
it means you're free to do
whatever you want, correct?
-I believe Ross and Rachel
were on a break.
I also believe that Ross
greatly misinterpreted it.
-It's not cheating, but it's
still extremely wrong...
-Perfect. So wrong.
-...and I'll go to
my grave thinking,
"Even if they were on a break,
it was wrong."
-And what's amazing is that
we're only three seasons in,
and then they manage to keep it
going for seven more years.
-Out of 236 episodes
of "Friends," Ross and Rachel
are only a couple
for about 10% of the series.
The attention propels
Aniston and Schwimmer
into the spotlight.
But two seasons into the series,
it's Schwimmer who is seen
as the real breakout star
of "Friends."
-In the early seasons, he had
the most heat coming off of him.
He had an untapped quality.
He was kind of tall, dark,
and handsome,
but with a geek-next-door
element added in.
-Schwimmer bristles at being
identified as a lead character
in what is clearly
an ensemble show.
-I think the industry
and probably the general public
needs to focus on something.
And I think, for a while,
I might have been
more in the spotlight.
I think a lot of it had to do
with my story line
and Rachel and Ross.
But I think, by now,
people are realizing
that it's really,
truly an ensemble show.
-It's a philosophy Schwimmer
believes in so deeply
that he makes a move that
will not only stun Hollywood
but would bond the cast forever.
♪♪
-Season 2 of "Friends" produced
record-breaking numbers,
solidifying the series
as a major asset for NBC.
With salary negotiations
commencing for Season 3,
David Schwimmer is viewed
as the series' leading man
and primed to strike
while the iron is hot.
But what he does instead
makes Hollywood history.
-His agents were nudging him
to ask for more money.
And he had come from this
theatrical background
and really, really believed in
the ethos of ensemble theater.
And he wanted to bring that
to this cast and said,
"Listen, they're telling me
to ask for a raise,
and I think if I have
this opportunity,
we should all just
take it together."
-David was the architect
of uniting the cast.
He said, "Look, I think
it's gonna be very difficult
if one of us
is paid more than the other.
Why wouldn't we
all be paid equally?
We never have to
bring that to work.
We never have to have that issue
get in the way for us."
It became a monumental,
brilliant negotiating structure.
-As an ensemble, the six of us
have a lot more power
than one star of the show does.
-I love how they all came
together and were like,
"Listen, you get us all,
or you don't get any of us."
And I thought
that was really cool.
-NBC can't risk losing "Friends"
at a time when the show
is averaging more than
25 million viewers each week.
The network agrees to the terms.
-Everybody was making
the same amount.
No matter who you married
in the off-season
or what your film
did at the box office,
you were all equal.
-The cast would maintain
collective bargaining for
the remainder
of the series,
eventually negotiating
part ownership of the show.
By the time the show reaches
Season 9,
they each earn $1 million
per episode, making "Friends"
the most expensive
half hour of television.
-Each one of those cast members
walked away after a decade
of brilliant, wonderful,
outstanding entertainment
with a massive,
massive amount of money.
-That cast worked so hard,
and they paid such a specific
price of their privacy
and their freedom
for the rest of their lives.
They deserve every penny
of that,
and everybody who's in
the business knows this.
-The fact that they all
signed up for that one-for-all,
all-for one mentality
really proved to be crucial
to the show's cohesiveness.
-I think the reason that there
were 10 years of "Friends"
is that David united them.
-The collaborative atmosphere
extends beyond
the negotiation table.
The "Friends" set has become a
place where everybody has a say.
-Are you telling us to be bigger
than we were?
Or are you telling us...
-Right.
You should be bigger.
-With Marta and David and Kevin,
the special magic that they had,
and the cast,
was that "What do you think?
Do you like this?
Does this work for you?
Does this feel good?"
And it's not a bunch
of ego massaging,
it's really about
the collaboration of trying
to make it as good as they can.
-As big as the show's gotten,
it's still the six of us
and the great communication
we have with our writers
and producers in this
intimate show that we make.
-They even work together
with the actors
on the characters' development.
Early on, Matt LeBlanc had
some reservations about Joey.
-He became concerned that
the sexuality of his character
and the, like, hitting on
every single woman in the world
was going to very quickly
make him an unlikable character.
And he thought, "The writers are
gonna realize this in a second,
and they're just gonna
get rid of me."
So he decided to go
to Kauffman and Crane and say,
"What if we make it so he wants
to sleep with every other woman
in New York City
except these ones?"
Because if he's just hitting
on them all the time,
it's gonna get old,
and why would they even
hang out with him?
-He's much more emotional
than he was in the beginning.
He's much more sensitive,
and they let me make him a guy
who cares more than initially.
I think initially he was more
of a two-dimensional character,
and now he has a third.
-"Friends" films weekly in front
of a live studio audience.
If a joke doesn't land,
rewriting happens on the spot,
leading to marathon
shoot nights that go
until 1:00 or 2:00
in the morning.
-Anytime, you know, one of us
starts to complain,
including myself, about
"Ugh, this is a lot of work.
Why are we staying so late?
This should be getting easier,"
we remind each other
that we work hard
because the quality
of the show demands it.
-For the finale of Season 4,
Ross,
still on that break from Rachel,
marries girlfriend Emily.
-I have a new love interest
on the show,
played by Helen Baxendale.
And I've proposed to her,
and we've decided to get
married in London.
-Writers take the cast,
minus a pregnant Lisa Kudrow,
to London.
-Kevin Bright was the one
who described it
as like they were
the Beatles in reverse.
People went bananas
when they got there.
People were calling in local
radio stations to tip them off
and tell them
where they were shooting,
and it became impossible
to shoot.
One of the cops came up to
the production team at one point
and said, like, "Listen, if you
just pause for five minutes
and let them get one good shot,
they'll all go away."
And it worked.
So, they had a tremendous
reception in London.
-They love American things
in England,
because their people are so
funny and free and not uptight.
-We brought almost
the entire crew,
and we brought
the whole writing team.
And it definitely makes us feel
more at home
to have the support
and the familiar faces,
knowing that on each camera
we know,
"Oh, there's Skip,
and there's Kevin," or whatever.
-Yeah, definitely.
-So, it's nice.
-Yeah.
-The scariest thing is crossing
the street here,
'cause I still don't know
which way to look and kind of...
I've almost been hit
by two cars.
You almost got hit by a bicycle.
-By a bicycle, I almost got hit.
Yeah.
Well, you just said that.
-Yeah, that's what I said.
-Yeah.
-The show features a number
of guest stars,
including Jennifer Saunders
from "Absolutely Fabulous,"
and the Duchess of York.
-Well, we thought we were a very
big deal until Fergie showed up,
and then we realized, "Nah."
-Yeah, they must have known
she was coming.
-Yeah, a much bigger deal
when she was there.
Which, frankly,
hurt my feelings.
-It's not all fun and games
shooting on location.
The cast works hard to pull off
an episode
that ends with
two jaw-dropping surprises.
-Everyone was literally
on the edge of their seats
as Ross walked down the aisle
with another woman.
-I, Ross...
-...take thee, Emily...
-...take thee, Rachel...
[ Audience gasps and cheering ]
-And then he says Rachel's name,
and that was the "Oh, my God"
cliffhanger ending
for that season.
-"I take thee, Rachel" --
that was a pretty big part.
-We shot until like 3:00
or 4:00 in the morning.
Everybody was tired.
But the writers,
David and Marta,
they came up with wonderful,
spontaneous lines.
I said to my husband,
Elliott Gould,
sitting on my right,
"This is worse than when
he married the lesbian."
But they just gave me that line
in the middle of shooting,
and I thought it was brilliant.
-Then, when Ross bursts into
Chandler's hotel room in London,
the fan reaction
to Monica's first line
set off a new story line.
-Do you think
he knew I was here?
-Bringing Monica and Chandler
together in London,
it was very unexpected.
I think it was a pretty big risk
to bring another
two of the friends
together in that way.
-When the two pop out
of bed together,
it gets the loudest
and longest response
from the live audience
in the history of the show.
-So many things that could have
sunk this show didn't.
Characters got into
relationships and fell in love.
That is usually the kiss
of death,
when you finally have
two characters hook up.
Characters then broke up
on this show --
again, should be
the kiss of death.
That didn't stop it.
The bond of the sort of core
six stars was so powerful
that it kind of defied
all the conventions
that had normally spelled the
kiss of death for other shows.
-By the end of Season 4,
"Friends" is a global sensation.
The show airs in more
than 20 countries.
Its popularity morphs
into mania.
-Nobody could predict
it would be the hit
that it turned out to be.
-And the effects
on the cast vary.
-Everyone's getting
different things.
You know, while one person's
getting like ten hundred
movie offers,
another person's maybe
getting nominated for an award.
Another person is on the cover
of every magazine,
you know, heralded as
the cultural icon of today.
Everyone's got their something,
and we keep, like,
trading off on what we've got.
-But the price of fame
can be hard to handle.
-Just as Jimmy Burrows
had predicted,
they could never go
anywhere again
where they wouldn't be mobbed.
-The cast hit the rock-star
level of fame.
They became the biggest stars
at that moment.
-That type of stardom has
its effects on the cast,
and Matthew Perry struggles
to cope with the pressure.
♪♪
-After successfully unifying
during salary negotiations
for Season 3,
the cast of "Friends"
create a bond
that radiates on screen
and skyrockets
the series
to a global sensation.
But with their rise to fame,
the cast suffers a loss
of its anonymity.
[ Screaming ]
-You have to become a different
person that is okay
with people coming up to you
and acting like they know you,
and you have no idea
who they are.
-I can't deny that it bothers me
at times
that we're in the tabloids
or that we try to go out
to dinner and there are people,
you know, chasing us
in cars with video cameras.
I've definitely had instincts
of --
you know, were like,
"Get out of my face."
-This really also coincided
with a little bit
of a shift
in celebrity news coverage.
-At that time,
celebrity magazines,
celebrity TV shows
were chasing movie stars.
TV stars were looked down
upon a little bit.
Not anymore.
These -- these characters became
superstars, super famous.
-From a journalistic standpoint,
I can tell you
that we were very largely
deprived of any, you know,
"living wild and fast and
letting it go to their heads"
kind of headlines.
They were sensible,
sane grown-ups about it.
They bought houses.
They bought some cars.
They got married.
They really were able
to stay fairly level-headed
about it all.
-I was talking about this,
I think,
with Matt LeBlanc, actually.
We were saying that we were
lucky that we weren't like
16 years old or something
when all this kind of went down.
I think most of us have a pretty
good sense of who we are
and had that sense before we,
I guess, were hit
with his huge good fortune.
-What we realized at one point
is that we should pull back
from a lot of the advertising,
promotion, and magazine covers
because we didn't want
to jump the shark.
We didn't want them
to be overexposed.
Now, for a network to actually
have a conversation
about overexposure,
that's unheard of.
In 20 years at NBC, we had never
had that discussion before.
-The impact of fame
hit some harder than others.
-The first sign that
Matthew Perry was in trouble
came on the show itself.
The episodes began to air
in which Matthew Perry
was suddenly shockingly thin.
-You see his weight fluctuate
on the show occasionally,
and it was hard to the viewers
because we all loved him.
We all loved Chandler so much,
and it was hard watching him
go through all this.
-You just realized,
"Oh, this guy
might be in trouble."
And sure enough, once that buzz
got started,
there was a kind of
trickle-down of information.
He's been in some pain.
The pain led to pain medication,
and the pain medication
led to addiction.
And it ultimately
was an addiction
that Matthew grappled with on
and off for several years.
Matthew has said that there are
episodes of the show
that he does not
remember making.
-There was a period that we had
to stop shooting
while Matthew was in rehab.
Matthew's pretty honest
about that he had a problem
and he needed to deal with that.
-Perry goes public
about his recovery
and sits down with Dateline's
Stone Phillips in 2000.
-Why do you think
you were able to beat it?
'Cause a lot of people don't.
-I just had this kind of
will to live,
and I realized that I was,
like, missing so much.
And the thing that I will hold
forever is the sense of pride
that when it got out of control,
I went in, I faced my fear,
and I came out of it
just feeling so much better
and seeing so much more of life
and enjoying it.
-Matthew's pretty honest
about that he had a problem
and he needed to deal with that.
And I think that also...
that's real life.
Real life came into their lives.
Was that a cost of success?
That pressure may have been
a byproduct of that.
But the cast, they were there
for each other.
And that was always clear.
-Meanwhile, the growing success
of the show
attracts high-profile
guest stars.
-"Friends" had a ton of famous
celebrities on the show --
everybody from Julia Roberts
to Tom Selleck.
