Farewell My Friends

Join Geoff Liang as he looks back on a beautiful decade of Friends.

By Geoff Liang • UrbanWire
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Monday will mark the end of 10 years’ of Friends, and I almost can’t bear to watch. I know for sure that it’ll be beautiful, yet so painful, not because the show will be produced badly, but because you can sense the impending departure of some really good pals.

Season 10 so far has been pretty exciting; with important milestones like Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow)’s marriage; Joey (Matt LeBlanc) and Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) having a fling; Rachel moving to Paris for her new job; Chandler (Matthew Perry) and Monica (Courtney Cox-Arquette) moving away and having a baby.

Winning Friends

Although these changes are too much for me to handle, they seem so natural thanks to the craft of the sitcom’s amazing and award-winning scriptwriters. The dialogue on Friends has always been effortlessly amusing, especially Chandler’s. I also love the way the actors deliver the lines so naturally; it’s like you’re really watching them live their lives. And it’s almost probably the case, since they’ve been at it for 10 years now.

It’s not just the way they talk about issues we can relate to, like conflicts between friends and also controversial topics like homosexuality, but it’s also the way the entire gang is always hanging out together. Even when the conversation is focussed on only 2 people, the rest of the gang is around, yet strangely it all seems realistic.

And how they’ve manage to sustain a sitcom for 10 years without going through a major revamp – think cast changes or moving the setting to another place altogether – is beyond me. For one thing, the opening credits still have clips from the original credits back in 1994. And even the French poster above Monica’s TV set has been there since the pilot episode! How comforting to know that some things just never change.

If you’ve noticed, the only time a member of the cast changed was Season 1 where Carol, Ross (David Schwimmer)’ lesbian ex-wife, was first acted by Anita Barone in the first 2 episodes, after which she was replaced and played by Jane Sibbett.

Friends fanatics will also recall a few occasions where the same actor plays multiple roles. June Gable, for one, was a nurse in episode 102 – The One with the Sonogram at the End. In later episodes, she takes on the role as our favourite talent agent – Estelle. And before Frank Jr (Giovanni Ribisi) was recognised as Phoebe’s brother, he actually made an appearance in episode 206 – The One with the Baby on the Bus as a passerby who dropped a condom into Phoebe’s guitar case. We also realise that Steve in episode 914 – The One With The Blind Dates looked a little too familiar. Apparently he made an appearance in episode 115 – The One With The Stoned Guy as an owner of a restaurant.

For 10 years, we’ve seen every bit of Central Perk, the Friends’ usual hangout; for 10 years we’ve laughed at Gunther (James Michael Tyler), the waiter madly in love with Rachel; but we’re nowhere near getting bored of the set. Actually, viewers would agree that we’ve learnt to form a bond with the coffee house, just as others have found home in the pub in Cheers.

Weirdest bunch of Friends

The beauty of Friends is that their characters are so real. Everybody in Friends has their fair share of quirky habits and secrets. UrbanWire digs out the deepest, darkest and the weirdest for you.

Joey Tribbiani

• Joey has a stuffed penguin he calls “Hugsy” whom he can’t sleep without.
• He’s afraid of spiders.
• Before he was cast as Dr Drake Ramoray on long-running American soap opera Days of Our Lives, or “DOOL” as he calls it, Joey was once a butt double for Al Pacino. He got the part but couldn’t pull it off in the end because apparently he was acting “too hard”.
• He once tried to put on a false foreskin made of putty to get a job where he was not supposed to be Jewish.

Chandler Bing

• Chandler’s middle name is Muriel. Quoting Ross, “Oh my God! Chandler M. Bing? It's not just an M, your middle name is Muriel!” That’s right, Chandler Muriel Bing.
• He used to have a 3rd nipple, which he removed in an operation.
• And his father is a drag queen in the all-male burlesque show, Viva Las Gaygas.
• Chandler’s afraid of bras - or at least he’s afraid of Phoebe’s
• Chandler hates Thanksgiving because nothing good ever happens on that day. Among the worst situations happening were his parents announcing their divorce and his male butler hitting on him.

Phoebe Buffay

Phoebe has the weirdest quirks of all. Among the many odd things that had happened to her over the last decade, she:

• had a pimp spit in her mouth
• once stabbed a cop
• married a gay ice dancer
• gave birth to her brother’s triplets
• has a twin sister who starred in a pornographic movie

Need I say more?

Rachel Green

• Throughout Friends’ 10 seasons, Rachel has never had sex anywhere other than in the bedroom.
• Rachel has definitely had her embarrassing moments. When she was on a date with her client, Joshua, at his parents’ house, she wore a very sexy nightie. Joshua’s parents came home and caught her in the inappropriate piece of attire. That’s not all - at the restaurant where they had gone to for dinner (Rachel’s still wearing the dress), a waiter spilled water on her. She jumped up in shock, and her boobs popped out.
• Other than in the 1st season, Rachel never wears a bra.

