The Pilot
Encyclopedia
The pilot episode of the American situation comedy
series Friends
premiered on NBC (National Broadcasting Company)
on September 22, 1994. It was written by series creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman
, and directed by James Burrows
. The pilot
introduces six friends who live and work in New York City
; Monica
(Courteney Cox
) sleeps with a wine seller after their first date but is horrified to discover he tricked her into bed; her brother Ross
(David Schwimmer
) is depressed after his lesbian ex-wife moves her things out of their apartment; Monica's old schoolfriend Rachel
(Jennifer Aniston
) moves in with Monica after running out of her wedding; and their friends, Joey
, Chandler
and Phoebe
(Matt LeBlanc
, Matthew Perry
and Lisa Kudrow
) offer them each support and advice.
Crane and Kauffman pitched their original idea to network NBC in December 1993. NBC liked it and commissioned a complete script, which was submitted in March 1994. Before the script was finished, casting for the six main roles began; 75 actors were seen for each part. The pilot was taped on May 4, 1994 at Warner Bros.
' studios in Burbank, California
. After making final edits to the episode, executive producer Kevin Bright
submitted it on May 11, two days before NBC was due to announce the schedule. Satisfied with the completed pilot, NBC ordered 12 more episodes for the first season. Critics compared the show unfavorably to Seinfeld
and Ellen
, noting the similarities all three series had in depicting friends conversing about their lives. The cast, particularly Schwimmer, were complimented, though there was some concern that the character roles were undeveloped.
Everyone wants the inside details about the guy who Monica is going to go out with later that night. She claims there is nothing to tell, she just works with him. But Joey and Chandler want details ... after all something has to be wrong with him if he is willingly going on a date with Monica. Chandler asks if he has a hump or a lot of hair. Phoebe gets in on the action by asking if he likes to eat chalk. (This causes the gang to give their friend a strange look, but that is a normal response to most of what Phoebe says.) Phoebe explains that she once dated a guy who ate chalk and his name was Carl. Monica finally tells her friends to chill, it's just a date and no sex will be involved.
Next scene is still at Central Perk, just at a later time. The four of them are still sitting around the couch, this time discussing their dreams. Chandler mentions a recurring dream of going back to high school, being in the middle of the cafeteria totally naked. Everyone chimes in that they had the same dream. But Chandler continues by saying he looked down to his private region to find a telephone there instead of the usual equipment. The gang quickly refutes that they have never had a dream like that in their life. Chandler adds that the phone begins to ring and he answers it, and the person calling is his mother and he says it's weird because she never calls him in real life.
Ross, Monica's older brother, enters Central Perk. He is completely depressed and looks terrible. Monica asks if he is okay and Ross responds by saying he "feels like someone pulled out his small intestine via his throat and then tied it around his neck." Chandler, in his usual joking manner, asks if he would like a cookie.
Monica tells the group that Carol, Ross' ex-wife, moved her stuff out of the apartment today, so that is why Ross feels like this. Carol was Ross' wife and the first woman he slept with. They were married for an unspecified amount of time before she got a divorce on the grounds that she was a lesbian. This only makes Ross feel that much worse. Now he feels his manhood is at stake.
Phoebe noticing Ross' demeanor immediately gets up from her seat and takes her fingers and plucks at the air around Ross, trying to clear his aura. Ross, clearly agitated, tells Phoebe to stop and that he will be fine and that he hopes Carol will finally be happy.
Monica tells Ross that he doesn't want Carol to be happy and Joey wonders why Ross never knew she was a lesbian before. Ross goes into a spasm and tells everyone to stop fixating on her being a lesbian, he didn't know, and she didn't know. Joey offers to help Ross out by taking him to a strip joint but Ross does not want to go, he doesn't want to be single, he wants to be married again.
At this point, the final main character, Rachel, enters the scene at Central Perk. She is in a big wedding dress and is completely soaking. She looks around the coffee shop, trying to locate Monica, whom she hasn't seen for awhile. Monica notices Rachel and calls out to her.
Rachel tells Monica she just went to her apartment but couldn't find her and a guy with a big hammer told her to go to Central Perk. Monica introduces Rachel to the gang, mentioning that she is a graduate of Lincoln High School, apparently the same school as Monica and Ross. She goes to hug Ross, but the umbrella he is holding opens, making it impossible for Rachel to give him a hug without bodily harm. Ross sits back down, his umbrella deflated along with his ego.
No one speaks for a moment as the entire gang looks at Rachel, wet in her wedding dress, expecting her to explain her unusual appearance. She doesn't until Monica asks. Turns out, Rachel got cold feet and could not marry her fiancé, Barry, a dentist. Thirty minutes before her wedding she looked at all her presents and fixated on a gravy boat. She had an epiphany that at that moment she was more turned on by the expensive gravy boat than by Barry. She got freaked out and realized that Barry had an uncanny resemblance to Mr Potato Head, so she left him at the alter. She didn't know where to go and the only person she knew in the city was Monica, so she headed to her place.
At Monica's apartment, all are present and they are in the living room watching a Spanish soap opera, pretending what will happen, making comments about the outfits. Joey tells the character to push the woman down the stairs and then Joey, Chandler, Phoebe and Ross chant "Push her down the stairs" and cheer when it happens.
In the background, Rachel is on the phone, talking to her father. She is letting him know that she can't marry Barry because she doesn't love him. She starts arguing with her Dad that it does matter whether or not she is in love or not and that she is an adult now and can make her own decisions. Her Dad doesn't understand it completely and she informs him that she won't move back home but is going to move in with Monica and be her roommate, which is news to Monica. Her dad then says if that's her decision, not to get married, then he will cut her off from his money.
The scene cuts to a few minutes later when Rachel is off the phone, having an apparent anxiety attack over the prospect of not being able to use her father's credit cards anymore, which means she will need to get a job. She breathes into a paper bag while Phoebe sings a line of "My Favorite Things" from the Sound of Music. Her off-key singing causes Rachel to pretend to be better so Phoebe will stop singing. Phoebe is happy, thinking her singing cheered her up.
Monica and Joey try and cheer Rachel up. Monica does the proper best friend technique of inspiration and motivation. Joey, the womanizer, uses a pick-up line. Monica chastises Joey for trying to hit on a girl on her wedding day. Joey doesn't see what the big deal is.
The door buzzer sounds and Chandler goes towards it. It's Paul. He's come to take Monica for their date. Everyone asks who Paul is, and Monica tells them he is the "Wine Guy" from the restaurant where Monica is a chef.
Monica is torn because Rachel is depressed, and she doesn't want to go on a date if it will make Rachel feel bad. Rachel insists. Monica then turns to her brother Ross and asks if he's okay or if he wants her to stay. Ross gets choked up and says that would be nice if she would stay home. Monica is shocked as she wasn't expecting that response. But Ross was playing a joke and he tells her to go.