Winona Ryder came on the show.
Reese Witherspoon came
on the show.
Christina Applegate
came on the show.
It's crazy when you look back
at the number of people
who did this show.
-Sean Penn -- why?
Bruce Willis' appearance --
he won an Emmy for that.
-So, you had Robin Williams
and Billy Crystal
show up on the couch
in Central Perk.
The celebrity special
guest stars
were almost like
Easter eggs for people.
-It just became the place to be
if you were an actor
who just wanted to be
a part of a really funny,
really poignant,
really popular show.
-But no matter the status
of your celebrity clout,
the friends' tight-knit bond
could be intimidating.
-You're like the new kid
at school,
and at a school
where they've all been together
since they were in kindergarten.
[ Laughs ]
-Denise Richards, who played
Ross and Monica's cousin Cassie,
was a huge fan of the show.
-I was very starstruck
seeing them all as a fan,
and then also as an actor,
to be able to work with them
and watch how easy it comes
to them in their sleep.
It's just really --
It's amazing, and I admire them.
-But there was one friend
she didn't get to meet,
even though they seem
to appear together
in this memorable scene.
-The slow-motion of, you know,
my character
taking down her hair.
Actually, Matthew Perry was not
there when I was filming,
so I was filming
with a stand-in,
and then they later
had to piece it together.
We were not in the same room.
I never even worked with him.
But I wanted to.
-While some guest stars
just want to be part of the fun,
others appear on the show
for a different reason.
-And occasionally, there would
be a very special guest star
who was also a very
special guest
in a cast member's real life.
Most notably, early on,
there was
the post-Super Bowl plotline
involving Julia Roberts --
in part, came to pass because,
for that brief moment,
Julia Roberts and Matthew Perry
were actually dating.
-Tate Donovan, who Jennifer
Aniston was involved with.
David Arquette, who Courteney
Cox eventually married,
was in a Season 3 episode.
-But the biggest celebrity
couple news from a "Friends"
cast member was yet to come.
-Jennifer Aniston was rapidly
becoming
the biggest star
on the show anyway
because she became
the bombshell.
But then she started
dating Brad Pitt,
the most eligible bachelor
on the planet.
The sexiest man alive,
according to People magazine,
several times over.
-And then Jennifer marries
Brad Pitt
and becomes
this icon of celebrity.
-People had dated
Brad Pitt before.
Gwyneth Paltrow had been engaged
to Brad Pitt.
But Brad and Jen did it.
And the minute they did,
they became the biggest
celebrities in the world.
The level of fame that happened
when you combined them really,
really took it to a next level.
-Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston
were still married in real life.
He guest starred on the show
as president of the
"I Hate Rachel Green" fan club
in high school
and like, was so angry at her.
And watching them go at it
on-screen was just a ton of fun
and a treat for viewers,
and it's one of the most
memorable episodes of "Friends"
as a result.
-In the world of "Friends,"
Season 7's biggest
couple news is
Monica and Chandler's wedding,
which some see as the beginning
of the end of the series.
-They're gonna become
a family unit of their own.
The time in their lives when
their friends are their family
is slowly coming to an end.
And you can see that, like,
the dynamics really start
to shift at that point.
-The cast and creators all agree
Season 8 will be
the final season of "Friends."
But all of that changes
in the fall of 2001,
just before
the season premieres,
when the tragic events
of September 11th occur.
-Nobody knew what was going
to happen to television comedy
after that, but it was,
you know, a whole new landscape.
Nobody knew what was gonna
be funny anymore.
-150 surviving family members
from Cantor Fitzgerald
and the fire department
were brought out to be
part of our audience
for the final show that we taped
before Christmas,
and I think all of us were
basically on the verge of tears
meeting these people
and just feeling it in the room.
Fortunately,
when the show started,
that turned into something
that uplifted their spirits,
and I think that made us feel
that much better
when we saw these people leave,
when we met them after the show.
-It becomes clear what people
need most
in the wake
of the attacks is comfort
and a place where
it's okay to laugh.
"Friends" gives them both.
-Their fans really seemed
attached to the show
in a new way.
And I think the actors really
felt a deeper sense
of appreciation,
perhaps, for this incredible job
that they had
and the fact
that they were eight seasons in
and people really,
really adored them.
-Season 8 debuts to an audience
of 32 million --
the largest since the Super Bowl
episode five years prior.
With the end of the series
looming,
suddenly no one
is ready to say goodbye.
The network, cast, and creators
all agree "Friends"
will come back
for a ninth and final season.
But as the writers
begin to propel the series
toward its conclusion,
one risky decision scares
some of the cast.
♪♪
-Welcome back to
"Behind Closed Doors."
By 2001, "Friends"
had solidified its place
in television history.
And for the first time
in its eight-year run,
it's the Number 1 show on TV.
Now at the peak of its success,
the writers make a bold
and controversial story choice.
There's always been someone
or something in the way
of Ross finding his way
back to Rachel,
but it's never been a "Friends"
castmate until now.
-I think Joey and Rachel
came up,
in a lot of ways,
because it was
an unexpected pairing.
But I think, in part, to show
Joey can grow up and mature,
showing him with Rachel
is a way to do that.
To put him in
an actual relationship
with someone the audience
is invested in,
someone the other characters
are invested in,
to show there are stakes,
and how are you
gonna handle this?
-Jennifer Aniston
and Matt LeBlanc
were very uncomfortable
with the direction
that they were seeming
to take these characters.
I don't think that they wanted
it to happen.
It felt incestuous, I think,
to everybody.
-Cast members bring
their concerns
to Kauffman, Crane, and Bright.
-They wanted to try and put in
some ground rules,
meaning, like,
they're not gonna fall in love,
and they didn't want them
to even get
to the point of having sex
because they thought
that that would be
too much to come back from.
And the creators, you know,
they were really on board
with that, as well.
-It's easy to have a crush
on someone who looks
like Jennifer Aniston.
I completely understand that.
And she's also
a great character,
and there's no reason
not to love her.
-Yeah.
-I just wasn't on board.
-I didn't like any of those
episodes.
It was awkward.
-No opinion. [ Laughs ]
-I think the less said about
Joey and Rachel,
the better, to be honest.
-"Friends" finally receives top
honors at the Emmys that year.
-Mazel tov!
Tonight was your night.
How exciting was it?
-For me, I felt good
for the writers and the creators
because they don't get, I think,
the recognition that I believe
the show deserves.
-It's an amazing feeling.
It really is.
You can't even explain it.
'Cause you wouldn't have any one
of us up there
without the others.
-And everyone wants to know
how the friends will go on
without each other.
-With an experience like
tonight, Courteney,
do you think, "Hey, how can we
give this up, guys?"
Of course, this is gonna be
the last season.
-Well, every day, it's hard
to think about it ending,
every day that we go
to work and laugh,
and just it's so much fun.
But I didn't think about that
at all when I was going onstage.
I was just thinking, "Wow, this
actually feels really good."
And then I didn't
think past that.
-For Season 9, "Friends"
tackles more new ground
when it blurs
the lines of reality
with a cast member's
personal life.
-In her real life, Courteney Cox
was married to David Arquette,
and the two of them had a really
rocky road to becoming parents.
That was sort of translated in
its own way into the fact that,
much like David and Courteney,
the characters of Chandler
and Monica
didn't have an easy path
to parenthood.
That feeling of wanting
to be a mom,
assuming you would be a mom,
believing that motherhood
was just a given,
and having those hopes
jeopardized and dashed,
and trying to pivot
and come to terms with,
"Okay, well, then how else are
we going to build our family?"
-Infertility is a very serious
topic
that very few people
know a lot about,
and it's not an easy topic
to do in a comedy.
But the show found a way to tell
the story
and tell it in a very real way
so that it was paying respect
to families
who were going through that.
I think it also probably started
conversations for people
who were
in that situation and said,
"Hey, I'm actually seeing myself
reflected in television
in a way that I didn't expect."
-With the end of Season 9
quickly approaching,
the network dives back into
negotiations with the creators
and cast of "Friends"
for one more season.
-Everybody wants to go out
on a high note.
I think the writers certainly
struggled at certain times
because, I think
as David Crane put it,
you can't keep
writing the ending.
You have to eventually know
where it is
actually going to end.
You have to have a finish line
eventually so you can start
working towards it.
And I think that that was
the primary struggle for them.
-Marta and David struggled
with how long should it go on,
and I think with great success,
they would've walked away
if they didn't believe
they could do
a strong additional season.
-After much debate and many
rounds of negotiations,
there will be a Season 10,
the conclusion of "Friends."
The creators work hard to ensure
a satisfying finale
for their dedicated fans.
-We can tell you that it will
feel like
a really good episode
of "Friends."
It will not be an anomaly.
It doesn't venture off
of the track
of what the show
has been for 10 years.
-Yeah, it doesn't take place
in the future,
and nobody ends in prison.
It is the show "Friends."
-They're not animated.
-Yeah, it's, um...
And it's also...
it was very important to us
that we leave the characters all
in a good place,
whether that means
they're together or apart.
We felt as though everyone's
invested enough in these
six people that we should know
they're gonna be okay.
-In the last chapter of the
will-they/won't-they saga
of Ross and Rachel,
they now have a baby,
Emma, though they are
still not a couple,
and Rachel plans
a big move to Paris.
-Could Ross ever end up
with her?
Well, that was the question
we enjoyed.
We played.
We waited for a decade.
Our hope and dream
from very early on in the show
was that was meant to be.
-The answer would only be given
in the series finale.
In the most romantic
Hollywood gesture,
Ross races to the airport
to stop Rachel from leaving
and to declare his eternal love.
-I know, I know.
I shouldn't have waited
'til now to say it,
but, um...
that was stupid, okay?
I'm sorry,
but I'm telling you now.
I love you.
-I can't do this right now.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
-But in the perfect ending
twist, Ross gets the girl.
-She could've taken this
beautiful job in Paris,
but Rachel got off the plane.
She wanted Ross in New York.
-Finally, we're gonna give
the audience something
they've waited for forever,
and it was triumphant.
It was wonderful,
and it felt right.
-To see them struggle
through so much
and be able
to find each other again
when they're more mature
and in better places in life
felt like a really strong
message, in a lot of ways,
to send to people
who are in relationships
and are just not sure.
-It really is an excellent
and satisfying finale,
which is so rare
in television generally,
and no easy feat when you've
been on the air for 10 years.
-I didn't want it to end.
It's like you say goodbye
to these characters
and wonder what happens to them.
It's weird.
You really get invested in shows
if you are big fans of them.
-When Monica and Chandler
decided to move
and give up that apartment
that was such an iconic part
of the show for so long,
that's really
how you knew they're done.
They're not coming back.
They're not gonna do
a reunion movie in a year.
It's over.
-We saw them, like,
walking out of the apartment
with the stroller and stuff,
and I was just sitting there,
and I was just sobbing.
-That series finale of
"Friends," of course,
was the biggest episode
of that year.
-With one of the most successful
TV shows behind them,
what is next
for the cast of "Friends"?
-Lightning doesn't usually
strike twice.
I can probably count on one hand
the number of sitcom stars
who have had a massive hit
and who have then gone on
to create another massive hit.
They are few and far between.
-Matt LeBlanc, of course,
famously went on to do the one
"Friends" spin-off, "Joey."
The show just didn't
sustain itself
without an ensemble around,
so unfortunately, it was
canceled after two seasons.
-Courteney Cox was on a show
called "Cougar Town" for ABC,
and she ended up
bringing on a number
of the castmates as guest stars.
So, Matthew Perry
was in an episode,
Lisa Kudrow, Jennifer Aniston.
It kind of was a pattern
for a lot of them,
where they'd get a show,
and if they could,
they would work together.
-Jennifer Aniston is primarily
a movie actress now.
David Schwimmer went right back
into his Chicago theater world,
just as he wanted to do,
and he also focused
quite a bit on directing.
-Matthew Perry has had
several sitcoms come and go.
-Lisa Kudrow had this really
exciting career
as a creator
and a producer and an actress.
She did "The Comeback,"
which is just this incredible,
incredible piece of television
that everybody should watch.
-Matt LeBlanc has frankly had
the most success now,
sending himself up on a series
called "Episodes,"
in which he plays a kind of
inflated, egotistical,
narcissist version
of Matt LeBlanc,
washed up post-"Friends".
-The magic of "Friends"
touched millions of lives,
and for the people who were part
of it, changed them forever.
-To be a part of this
sweet phenomenon
that's for all the best reasons,
to bring levity
and to bring light
and to bring humor
into the world
and just make it light,
make it sweet,
and to have such a high level
of craftsmanship and heart --
I wish that every show
could have that.
