50 Fun Facts About Friends Season 1

What is a rain-soaked Rachel Green wearing when she first walks into Central Perk in the Friends pilot?

A wedding dress, because Rachel has just walked out on her own ceremony and her fiancé, Barry. She has come looking for Monica, whom she knew as a teenager, and ends up moving in with her.

Which cartoon character's parade balloon breaks free in the Friends season 1 Thanksgiving episode?

Underdog floats off during the parade, and the gang rush to the roof to watch. They lock themselves out of the apartment, so the dinner burns and Rachel misses her flight.

In Friends season 1, Joey lands a film role as the butt double for which Hollywood star?

Al Pacino's rear end is the part Joey's new talent agent lands for him. Joey is then fired from the film for overacting.

Which ER star guest-stars in Friends season 1 as Dr. Mitchell, one of two doctors who date Monica and Rachel?

George Clooney and his ER co-star Noah Wyle play the doctors who treat Rachel's sprained ankle. The two women have swapped identities, because Rachel has no health insurance.

In Friends season 1, what does Phoebe find inside a can of soda that earns her a $7,000 payout?

A thumb, severed, turns up in the can, and the soda company pays Phoebe off. The drink was a thank-you from a homeless acquaintance she had just given money to.

Which band recorded the Friends theme song after reluctantly agreeing to their record label's request?

The Rembrandts got the job as the only available band on the Warner Bros. label. A Nashville radio station later looped the short TV theme, and its popularity made them record a full-length version.

Which dating term was popularized by the Friends season 1 blackout episode, as Joey warns Ross about Rachel?

The friend zone is where Joey says Ross is heading unless he tells Rachel how he feels. Ross is about to speak up when a stray cat attacks him.

What is the name of the pet monkey Ross brings to a New Year's Eve party in Friends season 1?

Marcel arrives as Ross's only companion for the night, and promptly ignores him. By the end of the season the monkey has left the apartment for a new home in a zoo.

What is Rachel finally taking down from the balcony in Friends season 1 when she falls and sprains her ankle?

Christmas lights, which Rachel had put off removing for weeks, send her to the hospital. The fall happens in February's double-length episode.

To which country does his museum send Ross for work in the Friends season 1 finale?

China is where Ross is sent to collect a specimen, just before Rachel's birthday. He leaves a present behind, and she learns how he feels only after he has gone.

Which Italian neighbor does Rachel fall for in Friends season 1 after finding his cat during a citywide power cut?

Paolo speaks almost no English, which does not stop Rachel kissing him before the power returns. She dumps him later in the season when he makes a pass at Phoebe.

Which Victoria's Secret model, playing herself, is trapped with Chandler in an ATM vestibule in Friends season 1?

Jill Goodacre saves Chandler with the Heimlich maneuver when he chokes on a piece of gum. When the power returns she kisses his cheek, and he asks the security camera for a copy of the tape.

What is the name of Phoebe's identical twin sister, whom Joey falls for in Friends season 1?

Ursula drops Joey without bothering to tell him, so Phoebe poses as her twin to break the news. Lisa Kudrow plays both sisters.

Phoebe's twin sister in Friends season 1 was already a waitress character on which other NBC sitcom?

Mad About You had Lisa Kudrow in a small recurring part, and the producers liked her in it enough to cast her as Phoebe. Its stars Helen Hunt and Leila Kenzle cameo in the same Friends episode.

What hits Ross in the face in Friends season 1, sending him to the emergency room with Chandler and Joey?

A hockey puck strikes Ross at a New York Rangers game. Waiting to be seen, he admits that his ex-wife Carol is the only woman he has ever slept with.

Which real political figure do Monica, Rachel and Phoebe spy on from their apartment in Friends season 1?

George Stephanopoulos, then a senior adviser to President Clinton, turns out to be staying across the street. Spotting him rescues a slumber party that had failed to cheer Rachel up.

Which girlfriend of Chandler's, played by Maggie Wheeler, first appears in Friends season 1 as he tries to dump her?

