Ross Geller
Encyclopedia
Ross Eustace Geller, Ph.D.
is a fictional character
on the popular U.S.
television series Friends
, portrayed by David Schwimmer
. The character is noted for his geeky, lovable demeanor.
.
from Columbia
, frequently referring to himself as "Dr. Geller" or "Dr. R. Geller". Ross is noted for being geeky, charming, love lost, witty, and somewhat artistic, showing an interest in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
when he coaches Joey Tribbiani
on the works of Monet when Joey tries to impress Charlie in the ninth season episode "The One With The Fertility Test". Ross has had a crush on Rachel Green
since high school, although he founded the "I Hate Rachel Green" club with his friend Will Colbert (played by Brad Pitt
), who hated Rachel as she used to pick on him, due to his inability to express himself causing him to make poor choices about how to handle his feelings, as mentioned in "The One with the Rumor
".
, New York
, Ross is the older brother of Monica Geller
, and is frequently shown to be the favored child of their parents. The two siblings are extremely competitive, as demonstrated in "The One with the Football", where it was revealed that every Thanksgiving during their childhood they had taken part in a football match called "The Geller Cup". This family tradition ended in its sixth year, after Monica "accidentally" broke Ross's nose. In their childhood, Monica and Ross were very competitive with each other- for example, in "The One with the Inappropriate Sister", they tell Rachel that they used to wrestle when they were younger-, and had various complications in their relationship, such as Ross having a recurring nightmare that the then-overweight Monica would eat him. Ross and Monica are half-Jewish, but see themselves as at least cultural Jews, with Ross taking a more active role in wanting to teach his son about the faith, as revealed in the episode "The One with the Holiday Armadillo". He also has two children called Ben and Emma. ( See "Children")
. His rationality
and Phoebe's eccentricity led to conflict over the theories of evolution, gravity, and whether or not Phoebe's dead mother was reincarnated as a cat. It was revealed in "The One with the Mugging" that Phoebe once mugged Ross during her homeless years (stealing a copy of the comic book Science Boy that Ross had created) when they were teenagers, although Phoebe was slightly cheered about the discovery as she had always felt like an outsider to the group as she lacked the longer-term connections of the others. The two were also flatmates for a few weeks when a fire forced Phoebe to spend some months at Chandler and Monica's apartment as Phoebe wanted to give the newly-engaged couple some time to themselves.
Ross sometimes describes Chandler Bing
as his best friend. He is shown to have had some old memories such as a band with Chandler called Way/No Way and also once blamed him when he was almost caught smoking marijuana in college. Ross is also close friends with Joey Tribbiani
and helps Joey with movie and stage auditions. He kisses Joey once in order to help him practise a role as a gay man. They also briefly try to cut Chandler out of their friendship group after he ignores them both in "The One with the Ring". Towards the end of the series, however, Ross and Joey are seen to become closer friends, often seen hanging out together after Chandler gets married. At one point, Ross tells Rachel Green
that Joey is his best friend, to which Rachel replies, "I thought Chandler was your best friend?" Ross begins explaining, "Well, Chandler's my oldest friend", but then refuses to discuss it further.