I would wish that for everybody,
that they could have
an experience like mine,
and I will be forever grateful.
-Sort of bittersweet, and
you're happy, and you're sad.
And you're grateful,
at least for me,
for being able
to be a part of it.
-And its impact can be seen
on an entire genre.
-Ever since "Friends"
went off the air,
people have been trying
to find the "Friends" formula.
People have been trying
to build on it
and, you know,
rework it for more shows.
And we have
"How I Met Your Mother,"
and we have
"The Big Bang Theory,"
both of which are very, very
often compared to "Friends,"
and they're both
incredibly successful.
-I think we spend so much time
focusing on the specific stories
and the specific jokes
and getting each show right,
I don't actually think we spend
a lot of time
stepping back and go,
"Well, how have we changed
the genre?"
I just...
It's just not
what we think about.
-Honestly, I'm not sure
that we have changed the genre.
I think what we've done is just,
we've done a show
that people have enjoyed
and continued to enjoy
for 10 years.
It's grown, the characters have
grown, and it's just been...
It's been a sitcom --
a good one, I hope.
-I think the legacy of "Friends"
that is left behind
is just the importance of love
and friendship in our lives.
-It's comedic relief.
You know, when you're bummed out
and you've had a long day
and the news is awful
and you don't want to be
so serious,
you can watch
this show and laugh.
-That's a pretty appealing
happy place to want to return
to again and again
for 22 minutes.
So it's understandable
why generation
after generation wants to do it.
-Even if you don't call yourself
a "Friends" fan,
say you're away from home,
and it's the middle
of the night,
and you're in some
kind of spooky motel room
and looking for
a bit of comfort.
You turn on the television,
and there's something
that you recognize.
And I think
that is oddly comforting.
-It's so familiar to you
that it's like being at home
with your family, in a way.
I feel like "Friends" is comfort
food for a lot of people.
I think that it's gonna sound
really corny
because of the theme song,
but you know it'll always
be there for you.
♪♪
that would always
be there for you.
-When I met these actors,
you just thought,
"This is a good thing.
This is a good one."
-Sometimes I look at the show
and go,
"Wow, this is pretty good."
-Everyone I know loved the show.
-In 1994, "Friends" premiered,
changing
the television landscape.
-The most successful comedy
in the history of comedies.
-This just hit on all cylinders.
-The concept was simple,
but in the sitcom world,
very new.
-We lived in New York
in our 20s,
and your friends
became your family.
-We didn't have any big star.
Nothing dramatic happened.
-They don't fight crime.
They don't solve mysteries.
They don't do anything.
They just kind of sit around.
-The show took a chance on
six relatively unknown actors.
-Everybody was buzzing
about "Friends,"
and every actor
wanted to get in on it.
-This show "Muddling Through"
had the rights to Jennifer.
-And I was told,
"Oh, by the way,
you're gonna have to recast
Jennifer Aniston."
-How did the right mix
of actors come together?
And what happened when
the show made them stars?
-These were the people
that changed TV,
that changed celebrity.
-It's pretty amazing.
I mean, I think we're all really
sort of taken aback by it.
-But that level of fame
came with a steep price.
-They could never go
anywhere again
where they wouldn't be mobbed.
-Definitely had instincts of --
you know, were like,
"Get out of my face."
-The fist sign
that Matthew Perry
was in trouble
came on the show itself.
-There was a period that we had
to stop shooting
while Matthew was in rehab.
-I realized I was,
like, missing so much.
-"Friends" wasn't just
a television show --
it was a cultural phenomenon.
-Exhibit A -- "the Rachel."
-We would all love to just have
our three best friends
live across the hall from us.
-We all want to be them.
-For a decade,
we watched them grow up...
-They're both kind
of drama queens.
-...mess up...
-And then he says Rachel's name.
-...break up...
-We were on a break! [ Laughs ]
-...and create some of
our fondest memories.
-The moment we were
all waiting for.
-She doesn't even say a thing,
she just gets up and kisses him.
-Fall in love all over again
with the show
that never really went away.
This is "Friends:
Behind Closed Doors."
♪♪
♪♪
It's been called one
of the last great sitcoms
of a television golden era,
a dominating force in NBC's
Must-See TV
Thursday-night lineup,
and an iconic piece
of our '90s culture.
Welcome to "Friends:
Behind Closed Doors."
I'm Natalie Morales.
Since its premiere in September
of 1994, "Friends"
ruled the airwaves for a decade,
making us all dream
that we could find
a rent-controlled apartment
in New York City across the hall
from our best friends
and hang out
in a coffee show all day.
It gave a hairstyle its own name
and taught us what it means
to "be on a break."
But it was the incredible
on-set chemistry
of the six actors
at the center of "Friends"
that turned the show into
a multi-billion-dollar asset
and established its place
in television history.
♪♪
-Jennifer!
-Lisa!
-Lisa!
Lisa!
-Jennifer Aniston,
Matthew Perry, David Schwimmer,
Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc,
and Courteney Cox --
a decade of drinking coffee
at Central Perk
and breaking ratings records
made them stars.
-Matthew Perry!
-The cast achieved
a level of fame
that really would almost be akin
to teenybopper status.
They were getting mobbed places
that they went.
-They're in their 20s,
they're not terribly ambitious,
and they spend most of
their time just hanging out.
-Who didn't want to have,
like, five other amazing friends
that you lived across
the hall from,
that you hung out
with constantly,
that you did everything with,
that you lived
in these gorgeous apartments?
Like, this was such life
wish fulfillment,
and we all want to be them.
♪♪
-For Generation X,
it was aspirational television
at its most reassuring.
Even more appealing
was the knowledge
that the cast of "Friends"
really were friends.
-I love these people.
They're all so fun to be around.
-We just really got lucky.
There isn't a bad seed
in the group.
-We adore each other.
-We all genuinely
like each other.
-Matt LeBlanc is the nicest guy.
-He's got your back in a bar.
-Jennifer Aniston
is a sweetheart.
-When she laughs,
it just fills the room.
-And a genius
at physical comedy.
-Matthew Perry cracks me
up all day.
-One of the funniest men
I ever met in my whole life.
-David Schwimmer, I think,
is unbelievably talented.
He's got amazing timing.
-Lisa Kudrow is one of the few
people on the face of the planet
that I have no idea what's gonna
come out of her mouth.
-I defy you to find someone
who will be able
to say a line like Lisa Kudrow.
-Courteney's kind of
the advice woman.
-If you ever have any problem,
and you go to Courteney,
and she'll be like,
"Hey, just do this,
this, and that."
And you're like, "You're right."
-She just so grounded.
Nothing throws her from herself.
-You could just feel their bond.
They really did create a family.
-You can genuinely see
that they really do get along.
They do want to work together,
they like each other,
and that's part of why I think
this was such a huge phenomenon
and success.
-The chemistry was really good.
The writing, of course,
was great, and the direction.
It doesn't always happen.
We're not always that lucky,
having all of the stars align.
I mean, it was kind of magic.
-It holds up because
it's so well-crafted.
It doesn't matter how many times
you watch an episode
of "Friends."
It's really satisfying.
It's really fun.
It makes you feel good.
We need that in our lives.
-When you look at an ensemble
show, this ranks up
as one of the most important
and successful
and wonderful in history.
-The show that was created
to target Gen Xers
remains relevant decades later.
Reruns bring in
16 million viewers --
a number big enough to make it
a current hit on network TV.
And when Netflix licensed
the series in 2014
for a reported $500,000
per episode,
a whole new generation
of millennials
started streaming it.
-"Friends" never
really went away.
But especially after Netflix
acquired it,
it had this massive resurgence,
with people rediscovering it
and younger generations
really grabbing onto it
for the first time.
-There are 12-year-olds
who know all the lines,
and my granddaughter,
who's a college student --
they have huge "Friends"
events in college.
-My oldest daughter is 14,
and she started watching it.
-Especially in this dissociated
world of people
stuck on their freakin' devices
all the time,
where they're not remembering
to relate to one another,
I think we long
for that connection.
-It's about looking back
at a time
when we weren't beholden
to the Internet,
when we didn't have to look
on Twitter all the time
because we interacted
socially differently.
-This show resonates
with a young audience today
because everyone's still
interested in relationships,
everyone's still
interested in love,
everyone still struggles
to find themselves in their 20s.
-It's, like, love,
relationships, jobs.
"Your job's a joke,
you're broke,
your love life's DOA" --
that'll always be relevant.
-I mean, these same issues
from years ago
are the same issues today.
And I think it's more relatable
than half the stuff on TV now.
-Many of the themes that
they're dealing with,
millennials would be
dealing with today,
Gen Z will be dealing
with any day now.
It's pretty much
a timeless show --
the idea of "How do
I build my own life,
really build my new family?"
Because that's what happens
when you go out
into the world --
you leave one family behind,
and if you're very lucky,
you create another one.
And that's what's happening
on "Friends".
-It seems obvious now
that "Friends"
would stand the test of time.
But in the early '90s, when NBC
first set out to find a show
that would appeal to a young,
20-something audience,
the task wasn't so easy.
Warren Littlefield, then
president of NBC Entertainment,
had been on the hunt
for a while.
-I remember looking at
overnight ratings at 6:00 A.M.
every morning and thinking,
"Well, in all of those cities,
there are young adults
who have left college,
and they've gone out
on their own."
And each one of those cities,
I said,
"God, this is
incredibly expensive.
How do you break away
from Mom and Dad
and actually stand
on your own two feet?"
You can't!
You've got to do it
with a friend.
We hadn't seen a comedy
that really, right at its core,
looked at this moment
in time in young-adult lives.
And we developed
a couple of scripts
that went in that direction,
and they were awful.
They were absolutely awful.
-It's not until two young
New York writers come in
with a show called
"Insomnia Cafe"
that the concept starts
gaining traction.
-It was pitched by Marta
Kauffman and David Crane,
who were pretty much legends
at this time
in terms of their ability
to pitch something in a room.
-Marta Kauffman and David Crane
wanted to create a show
that was based
on their experiences
when they got out of college
and moved to New York
and were kind of
just figuring out life.
So they put together a show
about six people
that were
basically doing just that.
-One of the things
that influenced
what we did in the pilot
is that we lived in New York
in our 20s
and were in a group of people,
and you know,
your friends became your family.
-Well, it was
wildly entertaining,
and they hung out a lot
at a coffee shop.
And I was like,
"Huh. Coffee shop.
I don't know a lot of people
that go to coffee shops."
And the world changed.
-More than a decade before
pitching Warren Littlefield,
Kauffman and Crane were
playwrights in New York City --
that is, until they found
themselves in Los Angeles
in a meeting that
would change their lives.
-Somebody called and said,
"They have this idea
over at Universal.
They have the rights to all
these really,
really old black-and-white
television clips,
and they want to come up
with a show around them."
And they were like,
"We don't know.
We don't really know
what to do with it."
They got on the plane,
and by the time they landed
in New York, they had an idea.
And that idea became the show
"Dream On."
-"Dream On" was one of HBO's
first forays
into original programming,
in 1990.
-This was, obviously,
long before
"Sex and the City,"
long before "The Sopranos,"
long before cable
became prestige television.
And looking back on
"Dream On" now,
it doesn't really compare
so much to the later shows
that came after it,
but definitely put HBO
on the map in that way.
And it did the same for
Marta Kauffman and David Crane.
-The critically acclaimed series
also introduced
Kauffman and Crane
to producer Kevin Bright.
The three would form
a partnership
and together produce "Friends".
-The concept of "Friends"
is almost
shockingly low-concept.
It's about a group of friends.
You know,
they don't fight crime.
They don't solve mysteries.
They don't do anything.
They just kind of sit around,
finding their way in the world.
-The primary focus
for a lot of networks
was looking at family sitcoms,
looking at a nuclear family,
and this really gave
an alternate version.
It was still a family,
but it was friends
who created a family
with each other.
And that was kind of a void,
I think, at the time
that "Friends" really filled.
-It really was maybe one of
the first shows
where this is
a chosen group of people.
This was the family.
You love your own blood family,
hopefully,
but those that you choose
to hang out with,
those are your real family,
and that...
I think that many people relate
to that and wish for that.
-NBC executives agreed.
-We just kind of jumped up
in the air and said,
"This is great.
We love it.
Let's do this."
-The one change producers
insist on is the name.
-So they went through all
these different title changes.
It was called "Six of One."
It was briefly called
"Across the Hall."
-I think we had
"Friends Like Us"
and then ultimately
just "Friends."