Paul knocks on the door and Monica introduces him to the gang. She tells Paul she will be ready in 'two seconds' and goes toward her room.
Ross goes up to Rachel and asks her about her plans for the evening. She tells Ross that her original plan was to be in Aruba by now for her honeymoon. Ross tries to make her feel better by saying it's better that she is not in Aruba because of the "big lizards" there at this time of the year. He then tells her that if she feels alone, Joey and Chandler will be over at his place helping put together some furniture. Rachel tells Ross she will just hang out at home. Joey goes to Phoebe and asks if she wants to come over and help. She says she wishes she could but she doesn't want to.
At Ross' apartment, Joey, Chandler and Ross are putting together furniture. Ross reads the instructions for the bookcase, not knowing what the tools used to hold together the shelves are called. Joey and Chandler finish the assembly and Joey notices a bit on the floor. Neither have a clue what it is or where it goes. They wait for Ross to turn his head and Joey throws the bit into a potted plant.
Ross has a beer in his hand and begins to softly cry when he remembers that this beer is Carol's favorite. She liked to drink it straight from the can, a sign that Ross thought should have told him she was lesbian. Joey asks Ross what he got in their divorce settlement since she got all the furniture and material possessions. Ross says "you guys"; Chandler and Joey confirm that Ross got screwed.
Cut to Monica and Paul eating in a restaurant. Paul is telling Monica about his divorce and how he should have suspected something when his wife was going to her dentist for cleanings four to five times a week. Monica tells Paul her brother is going through the same thing as well and Paul recommends that Ross try and break something valuable of hers to ease the pain. Paul broke his ex-wife's watch.
Cut to Monica's apartment and Rachel is by herself, talking on the phone. She called Barry and is apparently on his answering machine profusely apologizing for standing him up at the altar. The machine cut her off in mid-apology, so she redials and continues.
Cut to Ross' apartment where Ross is still going on about his divorce. He is afraid that there might only be one woman for everyone. So now that he has had only one woman, perhaps that's the end for him. Joey, in his macho ways, disagrees with Ross's claim of "one woman" and says women are like ice cream. There are many different flavors and many different toppings, so the choices are nearly endless.
Back at the restaurant, Paul is still talking about his ex-wife. He told Monica that he has not been able to perform in the bedroom in the two years since his wife left him. Monica spits out her drink at the shock of this revelation. He asks her if she still wants another date, knowing this fact. She jumps for it.
Cut to Rachel at Monica's apartment. She is watching the pilot episode of "Joanie Loves Chachi" where Joanie marries Chachi. She scoffs at the show.
Cut to Ross at his apartment. He is scornfully talking to himself, still upset about his divorce and even what Joey told him. He asks himself who is he supposed to ask out and he gazes out his window, which happens to be directly across from Monica and Rachel's window and he sees Rachel staring out her apartment.
The following morning, at Monica and Rachel's apartment, Rachel makes coffee for Joey and Chandler. This is the first time she has ever made coffee. The two men congratulate her. They start to drink, and grimace at the taste and pour the rest of the coffee into a potted plant.
Monica enters the kitchen from her bedroom with a happy expression. Paul follows her shortly after. The two greet the gang. Monica and Paul walk to the front door of the apartment and talk low so no one can hear what they are saying. Despite this fact, the others move the kitchen table towards the front door so they can hear what Monica is saying.
Monica tells Paul she had a great time last night and he agrees. She tells him she will talk to him later; they kiss and he leaves.
Joey wants to know why, the day before, she said her date with Paul wasn't a real date because it would be dinner but no sex. He gets curious as to what her real dates are like. She tells him to shut up and puts her table back where it belongs.
Chandler tells everyone good-bye, he has to get to work inputting numbers into a computer. Rachel wonders if everyone else has a job, too. They do. Joey is a regional actor. Monica tells her that everyone has a job and that is how they can afford to live. It is not mentioned here what Phoebe and Ross do.
Joey and Chandler leave Monica's apartment. Rachel notices that Monica can't stop smiling. She tells Rachel she really likes Paul but is going to go to work and try not to think about Paul. Rachel tells Monica to wish her luck because she is going to look for "one of those job things."
At Iridium, Monica's restaurant, a co-worker, Frannie, enters and greets Monica. Monica greets Frannie back and asks how her vacation went. Immediately, Frannie tells Monica that must have had sex last night. Monica is amazed at Frannie's ability to detect these things. She tells Frannie the guy was Paul, the wine guy. Frannie tells Monica that she knows Paul, she went out with him before and takes credit for having helped him have sex after a two year dry spell.
Next scene is at Central Perk. Everyone is there except Rachel. Monica is on the sofa and is crying about why Paul would deceive her. Joey, perching himself on the edge of the sofa laughs at Monica, telling her it was the most obvious line in the book.
Rachel enters the coffee shop with a bunch of bags from expensive clothing stores. She tells everyone she went to twelve interviews and was laughed out of each one, but she is smiling and happy because she found her favorite pair of boots on sale for half off. Monica asks how she could afford to buy boots if she doesn't have a job or any money. Rachel says she used a credit card her Dad gave her, meaning her Dad paid for the purchase.
Cut to Monica and Rachel's apartment with the entire gang sitting around the kitchen table with Rachel in the middle and Monica at her side. On the table are all of Rachel's credit cards along with a pair of scissors.
Monica urges Rachel to cut the cards because she can't live off her parents her entire life. Phoebe tells Monica to ease up because she remembers when she first came to New York City. She was 14, her mom had killed herself, and her step-dad was back in prison. She got to the city and didn't know a single person. She ended up living with an albino janitor man who eventually killed himself. So she found aromatherapy, thus she knows "exactly" how Rachel is feeling.
The group pauses, dumb-founded by Phoebe's story. The gang helps Rachel get the courage to cut her credit cards by chanting "cut cut cut" and, once she cuts her cards, they cheer.
Cut to later that night. Monica, Ross and Rachel just finished watching a movie. Monica heads off to bed, leaving Ross and Rachel alone in the living room.
Ross and Rachel both reach for the same cookie at the same time, both telling the other one they can have it. Finally, they decide to split it. Ross confesses that in high school he had a major crush on her. Rachel knew. Ross uses that moment to ask her if he could ask her out sometime. Rachel says, "Yeah, maybe" and she tells Ross goodnight and heads to her room.
At Central Perk, Joey and Monica are talking and every word they say, Phoebe repeats it by singing it. Monica asks her to stop. Phoebe didn't realize she was "doing it again." Rachel walks up to the group and ask if they want a cup of coffee; she is now an official worker at Central Perk.
were known in the television industry for writing the cable television series Dream On
. A second series by the duo, Family Album, had premiered on CBS
in the Fall 1993 season but was cancelled after airing six episodes. In November 1993, they began developing three new television pilots from their offices at Warner Bros. Television
that could premiere in the Fall 1994 season. As Dream On had won them clout in Hollywood, they aimed to pitch one of their ideas to NBC
; Insomnia Cafe, about six friends who live and work in New York City
, was pitched as a seven-page treatment to the network in December 1993.