named Marcel. Their relationship was similar to that of a live-in couple. Marcel's sexual drive eventually forces Ross to donate him to the San Diego Zoo
. Ross visits Marcel in San Diego Zoo, finding out that he passed away. However, this proves to be untrue and Ross later finds out that Marcel has become a famous mascot for a brand of beer called Monkey Shine and is starring in Outbreak 2: The Virus Takes Manhattan. Marcel's favorite song is The Lion Sleeps Tonight
. Later in the series, Ross admits that his ownership of Marcel was unusual, saying in "The One With Unagi", "Remember when I had a monkey?... What was I thinking?" In The One With The Superbowl (1)
. It is a running joke that he pronounces it "ka-raa-tay", for which the others make fun of him. In "The One With Unagi", he claims that Unagi is a state of total awareness, despite his friends repeatedly telling him (correctly) that unagi
is Japanese freshwater eel. He ridicules the self-defense class that Rachel and Phoebe attend and surprises them to demonstrate that they lack Unagi. Rachel and Phoebe later surprise Ross and overpower him, however. In "The One That Could Have Been", Ross is still practicing karate, claiming that it was his means of releasing the frustration he felt at not having any sex with his with. Also in the episode before Chandler and Monica get married, Ross promises to "kick Chandler's ass" if he did anything to Monica which caused Chandler and the girls to laugh in hysterics. In the next episode he then attempts to karate chop Chandler whilst shouting "Hee-Yah!" which is again mocked. Ross is however shown to be an at least adequate fighter after fighting with a mugger (off-screen) as he stole Ross, Chandler and two bullies' personal belongings. He also attempts to punch Joey after being given a "free shot" later in the series however Joey ducks and Ross hits a lamp post. To prove it is "just a reflex" to duck when a fist is coming at your head, Joey demonstrates by punching Ross in the hope he too would duck, however he does not and Joey smacks him in the face.
While generally sweet-natured, he is often clumsy and socially awkward. Ross is sometimes shown to have a good sense of humor. He is the only member of the group of friends with a doctorate and he likes to mention this quite often, though the other friends sometimes mock him for not being a real doctor, much to his chagrin. In later seasons, Ross is also shown to be quite irritable, often breaking into angry outbursts over minor things. For example, in "The One With Ross's Sandwich", Ross is forced to take a sabbatical after yelling at his boss for stealing his sandwich (Although this was attributed to the sandwich being the final straw after the increasingly-terrible year he'd had due to his failed marriage and his eviction).
Ross dates a considerable number of women throughout the series. Most of his dates, however, were disrupted or completely ruined once his paranoia or geekiness got the best of him. Monica states that before Carol left Ross, he was never jealous, even though it was obvious to everyone except him that all his previous girlfriends were cheating on him. His jealousy often causes conflict in his relationships, and it drives Rachel away from him, after he became convinced that Rachel's co-worker Mark was flirting with her, despite it being clear that they were just friends. Their relationship ends when Ross sleeps with a woman named Chloe who works in a photocopy shop, while Ross and Rachel were "on a break." His jealousy has also been apparent during his relationship with Emily Waltham, when he feared she was growing too close to Carol's girlfriend, Susan; and when he dated student Elizabeth Stevens, and ultimately accompanies her on her spring break
vacation to ensure that she does not stray.
Despite being financially secure, Ross is notoriously cheap. He gets his hair cut at the bargain chain Super Cuts, steals toiletries and other amenities from hotels, and celebrates with Israeli champagne. Ross is often mocked by his friends about his annoying habits of correcting people's grammar and avoiding straightforward dialogue when nervous.
In an alternative reality storyline during the show ("The One That Could Have Been, Part 1"), Ross remains married to Carol, but their sex life is stagnant. Not realizing that she is a lesbian, Ross suggests to Carol that they have a threesome
, which ends up involving Susan. Ross said it ended up as a twosome. Later on, Ross is forced to accept that his wife is a lesbian and ends up consoling Rachel after she discovered that her husband, Barry, is having an affair as well with the neighborhood dog walker.
). When Rachel finds out about Ross's love for her, she goes to tell him she loves him too, but it was too late; Ross now had Julie as his girlfriend. At first, Rachel tries to interfere with their relationship by telling Ross to hold up on having sex when he confesses that he wants to take it slow with Julie. However, when Rachel starts to see how much Ross and Julie love each other, she mostly backs off and tries to accept it. But when drunk, she leaves a message on Ross's answering machine saying, "I'm over you." At first he asks, "When were you under me?" Upset, Rachel tells him the truth about her feelings for him. After much contemplating, and making a list of Pros and Cons, Ross realizes that the girl he has loved all along is Rachel, not Julie.
girlfriend Emily Waltham (played by Helen Baxendale
) in London. At the ceremony, however, Ross says Rachel's name during the vows. This leads to a breakdown of the relationship. Ross attempts to reconcile with Emily, but she insists that Ross cut off all contact with Rachel; when Ross is unable to comply, they get divorced. She later becomes engaged but calls Ross to say that she is having doubts about getting married. Rachel accidentally deletes the message and convinces Ross not to call her back.