-The legendary James Burrows
is tapped
to direct
the pilot of "Friends."
-He was a creator,
executive producer,
and directed almost
every episode of "Cheers."
He had done "Night Court."
He had done "Taxi."
Jimmy had such great pedigree
for sophisticated,
wildly funny, adult comedy.
And that's what we aspired to.
-When you're talking about
comedy directors,
there's Jimmy Burrows,
and then there's everybody else.
-Anytime you see his name
on a pilot, then and now,
in between,
you know
there has to be
something special about it.
Because he probably wouldn't say
yes to it if there wasn't.
-With a groundbreaking concept,
a witty script,
and a famous director on board,
NBC had only one
more box to check.
-All that was left
was to find the cast --
six separate personalities
who would complement each other.
-It's no easy feat for casting
executive Lori Openden,
who oversees the process.
-Everybody was buzzing
about "Friends."
Everybody knew it was
a great script,
and every actor wanted to get
in on it and have a shot at it.
-Casting director Ellie Kanner
worked directly with creators
Marta Kauffman and David Crane,
filtering through
the massive amount of talent.
-Marta and David had impeccable
taste and demanded the best.
I would say I auditioned
probably at least 100 actors
for each role.
-As the immense search
for the perfect six friends
gets under way,
many well-known names
almost make the cut.
And it's hard to imagine now,
but if it was up
to the producers,
some of the friends
would've played different parts.
♪♪
-During the pilot season
of 1994,
a revolutionary idea
is born out of NBC --
a television show
that focuses on the young,
20-something experience.
The series "Friends," created by
Marta Kauffman and David Crane,
embodied everything the network
was looking for.
But everyone knew it would
only be as good as the group
of actors
they found to star in it.
With hundreds vying
for the parts of Joey Tribbiani,
Rachel Green, Ross Geller,
Monica Geller, Chandler Bing,
and Phoebe Buffay,
executives had a long road ahead
to finding the perfect cast.
One of the hardest questions
to answer would be,
"To go for the big names
or take on a bunch of unknowns?"
-I'm a firm believer in the fact
that TV makes stars --
stars don't make TV.
So that means, like,
you just need a good cast
and a good cast of actors,
and those people
will become stars on a show.
-The good thing about Monica
is sometimes
she's an obsessive-compulsive,
like, you know,
hard-driving girl.
But then, you know, next
episode, she won't even care.
She's not uptight all the time.
-Monica, I think, was supposed
to be somebody
who was,
you know, hard on the outside,
but you knew she had
a good heart on the inside.
-So, Monica, I believe,
David and Marta
wrote with
Janeane Garofalo in mind.
So of course, we offered
her the part,
but she was on "Larry Sanders."
So she passed, but she really
technically was unavailable.
-Many other actresses
were considered for the role.
-The role of Monica
was originally offered
to Jami Gertz,
and she passed on it.
Julianna Margulies, I believe,
read for Monica,
and she was really funny
and really good.
Leah Remini was a top choice.
-Another person who auditioned
for the role of Monica
was Nancy McKeon from
"The Facts of Life."
She was already very well-liked
in this arena,
you know,
as a TV comedy actress.
-The name Courteney Cox also
comes up in the casting room.
-Courteney had famously jumped
off the screen
in the Bruce Springsteen
"Dancing in the Dark" video.
-She gained recognition
on television
when she was cast as
Alex Keaton's girlfriend Lauren
on the hit sitcom "Family Ties,"
and then later
in a guest-starring spot
on an episode of "Seinfeld."
-On the big screen, one of her
most high-profile gigs
was a role in Jim Carrey's
"Ace Ventura: Pet Detective."
-Interesting enough,
that movie didn't really
do that much for me.
You can't really act
opposite Jim Carrey
and expect to be noticed.
I mean, he's just so fantastic
and hysterical.
The best time in my whole life,
doing that movie.
And I made great friends,
and I just had a great time.
We had no idea that it was gonna
be such a successful movie.
-But Courteney does stand out
to the casting directors
of "Friends" -- not as Monica,
but as another character.
-They were looking at me
for the part of Rachel.
I really feel that
I'm much more, um...
I understand Monica.
So I just think that's the way
it's supposed to be.
-She felt she was Monica.
She liked the strength
of that character,
the career
drive of that character.
-Courteney Cox read for Monica,
and she was pretty good,
but we still wanted her
for Rachel.
So what we decided to do was,
we said,
"Well, let's test her
for Monica,
since she really
wants to play Monica,
and then we'll just give her
the part of Rachel
because we love her as Rachel."
So that was our idea, sort of,
behind the scenes.
And then she came in,
and she read Monica
at the network,
and we were just like,
"Uh-oh, now what do we do?"
Because it sort of blew up
our plan of offering her Rachel.
-It was between Courteney
and another actress,
and we were all over the place
about what
our decision should be.
Warren Littlefield said
to the producers,
"You guys choose who you want.
We'll support whichever
actress you want."
And Marta and David --
and, I believe,
Jimmy Burrows, also --
took a walk around
the Warner Bros.
lot and came back and said,
"Courteney Cox."
♪♪
-People can relate to him
because he kind of wears
his heart on his sleeve
and just, you know...
He had a line like,
"I'm gonna die alone,"
and people probably think
that sometimes about themselves,
but they don't just walk
into a room and say them.
And Chandler does.
I was the Chandler.
I spent a lot --
most of my high school years
in the hallway outside of class
'cause I was saying my little
witty, smartass comments.
-Chandler as a character just
had wonderful, sarcastic edge.
He just made us laugh out loud.
And we looked at a lot of --
a lot of Chandlers.
-It's funny because I think
we always thought
Chandler would be
the easiest part to cast
because the script
that the actors auditioned
with was almost foolproof.
So actors who maybe weren't even
that funny would come in,
and I'd still laugh,
and I would still think,
"Wow, they were pretty good."
-Before Matthew Perry
ultimately scores the gig,
another up-and-coming
young actor
stands out to executives.
-Craig Bierko,
who is a wonderful actor --
he read for Chandler,
and we offered him
the role of Chandler.
-Bierko is a close friend
of Matthew Perry's
and actually worked
on the material with him
before his audition.
But Bierko declines the job.
-He didn't want to do
an ensemble.
He was really looking
to do something
where he was more of a lead.
-And by the time Matthew Perry
actually booked the audition,
he knew the material by heart
because he'd been working on it
with his friends so much.
-Well, Matthew came in
and just had a different
take on it that no one else did.
He just nailed it,
and you just knew.
It was like, "That's what
we were waiting for,"
but he was unavailable.
-Matthew Perry was already
committed
to a show called "LAX 2194."
-God, I love my life!
-It was about baggage handlers
at an airport in the year 2194.
And even though we're in, like,
a "Jetsons" sort of space age,
there's still all
the same baloney
you have to deal with
at the airport.
I don't know why people thought
this was a good idea.
-We all agreed that we weren't
afraid of that pilot.
We were gonna take Matthew Perry
in what's called
"second position."
That was a risk, though.
-Second position is when
an actor already films
and is committed to a pilot,
meaning if that pilot does not
get picked up to go to series,
then we have a backup deal
with them,
and then we would be able
to have them.
-With Matthew Perry booked
for both pilots,
executives risk having to recast
the role of Chandler Bing
if "LAX 2194"
gets picked up as a series.
Ultimately, the baggage-handler
series is a no-go,
and NBC's gamble pays off.
-The more I learned
about the pilot
we were in second position to,
I was quite confident
that that would not bite us.
-I don't think she's dumb.
And spacey?
I guess.
To me, she just has a different
point of reference...
to everything...
just 'cause she's...
different.
It's hard for me to explain.
-Lisa Kudrow is brilliant,
in my book.
I actually read for that part,
and I think I did
the traditional idea
of what you might think
a ditz would be like.
And I felt like she did the
opposite, where she felt like
she was being really smart
in what she was saying,
and it made perfect
sense to her.
And she wasn't, like, playing
any kind of ditz per se,
and I thought that that
made it way more layered
and complicated and brilliant.
-Lisa Kudrow came in and read
for Phoebe, and we fell in love.
We were like,
"That's fantastic."
-She got a very special,
unique quality that is amazing.
Her way of doing comedy was like
nobody else I knew at the time.
-The producers are quickly sold
on Lisa Kudrow,
but she still has to audition
for director James Burrows,
someone she had recently worked
with on the show "Frasier."
-Lisa Kudrow was actually cast
as the original Roz
on "Frasier,"
and it was very clear from the
moment they started shooting
that it was going
to be not a good fit.
It just wasn't working.
So she was let go after
four days,
and she assumed
that James Burrows hated her.
-Of course, any actor would
think that it was their fault.
But I asked Jimmy Burrows,
and he said, "She was recast
because she wasn't right
for that part."
I was like, "Oh, okay,
'cause she thought
it was something that she did."
He was like,
"No, absolutely not."
So I told her that, and she
came in and read, and of course,
he had no notes
because we loved what she did.
-But producers run
into a problem
with their casting choice.
Kudrow already has a reoccurring
role on another hit NBC series,
"Mad About You," playing Ursula,
a forgetful waitress.
-So Marta Kauffman and David
Crane went to the showrunner
of "Mad About You" and said,
"Hey, we have this weird idea.
What if we made
Phoebe and Ursula twins?
Would you be okay with that?"
And the "Mad About You"
team said, "Yeah, sure, okay."
Which is kind of a miracle,
when you think about it.
-I believe a lot of the people
who watch "Friends"
watched "Mad About You"
and recognized her
and followed her to "Friends".
One of the lines was,
"Well, my twin sister
and I are not close because..."
-She's, like, this high-powered,
driven career type.
-What does she do?
-She's a waitress.
-Which was the part on
"Mad About You."
-It was an inside joke
that everybody loved.
-Executives still needed
three more friends,
and they go to battle
with another network
over one of them.
♪♪
-Welcome back to "Friends:
Behind Closed Doors."
In 1994, the pilot season at NBC
was the place to be,
with hundreds
of Hollywood hopefuls
competing for a role
on "Friends."
One actor stands out with some
pretty outrageous prep
for his audition.
-Joey was another tricky part.
Actors came in, but they
just weren't quite nailing it.
-The character of Joey
in the original script
was maybe a little
less well-defined
than some of
the other characters.
And he was also a little bit
more of a lech.
And they brought
Matt LeBlanc in.
He was definitely
the least experienced.
He seemed much "younger,"
they said, than everybody else.
-I don't think Matt LeBlanc
had much of a résumé.
Matt had been bouncing around,
trying to get roles.
-But he was charming, as well,
and this was certainly
an archetype
that he was familiar with.
He had been playing a lot
of vaguely Italian guys
in leather jackets for a while.
-But it wasn't just
Matt LeBlanc's acting abilities
that made the biggest impression
when he went for his audition.
-The night before his audition,
which he was so excited about,
he was working with
a friend of his
to work
on the audition material.
And his friend said,
"Okay, well, this is a show
about really good friends
who just, like, hang out.
So we should do what friends do
and go out
and get really, really drunk."
-What started, I think,
as somewhat of a work session
with one of his friends,
where he was working
on the character,
became a drinking session,
and he fell down.
-And Matt LeBlanc just
sliced his nose open,
and that's how he went
to the audition.
And he said, like,
one of the first things
Marta Kauffman said to him was,
"What happened to your face?"
-And he was just honest,
and I think that's part of
who Matt was.
And that just made you believe
his character even more.
Like, that's just
the kind of guys he --
you know, like,
he did something, and it's like,
"Okay, this is what I did."
♪♪
-I feel a lot of compassion
for Rachel.
People give her a hard time
because they think she's a bit,
um, spacey
and spoiled and bratty,
but she's got a good heart.
She's just a victim
of circumstances,
just how she was raised,
just the life she knows.
And now she's, you know,
venturing out into this world
and becoming independent
and you know,
seeing what that's all about.
She's very brave.
-Early on in the casting
process, actress Jane Sibbett,
who played Carol,
Ross's lesbian ex-wife,
first auditioned
for the part of Rachel.
-I had an incredible audition,
one of those auditions
that you dream about,
where everyone's laughing,
rolling on the floor laughing,
'cause it was brilliant writing,
with David, Marta, and Kevin.
And as I left the offices,
I got a phone call
immediately from my agent.
And I said, "Did you tell them
I'm pregnant?"
-Timing wouldn't work out
for Sibbett
to play a main character.
But fate opened the door
for Jennifer Aniston
to be considered for the role.
In the early '90s,
she is the self-proclaimed
failed-sitcom queen.
-I've done many shows.
What's a miracle is they've
all gotten on the air
except for one.
