Ok, let me just start by saying that the “Friends” reunion made me cry a lot, this brought so many good memories for me! Released on May 27 on HBO Max, with 1 hour and 40 minutes, we could see some of the remarkable moments that happened through 10 years of our favorite show. This was definitely an emotional celebration for everyone who watched and especially for the actors who managed to see each other after so long.
This reunion starts with David Schwimmer, Lisa Kudrow, Courtney Cox, Jennifer Aniston, Matt LeBlanc, and Matthew Perry arriving, one by one, into Stage 24 on the Warner Bros, where the Friends sets have all been meticulously recreated. They all get super emotional by seeing the iconic objects, rooms and so much more the same way that it was after 17 years. . It’s as if the past is there, where they’re filming the show and remembering the jokes, laughs, tears, and the good memories all over again; just like the day when Matt LeBlanc remembered that he erased Courtney’s lines that were on the table, which was super funny.
The Friends Reunion was hosted by James Corden in front of the iconic fountain where the series’ opening was recorded. With a lot of iconic moments, I decided to gather here the best ones that you have to know.
Spoiler Alert!
- The One Where Jennifer And David Had A Crush On Each Other
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If you loved Ross and Rachel as a couple, you will also love to hear that Jennifer and David had a crush on each other… They admitted that there were romantic feelings during the show. We could see videos of them lying together on the sofa in Monica’s apartment during the recording breaks, which were pretty adorable! But they said that this couldn’t go further than friendship, as they didn’t want to overstep boundaries, because they were shooting a show together. Also was never the right time since one of them was always in a relationship! Jen also said that it was sad that their first kiss was going to be on screen, and that’s what happened. “We channel this adoration and love for each other into Ross and Rachel’s relationship”, said Jennifer Aniston. In Courtney’s eyes, that’s why the scene was so good and super emotional for everyone who watched
- The One Where Everyone Was Cast
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The creators said that choosing the cast was the hardest part. David Schwimmer was the first one since they thought of Ross thinking about him. It was hard to get David on board but thank god he accepted, and we got our Ross Geller. Then came Lisa Kudrow, on the audition they saw a lot of people wanting to be Phoebe, and no one seemed right, but then they saw her as Ursula on the show “Mad About You” and they knew she was the one to play iconic Phoebe Buffay. Then the real hard part came, it was pretty difficult to find someone ironic enough to play Chandler until Matthew Perry came. He was perfect for Chandler Bing. Courtney Cox auditioned to be Monica, but they told her she looked more of a Rachel, Courtney had to explain to them that she felt more like the character she auditioned for, she was just like that in real life.
Rachel was the really hard one to find. They saw a bunch of people who auditioned to be her but no one went good enough until they saw Jennifer Aniston in a show called “Muddling Through” and thought she was exactly what they were looking for, so they agreed to share her with the other show. The big risk was if the other show was a hit and Jen had to leave, then they would have to remake the first 3 episodes with another actress.
But in the end, it was really hard for Jen to be on these two shows, so she decided to talk to the producer of ‘Muddling Through’. “I said, ‘please, please let me get off this show. I really love this other show I’m doing.”, and the answer she got was “this show is not gonna make you a star”. This is funny, look where she’s at now!!
Matt LeBlanc’s history of how he got the job is a little funny. One day before Matt’s audition he went out with his friends to drink, with the excuse that he was preparing for a show about friends. The next morning, when he woke up, still a little drunk, he fell and broke his nose in the restroom and went for the audition with his nose looking horrible. Martha Kauffman, the creator, liked Matt just by the fact that he was the only one who could be charming and funny at the same time.
- The One Where They Played The Quiz One More Time
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As promised, we got the famous quiz episode recreated, seeing on season four, the one where Rachel and Monica lose their apartment to Joey and Chandler!
We saw the same categories that Ross made at the time: Fears and Pet Peeves, Ancient History, Literature and It’s all relative, with some different questions and others not. One of them was “What’s Chandler Bing’s job?” the exact one that made them lose the apartment, and the real question was nobody knows, told by the one and only Tom Selleck (Richard on the show). Still in this game, they remembered the letter that Rachel wrote to Ross (18 pages front and back), they mentioned the 7 erogenous parts in the female body (seven! seven!), identified the voice of Mr. Heckles, the famous neighbor downstairs, and Matt Leblanc identified his hand twin! If this was the quiz they played on the show back then, the girls wouldn’t have lost their apartment, that’s for sure!