, completed his Ph.D.
and later works at the New York Museum of Prehistoric History. In one episode, Ross claims to have "given up a career in basketball" to become a palaeontologist. At another point, however, he says that he picked palaeontology on a dare. He thinks that he would have been good at advertising and in "The One with the Mugging", Ross claims that he invented the phrase "Got Milk?
". He also claims to have had the original idea for Jurassic Park. In high school, he got a 1250 on his SATs, and was said to have been obsessed with dinosaurs even then.
Ross later works as a professor at New York University
and causes a stir among his colleagues by dating one of his students, Elizabeth. Eventually, he is given tenure
, despite that fact that his papers (including a publication on sediment flow rates) are supposedly widely discredited, forgetting a class once, boring his students to sleep and occasionally giving grades without even looking at students' work.
tickets to celebrate Ross's birthday on the October 20, Ross said that his birthday was "seven months ago", that would be March. In a discussion of birthdays in "The One with Joey's New Girlfriend", Ross tells Gunther, "Mine's December.." before being cut off by Gunther. There's also another episode which Ross mentions October 15th as his birthday.
Ross's age is not always treated consistently", aired in September 1994, Ross implies a birth year of 1967 or 1968 when he exclaims, "I'm only 26 and I'm divorced." Ross and Chandler graduated college in 1991. Ross mentions, however, that he skipped 4th Grade in Season 6. In "The One with the Videotape", Season 8, Ross mentions a (fictional) event in 1983, and in an aside notes "I was 13?," indicating a birthdate in 1969 or 1970. He describes himself as 29 in each of Seasons 3, 4 and 5. When a drunk man refers to Monica as Ross's mother at Ross's wedding rehearsal dinner in London, however, she expresses her distaste at having a "30-year-old son". In "The One Where they all Turn Thirty" in Season 7, the group mentions that they are all sad together as 30-year-olds and that in 10 years they will all be 40.
Age confusion is a general pattern with all the characters, because even though they are all supposed to be 33 or 34 at the end of the series, they were not 23 or 24 at the beginning of the 10-year series. This likely stems from the producers wanting this to be a "show about people in their late 20s", yet not realizing the show was going to become wildly popular internationally and therefore extended through many seasons.
Ross's younger child (born in the series) is Emma. She is conceived during a drunken night of intercourse between Ross and Rachel. Emma lives with Ross and Rachel until Rachel moves back in with Joey. She remains there for the rest of the series until Ross and Rachel get back together in the series finale
. Emma got her name because it was what Monica wanted her daughter to be named but she gives it to Rachel (claiming Rachel was more important, and since nothing went with 'Bing', she was screwed anyway).
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
is a fictional character
Fictional character
A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...
on the popular U.S.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
television series Friends
Friends
Friends is an American sitcom created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994 to May 6, 2004. The series revolves around a group of friends in Manhattan. The series was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television...
, portrayed by David Schwimmer
David Schwimmer
David Lawrence Schwimmer is an American actor and director of television and film. He was born in New York City, and his family moved to Los Angeles when he was two. He began his acting career performing in school plays at Beverly Hills High School. In 1988, he graduated from Northwestern...
. The character is noted for his geeky, lovable demeanor.
Origin
Ross' first line in the show was a depressive "Hi", which became somewhat of a catchphrase for him in the earlier seasons. He is introduced as being in the process of divorcing Carol Willick after having found out that she is a lesbianLesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
.