But they'll last maybe
six episodes, 13 episodes.
I think the most I did
was 19 episodes of a show.
-But just before pilot season
in 1994,
Aniston bumps into NBC
President of Entertainment
Warren Littlefield,
and she shares
her insecurities with him.
-I was filling up for gas
at a Chevron station
on Sunset Boulevard,
and over on the other island
filling up her car was Jennifer.
And she came over and said,
"Is it ever gonna
happen for me?"
I was like, "God, I hope it --
We want it to.
Hang in there, Jen.
We believe in you.
We really want
to find something."
And that was genuine.
Lo and behold,
a few months later,
we had the "Friends" script.
-I was a huge fan,
as we all were.
So we decided,
"Let's send the script
to Jennifer Aniston
for the role of Monica
and see if she's interested."
She loved it,
but she called back and said,
"I want to play Rachel."
And she was right.
She was much more fit
for Rachel.
-Jennifer Aniston grew up
in New York City,
and she was surrounded
by Rachels,
even though she wasn't
really one herself.
She grew up with a single mom,
and she'd been working
like crazy for a long time.
She didn't have a lot of things
handed to her,
and she had often
envied those girls.
And so that's why, I think,
she felt she understood Rachel
to a "T."
-But again, there's a roadblock
in this Hollywood fairy tale.
Jennifer Aniston was
already booked on a CBS series
called "Muddling Through"
that is set to air
in the summer of 1994.
If she shows does well,
it will be extended
into the fall season.
-This was a big deal.
CBS and the producers
of this show,
"Muddling Through,"
had the rights to Jennifer.
-Marta Kauffman, David Crane,
Jennifer Aniston --
everybody tried to negotiate
with the showrunner
of "Muddling Through"
to try and get her out
of that contract
and let her come to "Friends,"
and nobody wanted to budge.
-We took a risk,
and we hired her
in second position.
-It's another gamble for NBC.
If "Muddling Through"
gets picked up,
Jennifer Aniston will need
to be recast in "Friends,"
which shoots a pilot
in May of 1994.
Two months later, in July,
"Muddling Through"
begins to air.
And though it's not
an obvious hit,
CBS isn't about to hand over
Jennifer Aniston that easily.
CBS knew that there was a lot
of buzz around "Friends."
And possibly to mess with them,
they did keep "Muddling Through"
going with a three-episode
order,
which is not necessarily
an optimistic episode order,
but it could have been enough to
throw a wrench into the works.
-Meanwhile, "Friends" continues
to shoot episodes
with Aniston as Rachel.
-So she was doing "Friends"
and "Muddling Through"
at the same time.
I was going on vacation.
The whole pilot had been shot,
and I was told,
"Oh, by the way, when you
come back from vacation,
you're gonna have to recast
Jennifer Aniston
because 'Muddling Through'
got picked up."
So, of course, I was devastated,
thinking,
"Oh, my God,
I already read everyone.
What are we gonna do?"
-Business Affairs come to me,
and they said,
"You have to recast this role."
And I said, "What?!"
We would've had episodes that
we didn't have the right to air,
or we would've had to re-shoot
everything that Jennifer was in.
-Littlefield and NBC
scheduling exec Preston Beckman
come up with an offense,
going to war on
"Muddling Through."
-We ran all these movies up
against "Muddling Through"
that we knew would attract
the same audience.
-The plan works.
"Muddling Through"
is finally canceled,
allowing Aniston
to remain on "Friends."
-I learn so much from each job.
And, you know, you end one,
and you think,
"That's sort of sad,
but there's a reason for it.
There's a reason for it."
And here's my reason.
♪♪
-He's a regular Joe.
He wants the good life,
you know?
He doesn't have dreams
about being, you know,
better than anyone else.
He just --
he wants to be married.
He wants to have kids.
He struck me as a family guy,
and he struck me as a guy
who is romantic
and who wants to be in love.
And I just thought,
"Oh, this is a guy I can play."
-The creators of "Friends"
thought so, too.
-My first meeting
with Marta and David,
they told me that they basically
wrote Ross for David Schwimmer.
-David Crane and Marta Kauffman
had auditioned David Schwimmer
for another show that didn't pan
out, and they really loved him.
They described him as having
this really endearing,
hangdog vulnerability.
And he had the ability
to be funny
while also being really,
really mopey,
and that's
a pretty unusual trait.
-I don't know if I'm blessed
or it's just a misfortune
that I have the hangdog face.
A lot of people thought I looked
like Nicolas Cage
for a long time.
We have the same kind of sad,
droopy face.
-Schwimmer had some television
experience,
including an appearance in
a dramatic role on "NYPD Blue."
But after working on a sitcom
called "Monty,"
in which he co-starred
with Henry Winkler,
Schwimmer says
he wasn't interested
in another television role,
preferring the collaborative
environment of theater.
He declines to meet
with the creators of "Friends."
-He had mixed feelings.
He had to be convinced.
But he loved the character,
he loved Marta and David,
and they sold him hard.
-What appeals most to Schwimmer
about "Friends"
is that it's a true ensemble.
That and a convincing phone call
from James Burrows
does the trick.
With all six roles
perfectly cast,
there was one final test --
would the chemistry be right
when they were all together?
♪♪
-The fresh concept of "Friends"
is finally coming to fruition.
On May 4, 1994,
the pilot is set to shoot.
Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston,
Lisa Kudrow,
Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry,
and David Schwimmer
will all meet on Stage 5
for their first day of work.
-In the beginning,
none of us knew one another.
So you take six people
that don't know each other
that are about
to play good friends,
and you throw them all
in the same room,
and everybody enters that
arrangement with the same goal,
which is to get along
as quickly as possible and bond
with one another
as quickly as possible.
And it really worked out great.
-It's not like they all read
together
and we mixed and matched.
We all cast them separately,
and then they came together
on the stage and were magical.
It happens rarely,
but it happens.
-There's no way that anyone else
could've played those parts
just like that.
It was magic.
Magic.
-When you think about it,
there was
no weak link in that show.
-I think, in all of the casting
of "Friends,"
something brilliant
and wonderful happened.
There was an alchemy,
where the sum of the parts
became explosively,
wonderfully brilliant.
And I don't know if we ever
would've had the magic
if it hadn't been
those six actors.
-Early on, it is Courteney Cox
who set the tone
for working together.
-Courteney Cox had just
recently shot
an episode of "Seinfeld,"
and she had been
really impressed with the way
they were saying,
"Hey, what if we tried
it like this?
What if we tried it like that?"
There was a real
ensemble spirit,
and she really suspected
that that played a huge role
in making "Seinfeld"
so successful.
-From the first day
we came on the set,
we just all kind of
got together.
And I know I definitely said
to them,
"Listen,
this is an ensemble show,
and if there's something
you think
that I could do funnier
or vice versa,
I think the main goal
is to make the show good.
Please, feel free."
So I don't think there was ever
any attitudes with anybody.
I think that we just
all got a job.
-The kids were wonderful
to watch on the set
because they supported
each other.
Like, if one kid was having
trouble with a moment
and thinking,
"Yeah, I don't know.
Should I do it this way,
that way?"
one of them would say,
"How about doing it this way?
What do you think?"
And they'd try it,
and they'd say, "Thank you.
That worked."
It was wonderfully supportive.
-The cast's undeniable
chemistry gives
NBC President of Entertainment
Warren Littlefield confidence
about the show's prospects.
-Our hopes were caught up.
Our hearts were there.
We thought, "Wow.
If we get this right, then
it would be kind of special."
No one else was playing
in this territory.
-But one network concern
is that the cast is too young.
-I think that people
were worried
that it would only appeal to,
you know, people in their 20s,
just because
that's where we are.
Doesn't matter how old you are,
if something's funny, you're
gonna laugh at it and like it.
So hopefully, that's what
we do every week.
-People like to worry.
When you're in fresh territory,
there's a lot of risk.
There's fear.
-Even though they were
really eager
to target this up-and-coming
Generation X audience,
they felt like, "There's
no adults in the room,"
so they floated the idea
of adding
just one recurring
older character,
like you know,
"a cop on the beat"
or something like that is,
I think, how they described it.
-I kind of scratched my head.
I wasn't sure about that one.
-Creators Marta Kauffman
and David Crane write a script
that includes a character
they refer to as "Pat the cop."
They hate it so much, they beg
the network to can the idea.
Their compromise -- to bring
in the characters' parents.
-I think bringing the parents
just gave it
another level of comedy,
of experience.
You have a bigger audience.
So it just broadened it a lot.
-I think it showed
the children's reaction
to the parents,
of how they felt about it.
And in that,
they were universal,
because most people love
their parents
and are irritated by their
parents
and find their parents
very annoying quite often,
and that's simply
the way life is.
-Over the course of the series,
many Hollywood heavyweights
join the cast as Mom or Dad --
Marlo Thomas, Elliott Gould,
Morgan Fairchild,
and Kathleen Turner,
to name a few.
For Ross and Monica's mom,
Judy Geller, James Burrows
is the one who suggests
Christina Pickles.
-I was doing a pilot
for Jim Burrows.
He told them that they must
use me as the mother.
And they did, and I was
very grateful to James.
-Judy Geller is definitely
one of the most underrated
characters on the show
because at the beginning of the
series, you don't love her,
'cause she's Monica's mean mom
and she's hypercritical and...
a relatable thing,
but not lovable.
-Monica, no matter what she did,
it was just not good enough.
-It was a very
dysfunctional mother,
but tons of fun otherwise.
-Judgmental mother Judy Geller
isn't the only one scrutinizing
her daughter Monica.
Some executives at NBC
have an issue
with the character's story line
in the pilot episode
about a one-night stand.
-That was controversial
for some of the older executives
at NBC --
whether that was appropriate,
whether that wouldn't be,
for Monica,
irresponsible sexual behavior.
Someone said, "Won't the
audience think Monica's a slut?"
And our feeling was, "Nope.
They're gonna think
that Monica is real.
She exists in the time and place
that we're presenting --
New York City in the '90s."
-Because this was
such a sticking point,
they agreed to put out
an audience questionnaire,
asking the audience
what they thought
of the character of Monica
for sleeping with a guy
on the first date.
And they used different
language,
but it was basically asking,
"So, how big a slut
do you think Monica is?
And do you not like her
because of it?"
The audience did not care.
-The pilot episode of "Friends"
is good enough for NBC
to pick up
for a 24-episode season.
There's just one last-minute
casting change.
-I get home from the hospital
after delivering my child,
literally walked in the door,
put the baby down,
the phone rings.
Pick it up, and it's my agent
saying, "'Friends' just called.
They have released the woman
who was playing
the pregnant lesbian.
Can you start work tomorrow?"
Ooh, gosh.
They said, "Please,
will you do this?"
I said, "Yes."
My son was two days old,
and I started work.
-Before the show premieres,
James Burrows has an idea
of how to celebrate
with the cast.
-He said, "Let's just go have
a night together in Vegas."
So he got the Warner Bros. jet,
and they had a night
at the MGM Grand.
And Jimmy looked at them
and said,
"This may be the last night that
you actually get to do this --
out in public, hanging out,
where you are anonymous."
-He was convinced that this was
their last shot at anonymity,
and he told them so.
-On Thursday,
September 22, 1994,
"Friends" premieres at 8:30 P.M.
on NBC.
It's title, "The One
Where Monica Gets a Roommate,"
inspires a conversational
naming convention
for each episode in the series.
Every episode title all famously
start "The One With."
-"The One With the Blackout."
-"The One With the Embryos."
-"The One With Ross's Wedding."
-Despite its coveted time slot,
the ratings are decent,
but less than anticipated.
-It was not a massive hit,
but it was doing well.
And again, we were sandwiched
between "Mad About You"
and "Seinfeld,"
so it was a place
where it could safely grow.
-A few months into
the first season of "Friends,"
the cast sits down
for an interview
with "The Today Show"'s
Katie Couric.
-So, joining me here on
the "Friends" couch
are all six members
of the "Friends" cast --
Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox,
Lisa Kudrow,
Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry,
and David Schwimmer.
Good morning.
-Good morning!
-Good evening.
Can you believe we got up
this early to do this?
Thanks, you all, for coming in.
-What do you mean, "get up"?
-Yeah.
-We're still sleeping.
-Are you still sleeping?
-We were just here
rehearsing, anyway.
-Yeah, this is the time
we normally rehearse.
They like us to be
really wide awake.
-Really fresh.
-3:00 or 4:00 in the morning
is when we do our best stuff.
-Matt, are you surprised that
the show has been so successful?
It's like, the number-two
comedy, isn't it?
Is that right?