NBC bought the pitch as a put pilot, meaning they risked financial penalties if the pilot was not filmed. To get an idea of how their characters would behave, Kauffman interviewed several of her children's twenty-something babysitters. She and Crane wrote the script in three days. James Burrows
, known for directing Cheers
, was hired to direct it. He liked the script, though asked for Joey, who was originally written similarly to Chandler, to be "dumbed up a bit". The script was completed in early March 1994, though before then eight-line character breakdowns had been sent to acting agencies in Los Angeles
, New York and Chicago
.
when his agent offered him the audition. He was not interested in doing television after a bad experience appearing in Monty
, but changed his mind when he learned that it was an ensemble script. Unknown to him, Crane and Kauffman had remembered him from when he auditioned for an earlier pilot of theirs; they had written the part of Ross with Schwimmer in mind to play him. Eric McCormack
also auditioned for the role several times. He later became famous for his lead role in the sitcom Will & Grace
.
Courteney Cox was the best-known of the six main actors. She was called in expecting to read for the part of Rachel. After reading for Monica instead, she won the role. Nancy McKeon
also read for the part. Jennifer Aniston read for the part of Rachel after initially being considered for Monica. Her commitment as an actress on the TV series Muddling Through left her part in Friends in doubt; Muddling Through was not scheduled to be broadcast by CBS until mid-1994, after NBC's announcement of whether Friends would be greenlit
for a series. If Muddling Through became a ratings success, the role of Rachel would have needed recasting, as the producer of Muddling Through would not allow Aniston to be released from her contract. A deal was eventually struck and, within three days of first auditioning, Aniston got the role. Crane and Kauffman wanted Joey to be "a guy's guy" who loves "women, sports, women, New York, women". The actors auditioned using the "grab a spoon" scene, and many arrived in character with "lots of chest showing". As the Joey character was not developed much in the script, Matt LeBlanc just used his experience playing "this Italian, kind of dim character" from Vinny and Bobby. He had at least eight auditions for the part, and in his final one read with Aniston and Cox.
Chandler and Phoebe had originally been written as more secondary characters who were just there to provide humor around the other four; Matthew Perry described Chandler in the pilot script as "an observer of other people's lives". They had become part of the core group by the time casting concluded. Crane believed that the part of Chandler, described in the character breakdown as "a droll, dry guy", would be the easiest to cast, though it proved more difficult than he initially hoped. Perry had previously worked with Kauffman and Crane on an episode of Dream On, and requested an audition when he identified with the character. He was turned down due to his involvement as a cast member in LAX 2194, a television pilot about airport baggage handler
s in the future. After the producers of Friends saw LAX 2194, it became clear to them that it would not be picked up for a series, and Perry was granted an audition. He read for the role near the end of the casting period and got it in under a week. Before Perry was cast, Craig Bierko
was the first choice for the role. Bierko was a friend of Perry's, and Perry coached him for his audition to help him get to know what the Chandler character was like. Jon Cryer
had also auditioned for the part. He was doing a play in London
and read for a British casting director, though his audition tape did not arrive at Warner Bros. in time for him to be considered.
Many actresses who read for Phoebe arrived at the audition in character, wearing "bell bottoms and clunky shoes and nose rings". Lisa Kudrow won the role because the producers liked her as Ursula, the waitress in Mad About You
. She was second to be cast, though there was about a month between her and Schwimmer being signed on. Many of the actors seen by Moonves were "too theatrical" in performing comedy; Crane described the six successful actors as being the only ones who "nailed" their parts. The six actors met for the first time altogether at the read-through
on April 28, 1994. John Allen Nelson
and Clea Lewis
guest-star as Paul and Franny, Monica's date and co-worker respectively. Cynthia Mann appears as a Central Perk waitress.
A dress rehearsal was held on May 2, two days before taping. Several NBC executives watched the rehearsal and were concerned that Monica did not care enough about Paul to sleep with him on their first date. NBC West Coast president Don Ohlmeyer
believed that the audience would perceive her as "a slut". Crane, Kauffman and Warner Bros. executives disagreed, and surveyed the other people watching the rehearsal to support their position. Despite the audience agreeing with them, they had to take NBC's considerations into account in case they lost the commission; they rewrote Monica's lines to show that she cared about Paul. NBC also wanted a scene removed that implied the supposedly impotent Paul was getting an erection, as it would violate network standards. Crane and Kauffman rewrote the scene and found they preferred the new version, as it made the scene "smart and subtler". They sought to protect other parts of the script, some major and some minor; NBC wanted two of the pilot's three storylines downplayed to subplots, but the writers were adamant that all three should carry equal weight. They also favored not cutting the "Mr. Potato Head" line. Their final script draft was completed on May 3.
The episode was taped on May 4 at Warner Bros.' studios in Burbank, California
. A total of eight hours of material was filmed (two hours from each of the four cameras), which was edited down to 22 minutes under Bright's supervision. Bright submitted it to NBC on May 10, 72 hours before the fall schedule was announced. NBC ordered Bright to make further edits, which he completed at 1 a.m. on May 11. On May 12, NBC screened the finished pilot to focus groups, who gave positive but mixed reactions. The network announced the fall schedule on May 13 and ordered an additional 12 episodes of Friends for its first season. Crane and Kauffman immediately received telephone calls from writers' agents who wanted to get their clients jobs on the series.
Critics likened the episode to Seinfeld and Ellen
; Tom Feran in The Plain Dealer wrote that it traded "vaguely and less successfully on the hanging-out style of Seinfeld", and Ann Hodges of the Houston Chronicle
called it "the new Seinfeld wannabe, but it will never be as funny as Seinfeld. Even as Seinfeld is now, which isn't as funny as it used to be". Hodges criticized the "stiflingly dull social circle" as "short to the point of painful in brainpower". Robert Bianco in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote that the "constant comic bantering grows a little tired, just as it would if it ever actually happened in real life", and questioned why the six characters had so much free time to talk about dates. In the Los Angeles Daily News
, Ray Richmond
, who had also seen the following two episodes, called the cast a "likeable, youth ensemble" with "good chemistry". He added that while Friends was "one of the brighter comedies of the new season", the pilot was "very weak". Diane Holloway for the Austin American-Statesman
questioned Friends billing as a "sophisticated comedy", writing, "What's sophisticated about a guy who dreams his penis is a telephone?" She called the scene where Monica discovers Paul's impotence was a lie the least funny part of the episode, though conceded that the episode as a whole did have some funny moments. Robert P. Laurence wrote in The San Diego Union-Tribune
that "A lot happens, but you'll still get the feeling you've seen Friends before", calling it "Seinfeld Plus Two. Or Ellen Plus Five." In the Chicago Sun-Times
, Ginny Holbert rated the episode three stars, and wrote "The clever series [...] stars an appealing group of actors who are just a bit funnier and better-looking than your average friend" but that Joey and Rachel's characteristics were under-developed.