Overview
Ross is a paleontologist and has a Ph.D.Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
from Columbia
Columbia
Columbia may refer to:-Places:* Columbia , a poetic name for the Americas, and the feminine personification of the United States of America* District of Columbia, the federal district in which the capital of the United States is located...
, frequently referring to himself as "Dr. Geller" or "Dr. R. Geller". Ross is noted for being geeky, charming, love lost, witty, and somewhat artistic, showing an interest in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
when he coaches Joey Tribbiani
Joey Tribbiani
Joseph Francis "Joey" Tribbiani, Jr. is a fictional character on the popular U.S. television sitcom Friends and the title character in the spin-off, Joey , portrayed by Matt LeBlanc....
on the works of Monet when Joey tries to impress Charlie in the ninth season episode "The One With The Fertility Test". Ross has had a crush on Rachel Green
Rachel Green
Rachel Karen Green is a fictional character on the popular U.S. television sitcom Friends, portrayed by Jennifer Aniston. Aniston received an Emmy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Golden Globe for her performances.-Background:...
since high school, although he founded the "I Hate Rachel Green" club with his friend Will Colbert (played by Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt
William Bradley "Brad" Pitt is an American actor and film producer. Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one...
), who hated Rachel as she used to pick on him, due to his inability to express himself causing him to make poor choices about how to handle his feelings, as mentioned in "The One with the Rumor
The One with the Rumor
"The One with the Rumor" is the ninth episode of the eighth season of the American television situation comedy Friends, which aired on NBC on November 22, 2001...
".
Physical appearance
Ross is often teased about his hair by the group. An example is when Monica got a bad haircut by Phoebe, and when asked if they could see Monica, Phoebe replied "No, your hair all looks too good, it'll upset her... Ross, you go." Similarly in the episode, 'The one where Joey moves out', Ross expresses his dislike for tattoos by saying as if it is getting stuck with the same hairstyle all your life, which in return gets laughter from all the friends. He has had mishaps with his appearance, for example when he went to tanning salon he ended up with a deep tan (number 12 out of 3) on his front and no tan on his back by mistake in "The One with Ross's Tan". In "The One with Ross's Teeth" he decides to brighten up his teeth and whitens them but leaves the paste on for an extra day and his teeth glow in the dark when a black light is turned on.Family
Born and raised on Long IslandLong Island
Long Island is an island located in the southeast part of the U.S. state of New York, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are boroughs of New York City , and two of which are mainly suburban...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Ross is the older brother of Monica Geller
Monica Geller
Monica E. Geller Bing is a fictional character on the popular US television sitcom Friends, portrayed by Courteney Cox. Monica is known as the "Mother Hen" of the group and her Greenwich Village apartment was one of the group's main gathering places. She was also known for her obsessive personality...
, and is frequently shown to be the favored child of their parents. The two siblings are extremely competitive, as demonstrated in "The One with the Football", where it was revealed that every Thanksgiving during their childhood they had taken part in a football match called "The Geller Cup". This family tradition ended in its sixth year, after Monica "accidentally" broke Ross's nose. In their childhood, Monica and Ross were very competitive with each other- for example, in "The One with the Inappropriate Sister", they tell Rachel that they used to wrestle when they were younger-, and had various complications in their relationship, such as Ross having a recurring nightmare that the then-overweight Monica would eat him. Ross and Monica are half-Jewish, but see themselves as at least cultural Jews, with Ross taking a more active role in wanting to teach his son about the faith, as revealed in the episode "The One with the Holiday Armadillo". He also has two children called Ben and Emma. ( See "Children")
Friends
Ross often came into conflict with his close friend Phoebe BuffayPhoebe Buffay
Phoebe Buffay-Hannigan is a fictional character on the U.S. television sitcom Friends , portrayed by Lisa Kudrow...