Yeah. It is.
-Are we?
-It is!
-Number-two new comedy.
-Really?
-Yeah! Did you know that?
-No!
-Yay!
-Ohh!
-Didn't know that.
-I mean, it...
yes, you did.
You guys are pulling my leg,
aren't you?
-No, we really didn't know that.
-You didn't?
-Well, gosh, I'm so glad I could
educate you here this morning.
But, I mean,
is it kind of a shock --
-It's not really
number one, but...
-Is it kind of a shock that
the show has been so successful?
Or what do you think about it?
-It's pretty amazing.
I mean, I think we're all really
sort of taken aback by it
because to us down here,
it just seems like we're all
just sort of a theater group.
You know, we're all
a really tight ensemble,
we get along really well,
and it's just a real
productive environment.
-Yeah.
-We have a great time.
-It really showed, in some ways,
how naive they were
and how very much
in a bubble they were.
Because when you're shooting
a television show,
you're, you know, on set.
You're in this world.
You're not really in sync
with the rest of the world.
You're just, like, with the same
group of people all the time.
It's kind of like summer camp.
And then they went out
in the world
and suddenly realized
that they were famous.
-Do you worry about
staying power?
I mean, I would think that
getting there is one thing,
and then just worrying
that you're gonna be
a flash-in-the-pan success...
Is that something
that concerns you?
Or are you just sort of enjoying
things as they are right now?
-Well, we're enjoying things,
absolutely,
but the work is important.
You can't sort of get lazy
and sort of sit back and say,
"Hey, we're a hit.
We're gonna be fine."
-Yeah.
-You got to keep up the, uh...
-The momentum.
-...up the momentum
and keep up the goods.
-Season 1 of "Friends"
continues to grow an audience,
but it's reruns
in the summer of 1995
that cause viewership
to explode.
-The network stuck
with "Friends."
This was a show that was allowed
to find its audience.
And, boy, when it did,
that audience was massive.
-NBC moves "Friends"
to the 8:00 P.M.
time slot in their Thursday
night lineup for Season 2.
-We promoted the hell out of it.
And with all the promotion,
that's it.
"Friends" solidified themselves
as a bona fide monster hit.
And that's where they would play
for the rest of the decade --
Thursday at 8:00.
-With the early success
of "Friends," writers decide
to dive into some
more provocative story lines.
But when it comes time for air,
some NBC affiliates refuse
to broadcast.
♪♪
-After a rigorous casting
process and a buzzworthy pilot,
"Friends" debuts
in the fall of 1994
and delivers
a solid first season.
-It's all such a crapshoot.
You never know.
But I knew that
it was really funny.
I just thought the writing
was different.
It was very hip.
But I could tell you, the pilot,
which I thought was really good,
doesn't compare
to what I think the series is.
I think it's gotten
so much better.
But I had no idea
that it would get this good.
-"Friends" comes back
for Season 2 fully loaded
with celebrity guest stars
and headline-making episodes,
including "The One With the
Lesbian Wedding."
-This was definitely
a landmark episode.
And it was one where they pushed
some envelopes --
not just being
a network comedy show,
but being a network comedy show
on the biggest night
on the biggest network
of television.
-Actress Jane Sibbett,
who plays Carol,
one of the brides,
is at the center of what
would become a controversy.
-It was a big deal, and it was
probably one of the best things
that could've happened
for this issue
of the right
to marry who you love.
It caused a lot of press.
It caused a lot of conversation,
a lot of upheaval,
people really asking about it.
And I come from an intensely
Christian background.
I've read the Bible many times,
backwards and forwards.
And I wasn't even thinking that
I would have to do "battle,"
but I was.
I had to do battle with people
who were asking me
to look into the Bible.
I had people from my old church
saying that I was
gonna burn in hell.
-A local affiliate in Texas
and one in Ohio
black out the show that evening.
-I think everybody expected
negative feedback
from that episode,
and the network
was certainly concerned
with the volume of calls
and mail they might get.
They took on a lot of extra
staff for the night
that that show aired.
In the end, they got, like,
under five calls.
I think they got maybe a couple
letters later, but nobody cared.
-At the time, "The One
With the Lesbian Wedding"
is the most-watched show of
the week and the highest-rated
"Friends" episode to date,
with 31.6 million viewers.
But the very next episode
of "Friends"
smashes its own record.
-Very famously,
there was the post-Super Bowl
two-part episode,
which was packed
with movie stars.
It was Jean-Claude Van Damme
and Julia Roberts
and Chris Isaak.
-I think the fact that they were
able to get the time slot
after the Super Bowl
in Season 2 spoke volumes
about how well the network
thought they were doing
and how well
they actually were doing,
given that that's a prime time
slot for any show.
-140 million Americans tune
in after the game.
-It was one of the most
highest-rated nights
in the history of television.
More people watched NBC
on that night
than almost any other night
in television history.
-By this time, "Friends"
is an undisputable
pop culture phenomenon.
-Exhibit A -- "the Rachel."
-I can't think of another
haircut in history
that has had such an impact
on regular women
wanting it so badly,
perhaps except for the Farrah
Fawcett haircut in the mid-'70s.
-I have to admit,
I got the Jennifer haircut.
-I did have the Rachel.
I think a handful of my friends
had the Rachel at the time,
and I know, obviously,
we were not alone in that.
That became as iconic
as the show
and the characters in the show.
-According to Aniston, though,
the cut was never meant to be.
-It was a mistake.
I mean, this is
a very simple story.
I went in, I hadn't cut my hair
in years, really,
and my manager said,
"Why don't you just go in
and meet this guy
that I'd like you to meet?
Just have a consultation."
And I went in,
and he started cutting my hair.
And all of a sudden,
people started saying,
"Hey, nice haircut!"
And I was like, "Thanks."
It's flattering,
but you know what?
You start to --
There's definitely a part of you
that says,
"Hm, why am I getting noticed
for my haircut
and not for my work?"
-Jennifer Aniston had
every reason,
at the peak of her fame,
to feel annoyed by the fact
that more people were talking
about her hair than about her.
-Meanwhile, "Friends" writers
lay the groundwork
for what would be the most
enduring relationship
across the series.
-There was no bigger couple --
like, in real life or on TV --
than Ross and Rachel.
-I loved those two together.
I thought they were so funny.
-I was a great fan of Rachel
ending up with Ross.
-They're cute together.
-The will-they/
won't-they/will-they-again
relationship became a story line
that would remain relevant up
until the series finale.
-I don't think, actually, Rachel
is really necessarily
right for Ross.
I think Rachel has some growing
to do herself.
But I think Ross is just
obsessed and in love with her.
-It was really David
and Jennifer's chemistry
that it felt like propelled
the story forward.
And in the pilot,
you do get the sense
that Ross's crush on Rachel
that has been there since high
school hasn't fully gone away.
It's maybe been re-ignited
by seeing her again
and realizing she's single
at a time he's single.
-The question was, how long
can you prolong that?
What are the obstacles
you can create?
It's almost a Chinese puzzle,
and there need to be many doors
that have barriers and blockades
that you can't get through.
Because we know we want that
to happen,
and we're rooting
for it to happen,
and yet we're gonna deny it.
-In Season 2, one of the first
obstacles to Ross and Rachel's
happily ever after
is a character named Julie --
Ross's new girlfriend,
played by actress Lauren Tom.
-It just felt like this gift
that dropped right into my lap.
I was excited 'cause the show
was already
starting to build
into something special,
and I kind of got to jump
on that wagon there.
Little did I know that the live
audience would actually boo me
as the episodes went on
because they wanted so badly for
Rachel and Ross to get together.
-Besides being infamous for
keeping the star couple apart,
the character Julie helps
"Friends" in a lot of ways.
Often criticized for having
an all-white cast,
the show expands.
-It was a milestone,
because I think
I was the first person of color
on that show.
You really didn't see
that that often --
an Asian character was speaking
without an accent.
-The character of Julie
is really important,
and I think that she did
a lot for the show
that people don't realize,
because she brought out
another side of Rachel.
Julie brought out her
competitive side
and her jealous side
and really, her human side.
And I think that it made her
much more relatable
to the audience,
and it allowed Jennifer Aniston
to be funny in a new way.
-38 episodes into the series,
fans get a taste of what
they've been waiting for in
"The One With the Prom Video."
-It's one of the most iconic
episodes,
I think, on television,
as far as love stories go.
-Monica winds up with a box of,
like, her old stuff,
and she comes across
her old prom video.
-And they watch
Monica and Rachel
getting ready for the prom.
-Visually, they were so funny.
She had her old nose,
and Monica was very heavy.
And I had incredibly curly hair,
some huge wig.
You know how people used
to have that kind of hair?
-And they notice that Rachel's
date isn't showing up,
and we see Ross in the old video
just, like, looking at Rachel.
-So, Ross's dad, Jack Geller,
says to him,
"Why don't you go
put on a tux, take her?
It'll make her so happy."
Obviously, Ross loves Rachel,
so he does put on a tux,
and you know,
he comes down the stairs.
And as all of that is happening,
Rachel's date comes,
and you know,
the camera then pans to...
-Chip!
-... Rachel and Monica running
out the door with their dates.
Ross looks heartbroken.
-When Rachel sees the romantic
gesture from years past,
it finally ignites
the on-screen romance.
-She doesn't even say a thing,
she just gets up and kisses him.
-The moment we were all waiting
for, after a season and a half.
Yep.
-That moment, that kiss...
When they finally get together,
it's after so much strife,
you're like, "Please, just...
-Stay.
-...stay together!"
-The challenge, I think,
will be what happens
after Rachel and I get together.
I think that's where
the challenge will be
for not only the actors,
but for the writers.
You know, where do you go after
that tension,
that chase is over?
But I believe in, you know,
the talent of the writers,
so I'm sure we'll
come up with something.
-And that's exactly
what they do.
-They managed to almost
immediately turn it
into just a new kind of tension.
Because, as you see, they're
only kind of a happy couple --
like, a no-problems couple --
for, you know, a blip.
They get together.
They're both kind of
drama queens,
and so there's always
drama between them.
-Ultimately, the writers decide
to break the couple up.
After an iconic fight,
Ross sleeps with someone else,
igniting one of the most
debated arguments
and quoted lines of the series.
-We were on a break! [ Laughs ]
-We were on a break.
-We were on a break.
-[ Laughs ]
Were Ross and Rachel
really on a break?
I think to -- Wow.
-Yes, of course they were
on a break!
-You could fight this back
and forth, but she said,
"We're gonna take
a break from us."
And he just looked at her,
remember,
and shut the door
and walked out.
So that would mean
they were on a break.
So, if they were on a break,
it means you're free to do
whatever you want, correct?
-I believe Ross and Rachel
were on a break.
I also believe that Ross
greatly misinterpreted it.
-It's not cheating, but it's
still extremely wrong...
-Perfect. So wrong.
-...and I'll go to
my grave thinking,
"Even if they were on a break,
it was wrong."
-And what's amazing is that
we're only three seasons in,
and then they manage to keep it
going for seven more years.
-Out of 236 episodes
of "Friends," Ross and Rachel
are only a couple
for about 10% of the series.
The attention propels
Aniston and Schwimmer
into the spotlight.
But two seasons into the series,
it's Schwimmer who is seen
as the real breakout star
of "Friends."
-In the early seasons, he had
the most heat coming off of him.
He had an untapped quality.
He was kind of tall, dark,
and handsome,
but with a geek-next-door
element added in.
-Schwimmer bristles at being
identified as a lead character
in what is clearly
an ensemble show.
-I think the industry
and probably the general public
needs to focus on something.
And I think, for a while,
I might have been
more in the spotlight.
I think a lot of it had to do
with my story line
and Rachel and Ross.
But I think, by now,
people are realizing
that it's really,
truly an ensemble show.
-It's a philosophy Schwimmer
believes in so deeply
that he makes a move that
will not only stun Hollywood
but would bond the cast forever.
♪♪
-Season 2 of "Friends" produced
record-breaking numbers,
solidifying the series
as a major asset for NBC.
With salary negotiations
commencing for Season 3,
David Schwimmer is viewed
as the series' leading man
and primed to strike
while the iron is hot.
But what he does instead
makes Hollywood history.
-His agents were nudging him
to ask for more money.
And he had come from this
theatrical background
and really, really believed in
the ethos of ensemble theater.
And he wanted to bring that
to this cast and said,
"Listen, they're telling me
to ask for a raise,
and I think if I have
this opportunity,
we should all just
take it together."
-David was the architect
of uniting the cast.
He said, "Look, I think
it's gonna be very difficult
if one of us
is paid more than the other.
