'Friends' Turns 25: The One With the

Things You Didn't Know

The very first episode of Friends hit the NBC airwaves 25 years ago -- on Sept.
22, 1994 -- and a cultural phenomenon was born. The beloved sitcom spanned
10 seasons, birthed six Hollywood superstars and featured countless up-and-
coming famous faces and fan favorites along the way.

Now, Friends has found a new audience on Netflix, where young millennials
and Gen Z viewers can binge to their hearts content -- even if a few of the
outdated concepts like answering machine flubs and pay-per-view porn go a bit
over their heads.

But even the biggest Friends fan can't know everything about the series. (And believe
me, as someone whose family and friends will no longer play Friends trivia with me
because it "isn't fun when you're screaming all the answers," I have tried.) So buckle
up, smelly cats, here's a look at some little-known facts about everyone's favorite
Friends.

1. The names of the six main Friends were inspired by characters from All My Children.
The Friends writers peppered the sitcom with references to the iconic soap opera, including
their main characters' names: Chandler for the Chandler family, Ross for Ross Chandler,
Monica for Monique (Daisy Cortlandt's alter ego), Joey for Joseph "Joey" Martin, Phoebe
for Phoebe Tyler Wallingford, and Rachel's last name, Green, is for Janet Green.
2. The cast almost looked totally different.
Hank Azaria, who went on to play David, Phoebe's scientist beau, auditioned twice for the
role of Joey, while Two and a Half Men star Jon Cryer tried out for Chandler. In 2015,
Cryer opened up to James Corden about the tragic way he missed out on the role, recalling
that he auditioned in London and his casting tape got stuck at customs and never made it
to producers!

3. Phoebe was supposed to be goth… or Ellen.

Janeane Garofalo was in talks for an early version of the show, which featured
a "goth girl" character, who eventually evolved into the flighty, optimistic hippie
we know and love. Ellen DeGeneres also reportedly turned the role down of
Phoebe, a decision that changed the course of TV as we know it.
4. Chandler and Phoebe were originally intended to be supporting characters.
"We thought, oh, they'll provide humor," creator Marta Kauffman explained.
"They gave us much, much more than that. They became so central to the
ensemble."

5. That adorable Vegas #TBT was the cast's "last shot at anonymity."
Before the Friends pilot aired, director James Burrows flew the cast to Las
Vegas for dinner at Spago and a night at the tables.

"He handed us each a couple hundred bucks and said, 'Now go into the casino
and go gamble, because this is the last time you’ll be able to walk into a casino
anonymously,'" Jennifer Aniston recently told DeGeneres while reminiscing
about her early days on the show. "We had no clue what he was talking about…
and sure enough, that was the last time we were able to [do that]."

(The cast later returned to the same casino to shoot Ross and Rachel's drunken
Sin City wedding in season five.)

6. Some storylines were scrapped by NBC for being too risque at the time.
Fluctuating network standards and practices throughout Friends' 10-year run
meant that certain things were allowed to be shown and mentioned during their
8 p.m. time slot, and certain things were not.

For example: “We had an episode where Monica and Rachel are arguing over
who gets to use the last condom," Kauffman recalled. "Both of them wanted to
have sex that night, they were both in relationships, it was a big night for both of
them, and there was one condom left. We could show the box, we could shake
the box so you could hear the condom, but we couldn’t say condom."