. His rationality
Rationality
In philosophy, rationality is the exercise of reason. It is the manner in which people derive conclusions when considering things deliberately. It also refers to the conformity of one's beliefs with one's reasons for belief, or with one's actions with one's reasons for action...
and Phoebe's eccentricity led to conflict over the theories of evolution, gravity, and whether or not Phoebe's dead mother was reincarnated as a cat. It was revealed in "The One with the Mugging" that Phoebe once mugged Ross during her homeless years (stealing a copy of the comic book Science Boy that Ross had created) when they were teenagers, although Phoebe was slightly cheered about the discovery as she had always felt like an outsider to the group as she lacked the longer-term connections of the others. The two were also flatmates for a few weeks when a fire forced Phoebe to spend some months at Chandler and Monica's apartment as Phoebe wanted to give the newly-engaged couple some time to themselves.
Ross sometimes describes Chandler Bing
Chandler Bing
Chandler Muriel Bing is a fictional character on the popular U.S. television sitcom Friends, portrayed by Matthew Perry.-Background:Chandler Muriel Bing was born on April 8, 1968, the son of an erotic novelist mother and a cross-dressing Las Vegas star and is of Scottish ancestry. Chandler was Ross...
as his best friend. He is shown to have had some old memories such as a band with Chandler called Way/No Way and also once blamed him when he was almost caught smoking marijuana in college. Ross is also close friends with Joey Tribbiani
Joey Tribbiani
Joseph Francis "Joey" Tribbiani, Jr. is a fictional character on the popular U.S. television sitcom Friends and the title character in the spin-off, Joey , portrayed by Matt LeBlanc....
and helps Joey with movie and stage auditions. He kisses Joey once in order to help him practise a role as a gay man. They also briefly try to cut Chandler out of their friendship group after he ignores them both in "The One with the Ring". Towards the end of the series, however, Ross and Joey are seen to become closer friends, often seen hanging out together after Chandler gets married. At one point, Ross tells Rachel Green
Rachel Green
Rachel Karen Green is a fictional character on the popular U.S. television sitcom Friends, portrayed by Jennifer Aniston. Aniston received an Emmy Award, a Screen Actors Guild Award, and a Golden Globe for her performances.-Background:...
that Joey is his best friend, to which Rachel replies, "I thought Chandler was your best friend?" Ross begins explaining, "Well, Chandler's my oldest friend", but then refuses to discuss it further.
Marcel
After his divorce from Carol, Ross adopts a Capuchin monkeyCapuchin monkey
The capuchins are New World monkeys of the genus Cebus. The range of capuchin monkeys includes Central America and South America as far south as northern Argentina...
named Marcel. Their relationship was similar to that of a live-in couple. Marcel's sexual drive eventually forces Ross to donate him to the San Diego Zoo
San Diego Zoo
The San Diego Zoo in Balboa Park, San Diego, California, is one of the most progressive zoos in the world, with over 4,000 animals of more than 800 species...
. Ross visits Marcel in San Diego Zoo, finding out that he passed away. However, this proves to be untrue and Ross later finds out that Marcel has become a famous mascot for a brand of beer called Monkey Shine and is starring in Outbreak 2: The Virus Takes Manhattan. Marcel's favorite song is The Lion Sleeps Tonight
The Lion Sleeps Tonight
"The Lion Sleeps Tonight", also known as "Wimoweh" and originally as "Mbube", is a song recorded by Solomon Linda and his group The Evening Birds for the South African Gallo Record Company in 1939. It was covered internationally by many 1950s pop and folk revival artists, including The Weavers,...
. Later in the series, Ross admits that his ownership of Marcel was unusual, saying in "The One With Unagi", "Remember when I had a monkey?... What was I thinking?" In The One With The Superbowl (1)
Karate
Ross is said to be a former practitioner of karateKarate
is a martial art developed in the Ryukyu Islands in what is now Okinawa, Japan. It was developed from indigenous fighting methods called and Chinese kenpō. Karate is a striking art using punching, kicking, knee and elbow strikes, and open-handed techniques such as knife-hands. Grappling, locks,...