Ross Geller

• When Ross was young, he wanted to follow his mum to the beauty parlour so much that he took off all his clothes, tucked his weenie between his legs and proclaimed, “Mommy, I'm a girl, take me with you.”
• He used to dress up in his mum’s clothes and pretended to be a woman named “Bea” and hosted imaginary tea parties.

Monica Geller-Bing

• Monica is the neat freak of the 6.
• She has 11 categories of towels.
• She has soap that only “special” people can use.
• She saves her wedding china for the Queen.
• One Thanksgiving during their college years, Monica accidentally dropped a knife on Chandler’s right toe, chopping it right off. She’s the reason why Chandler’s missing a toe.

Top 10 Memorable Scenes

715 – The One With Joey’s New Brain

This is the one where Ross tries plays the bagpipes, much to the amusement of the gang. The funniest part was when Ross asked them to sing along as he played and Phoebe went, “Eeee! Eeee! Eeee!” imitating the sound of the bagpipes. You could really see Rachel trying to control her laughter.

806 – The One With The Halloween Party

Joey enters Monica’s apartment dressed in a vest and pants. Here’s the scene transcribed from my video compact disc (VCD):

Joey enters apartment
Monica: “You didn’t dress up either?”
Joey: “Yes I did! I’m Chandler. *Looks at Chandler* Dude, what happened?”
Chandler: “How is that me?”Joey: “Okay. *Clears throat* “I’m Chandler” *Imitates Chandler by gurgling and gesturing*
Phoebe: *looking at Chandler* “That is so you!”
Chandler: “When have I ever done that?!”
Joey: “When have I ever done that?!” *Imitates Chandler again*

411 – The One With Phoebe’s Uterus

Monica teaches Chandler about female anatomy’s 7 erogenous zones. As she explained, she kind of got carried away… and started making amorous noises.

502 – The One With All The Kissing

Chandler and Monica are trying to hide their relationship from the gang. He accidentally kisses Monica goodbye as he was about to leave for work one day and gets out of it by kissing all the girls, saying that it’s a European culture he picked up.

403 – The One With The Cuffs

Joanna, Rachel’s boss, cuffs Chandler up in her office (think kinky). Rachel enters and is caught in a dilemma: Save her friend or to risk getting caught for sneaking into her boss’s office. While arguing, Chandler gestures with his hands and pulls out a drawer, which smacks into his head. They made it seem like it was planned, but I think it’s just one of those stupid things that happens to Chandler.

301 – The One With The Princess Leia Fantasy

Ross and Chandler are at Central Perk where they were talking about how the girls tell each other everything. Chandler then started talking about how a mental image of his mom will suddenly appear in his mind every time he makes love to a girl, an image he’s unable to shake off - so it was as if he was making love to his mom. This is where Ross glares at him and said, “I said share, not scare!” \

412 – The One With The Embryos

Monica and Rachel don’t believe that Joey and Chandler know more about them than they do about the guys. They decided to resolve the argument by answering questions in a quiz about each other. It was hilarious learning more about the characters and watching them trying to beat each other. Here is where we learn that Chandler first touched a girl’s breasts when he was 19.

721 – The One With The Vows

Chandler wracks his brains to write his wedding vows. When Joey asked Ross for tips, he replied, “Well, with Carol, I promised never to love another woman until the day I die. She made no such promise.” Ouch.

1003 – The One With Ross’s Tan

Phoebe and Monica are trying to avoid Amanda, a pretentious woman who moved to the UK and picked up a fake British accent. “Smell my neck! It's not perfume! It's me! It's my natural scent!” she shrieks. Now you know why they’re avoiding her.

409 – The One Where They’re Gonna Party!

The guys go out to party and they come back bushed. Again transcribed:

Ross: “How sad are we?”
Joey: “Yeah, I know.”
Chandler: “You know what? We're not sad, we're not sad, we're just not 21 anymore. You know? I'm 29 years old, dammit! And I want to sit in a comfortable chair, and watch television and go to sleep at a reasonable hour! ”
Joey and Ross: “Yeah! ”
Joey: “Yeah! And I like to hang out in a quiet place where I can talk to my friends. ”
Chandler and Ross: “Yeah! ”
Ross: “And so what if I like to go home, throw on some Kenny G and take a bath? ”
Joey: “We're 29, we're not women. ”

Another reason to doubt Ross’ masculinity.

This Monday, I know I’ll be stuck on the screen at 10pm sharp on Channel 5. This is it; this is the final episode of Friends ever. It will be an emotional parting, but I have to send them off and bid them farewell. Like Rachel would say, “It’s the end of an era!”