- The One With The Reading Table
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One of the best parts of the reunion was to see the cast doing a reading table with some iconic scenes, like “The One Where Everyone Finds Out” and the one where Rachel tells how she feels to Ross. It was amazing and perfect to see them doing this again! I got emotional and got some good laughs!
- The One Where Chandler And Monica Almost Didn’t Happen
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During the episode, the creators of the show, Marta Kauffman and David Crane, revealed to us that Monica and Chandler weren’t supposed to be a couple, as in fact they would just have an affair in London and then everything would go back to the way it was before, just friends. Although, when this was shot, and the audience saw Monica and Chandler in bed, they got wild and the producers saw a chance to make this a real thing and not just an affair.
- The One Where Lady Gaga Sings “Smelly Cat”
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How fun it was when Lady Gaga was on Central Perk with Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) and we saw the iconic duo singing “Smelly Cat”. She thanked Lisa for giving us such a special character, that wasn’t afraid to be authentic and herself.
- The One Where Matt Leblanc Dislocated His Arm
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Matt really tends to hurt himself… during the recording of a scene from the episode “The One Where No One’s Ready” S3E2, Joey ended up tripping on the table and hitting his shoulder when he jumped for the fourth time to sit on the couch so Chandler couldn’t. He dislocated his arm and had to go to the hospital. That’s why in the next episodes we see him with his arm immobilized.
- The One With Special Guests
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Of course, we couldn’t miss our special Gunther, Janice, Richard and the Geller parents.
Janice (Maggie Wheeler) came with her remarkable laugh and the line “Oh. My. God!”. She was the sweetest saying how special it was to shoot with them, especially with Matthew Perry.
We only saw Richard (Tom Selleck) on the quiz. And Gunther (James Michael Tyler) via Zoom since he couldn’t be there in person, it was so fast that I got a little sad because there wasn’t a lot of interaction with the cast. The Geller Parents, known as Judy (Christina Pickles) and Jack (Elliot Gould), were in the audience, and had a little chat with the cast, saying they felt like their parents, and responsible for them, it was really the cutest thing.
- The One Where Marcel Was Quite A Problem
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During the talk show, James Corden asked if anyone had a question for the cast, and one guest asked if it had something they didn’t like on the show. So David answered her saying he didn’t like Marcel, the monkey he had in the first season because the animal couldn’t get it right and ate the insects that were alive and then put his hands in David’s hair, it was a mess.
- The One Where Ross And Rachel Were On A Break?
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James Corden made this iconic question and automatically all the cast said “yes”, without thinking twice. So… what do you think? Were they really on a break or not?
- The One With BTS, Malala And David Beckham
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At this reunion, we saw people all over the world saying how “Friends” were special and meaningful for them. BTS appeared saying that they not only learned how to speak in English but the value of friendship. There was also a guest star, Malala Yousafzai, who said she watched all of the episodes with her best friend and also looks like a mixture of Joey and Phoebe. By the way, her favorite episode is with Monica and Ross’s Dance Routine. And the last one, but not least, the professional football player, David Beckham, appear to say “Friends” felt like home, and always had good laughs watching it; he also told us he thinks of him as a Monica, a manic of cleaning and that his favorite episode is “The One Where No One’s Ready”.
- The One With The Fashion Show
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This special brought us many surprises, including a fashion show, with some of the iconic looks that our friends wore on the sitcom, like Ross’s holiday armadillo costume, from season 7, episode “The One With The Holiday Armadillo”. Meanwhile, Cara Delevingne wore Rachel’s iconic puffy pink bridesmaid dress from “Barry And Mindy’s Wedding”, while Mindy Crawford wore Ross’s memorable tight leather pants from “The One With All The Resolutions”.
And to finish this awesome fashion show, there was Matt Leblanc again wearing all of Chandler’s clothes – “Look at me I’m Chandler, could I be wearing any more clothes?”
- The One Where Everyone Would Be Today
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This Friends Reunion brought us what we’ve all been asking these years, what the characters would be doing today? And we finally got our answer!
Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer agreed that Ross and Rachel are married with a bunch of kids, and Jen said that Ross would still be “playing with the bones”, which made Matt LeBlanc laugh a lot. Courtney Cox said that she’s a present mom at school and Chandler makes her laugh every single day.
Lisa said that Phoebe’s still married to Mike and that they have kids, she probably takes care of the arts program at school and encourages her kids on this art and music side they have. So what about Joey? He opened a sandwich shop in Venice Beach, and Matthew Perry said that Joey would have “ate all of the sandwiches”.
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The article above was edited by Nicoly Bastos.
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