. It is a running joke that he pronounces it "ka-raa-tay", for which the others make fun of him. In "The One With Unagi", he claims that Unagi is a state of total awareness, despite his friends repeatedly telling him (correctly) that unagi
Unagi
Unagi is the Japanese word for freshwater eels, especially the Japanese eel, Anguilla japonica. Saltwater eels are known as anago in Japanese. Unagi are a common ingredient in Japanese cooking...
is Japanese freshwater eel. He ridicules the self-defense class that Rachel and Phoebe attend and surprises them to demonstrate that they lack Unagi. Rachel and Phoebe later surprise Ross and overpower him, however. In "The One That Could Have Been", Ross is still practicing karate, claiming that it was his means of releasing the frustration he felt at not having any sex with his with. Also in the episode before Chandler and Monica get married, Ross promises to "kick Chandler's ass" if he did anything to Monica which caused Chandler and the girls to laugh in hysterics. In the next episode he then attempts to karate chop Chandler whilst shouting "Hee-Yah!" which is again mocked. Ross is however shown to be an at least adequate fighter after fighting with a mugger (off-screen) as he stole Ross, Chandler and two bullies' personal belongings. He also attempts to punch Joey after being given a "free shot" later in the series however Joey ducks and Ross hits a lamp post. To prove it is "just a reflex" to duck when a fist is coming at your head, Joey demonstrates by punching Ross in the hope he too would duck, however he does not and Joey smacks him in the face.
Apartment
In seasons one through four, Ross lives in the same apartment. In Season 5, he moves from his old apartment at the insistence of his second wife. He spends a short time living with Chandler and Joey before settling into an apartment across the street from Monica's place which belonged to Ugly Naked Guy. Ross managed to get this apartment by meeting up with him naked, which is then seen by all of the other friends. It was revealed in "The One with the Birthing Video" that the apartment had more than one bedroom, when Rachel moved in during seasons 8 and 9, so that Ross could be with his baby. In the final episode Ross claims to be the only friend never to live in what was Monica's apartment for the show. However Monica replies that Ross lived there with his grandmother when trying to make it as a dancer, prompting Ross to say, "You know we nearly made it ten years without that coming up."Personality
Ross is born on October 18th. (but he says in 'The One with Joey's Girlfriend' that it is in December)While generally sweet-natured, he is often clumsy and socially awkward. Ross is sometimes shown to have a good sense of humor. He is the only member of the group of friends with a doctorate and he likes to mention this quite often, though the other friends sometimes mock him for not being a real doctor, much to his chagrin. In later seasons, Ross is also shown to be quite irritable, often breaking into angry outbursts over minor things. For example, in "The One With Ross's Sandwich", Ross is forced to take a sabbatical after yelling at his boss for stealing his sandwich (Although this was attributed to the sandwich being the final straw after the increasingly-terrible year he'd had due to his failed marriage and his eviction).
Ross dates a considerable number of women throughout the series. Most of his dates, however, were disrupted or completely ruined once his paranoia or geekiness got the best of him. Monica states that before Carol left Ross, he was never jealous, even though it was obvious to everyone except him that all his previous girlfriends were cheating on him. His jealousy often causes conflict in his relationships, and it drives Rachel away from him, after he became convinced that Rachel's co-worker Mark was flirting with her, despite it being clear that they were just friends. Their relationship ends when Ross sleeps with a woman named Chloe who works in a photocopy shop, while Ross and Rachel were "on a break." His jealousy has also been apparent during his relationship with Emily Waltham, when he feared she was growing too close to Carol's girlfriend, Susan; and when he dated student Elizabeth Stevens, and ultimately accompanies her on her spring break
Spring break
Spring break – also known as March break, Study week or Reading week in the United Kingdom and some parts of Canada – is a recess in early spring at universities and schools in the United States, Canada, mainland China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, the United...
vacation to ensure that she does not stray.
Despite being financially secure, Ross is notoriously cheap. He gets his hair cut at the bargain chain Super Cuts, steals toiletries and other amenities from hotels, and celebrates with Israeli champagne. Ross is often mocked by his friends about his annoying habits of correcting people's grammar and avoiding straightforward dialogue when nervous.
