Top 20 Small Details in Friends You Never Noticed
#20: Susan Sarandon Slapped Her Daughter “The One with Joey's New Brain”
In the season seven episode “The One with Joey's New Brain” Susan Sarandon guest stars as soap actress Cecilia Monroe. Monroe plays Jessica Lockhart on “Days of our Lives” - a woman who often slaps other characters on the show. In fact, she’s so famous for her slaps that Monica tries to get a slap of her own when she meets her in Joey’s apartment. You can insert your own Will Smith-Chris Rock joke here while we point out the small, but interesting detail that Sarandon’s own daughter, Eva Amurri plays Jessica’s daughter Dina on “Days”. So when Lockhart slaps Dina, that’s actually Sarandon slapping her own daughter.
#19: Phoebe Gave Her Brother a Condom “The One with the Baby on the Bus”
Do you remember the first time Phoebe met her half-brother Frank Jr.? We don’t mean the time she tried to meet her dad but wound up meeting Frank Jr. instead. No, we’re talking about a time just before that, when Phoebe loses her gig at Central Perk and ends up busking on the sidewalk outside the coffee shop. It happens rather quickly, but while Rachel is comforting Phoebe, a guy runs up and asks her for the condom he had accidently dropped in her guitar case earlier. That guy, wouldn’t you know it, is none other than Frank Jr.
#18: Rachel’s Really Long Pregnancy Multiple Episodes
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The longest human pregnancy ever recorded was 375 days, and was carried out by a woman in Los Angeles in the 1940s. The second longest ever might’ve been Rachel Green’s. We know that Rachel gets a positive pregnancy test result at Monica’s wedding on May 15th - which means she had to have been pregnant for at least a couple of weeks by that point. Now, cut to the following February (the episode before Valentine’s Day). It’s nine months later and the baby kicks for the first time. While Emma’s date of birth is never mentioned, given the clothes New Yorkers are wearing in the episodes leading up to the season finale, it’s gotta be springtime. Fans seem to have concluded that she was born on April 4th, which comes in around at an 11-month pregnancy.
#17: Gunther Speaks “The One with Phoebe's Dad”
Top 10 Best Gunther Moments on Friends
As “Friends” fans can tell you, Gunther worked at Central Perk, he can speak Dutch, he once played a character named Bryce in “All My Children” and he’s in love with Rachel. But how many of us realized that Gunther actually didn’t say a word on the show until almost halfway through the second season. While he was there in the background making coffee in season one, it wasn’t until season 2 episode 9 that he uttered his first word: an incredibly simple but effective “yeah”. The truth is his character didn’t even have a name until then either. He came in to work that day and co-creator reportedly Marta Kauffman told him, “Your name is Gunther now […] And you get to say, 'Yeah' today.”
#16: Marcel’s Restaurant “The One After the Superbowl”
While Ross gave up his monkey at the end of season one, Marcel made a guest appearance in the big, season two episode, “The One After the Superbowl”. In it, Marcel is back in New York, this time as an acting monkey on the set of “Outbreak 2: The Virus Takes Manhattan”. But if you look really closely, that actually isn’t the only place Marcel appears in the episode. Okay, well not the actual monkey, but his name. We were all obviously paying more attention to Julia Roberts flirting with Chandler on their date, but take a second and look at the name of the restaurant on the menus.
#15: Matthew Perry’s Dad “The One with Rachel's New Dress”
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Obviously, if you were a member of the Perry family or a close friend you would have noticed when Matthew Perry’s father made a guest appearance on the show. However, since most of us aren’t that familiar with the Perry family tree, allow us to fill you in. Matthew Perry’s dad, John Bennett Perry began his acting career in the 1970s and, over the decades, has appeared in movies, loads of television shows, and was even the Old Spice “sailor” in a series of commercials. Plus, he wasn’t just a father in real life; he also played one on TV. In the case of “Friends”, the elder Perry played Joshua’s dad in one of the show’s most memorable episodes.