The Los Angeles Times called it "flat-out the best comedy series of the new season". Variety
s Tony Scott had optimistic hopes for the series; he enjoyed the premise but was concerned that dialogue from the writers of Dream On should be "snappier". Scott was also concerned that the Monica storyline set a bad example to younger viewers; "Friends touts promiscuity and offers liberal samples of an openness that borders on empty-headedness". He singled out Cox and Schwimmer as the best actors of the ensemble. Robert Bianco was complimentary of Schwimmer, calling him "terrific". He also praised the female leads, but wrote that Perry's role as Chandler was "undefined" and that LeBlanc was "relying too much on the same brain-dead stud routine that was already tired the last two times he tried it". Entertainment Weekly
rates the episode B+ and states that "After 22 minutes, these six people are believably set up as lifelong buddies". Ross's line, "Do the words 'Billy, Don't Be a Hero' mean anything to you?" is singled out as the best line of the episode. The authors of Friends Like Us: The Unofficial Guide to Friends call it a "good, solid start to the series" but "the regular cast (particularly Perry and Schwimmer) might be trying just a little too hard". Schwimmer recalls enjoying the physical humor involving Ross, particularly the scene where Ross greets Rachel and opens an umbrella on her.
The episode was syndicated for the first time on September 21, 1998. Several deleted scenes were restored to the episode, bringing its total running time to almost 30 minutes, for a 45 minutes timeslot. It gained a rating of 5.8/10, averaged across 40 stations. This made Friends the third-highest-rated off-network syndicated sitcom to air at that time, behind Home Improvement and Seinfeld.
Situation comedy
A situation comedy, often shortened to sitcom, is a genre of comedy that features characters sharing the same common environment, such as a home or workplace, accompanied with jokes as part of the dialogue...
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...
premiered on NBC (National Broadcasting Company)
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
on September 22, 1994. It was written by series creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman
Marta Kauffman
Marta Kauffman is an American writer and TV producer, best known as the co-creator of the popular sitcom Friends, alongside David Crane. Both Crane and Kauffman were also executive producer of the show, along with Kevin Bright. Crane and Kauffman have also produced Veronica's Closet, starring...
, and directed by James Burrows
James Burrows
James Edward Burrows is an American television director who has been working in television since the 1970s.-Biography:...
. The pilot
Television pilot
A "television pilot" is a standalone episode of a television series that is used to sell the show to a television network. At the time of its inception, the pilot is meant to be the "testing ground" to see if a series will be possibly desired and successful and therefore a test episode of an...
introduces six friends who live and work in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
; Monica
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...
(Courteney Cox
Courteney Cox
Courteney Bass Cox is an American actress, she is best known for her roles as Monica Geller on the NBC sitcom Friends, Gale Weathers in the horror series Scream and as Jules Cobb in the ABC sitcom Cougar Town, for which she earned her first Golden Globe nomination....
) sleeps with a wine seller after their first date but is horrified to discover he tricked her into bed; her brother Ross
Ross Geller
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.- Origin :...
(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...
) is depressed after his lesbian ex-wife moves her things out of their apartment; Monica's old schoolfriend Rachel
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:...
(Jennifer Aniston
Jennifer Aniston
Jennifer Joanna Aniston is an American actress, film director, and producer, best known for her role as Rachel Green on the television sitcom Friends, a role which earned her an Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Screen Actors Guild Award.Aniston has also enjoyed a successful film career,...
) moves in with Monica after running out of her wedding; and their friends, Joey
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....
, Chandler
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...
and Phoebe
Phoebe Buffay
Phoebe Buffay-Hannigan is a fictional character on the U.S. television sitcom Friends , portrayed by Lisa Kudrow...
(Matt LeBlanc
Matt LeBlanc
Matthew Steven "Matt" LeBlanc is an American actor, best known for his role as Joey Tribbiani on the NBC sitcoms Friends and its spin-off Joey....
, Matthew Perry
Matthew Perry
Matthew Perry is Canadian-American television and film actor.Matthew Perry or Matt Perry may also refer to:*Matthew C. Perry , American naval officer who forcibly opened Japan to trade with the West...
and Lisa Kudrow
Lisa Kudrow
Lisa Valerie Kudrow is an American actress, best known for her role as Phoebe Buffay in the television sitcom Friends, for which she received many accolades including an Emmy Award and two Screen Actors Guild Awards...
) offer them each support and advice.
Crane and Kauffman pitched their original idea to network NBC in December 1993. NBC liked it and commissioned a complete script, which was submitted in March 1994. Before the script was finished, casting for the six main roles began; 75 actors were seen for each part. The pilot was taped on May 4, 1994 at Warner Bros.
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...
' studios in Burbank, California
Burbank, California
Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340....
. After making final edits to the episode, executive producer Kevin Bright
Kevin Bright
Kevin S. Bright is an American television executive producer and director whose credits include Dream On, Friends, and Joey....
submitted it on May 11, two days before NBC was due to announce the schedule. Satisfied with the completed pilot, NBC ordered 12 more episodes for the first season. Critics compared the show unfavorably to Seinfeld
Seinfeld
Seinfeld is an American television sitcom that originally aired on NBC from July 5, 1989, to May 14, 1998, lasting nine seasons, and is now in syndication. It was created by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld, the latter starring as a fictionalized version of himself...
and Ellen
Ellen (TV series)
Ellen is a U.S. television sitcom that ran on the ABC network from March 29, 1994 to July 22, 1998, producing 109 episodes.The theme song, "So Called Friend" is by Scottish band Texas...
, noting the similarities all three series had in depicting friends conversing about their lives. The cast, particularly Schwimmer, were complimented, though there was some concern that the character roles were undeveloped.
Plot
The first episode of the show begins with Monica, Chandler, Joey, & Phoebe sitting in Central Perk, the show's coffee shop set in NYC. The gang of four are sitting around on the couch, doing what they do best: Having discussions about their personal relationships.Everyone wants the inside details about the guy who Monica is going to go out with later that night. She claims there is nothing to tell, she just works with him. But Joey and Chandler want details ... after all something has to be wrong with him if he is willingly going on a date with Monica. Chandler asks if he has a hump or a lot of hair. Phoebe gets in on the action by asking if he likes to eat chalk. (This causes the gang to give their friend a strange look, but that is a normal response to most of what Phoebe says.) Phoebe explains that she once dated a guy who ate chalk and his name was Carl. Monica finally tells her friends to chill, it's just a date and no sex will be involved.