Relationships
Ross's three divorces were a continuous joke throughout the show. He says that he loves "being so committed to someone like that", and is shown to have real unbounded enthusiasm for proposing.Carol Willick
Ross divorces his first wife of eight years, Carol, when she reveals that she is a lesbian and is having an affair with Susan Bunch, whom she met at the gym. After the initial post-relationship complications had been overcome, however, they were generally able to get along, and shared custody of their son, Ben, who was born in "The One with the Birth"—one of the final episodes of the first season. Ross even achieved a certain reconciliation with Susan after Phoebe helped the two of them see that they were all going to be parents to Carol and Ross's son, Ross later helping Carol and Susan reconcile when they had an argument about Carol's parents' disapproval of their marriage. Ross and Carol claim to have been married in 1989, when Ross was 21. He tells his second wife, Emily, that he dated Carol for four years before marriage.In an alternative reality storyline during the show ("The One That Could Have Been, Part 1"), Ross remains married to Carol, but their sex life is stagnant. Not realizing that she is a lesbian, Ross suggests to Carol that they have a threesome
Threesome
A threesome is a group of three engaged in the same activity. In relation to a sexual activity a threesome refer to the activity involving three people of any gender or sexual orientation...
, which ends up involving Susan. Ross said it ended up as a twosome. Later on, Ross is forced to accept that his wife is a lesbian and ends up consoling Rachel after she discovered that her husband, Barry, is having an affair as well with the neighborhood dog walker.
Julie
While in China, Ross meets Julie (played by Lauren TomLauren Tom
Lauren Tom is an American actress and voice actress perhaps best known for her roles as Lena St Clair in The Joy Luck Club, Julie in the TV series Friends, and for providing the voices for both mother and daughter characters on two animated TV comedy series: on Futurama she voices Amy Wong and her...
). When Rachel finds out about Ross's love for her, she goes to tell him she loves him too, but it was too late; Ross now had Julie as his girlfriend. At first, Rachel tries to interfere with their relationship by telling Ross to hold up on having sex when he confesses that he wants to take it slow with Julie. However, when Rachel starts to see how much Ross and Julie love each other, she mostly backs off and tries to accept it. But when drunk, she leaves a message on Ross's answering machine saying, "I'm over you." At first he asks, "When were you under me?" Upset, Rachel tells him the truth about her feelings for him. After much contemplating, and making a list of Pros and Cons, Ross realizes that the girl he has loved all along is Rachel, not Julie.
Mona
For a few episodes he has a relationship with Mona, who wants the relationship go forward. But he has issues and for example changes the locks to his apartment after giving Mona a set of keys.Rachel Green
Rachel is Ross's most significant relationship in the series, as detailed here.Emily Waltham
During Season Four, Ross marries his EnglishUnited Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
girlfriend Emily Waltham (played by Helen Baxendale
Helen Baxendale
Helen Victoria Baxendale is an English actress of stage and television, possibly best-known for her roles in Cold Feet, Friends and Cardiac Arrest.-Early life:...
) in London. At the ceremony, however, Ross says Rachel's name during the vows. This leads to a breakdown of the relationship. Ross attempts to reconcile with Emily, but she insists that Ross cut off all contact with Rachel; when Ross is unable to comply, they get divorced. She later becomes engaged but calls Ross to say that she is having doubts about getting married. Rachel accidentally deletes the message and convinces Ross not to call her back.
Career
Ross trained for a career in paleontologyPaleontology
Paleontology "old, ancient", ὄν, ὀντ- "being, creature", and λόγος "speech, thought") is the study of prehistoric life. It includes the study of fossils to determine organisms' evolution and interactions with each other and their environments...