Janice is dumped three times in the first season alone: in her debut, at New Year's, and again in February after a blind date throws the pair back together.

Which actress plays Mindy, Rachel's former maid of honor, in Friends season 1?

Jennifer Grey's Mindy went on Rachel's honeymoon with the jilted Barry and is engaged to him by spring. She even asks Rachel to return the favor as her maid of honor.

What is the name of the partner for whom Ross's wife Carol has left him as Friends season 1 begins?

Susan, played by Jessica Hecht, spars with Ross all season over the baby Carol is carrying. The two finally make peace while shut in a hospital closet during the birth.

Which card game pits the women against the men in Friends season 1, with Monica seeking tips from her expert aunt?

Poker brings out a ruthless streak in the normally mild Ross. In the same episode Rachel, tired of the coffee shop, lands an interview at Saks Fifth Avenue but does not get the job.

What is the profession of Ross Geller, who works at a museum throughout Friends season 1?

Paleontologist Ross is Monica's older brother and Chandler's old college roommate, which is how the six of them fit together.

What does Phoebe Buffay do for a living in Friends season 1, alongside singing at Central Perk?

Masseuse Phoebe also plays guitar at the coffee shop, where one acoustic set is cut short by a citywide power failure. Later in the season she temps as Chandler's secretary.

Which habit does Chandler take up again in Friends season 1 while helping Joey rehearse for an acting job?

Smoking creeps back, and when the gang complain Chandler deflects by picking on their own flaws. He gives up only when Phoebe hands him a windfall to stop.

Which neighbor, watched from Monica's window, enjoys a romantic Thanksgiving with a girlfriend in Friends season 1?

Ugly Naked Guy lives in the building across the street. Seeing him so content ends the gang's quarrel over their own ruined dinner, and they settle for grilled cheese and tomato soup.

Phoebe's scientist boyfriend leaves her after a New Year's party in Friends season 1 for a research grant in which city?

Minsk is where the physicist, played by Hank Azaria, heads for three years of research. The scripts keep placing the city in Russia, although it is in Belarus.

Which actress plays Nora Bing, Chandler's novelist mother, who kisses Ross in Friends season 1?

Morgan Fairchild's Nora writes racy romance novels, and comforts a drunk Ross with advice before the kiss. Joey sees it happen and insists that Ross own up to Chandler.

Which Saturday Night Live alumnus plays Steve, the stoned restaurateur Monica cooks for in Friends season 1?

Jon Lovitz's Steve is looking for a new chef, but arrives so high that he passes over Monica's gourmet menu for taco shells and gummy bears.

In Friends season 1, Monica's boyfriend Ethan says he is a college student, but what is he really?

A high school senior, as Ethan admits only after he and Monica have slept together. The episode's title sums up her reaction: The One with the Ick Factor.

In the Friends season 1 finale, Joey has to stay celibate for a while because he is taking part in what?

A fertility study rules out sex just as Joey's new girlfriend, Melanie, is keen to sleep with him. It gives the finale a comic subplot beside Ross's departure.

The name of Ross's baby son in Friends season 1 is taken from which item found in a hospital closet?

A janitor's uniform with the name Ben on it settles a long quarrel between Ross and his ex-wife's partner. Phoebe had dragged the bickering pair into the closet, where all three got locked in.

Which zoo takes in Ross's pet monkey near the end of Friends season 1, once the animal reaches sexual maturity?

San Diego Zoo accepts the capuchin after Ross realizes he needs the company of other monkeys. The whole gang turn out at the airport to say goodbye.

What does Ross's pet monkey swallow in Friends season 1, landing the animal in the hospital?

Scrabble tiles put the monkey in the hospital, and nursing him through it convinces Ross that he can cope with fatherhood after all.

What is the first name of the talent agent who signs Joey in Friends season 1 after seeing him on stage?

Estelle Leonard first spotted Joey playing Sigmund Freud in a stage musical. June Gable, who plays her in later seasons, appears in season 1 as a nurse.