#14: Chandler & Monica’s House Was a Famous Movie House “The Last One”
We know that real estate agents are required to disclose certain things about a house to potential buyers. But we’re not sure if the fact that Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern attempted to rob the place is one of those things. Yup, the house that Monica and Chandler buy in the final season of “Friends” is the same one that Macaulay Culkin defended so brilliantly in “Home Alone” almost 15 years prior. Sure, the wallpaper is gone and the furniture is different, but look a little closer. Actually, look out the window. The house across the street shoul probably look familiar to “Home Alone” superfans. It’s the Murphy’s residence across from the McCallister’s. Now that deserves a classic hands-on-face scream, don’t you think?
#13: The Potato Cake “The One with Chandler in a Box”
Okay, so this isn’t a potato cake so much as an actual potato in a cake display. If you don’t know what we’re talking about, allow us to take you back to season four, episode eight. Joey walks into Central Perk looking for Chandler. He goes up to the counter to ask Gunther if he’s seen him. And there, sitting prominently on the counter for all to see, is a regular ole potato in a cake stand. Why is it there? Was it supposed to be there? Is it some kind of inside joke or just a mistake? Was the budget that tight?! All good questions we unfortunately don’t have answers to.
#12: 5639 “The One in Vegas”
Do you have a hard time remembering the PIN for your ATM card? Well, in the season five finale, Joey reveals his trick for always having it around when you need it. Assuming you always use the same ATM, why not scratch the number onto the machine? But while this might sound like a Joey-being-smart moment, in the end it’s more of a Joey-being-Joey situation. You see, his PIN, as revealed by Phoebe, is “5639”. Why does that matter, you ask? Well, do you know what “5639” spells on a dial pad? You guessed it!... JOEY. So basically, Joey can’t remember his own name.
#11: Green with an Extra “E” “The One with The Invitation”
It’s true, some names are hard to spell. We’ll admit we had to look up “Tribbiani” to confirm it has two “B”s. But you know what name we don’t need help with? Green. However, for some reason, Ross did. In season four when Ross and Emily send out their wedding invitations we see Ross dropping off the one for Rachel in the mailbox and on the envelope, clear as day, it says Ms. Rachel Greene - with an extra “e” at the end. No one seems to know how it’s really supposed to be spelled, but this discrepancy is a lot funnier when you imagine Dan Quayle himself encouraging Ross to add the extra “e” on the invitation. Yeah, that’s canon now.
#10: Ode to Jennifer Aniston’s Family Name “The One with Monica and Chandler's Wedding”
Jennifer Aniston’s father was born Yannis Anastassakis before anglicizing his name to John Aniston with the move to America. Why are we telling you this? Because in “The One with Monica and Chandler's Wedding” Rachel goes looking for someone to officiate the union if Joey can’t get there in time, and she finds another wedding taking place at the hotel: none other than the Anastassakis/Papasifakis Wedding. It’s a wonderful nod to Jennifer’s dad and their family name, and her perfect pronunciation of the Greek names is a nice touch to Rachel’s character.
#9: VD Poster Keeps Showing Up Various
Top 10 Small Details in Friends You Never Noticed
In season one, Joey gets very excited when he lands a modeling job for the New York City free clinic. That is until he sees that his particular poster isn’t warning against lime disease, as he’d hoped, but against STDs. Next thing you know, the city is covered with the posters, and Joey is decidedly less excited about the opportunity - although his friends have a good time with it. If you thought the end of the episode was the end of the posters, you’d have been wrong. It seems these posters would continue to haunt Joey for the next little while because, a couple of episodes later as Monica and Phoebe are crossing the street, surprise, surprise! What’s that on the wall in the background?
#8: Hugsy Reappears Various
In season five, the stress of keeping Monica and Chandler’s budding relationship a secret causes Joey to let slip a secret of his own to Rachel and Phoebe… Hugsy, his bedtime penguin pal. Now, we all remember Hugsy coming back many seasons later when Joey has to deal with the fact that baby Emma also loves the stuffed penguin. But what many of us missed was all the appearances by Hugsy in between. Whether it was on the couch in the background or sitting under the dartboard, Hugsy showed up in many more episodes than you might remember.
#7: Monica's Yelling Jar “The One with Rachel's Date”
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We’re all familiar with the concept of a swear jar, but in season eight we learn that Monica has a yelling jar at work. In fact, when Phoebe comes to visit her at the restaurant and is flirting with her sous-chef, Tim, you can see the jar - filled with cash - on the shelf behind him. Although, because it’s just indicated as “Monica’s Jar” we don’t know it’s a yelling jar until a few seconds later when Monica raises her voice but exclaims that she’s not putting a dollar in the jar. This works out well, because she couldn’t if she wanted to; from one shot to the next, the jar is no longer on the shelf.