Why wouldn't we
all be paid equally?
We never have to
bring that to work.
We never have to have that issue
get in the way for us."
It became a monumental,
brilliant negotiating structure.
-As an ensemble, the six of us
have a lot more power
than one star of the show does.
-I love how they all came
together and were like,
"Listen, you get us all,
or you don't get any of us."
And I thought
that was really cool.
-NBC can't risk losing "Friends"
at a time when the show
is averaging more than
25 million viewers each week.
The network agrees to the terms.
-Everybody was making
the same amount.
No matter who you married
in the off-season
or what your film
did at the box office,
you were all equal.
-The cast would maintain
collective bargaining for
the remainder
of the series,
eventually negotiating
part ownership of the show.
By the time the show reaches
Season 9,
they each earn $1 million
per episode, making "Friends"
the most expensive
half hour of television.
-Each one of those cast members
walked away after a decade
of brilliant, wonderful,
outstanding entertainment
with a massive,
massive amount of money.
-That cast worked so hard,
and they paid such a specific
price of their privacy
and their freedom
for the rest of their lives.
They deserve every penny
of that,
and everybody who's in
the business knows this.
-The fact that they all
signed up for that one-for-all,
all-for one mentality
really proved to be crucial
to the show's cohesiveness.
-I think the reason that there
were 10 years of "Friends"
is that David united them.
-The collaborative atmosphere
extends beyond
the negotiation table.
The "Friends" set has become a
place where everybody has a say.
-Are you telling us to be bigger
than we were?
Or are you telling us...
-Right.
You should be bigger.
-With Marta and David and Kevin,
the special magic that they had,
and the cast,
was that "What do you think?
Do you like this?
Does this work for you?
Does this feel good?"
And it's not a bunch
of ego massaging,
it's really about
the collaboration of trying
to make it as good as they can.
-As big as the show's gotten,
it's still the six of us
and the great communication
we have with our writers
and producers in this
intimate show that we make.
-They even work together
with the actors
on the characters' development.
Early on, Matt LeBlanc had
some reservations about Joey.
-He became concerned that
the sexuality of his character
and the, like, hitting on
every single woman in the world
was going to very quickly
make him an unlikable character.
And he thought, "The writers are
gonna realize this in a second,
and they're just gonna
get rid of me."
So he decided to go
to Kauffman and Crane and say,
"What if we make it so he wants
to sleep with every other woman
in New York City
except these ones?"
Because if he's just hitting
on them all the time,
it's gonna get old,
and why would they even
hang out with him?
-He's much more emotional
than he was in the beginning.
He's much more sensitive,
and they let me make him a guy
who cares more than initially.
I think initially he was more
of a two-dimensional character,
and now he has a third.
-"Friends" films weekly in front
of a live studio audience.
If a joke doesn't land,
rewriting happens on the spot,
leading to marathon
shoot nights that go
until 1:00 or 2:00
in the morning.
-Anytime, you know, one of us
starts to complain,
including myself, about
"Ugh, this is a lot of work.
Why are we staying so late?
This should be getting easier,"
we remind each other
that we work hard
because the quality
of the show demands it.
-For the finale of Season 4,
Ross,
still on that break from Rachel,
marries girlfriend Emily.
-I have a new love interest
on the show,
played by Helen Baxendale.
And I've proposed to her,
and we've decided to get
married in London.
-Writers take the cast,
minus a pregnant Lisa Kudrow,
to London.
-Kevin Bright was the one
who described it
as like they were
the Beatles in reverse.
People went bananas
when they got there.
People were calling in local
radio stations to tip them off
and tell them
where they were shooting,
and it became impossible
to shoot.
One of the cops came up to
the production team at one point
and said, like, "Listen, if you
just pause for five minutes
and let them get one good shot,
they'll all go away."
And it worked.
So, they had a tremendous
reception in London.
-They love American things
in England,
because their people are so
funny and free and not uptight.
-We brought almost
the entire crew,
and we brought
the whole writing team.
And it definitely makes us feel
more at home
to have the support
and the familiar faces,
knowing that on each camera
we know,
"Oh, there's Skip,
and there's Kevin," or whatever.
-Yeah, definitely.
-So, it's nice.
-Yeah.
-The scariest thing is crossing
the street here,
'cause I still don't know
which way to look and kind of...
I've almost been hit
by two cars.
You almost got hit by a bicycle.
-By a bicycle, I almost got hit.
Yeah.
Well, you just said that.
-Yeah, that's what I said.
-Yeah.
-The show features a number
of guest stars,
including Jennifer Saunders
from "Absolutely Fabulous,"
and the Duchess of York.
-Well, we thought we were a very
big deal until Fergie showed up,
and then we realized, "Nah."
-Yeah, they must have known
she was coming.
-Yeah, a much bigger deal
when she was there.
Which, frankly,
hurt my feelings.
-It's not all fun and games
shooting on location.
The cast works hard to pull off
an episode
that ends with
two jaw-dropping surprises.
-Everyone was literally
on the edge of their seats
as Ross walked down the aisle
with another woman.
-I, Ross...
-...take thee, Emily...
-...take thee, Rachel...
[ Audience gasps and cheering ]
-And then he says Rachel's name,
and that was the "Oh, my God"
cliffhanger ending
for that season.
-"I take thee, Rachel" --
that was a pretty big part.
-We shot until like 3:00
or 4:00 in the morning.
Everybody was tired.
But the writers,
David and Marta,
they came up with wonderful,
spontaneous lines.
I said to my husband,
Elliott Gould,
sitting on my right,
"This is worse than when
he married the lesbian."
But they just gave me that line
in the middle of shooting,
and I thought it was brilliant.
-Then, when Ross bursts into
Chandler's hotel room in London,
the fan reaction
to Monica's first line
set off a new story line.
-Do you think
he knew I was here?
-Bringing Monica and Chandler
together in London,
it was very unexpected.
I think it was a pretty big risk
to bring another
two of the friends
together in that way.
-When the two pop out
of bed together,
it gets the loudest
and longest response
from the live audience
in the history of the show.
-So many things that could have
sunk this show didn't.
Characters got into
relationships and fell in love.
That is usually the kiss
of death,
when you finally have
two characters hook up.
Characters then broke up
on this show --
again, should be
the kiss of death.
That didn't stop it.
The bond of the sort of core
six stars was so powerful
that it kind of defied
all the conventions
that had normally spelled the
kiss of death for other shows.
-By the end of Season 4,
"Friends" is a global sensation.
The show airs in more
than 20 countries.
Its popularity morphs
into mania.
-Nobody could predict
it would be the hit
that it turned out to be.
-And the effects
on the cast vary.
-Everyone's getting
different things.
You know, while one person's
getting like ten hundred
movie offers,
another person's maybe
getting nominated for an award.
Another person is on the cover
of every magazine,
you know, heralded as
the cultural icon of today.
Everyone's got their something,
and we keep, like,
trading off on what we've got.
-But the price of fame
can be hard to handle.
-Just as Jimmy Burrows
had predicted,
they could never go
anywhere again
where they wouldn't be mobbed.
-The cast hit the rock-star
level of fame.
They became the biggest stars
at that moment.
-That type of stardom has
its effects on the cast,
and Matthew Perry struggles
to cope with the pressure.
♪♪
-After successfully unifying
during salary negotiations
for Season 3,
the cast of "Friends"
create a bond
that radiates on screen
and skyrockets
the series
to a global sensation.
But with their rise to fame,
the cast suffers a loss
of its anonymity.
[ Screaming ]
-You have to become a different
person that is okay
with people coming up to you
and acting like they know you,
and you have no idea
who they are.
-I can't deny that it bothers me
at times
that we're in the tabloids
or that we try to go out
to dinner and there are people,
you know, chasing us
in cars with video cameras.
I've definitely had instincts
of --
you know, were like,
"Get out of my face."
-This really also coincided
with a little bit
of a shift
in celebrity news coverage.
-At that time,
celebrity magazines,
celebrity TV shows
were chasing movie stars.
TV stars were looked down
upon a little bit.
Not anymore.
These -- these characters became
superstars, super famous.
-From a journalistic standpoint,
I can tell you
that we were very largely
deprived of any, you know,
"living wild and fast and
letting it go to their heads"
kind of headlines.
They were sensible,
sane grown-ups about it.
They bought houses.
They bought some cars.
They got married.
They really were able
to stay fairly level-headed
about it all.
-I was talking about this,
I think,
with Matt LeBlanc, actually.
We were saying that we were
lucky that we weren't like
16 years old or something
when all this kind of went down.
I think most of us have a pretty
good sense of who we are
and had that sense before we,
I guess, were hit
with his huge good fortune.
-What we realized at one point
is that we should pull back
from a lot of the advertising,
promotion, and magazine covers
because we didn't want
to jump the shark.
We didn't want them
to be overexposed.
Now, for a network to actually
have a conversation
about overexposure,
that's unheard of.
In 20 years at NBC, we had never
had that discussion before.
-The impact of fame
hit some harder than others.
-The first sign that
Matthew Perry was in trouble
came on the show itself.
The episodes began to air
in which Matthew Perry
was suddenly shockingly thin.
-You see his weight fluctuate
on the show occasionally,
and it was hard to the viewers
because we all loved him.
We all loved Chandler so much,
and it was hard watching him
go through all this.
-You just realized,
"Oh, this guy
might be in trouble."
And sure enough, once that buzz
got started,
there was a kind of
trickle-down of information.
He's been in some pain.
The pain led to pain medication,
and the pain medication
led to addiction.
And it ultimately
was an addiction
that Matthew grappled with on
and off for several years.
Matthew has said that there are
episodes of the show
that he does not
remember making.
-There was a period that we had
to stop shooting
while Matthew was in rehab.
Matthew's pretty honest
about that he had a problem
and he needed to deal with that.
-Perry goes public
about his recovery
and sits down with Dateline's
Stone Phillips in 2000.
-Why do you think
you were able to beat it?
'Cause a lot of people don't.
-I just had this kind of
will to live,
and I realized that I was,
like, missing so much.
And the thing that I will hold
forever is the sense of pride
that when it got out of control,
I went in, I faced my fear,
and I came out of it
just feeling so much better
and seeing so much more of life
and enjoying it.
-Matthew's pretty honest
about that he had a problem
and he needed to deal with that.
And I think that also...
that's real life.
Real life came into their lives.
Was that a cost of success?
That pressure may have been
a byproduct of that.
But the cast, they were there
for each other.
And that was always clear.
-Meanwhile, the growing success
of the show
attracts high-profile
guest stars.
-"Friends" had a ton of famous
celebrities on the show --
everybody from Julia Roberts
to Tom Selleck.
Winona Ryder came on the show.
Reese Witherspoon came
on the show.
Christina Applegate
came on the show.
It's crazy when you look back
at the number of people
who did this show.
-Sean Penn -- why?
Bruce Willis' appearance --
he won an Emmy for that.
-So, you had Robin Williams
and Billy Crystal
show up on the couch
in Central Perk.
The celebrity special
guest stars
were almost like
Easter eggs for people.
-It just became the place to be
if you were an actor
who just wanted to be
a part of a really funny,
really poignant,
really popular show.
-But no matter the status
of your celebrity clout,
the friends' tight-knit bond
could be intimidating.
-You're like the new kid
at school,
and at a school
where they've all been together
since they were in kindergarten.
[ Laughs ]
-Denise Richards, who played
Ross and Monica's cousin Cassie,
was a huge fan of the show.
-I was very starstruck
seeing them all as a fan,
and then also as an actor,
to be able to work with them
and watch how easy it comes
to them in their sleep.
It's just really --
It's amazing, and I admire them.
-But there was one friend
she didn't get to meet,
even though they seem
to appear together
in this memorable scene.
-The slow-motion of, you know,
my character
taking down her hair.
Actually, Matthew Perry was not
there when I was filming,
so I was filming
with a stand-in,
and then they later
had to piece it together.
We were not in the same room.
I never even worked with him.
But I wanted to.
-While some guest stars
just want to be part of the fun,
others appear on the show
for a different reason.
-And occasionally, there would
be a very special guest star
who was also a very
special guest
in a cast member's real life.
Most notably, early on,
there was
the post-Super Bowl plotline
involving Julia Roberts --
in part, came to pass because,
for that brief moment,
Julia Roberts and Matthew Perry
were actually dating.
-Tate Donovan, who Jennifer
Aniston was involved with.
David Arquette, who Courteney
Cox eventually married,
was in a Season 3 episode.
-But the biggest celebrity
couple news from a "Friends"
cast member was yet to come.