At which Colorado ski resort does Rachel hope to join her family for Thanksgiving in Friends season 1?

Vail stays out of reach: Rachel struggles to earn the fare in tips, the others chip in to cover it, and she misses the flight anyway.

At his grandmother's funeral in Friends season 1, what does Ross fall into, hurting his back?

An open grave swallows Ross at the cemetery, and the muscle relaxers he takes for his back leave him loopy for the rest of the day.

To arrange a double date in Friends season 1, Joey tells Monica that his ex Angela and her boyfriend Bob are what?

Brother and sister is the lie, so the couple's affection over dinner horrifies Monica. Joey owns up, then talks her into helping him split the pair apart.

By which nickname does the group know Paul, the date who tricks Monica in the Friends pilot?

The Wine Guy wins Monica's sympathy with a sad story about his ex-wife, which a co-worker later reveals to be a line he uses to get women into bed.

Which Central Perk worker, played by James Michael Tyler, first appears in Friends season 1 as a background character?

Gunther slips into the background of the second episode and goes on to appear in every season of the show.

Which veteran film actor plays Jack Geller, father of Ross and Monica, from the second episode of Friends season 1?

Elliott Gould, Trapper John in the 1970 film M*A*S*H, arrives with Christina Pickles for a dinner at which Monica braces for her mother's criticism.

What is Phoebe accidentally shot with in Friends season 1 while the gang hunts for Ross's escaped monkey?

A tranquilizer dart fired by an animal control officer hits Phoebe, and Rachel uses the blunder as leverage to get the illegally kept monkey handed back.

Under which title did the creators of Friends first pitch their sitcom to NBC in December 1993?

Insomnia Cafe was a seven-page treatment about six New Yorkers. The pilot script was then called Friends Like Us, and for a while Six of One, before the title was cut down to a single word.

Which R.E.M. song served as the title theme of the Friends pilot before the series had a theme of its own?

Shiny Happy People was the song the studio wanted for the series, but the band turned the offer down. The producers then wrote a theme of their own.

Which actor was the producers' first choice to play Chandler in Friends, before Matthew Perry was free to audition?

Craig Bierko turned the part down, having been coached for his audition by Perry himself. Perry was tied to a pilot about baggage handlers of the future, and read for Chandler once it was clear that show would not sell.

Which future sitcom lead auditioned several times for the role of Ross in Friends, losing out each time?

Eric McCormack found fame four years later as Will Truman in Will & Grace. Other near-misses in the pilot's casting included Kathy Griffin, who read for Phoebe, and Vince Vaughn, who read for Joey.

Which actress took over as Carol, Ross's ex-wife, after a single episode of Friends season 1?

Jane Sibbett replaced Anita Barone, who played Carol only in the sonogram episode, and kept the part until the show's seventh season.

Which of the six Friends leads was cast first, in a role the creators had written with that actor in mind?

David Schwimmer had sworn off television until he learned the script was an ensemble piece. Lisa Kudrow was the second to sign, about a month later.

The Friends pilot is set in New York, but in which California city was it taped in May 1994?

Burbank is home to the Warner Bros. studios, where four cameras recorded eight hours of material that was then cut down to 22 minutes.

Which director made the Friends pilot and asked for Joey to be written less like Chandler?

James Burrows wanted Joey made dimmer to tell the two roommates apart. He also argued against ending the first season on the birth, saying the show should not be about a baby.

Which actress, who had auditioned to play Monica, guest-stars in Friends season 1 as a single mother in labor?

Leah Remini's character is helped through her labor by Joey, in the hospital where Ross's son is being born. She went on to star in the sitcom The King of Queens.

Critics reviewing the Friends pilot in 1994 compared it unfavorably to Ellen and to which other hit sitcom?

Seinfeld was the yardstick, with reviewers calling the newcomer a weaker copy of its hanging-out style. The Los Angeles Times disagreed, naming it the best comedy series of the new season.