Next scene is still at Central Perk, just at a later time. The four of them are still sitting around the couch, this time discussing their dreams. Chandler mentions a recurring dream of going back to high school, being in the middle of the cafeteria totally naked. Everyone chimes in that they had the same dream. But Chandler continues by saying he looked down to his private region to find a telephone there instead of the usual equipment. The gang quickly refutes that they have never had a dream like that in their life. Chandler adds that the phone begins to ring and he answers it, and the person calling is his mother and he says it's weird because she never calls him in real life.
Ross, Monica's older brother, enters Central Perk. He is completely depressed and looks terrible. Monica asks if he is okay and Ross responds by saying he "feels like someone pulled out his small intestine via his throat and then tied it around his neck." Chandler, in his usual joking manner, asks if he would like a cookie.
Monica tells the group that Carol, Ross' ex-wife, moved her stuff out of the apartment today, so that is why Ross feels like this. Carol was Ross' wife and the first woman he slept with. They were married for an unspecified amount of time before she got a divorce on the grounds that she was a lesbian. This only makes Ross feel that much worse. Now he feels his manhood is at stake.
Phoebe noticing Ross' demeanor immediately gets up from her seat and takes her fingers and plucks at the air around Ross, trying to clear his aura. Ross, clearly agitated, tells Phoebe to stop and that he will be fine and that he hopes Carol will finally be happy.
Monica tells Ross that he doesn't want Carol to be happy and Joey wonders why Ross never knew she was a lesbian before. Ross goes into a spasm and tells everyone to stop fixating on her being a lesbian, he didn't know, and she didn't know. Joey offers to help Ross out by taking him to a strip joint but Ross does not want to go, he doesn't want to be single, he wants to be married again.
At this point, the final main character, Rachel, enters the scene at Central Perk. She is in a big wedding dress and is completely soaking. She looks around the coffee shop, trying to locate Monica, whom she hasn't seen for awhile. Monica notices Rachel and calls out to her.
Rachel tells Monica she just went to her apartment but couldn't find her and a guy with a big hammer told her to go to Central Perk. Monica introduces Rachel to the gang, mentioning that she is a graduate of Lincoln High School, apparently the same school as Monica and Ross. She goes to hug Ross, but the umbrella he is holding opens, making it impossible for Rachel to give him a hug without bodily harm. Ross sits back down, his umbrella deflated along with his ego.
No one speaks for a moment as the entire gang looks at Rachel, wet in her wedding dress, expecting her to explain her unusual appearance. She doesn't until Monica asks. Turns out, Rachel got cold feet and could not marry her fiancé, Barry, a dentist. Thirty minutes before her wedding she looked at all her presents and fixated on a gravy boat. She had an epiphany that at that moment she was more turned on by the expensive gravy boat than by Barry. She got freaked out and realized that Barry had an uncanny resemblance to Mr Potato Head, so she left him at the alter. She didn't know where to go and the only person she knew in the city was Monica, so she headed to her place.
At Monica's apartment, all are present and they are in the living room watching a Spanish soap opera, pretending what will happen, making comments about the outfits. Joey tells the character to push the woman down the stairs and then Joey, Chandler, Phoebe and Ross chant "Push her down the stairs" and cheer when it happens.
In the background, Rachel is on the phone, talking to her father. She is letting him know that she can't marry Barry because she doesn't love him. She starts arguing with her Dad that it does matter whether or not she is in love or not and that she is an adult now and can make her own decisions. Her Dad doesn't understand it completely and she informs him that she won't move back home but is going to move in with Monica and be her roommate, which is news to Monica. Her dad then says if that's her decision, not to get married, then he will cut her off from his money.
The scene cuts to a few minutes later when Rachel is off the phone, having an apparent anxiety attack over the prospect of not being able to use her father's credit cards anymore, which means she will need to get a job. She breathes into a paper bag while Phoebe sings a line of "My Favorite Things" from the Sound of Music. Her off-key singing causes Rachel to pretend to be better so Phoebe will stop singing. Phoebe is happy, thinking her singing cheered her up.
Monica and Joey try and cheer Rachel up. Monica does the proper best friend technique of inspiration and motivation. Joey, the womanizer, uses a pick-up line. Monica chastises Joey for trying to hit on a girl on her wedding day. Joey doesn't see what the big deal is.
The door buzzer sounds and Chandler goes towards it. It's Paul. He's come to take Monica for their date. Everyone asks who Paul is, and Monica tells them he is the "Wine Guy" from the restaurant where Monica is a chef.
Monica is torn because Rachel is depressed, and she doesn't want to go on a date if it will make Rachel feel bad. Rachel insists. Monica then turns to her brother Ross and asks if he's okay or if he wants her to stay. Ross gets choked up and says that would be nice if she would stay home. Monica is shocked as she wasn't expecting that response. But Ross was playing a joke and he tells her to go.
Paul knocks on the door and Monica introduces him to the gang. She tells Paul she will be ready in 'two seconds' and goes toward her room.
Ross goes up to Rachel and asks her about her plans for the evening. She tells Ross that her original plan was to be in Aruba by now for her honeymoon. Ross tries to make her feel better by saying it's better that she is not in Aruba because of the "big lizards" there at this time of the year. He then tells her that if she feels alone, Joey and Chandler will be over at his place helping put together some furniture. Rachel tells Ross she will just hang out at home. Joey goes to Phoebe and asks if she wants to come over and help. She says she wishes she could but she doesn't want to.
At Ross' apartment, Joey, Chandler and Ross are putting together furniture. Ross reads the instructions for the bookcase, not knowing what the tools used to hold together the shelves are called. Joey and Chandler finish the assembly and Joey notices a bit on the floor. Neither have a clue what it is or where it goes. They wait for Ross to turn his head and Joey throws the bit into a potted plant.
Ross has a beer in his hand and begins to softly cry when he remembers that this beer is Carol's favorite. She liked to drink it straight from the can, a sign that Ross thought should have told him she was lesbian. Joey asks Ross what he got in their divorce settlement since she got all the furniture and material possessions. Ross says "you guys"; Chandler and Joey confirm that Ross got screwed.
Cut to Monica and Paul eating in a restaurant. Paul is telling Monica about his divorce and how he should have suspected something when his wife was going to her dentist for cleanings four to five times a week. Monica tells Paul her brother is going through the same thing as well and Paul recommends that Ross try and break something valuable of hers to ease the pain. Paul broke his ex-wife's watch.
Cut to Monica's apartment and Rachel is by herself, talking on the phone. She called Barry and is apparently on his answering machine profusely apologizing for standing him up at the altar. The machine cut her off in mid-apology, so she redials and continues.
Cut to Ross' apartment where Ross is still going on about his divorce. He is afraid that there might only be one woman for everyone. So now that he has had only one woman, perhaps that's the end for him. Joey, in his macho ways, disagrees with Ross's claim of "one woman" and says women are like ice cream. There are many different flavors and many different toppings, so the choices are nearly endless.