#6: Estelle Was a Nurse “The One with the Birth”
Did you know that Joey’s long-time agent, Estelle, was also a nurse? We know this because she was right there in the delivery room when Carol gave birth to her and Ross’s son, Ben, in season one. Weirdly, that was 17 episodes after she left Joey her card subsequent to seeing his play, “Freud!”. After Ben is born we never see Estelle in a hospital again and her nursing duties are never mentioned, so we can only assume that managing Joey’s career became so all-consuming that she had to drop her nursing gig. She also probably didn’t like the fact that, as a nurse, she wouldn’t be able to smoke at work.
#5: Monica’s Towels “The One with the Embryos”
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During the lightning round of the apartment bet trivia game, Joey and Chandler are asked about the number of categories Monica has for her towels. In the heat of the moment, they can only think of four but Joey takes a flier and correctly blurts out 11. But that also begs the question, what are the other categories besides ‘everyday use’, ‘fancy’, ‘guest’ and ‘fancy guest’? While we don’t know all of the other 7 categories, we do know a few, including those of ‘kitchen’, ‘beach’ and ‘old’. Keen eyes will have spotted these categories scrawled on the stacked-up boxes as the girls packed up to move across the hall.
#4: The Disappearing Beam Various
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One of the more memorable moments from the early seasons of the show is when Ross, while running away from Monica, bangs his head into a wooden beam in the apartment. Given how prominent the beam is in the living quarters you might be curious as to why no one else ever smacked into it. The main reason for that is because the beam totally disappeared. Actually, it came and went for the first few seasons, until finally being removed for good. As Lisa Kudrow and David Schwimmer explained in the reunion show, the beam often got in the way.
#3: The Hidden Menu Various
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For 10 seasons, the gang ordered coffees and cappuccinos at Central Perk. But not once did we hear them order a “Long Island Cream: A mooovingly rich and creaming coffee straight from the mutter's utter”. Or a “Ms. Liberty Blend: A liberating blend, light & sweet. You'll be crying ‘freedom!’ when you taste it.” But they certainly could’ve. The chalkboard menu behind the counter wasn’t always visible to us, but it definitely would have been to them. How they were never intrigued enough to order a “Manhattan Mocha” is beyond us. (That one would have been perfect the time they were trying to stay awake and party!)
#2: Magna Doodles Various
With so much going on, it’s sometimes easy to miss the various magna doodle notes and drawings in the background. But, given how they change and how fun some of them are, it’s worth working the pause button a few times. The Magna Doodle first appeared in the guys’s apartment in season three and featured a pretty generic shopping list and a “Joey call your dad” note. But, going forward, there were all kinds of different doodles, from the thank-you note from the robbers to “another one bites the dust” for Ross’s bachelor party. There was also the doodle of a flag planted atop a mountain during the finale, indicating they’d reached the summit. We’re awwing so hard right now. Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions. Everyone Was an Arquette, “The One After Vegas” After Courteney Cox & David Arquette’s Marriage, Everyone Was an Arquette for One Episode Condom Balloons, “The One with the Worst Best Man Ever” Somehow, Joey Using Condoms for Balloons Is Not the Weirdest Thing He’s Done Monica’s Comfy Wedding Shoes, “The One with Monica and Chandler's Wedding” We Wouldn’t Put It Past Monica To Remember Everything Except White Wedding Heels Apartment Numbers Changed, Multiple Episodes Number 5 Changed to 20 Early On in the Series
#1: Did They Reserve Their Table at the Coffee Shop? Various
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Did you ever wonder how the gang always got the best table in Central Perk? Why, except for on very rare occasions, were the couch and adjacent chairs always free at such a popular place? Well, we’ve never heard of being able to reserve tables at a coffee shop, but apparently that’s what they did. It isn’t always there, but often enough, you can see a little “reserved” sign sitting on the table. There is a fan theory that the sign was put there by Gunther so as to always allow for a place of prominence for Rachel. It’s settled: every café needs a Gunther.