-Jennifer Aniston was rapidly
becoming
the biggest star
on the show anyway
because she became
the bombshell.
But then she started
dating Brad Pitt,
the most eligible bachelor
on the planet.
The sexiest man alive,
according to People magazine,
several times over.
-And then Jennifer marries
Brad Pitt
and becomes
this icon of celebrity.
-People had dated
Brad Pitt before.
Gwyneth Paltrow had been engaged
to Brad Pitt.
But Brad and Jen did it.
And the minute they did,
they became the biggest
celebrities in the world.
The level of fame that happened
when you combined them really,
really took it to a next level.
-Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston
were still married in real life.
He guest starred on the show
as president of the
"I Hate Rachel Green" fan club
in high school
and like, was so angry at her.
And watching them go at it
on-screen was just a ton of fun
and a treat for viewers,
and it's one of the most
memorable episodes of "Friends"
as a result.
-In the world of "Friends,"
Season 7's biggest
couple news is
Monica and Chandler's wedding,
which some see as the beginning
of the end of the series.
-They're gonna become
a family unit of their own.
The time in their lives when
their friends are their family
is slowly coming to an end.
And you can see that, like,
the dynamics really start
to shift at that point.
-The cast and creators all agree
Season 8 will be
the final season of "Friends."
But all of that changes
in the fall of 2001,
just before
the season premieres,
when the tragic events
of September 11th occur.
-Nobody knew what was going
to happen to television comedy
after that, but it was,
you know, a whole new landscape.
Nobody knew what was gonna
be funny anymore.
-150 surviving family members
from Cantor Fitzgerald
and the fire department
were brought out to be
part of our audience
for the final show that we taped
before Christmas,
and I think all of us were
basically on the verge of tears
meeting these people
and just feeling it in the room.
Fortunately,
when the show started,
that turned into something
that uplifted their spirits,
and I think that made us feel
that much better
when we saw these people leave,
when we met them after the show.
-It becomes clear what people
need most
in the wake
of the attacks is comfort
and a place where
it's okay to laugh.
"Friends" gives them both.
-Their fans really seemed
attached to the show
in a new way.
And I think the actors really
felt a deeper sense
of appreciation,
perhaps, for this incredible job
that they had
and the fact
that they were eight seasons in
and people really,
really adored them.
-Season 8 debuts to an audience
of 32 million --
the largest since the Super Bowl
episode five years prior.
With the end of the series
looming,
suddenly no one
is ready to say goodbye.
The network, cast, and creators
all agree "Friends"
will come back
for a ninth and final season.
But as the writers
begin to propel the series
toward its conclusion,
one risky decision scares
some of the cast.
♪♪
-Welcome back to
"Behind Closed Doors."
By 2001, "Friends"
had solidified its place
in television history.
And for the first time
in its eight-year run,
it's the Number 1 show on TV.
Now at the peak of its success,
the writers make a bold
and controversial story choice.
There's always been someone
or something in the way
of Ross finding his way
back to Rachel,
but it's never been a "Friends"
castmate until now.
-I think Joey and Rachel
came up,
in a lot of ways,
because it was
an unexpected pairing.
But I think, in part, to show
Joey can grow up and mature,
showing him with Rachel
is a way to do that.
To put him in
an actual relationship
with someone the audience
is invested in,
someone the other characters
are invested in,
to show there are stakes,
and how are you
gonna handle this?
-Jennifer Aniston
and Matt LeBlanc
were very uncomfortable
with the direction
that they were seeming
to take these characters.
I don't think that they wanted
it to happen.
It felt incestuous, I think,
to everybody.
-Cast members bring
their concerns
to Kauffman, Crane, and Bright.
-They wanted to try and put in
some ground rules,
meaning, like,
they're not gonna fall in love,
and they didn't want them
to even get
to the point of having sex
because they thought
that that would be
too much to come back from.
And the creators, you know,
they were really on board
with that, as well.
-It's easy to have a crush
on someone who looks
like Jennifer Aniston.
I completely understand that.
And she's also
a great character,
and there's no reason
not to love her.
-Yeah.
-I just wasn't on board.
-I didn't like any of those
episodes.
It was awkward.
-No opinion. [ Laughs ]
-I think the less said about
Joey and Rachel,
the better, to be honest.
-"Friends" finally receives top
honors at the Emmys that year.
-Mazel tov!
Tonight was your night.
How exciting was it?
-For me, I felt good
for the writers and the creators
because they don't get, I think,
the recognition that I believe
the show deserves.
-It's an amazing feeling.
It really is.
You can't even explain it.
'Cause you wouldn't have any one
of us up there
without the others.
-And everyone wants to know
how the friends will go on
without each other.
-With an experience like
tonight, Courteney,
do you think, "Hey, how can we
give this up, guys?"
Of course, this is gonna be
the last season.
-Well, every day, it's hard
to think about it ending,
every day that we go
to work and laugh,
and just it's so much fun.
But I didn't think about that
at all when I was going onstage.
I was just thinking, "Wow, this
actually feels really good."
And then I didn't
think past that.
-For Season 9, "Friends"
tackles more new ground
when it blurs
the lines of reality
with a cast member's
personal life.
-In her real life, Courteney Cox
was married to David Arquette,
and the two of them had a really
rocky road to becoming parents.
That was sort of translated in
its own way into the fact that,
much like David and Courteney,
the characters of Chandler
and Monica
didn't have an easy path
to parenthood.
That feeling of wanting
to be a mom,
assuming you would be a mom,
believing that motherhood
was just a given,
and having those hopes
jeopardized and dashed,
and trying to pivot
and come to terms with,
"Okay, well, then how else are
we going to build our family?"
-Infertility is a very serious
topic
that very few people
know a lot about,
and it's not an easy topic
to do in a comedy.
But the show found a way to tell
the story
and tell it in a very real way
so that it was paying respect
to families
who were going through that.
I think it also probably started
conversations for people
who were
in that situation and said,
"Hey, I'm actually seeing myself
reflected in television
in a way that I didn't expect."
-With the end of Season 9
quickly approaching,
the network dives back into
negotiations with the creators
and cast of "Friends"
for one more season.
-Everybody wants to go out
on a high note.
I think the writers certainly
struggled at certain times
because, I think
as David Crane put it,
you can't keep
writing the ending.
You have to eventually know
where it is
actually going to end.
You have to have a finish line
eventually so you can start
working towards it.
And I think that that was
the primary struggle for them.
-Marta and David struggled
with how long should it go on,
and I think with great success,
they would've walked away
if they didn't believe
they could do
a strong additional season.
-After much debate and many
rounds of negotiations,
there will be a Season 10,
the conclusion of "Friends."
The creators work hard to ensure
a satisfying finale
for their dedicated fans.
-We can tell you that it will
feel like
a really good episode
of "Friends."
It will not be an anomaly.
It doesn't venture off
of the track
of what the show
has been for 10 years.
-Yeah, it doesn't take place
in the future,
and nobody ends in prison.
It is the show "Friends."
-They're not animated.
-Yeah, it's, um...
And it's also...
it was very important to us
that we leave the characters all
in a good place,
whether that means
they're together or apart.
We felt as though everyone's
invested enough in these
six people that we should know
they're gonna be okay.
-In the last chapter of the
will-they/won't-they saga
of Ross and Rachel,
they now have a baby,
Emma, though they are
still not a couple,
and Rachel plans
a big move to Paris.
-Could Ross ever end up
with her?
Well, that was the question
we enjoyed.
We played.
We waited for a decade.
Our hope and dream
from very early on in the show
was that was meant to be.
-The answer would only be given
in the series finale.
In the most romantic
Hollywood gesture,
Ross races to the airport
to stop Rachel from leaving
and to declare his eternal love.
-I know, I know.
I shouldn't have waited
'til now to say it,
but, um...
that was stupid, okay?
I'm sorry,
but I'm telling you now.
I love you.
-I can't do this right now.
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
-But in the perfect ending
twist, Ross gets the girl.
-She could've taken this
beautiful job in Paris,
but Rachel got off the plane.
She wanted Ross in New York.
-Finally, we're gonna give
the audience something
they've waited for forever,
and it was triumphant.
It was wonderful,
and it felt right.
-To see them struggle
through so much
and be able
to find each other again
when they're more mature
and in better places in life
felt like a really strong
message, in a lot of ways,
to send to people
who are in relationships
and are just not sure.
-It really is an excellent
and satisfying finale,
which is so rare
in television generally,
and no easy feat when you've
been on the air for 10 years.
-I didn't want it to end.
It's like you say goodbye
to these characters
and wonder what happens to them.
It's weird.
You really get invested in shows
if you are big fans of them.
-When Monica and Chandler
decided to move
and give up that apartment
that was such an iconic part
of the show for so long,
that's really
how you knew they're done.
They're not coming back.
They're not gonna do
a reunion movie in a year.
It's over.
-We saw them, like,
walking out of the apartment
with the stroller and stuff,
and I was just sitting there,
and I was just sobbing.
-That series finale of
"Friends," of course,
was the biggest episode
of that year.
-With one of the most successful
TV shows behind them,
what is next
for the cast of "Friends"?
-Lightning doesn't usually
strike twice.
I can probably count on one hand
the number of sitcom stars
who have had a massive hit
and who have then gone on
to create another massive hit.
They are few and far between.
-Matt LeBlanc, of course,
famously went on to do the one
"Friends" spin-off, "Joey."
The show just didn't
sustain itself
without an ensemble around,
so unfortunately, it was
canceled after two seasons.
-Courteney Cox was on a show
called "Cougar Town" for ABC,
and she ended up
bringing on a number
of the castmates as guest stars.
So, Matthew Perry
was in an episode,
Lisa Kudrow, Jennifer Aniston.
It kind of was a pattern
for a lot of them,
where they'd get a show,
and if they could,
they would work together.
-Jennifer Aniston is primarily
a movie actress now.
David Schwimmer went right back
into his Chicago theater world,
just as he wanted to do,
and he also focused
quite a bit on directing.
-Matthew Perry has had
several sitcoms come and go.
-Lisa Kudrow had this really
exciting career
as a creator
and a producer and an actress.
She did "The Comeback,"
which is just this incredible,
incredible piece of television
that everybody should watch.
-Matt LeBlanc has frankly had
the most success now,
sending himself up on a series
called "Episodes,"
in which he plays a kind of
inflated, egotistical,
narcissist version
of Matt LeBlanc,
washed up post-"Friends".
-The magic of "Friends"
touched millions of lives,
and for the people who were part
of it, changed them forever.
-To be a part of this
sweet phenomenon
that's for all the best reasons,
to bring levity
and to bring light
and to bring humor
into the world
and just make it light,
make it sweet,
and to have such a high level
of craftsmanship and heart --
I wish that every show
could have that.
I would wish that for everybody,
that they could have
an experience like mine,
and I will be forever grateful.
-Sort of bittersweet, and
you're happy, and you're sad.
And you're grateful,
at least for me,
for being able
to be a part of it.
-And its impact can be seen
on an entire genre.
-Ever since "Friends"
went off the air,
people have been trying
to find the "Friends" formula.
People have been trying
to build on it
and, you know,
rework it for more shows.
And we have
"How I Met Your Mother,"
and we have
"The Big Bang Theory,"
both of which are very, very
often compared to "Friends,"
and they're both
incredibly successful.
-I think we spend so much time
focusing on the specific stories
and the specific jokes
and getting each show right,
I don't actually think we spend
a lot of time
stepping back and go,
"Well, how have we changed
the genre?"
I just...
It's just not
what we think about.
-Honestly, I'm not sure
that we have changed the genre.
I think what we've done is just,
we've done a show
that people have enjoyed
and continued to enjoy
for 10 years.
It's grown, the characters have
grown, and it's just been...
It's been a sitcom --
a good one, I hope.
-I think the legacy of "Friends"
that is left behind
is just the importance of love
and friendship in our lives.
-It's comedic relief.
You know, when you're bummed out
and you've had a long day
and the news is awful
and you don't want to be
so serious,
you can watch
this show and laugh.
-That's a pretty appealing
happy place to want to return
to again and again
for 22 minutes.
So it's understandable
why generation
after generation wants to do it.
-Even if you don't call yourself
a "Friends" fan,
say you're away from home,
and it's the middle
of the night,
and you're in some
kind of spooky motel room
and looking for
a bit of comfort.
You turn on the television,
and there's something
that you recognize.
And I think
that is oddly comforting.
-It's so familiar to you
that it's like being at home
with your family, in a way.
I feel like "Friends" is comfort
food for a lot of people.
I think that it's gonna sound
really corny
because of the theme song,
but you know it'll always
be there for you.
♪♪