Back at the restaurant, Paul is still talking about his ex-wife. He told Monica that he has not been able to perform in the bedroom in the two years since his wife left him. Monica spits out her drink at the shock of this revelation. He asks her if she still wants another date, knowing this fact. She jumps for it.
Cut to Rachel at Monica's apartment. She is watching the pilot episode of "Joanie Loves Chachi" where Joanie marries Chachi. She scoffs at the show.
Cut to Ross at his apartment. He is scornfully talking to himself, still upset about his divorce and even what Joey told him. He asks himself who is he supposed to ask out and he gazes out his window, which happens to be directly across from Monica and Rachel's window and he sees Rachel staring out her apartment.
The following morning, at Monica and Rachel's apartment, Rachel makes coffee for Joey and Chandler. This is the first time she has ever made coffee. The two men congratulate her. They start to drink, and grimace at the taste and pour the rest of the coffee into a potted plant.
Monica enters the kitchen from her bedroom with a happy expression. Paul follows her shortly after. The two greet the gang. Monica and Paul walk to the front door of the apartment and talk low so no one can hear what they are saying. Despite this fact, the others move the kitchen table towards the front door so they can hear what Monica is saying.
Monica tells Paul she had a great time last night and he agrees. She tells him she will talk to him later; they kiss and he leaves.
Joey wants to know why, the day before, she said her date with Paul wasn't a real date because it would be dinner but no sex. He gets curious as to what her real dates are like. She tells him to shut up and puts her table back where it belongs.
Chandler tells everyone good-bye, he has to get to work inputting numbers into a computer. Rachel wonders if everyone else has a job, too. They do. Joey is a regional actor. Monica tells her that everyone has a job and that is how they can afford to live. It is not mentioned here what Phoebe and Ross do.
Joey and Chandler leave Monica's apartment. Rachel notices that Monica can't stop smiling. She tells Rachel she really likes Paul but is going to go to work and try not to think about Paul. Rachel tells Monica to wish her luck because she is going to look for "one of those job things."
At Iridium, Monica's restaurant, a co-worker, Frannie, enters and greets Monica. Monica greets Frannie back and asks how her vacation went. Immediately, Frannie tells Monica that must have had sex last night. Monica is amazed at Frannie's ability to detect these things. She tells Frannie the guy was Paul, the wine guy. Frannie tells Monica that she knows Paul, she went out with him before and takes credit for having helped him have sex after a two year dry spell.
Next scene is at Central Perk. Everyone is there except Rachel. Monica is on the sofa and is crying about why Paul would deceive her. Joey, perching himself on the edge of the sofa laughs at Monica, telling her it was the most obvious line in the book.
Rachel enters the coffee shop with a bunch of bags from expensive clothing stores. She tells everyone she went to twelve interviews and was laughed out of each one, but she is smiling and happy because she found her favorite pair of boots on sale for half off. Monica asks how she could afford to buy boots if she doesn't have a job or any money. Rachel says she used a credit card her Dad gave her, meaning her Dad paid for the purchase.
Cut to Monica and Rachel's apartment with the entire gang sitting around the kitchen table with Rachel in the middle and Monica at her side. On the table are all of Rachel's credit cards along with a pair of scissors.
Monica urges Rachel to cut the cards because she can't live off her parents her entire life. Phoebe tells Monica to ease up because she remembers when she first came to New York City. She was 14, her mom had killed herself, and her step-dad was back in prison. She got to the city and didn't know a single person. She ended up living with an albino janitor man who eventually killed himself. So she found aromatherapy, thus she knows "exactly" how Rachel is feeling.
The group pauses, dumb-founded by Phoebe's story. The gang helps Rachel get the courage to cut her credit cards by chanting "cut cut cut" and, once she cuts her cards, they cheer.
Cut to later that night. Monica, Ross and Rachel just finished watching a movie. Monica heads off to bed, leaving Ross and Rachel alone in the living room.
Ross and Rachel both reach for the same cookie at the same time, both telling the other one they can have it. Finally, they decide to split it. Ross confesses that in high school he had a major crush on her. Rachel knew. Ross uses that moment to ask her if he could ask her out sometime. Rachel says, "Yeah, maybe" and she tells Ross goodnight and heads to her room.
At Central Perk, Joey and Monica are talking and every word they say, Phoebe repeats it by singing it. Monica asks her to stop. Phoebe didn't realize she was "doing it again." Rachel walks up to the group and ask if they want a cup of coffee; she is now an official worker at Central Perk.
Conception
Creators and writers David Crane and Marta KauffmanMarta Kauffman
Marta Kauffman is an American writer and TV producer, best known as the co-creator of the popular sitcom Friends, alongside David Crane. Both Crane and Kauffman were also executive producer of the show, along with Kevin Bright. Crane and Kauffman have also produced Veronica's Closet, starring...
were known in the television industry for writing the cable television series Dream On
Dream On (TV series)
Dream On is an American adult-themed situation comedy about single New Yorker, Martin Tupper. The show used a gimmick where old black and white clips were used to punctuate the main character's feelings or thoughts...
. A second series by the duo, Family Album, had premiered on CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
in the Fall 1993 season but was cancelled after airing six episodes. In November 1993, they began developing three new television pilots from their offices at Warner Bros. Television
Warner Bros. Television
Warner Bros. Television is the television production arm of Warner Bros. Entertainment, itself part of Time Warner. Alongside CBS Television Studios, it serves as a television production arm of The CW Television Network , though it also produces shows for other networks, such as Shameless on...
that could premiere in the Fall 1994 season. As Dream On had won them clout in Hollywood, they aimed to pitch one of their ideas to NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
; Insomnia Cafe, about six friends who live and work in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, was pitched as a seven-page treatment to the network in December 1993.
"It's about sex, love, relationships, careers, a time in your life when everything's possible. And it's about friendship because when you're single and in the city, your friends are your family."
- — Part of Crane and Kauffman's original pitch for Insomnia Cafe
NBC bought the pitch as a put pilot, meaning they risked financial penalties if the pilot was not filmed. To get an idea of how their characters would behave, Kauffman interviewed several of her children's twenty-something babysitters. She and Crane wrote the script in three days. James Burrows
James Burrows
James Edward Burrows is an American television director who has been working in television since the 1970s.-Biography:...
, known for directing Cheers
Cheers
Cheers is an American situation comedy television series that ran for 11 seasons from 1982 to 1993. It was produced by Charles/Burrows/Charles Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television for NBC, and was created by the team of James Burrows, Glen Charles, and Les Charles...
, was hired to direct it. He liked the script, though asked for Joey, who was originally written similarly to Chandler, to be "dumbed up a bit". The script was completed in early March 1994, though before then eight-line character breakdowns had been sent to acting agencies in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, New York and Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
.