, completed his Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...
and later works at the New York Museum of Prehistoric History. In one episode, Ross claims to have "given up a career in basketball" to become a palaeontologist. At another point, however, he says that he picked palaeontology on a dare. He thinks that he would have been good at advertising and in "The One with the Mugging", Ross claims that he invented the phrase "Got Milk?
Got Milk?
Got Milk? is an American advertising campaign encouraging the consumption of cow's milk, which was created by the advertising agency Goodby Silverstein & Partners for the California Milk Processor Board in 1993 and later licensed for use by milk processors and dairy farmers. It has been running...
". He also claims to have had the original idea for Jurassic Park. In high school, he got a 1250 on his SATs, and was said to have been obsessed with dinosaurs even then.
Ross later works as a professor at New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
and causes a stir among his colleagues by dating one of his students, Elizabeth. Eventually, he is given tenure
Tenure
Tenure commonly refers to life tenure in a job and specifically to a senior academic's contractual right not to have his or her position terminated without just cause.-19th century:...
, despite that fact that his papers (including a publication on sediment flow rates) are supposedly widely discredited, forgetting a class once, boring his students to sleep and occasionally giving grades without even looking at students' work.
Age and birthday
Two episodes state Ross's birthday as October 18, Ross gives that date as his birthday; it was also the date in "The One With Five Steaks and an Eggplant". In "The One with George Stephanopoulos", however, when Joey and Chandler buy New York RangersNew York Rangers
The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the borough of Manhattan in New York, New York, USA. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League . Playing their home games at Madison Square Garden, the Rangers are one of the...
tickets to celebrate Ross's birthday on the October 20, Ross said that his birthday was "seven months ago", that would be March. In a discussion of birthdays in "The One with Joey's New Girlfriend", Ross tells Gunther, "Mine's December.." before being cut off by Gunther. There's also another episode which Ross mentions October 15th as his birthday.
Ross's age is not always treated consistently", aired in September 1994, Ross implies a birth year of 1967 or 1968 when he exclaims, "I'm only 26 and I'm divorced." Ross and Chandler graduated college in 1991. Ross mentions, however, that he skipped 4th Grade in Season 6. In "The One with the Videotape", Season 8, Ross mentions a (fictional) event in 1983, and in an aside notes "I was 13?," indicating a birthdate in 1969 or 1970. He describes himself as 29 in each of Seasons 3, 4 and 5. When a drunk man refers to Monica as Ross's mother at Ross's wedding rehearsal dinner in London, however, she expresses her distaste at having a "30-year-old son". In "The One Where they all Turn Thirty" in Season 7, the group mentions that they are all sad together as 30-year-olds and that in 10 years they will all be 40.
Age confusion is a general pattern with all the characters, because even though they are all supposed to be 33 or 34 at the end of the series, they were not 23 or 24 at the beginning of the 10-year series. This likely stems from the producers wanting this to be a "show about people in their late 20s", yet not realizing the show was going to become wildly popular internationally and therefore extended through many seasons.
Children
Ross has two children. The elder, Ben, was Ross and Carol's son. He was conceived before the show began, while the couple was still married, and born in "The One with the Birth". Ben lives with Carol and her lover Susan and was named after a janitor's uniform name-tag seen in that episode. Ben is shy at first, but Rachel transforms him into a mischievous prankster. He was played by Cole Sprouse. He is hardly seen at all in Seasons 2-6 and isn't seen in Seasons 9 and 10, even though he is mentioned.Ross's younger child (born in the series) is Emma. She is conceived during a drunken night of intercourse between Ross and Rachel. Emma lives with Ross and Rachel until Rachel moves back in with Joey. She remains there for the rest of the series until Ross and Rachel get back together in the series finale
Series finale
A series finale refers to the last installment of a series with a narrative presented through mediums such as television, film and literature. In many Commonwealth countries, the term final episode is commonly used in regards to a television series...
. Emma got her name because it was what Monica wanted her daughter to be named but she gives it to Rachel (claiming Rachel was more important, and since nothing went with 'Bing', she was screwed anyway).