Casting
1,000 actors replied to the callouts for each role, but only 75 were called in to read for the casting director. Those who received a callback read again in front of Crane, Kauffman and their production partner Kevin S. Bright. At the end of March, the potential actors had been reduced to three or four for each part; they read for Les Moonves, president of Warner Bros. Television. David Schwimmer was first to be cast. He was in Chicago doing a stage adaptation of The Master and MargaritaThe Master and Margarita
The Master and Margarita is a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, woven around the premise of a visit by the Devil to the fervently atheistic Soviet Union. Many critics consider the book to be one of the greatest novels of the 20th century, and one of the foremost Soviet satires, directed against a...
when his agent offered him the audition. He was not interested in doing television after a bad experience appearing in Monty
Monty (TV series)
Monty is a short lived American sitcom that aired on the FOX network in 1994. The series starred Henry Winkler as a loud, obnoxious conservative TV commentator , Monty had also written a best-selling book tilted I'm Right. I'm Right. I'm Right. Shut Up...
, but changed his mind when he learned that it was an ensemble script. Unknown to him, Crane and Kauffman had remembered him from when he auditioned for an earlier pilot of theirs; they had written the part of Ross with Schwimmer in mind to play him. Eric McCormack
Eric McCormack
Eric James McCormack is a Canadian American actor, musician, writer and producer. Born in Toronto, he began his acting career performing in school plays at Stephen Leacock Collegiate Institute High School...
also auditioned for the role several times. He later became famous for his lead role in the sitcom Will & Grace
Will & Grace
Will & Grace was an American television sitcom that was originally broadcast on NBC from September 21, 1998 to May 18, 2006 for a total of eight seasons. Will & Grace remains the most successful television series with gay principal characters...
.
Nancy McKeon
Nancy Justine McKeon is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Jo Polniaczek on the NBC sitcom The Facts of Life.-Early life & career:...
also read for the part. Jennifer Aniston read for the part of Rachel after initially being considered for Monica. Her commitment as an actress on the TV series Muddling Through left her part in Friends in doubt; Muddling Through was not scheduled to be broadcast by CBS until mid-1994, after NBC's announcement of whether Friends would be greenlit
Greenlight
To green-light a project is to give permission or a go ahead to move forward with a project. In the context of the movie and TV businesses, to green-light something is to formally approve its production finance, thereby allowing the project to move forward from the development phase to...
for a series. If Muddling Through became a ratings success, the role of Rachel would have needed recasting, as the producer of Muddling Through would not allow Aniston to be released from her contract. A deal was eventually struck and, within three days of first auditioning, Aniston got the role. Crane and Kauffman wanted Joey to be "a guy's guy" who loves "women, sports, women, New York, women". The actors auditioned using the "grab a spoon" scene, and many arrived in character with "lots of chest showing". As the Joey character was not developed much in the script, Matt LeBlanc just used his experience playing "this Italian, kind of dim character" from Vinny and Bobby. He had at least eight auditions for the part, and in his final one read with Aniston and Cox.
Chandler and Phoebe had originally been written as more secondary characters who were just there to provide humor around the other four; Matthew Perry described Chandler in the pilot script as "an observer of other people's lives". They had become part of the core group by the time casting concluded. Crane believed that the part of Chandler, described in the character breakdown as "a droll, dry guy", would be the easiest to cast, though it proved more difficult than he initially hoped. Perry had previously worked with Kauffman and Crane on an episode of Dream On, and requested an audition when he identified with the character. He was turned down due to his involvement as a cast member in LAX 2194, a television pilot about airport baggage handler
Baggage handler
In the airline industry, a baggage handler is a person who loads and unloads baggage , and other cargo for transport via aircraft...
s in the future. After the producers of Friends saw LAX 2194, it became clear to them that it would not be picked up for a series, and Perry was granted an audition. He read for the role near the end of the casting period and got it in under a week. Before Perry was cast, Craig Bierko
Craig Bierko
Craig Philip Bierko is an American actor and singer.-Early life:Bierko was born in Rye Brook, New York, the son of Pat and Rex Bierko, who ran a local community theatre. Bierko's mother was a Jewish convert to Roman Catholicism...
was the first choice for the role. Bierko was a friend of Perry's, and Perry coached him for his audition to help him get to know what the Chandler character was like. Jon Cryer
Jon Cryer
Jonathan Niven "Jon" Cryer is an American actor, screenwriter and film producer. He is the son of actress–singer Gretchen Cryer. He made his motion picture debut in the 1984 romantic comedy No Small Affair, but gained greater fame as "Duckie" in the 1986 John Hughes-scripted film Pretty in Pink...
had also auditioned for the part. He was doing a play in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and read for a British casting director, though his audition tape did not arrive at Warner Bros. in time for him to be considered.
Many actresses who read for Phoebe arrived at the audition in character, wearing "bell bottoms and clunky shoes and nose rings". Lisa Kudrow won the role because the producers liked her as Ursula, the waitress in Mad About You
Mad About You
Mad About You is an American sitcom that aired on NBC from September 23, 1992 to May 24, 1999. The show starred Paul Reiser and Helen Hunt as a newly married couple in New York City. Reiser played Paul Buchman, a documentary film maker. Hunt played Jamie Stemple Buchman, a public relations specialist...
. She was second to be cast, though there was about a month between her and Schwimmer being signed on. Many of the actors seen by Moonves were "too theatrical" in performing comedy; Crane described the six successful actors as being the only ones who "nailed" their parts. The six actors met for the first time altogether at the read-through
Read-through
The read-through, table-read, or table work is a stage of film and theatre production when an organized reading around a table of the screenplay or script by the actors with speaking parts is conducted....
on April 28, 1994. John Allen Nelson
John Allen Nelson
John Allen Nelson is an American actor.- Early life :John Allen Nelson was born in San Antonio, Texas. He spent his first three years in Germany with his three siblings, David, Nancy and Diana where his father was stationed as a doctor for the U.S...
and Clea Lewis
Clea Lewis
Clea Lewis is an American actress, best known for her television role as Ellen's annoying friend Audrey Penney in Ellen DeGeneres' sitcom Ellen.- Other notable roles :...
guest-star as Paul and Franny, Monica's date and co-worker respectively. Cynthia Mann appears as a Central Perk waitress.
Filming
Don Ohlmeyer
Don Ohlmeyer is an American television producer and former president of the NBC network's West Coast division. Currently, Don Ohlmeyer is a Professor of Television Communications at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California...
believed that the audience would perceive her as "a slut". Crane, Kauffman and Warner Bros. executives disagreed, and surveyed the other people watching the rehearsal to support their position. Despite the audience agreeing with them, they had to take NBC's considerations into account in case they lost the commission; they rewrote Monica's lines to show that she cared about Paul. NBC also wanted a scene removed that implied the supposedly impotent Paul was getting an erection, as it would violate network standards. Crane and Kauffman rewrote the scene and found they preferred the new version, as it made the scene "smart and subtler". They sought to protect other parts of the script, some major and some minor; NBC wanted two of the pilot's three storylines downplayed to subplots, but the writers were adamant that all three should carry equal weight. They also favored not cutting the "Mr. Potato Head" line. Their final script draft was completed on May 3.
The episode was taped on May 4 at Warner Bros.' studios in Burbank, California
Burbank, California
Burbank is a city in Los Angeles County in Southern California, United States, north of downtown Los Angeles. The estimated population in 2010 was 103,340....
. A total of eight hours of material was filmed (two hours from each of the four cameras), which was edited down to 22 minutes under Bright's supervision. Bright submitted it to NBC on May 10, 72 hours before the fall schedule was announced. NBC ordered Bright to make further edits, which he completed at 1 a.m. on May 11. On May 12, NBC screened the finished pilot to focus groups, who gave positive but mixed reactions. The network announced the fall schedule on May 13 and ordered an additional 12 episodes of Friends for its first season. Crane and Kauffman immediately received telephone calls from writers' agents who wanted to get their clients jobs on the series.
Reception
Ellen (TV series)
Ellen is a U.S. television sitcom that ran on the ABC network from March 29, 1994 to July 22, 1998, producing 109 episodes.The theme song, "So Called Friend" is by Scottish band Texas...
; Tom Feran in The Plain Dealer wrote that it traded "vaguely and less successfully on the hanging-out style of Seinfeld", and Ann Hodges of the Houston Chronicle
Houston Chronicle
The Houston Chronicle is the largest daily newspaper in Texas, USA, headquartered in the Houston Chronicle Building in Downtown Houston. , it is the ninth-largest newspaper by circulation in the United States...
called it "the new Seinfeld wannabe, but it will never be as funny as Seinfeld. Even as Seinfeld is now, which isn't as funny as it used to be". Hodges criticized the "stiflingly dull social circle" as "short to the point of painful in brainpower". Robert Bianco in The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette wrote that the "constant comic bantering grows a little tired, just as it would if it ever actually happened in real life", and questioned why the six characters had so much free time to talk about dates. In the Los Angeles Daily News
Los Angeles Daily News
The Los Angeles Daily News is the second-largest circulating daily newspaper of Los Angeles, California. It is the flagship of the Los Angeles Newspaper Group, a branch of Colorado-based MediaNews Group....
, Ray Richmond
Ray Richmond
Ray Richmond is a globally syndicated critic and entertainment/media columnist. Richmond has also worked variously as a feature and entertainment writer, beat reporter and TV critic for a variety of publications including the Los Angeles Daily News, Daily Variety, the Orange County Register, the...
, who had also seen the following two episodes, called the cast a "likeable, youth ensemble" with "good chemistry". He added that while Friends was "one of the brighter comedies of the new season", the pilot was "very weak". Diane Holloway for the Austin American-Statesman
Austin American-Statesman
The Austin American-Statesman is the major daily newspaper for Austin, the capital city of Texas. It is an award-winning publication owned by Cox Enterprises. The Newspaper places focus on issues affecting Austin and the Central Texas region....
questioned Friends billing as a "sophisticated comedy", writing, "What's sophisticated about a guy who dreams his penis is a telephone?" She called the scene where Monica discovers Paul's impotence was a lie the least funny part of the episode, though conceded that the episode as a whole did have some funny moments. Robert P. Laurence wrote in The San Diego Union-Tribune
The San Diego Union-Tribune
-Predecessors:The predecessor newspapers of the Union-Tribune were:* San Diego Sun, founded 1861 and merged with the Evening Tribune in 1939.* San Diego Union, founded October 10, 1868.* Evening Tribune, founded December 2, 1895.-Ownership:...
that "A lot happens, but you'll still get the feeling you've seen Friends before", calling it "Seinfeld Plus Two. Or Ellen Plus Five." In the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
, Ginny Holbert rated the episode three stars, and wrote "The clever series [...] stars an appealing group of actors who are just a bit funnier and better-looking than your average friend" but that Joey and Rachel's characteristics were under-developed.
The Los Angeles Times called it "flat-out the best comedy series of the new season". Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
s Tony Scott had optimistic hopes for the series; he enjoyed the premise but was concerned that dialogue from the writers of Dream On should be "snappier". Scott was also concerned that the Monica storyline set a bad example to younger viewers; "Friends touts promiscuity and offers liberal samples of an openness that borders on empty-headedness". He singled out Cox and Schwimmer as the best actors of the ensemble. Robert Bianco was complimentary of Schwimmer, calling him "terrific". He also praised the female leads, but wrote that Perry's role as Chandler was "undefined" and that LeBlanc was "relying too much on the same brain-dead stud routine that was already tired the last two times he tried it". Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
rates the episode B+ and states that "After 22 minutes, these six people are believably set up as lifelong buddies". Ross's line, "Do the words 'Billy, Don't Be a Hero' mean anything to you?" is singled out as the best line of the episode. The authors of Friends Like Us: The Unofficial Guide to Friends call it a "good, solid start to the series" but "the regular cast (particularly Perry and Schwimmer) might be trying just a little too hard". Schwimmer recalls enjoying the physical humor involving Ross, particularly the scene where Ross greets Rachel and opens an umbrella on her.
The episode was syndicated for the first time on September 21, 1998. Several deleted scenes were restored to the episode, bringing its total running time to almost 30 minutes, for a 45 minutes timeslot. It gained a rating of 5.8/10, averaged across 40 stations. This made Friends the third-highest-rated off-network syndicated sitcom to air at that time, behind Home Improvement and Seinfeld.
Footnotes
- a. The seven-page treatment was titled Insomnia Cafe. The first script was originally titled Friends Like Us, but was changed to Six of One to avoid confusion with These Friends of MineEllen (TV series)Ellen is a U.S. television sitcom that ran on the ABC network from March 29, 1994 to July 22, 1998, producing 109 episodes.The theme song, "So Called Friend" is by Scottish band Texas...
. By the time the series was commissioned, the title was just Friends. Alternate titles given to the pilot episode are "The One Where Monica Gets a Roommate" and "The One Where It All Began". - b. "The One with Two Parts, Part 1" establishes Ursula as Phoebe's twin sister.
- c. From "The One with the Dozen Lasagnas", Mann appears in a recurring role as Jasmine, Phoebe's masseuse co-worker. Some sources identify her character in the pilot as Jasmine, though she is not credited as that character.
Further reading
- "A Failing Grade For 'Friends'". The Smoking GunThe Smoking GunThe Smoking Gun is a website that posts legal documents, arrest records, and police mugshots on a daily basis. The intent is to bring to the public light information that is damning, shocking, outrageous, or amazing, yet also somewhat obscure or unreported by more mainstream media sources...
(May 12, 2004)—An NBC audience research report, dated May 27, 1994
External links
- The Pilot at TV.com