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The Most Amazing Behind The Scenes Secrets From 'Friends' Revealed

Lauren Bell

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The Most Amazing Behind The Scenes Secrets From 'Friends' Revealed

Featured Image Credit: Warner Bros.

Friends will forever be a classic much-loved TV show and it has just celebrated its 25th anniversary. Oh. My. Goddddd.

Can you believe people have been watching the show for 25 long years and yet it still never gets old?

Over the past quarter of a century, so many behind the scenes secrets have been revealed and we've rounded up some of the best for your enjoyment below. You are welcome.

Credit: Warner Bros.
Credit: Warner Bros.
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Matt LeBlanc was broke before he landed Joey's role

When Matt LeBlanc landed his role as Joey Tribbiani, he had $11 in his bank account and was just trying to get by until his next role.

He told Conan, he actually almost starved, according to Digital Spy.

Just look at him now!

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The show wasn't always planned to be called Friends

The show had loads of different names before it became Friends.

From Insomnia Cafe (what were they thinking?), to Friends Like Us and Across The Hall, plenty of options were thrown around before Friends was settled upon and thank goodness they did.

Credit: PA
Credit: PA
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The Director treated the Friends characters to a trip to Vegas before the first season was aired

Director James Burrows had a feeling the six cast main members would be superstars, so he took them all on a trip to Vegas before the first season aired and told them to enjoy themselves as it'd be the last time they'd be anonymous.

He apparently even lent them money to gamble - he knew they'd soon be earning big enough bucks to repay him.

This is also why Ross and Rachel get married at Caeser's palace, it's a nod to the trip they took.

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Credit: Warner Bros.
Credit: Warner Bros.

Members of the audience bagged freebies in filming

Most notably, the audience were given a lot of pizza, according to Comedy Central - the Friends characters did order a lot, after all. We're looking at you Joey.

Gunther landed his role by chance

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Credit: Warner Bros.
Credit: Warner Bros.

Gunther landed his role after being the only extra that could work a coffeee machine, according to Comedy Central.

Phoebe having her brother's triplets wasn't the original plan

The directors wrote Phoebe's pregnancy into the show because Lisa Kudrow got pregnant in real life - shocker!

Because she wasn't romantically involved with anyone in the show at that point, it was decided she'd become her brother's surrogate, notes Comedy Central.

'The one with' titles of each episode were down to laziness

According to Today, the two creators didn't like having to think of titles as they thought it wasted time. So really it was laziness meets a fondness of efficiency.

David Crane said: "We'd been on enough shows where people spent so much time trying to come up with clever, punning titles, so I thought of the way you always talk about an episode. You always go, 'Oh, well, it's the one with the thing ...' so it was like, 'Let's just do that.' And then it stuck. It was easier and people remembered."

We're so glad they did.

Ross and Rachel were always end game

Credit: Warner Bros.
Credit: Warner Bros.

According to Comedy Central, The very first thing Crane and Kauffman knew about the series' ending was that Ross and Rachel had to end up together, no questions asked.

"The only thing we absolutely knew from very early on was that we had to get Ross and Rachel together," Crane told EW. "We had dicked the audience around for 10 years with their 'will they or won't they,' and we didn't see any advantage in frustrating them."

See, he's her lobster.

The last episode was a make-up nightmare

The last episode was the most amount of time the cast spent in hair and make-up...because they kept crying.

Maggie Wheeler (Janice) told People: "The tears were flowing and the entire cast had to go back and have their makeup redone before starting."

And Jennifer Aniston said in a group interview with Oprah: "I don't think we've ever taken more time in hair and makeup in between scenes."

We're tearing up just thinking about it tbh.

One friend almost didn't make it to the final season

Jennifer Aniston toyed with the idea of not coming back for the final season.

She was having personal issues, namely her marriage to Brad Pitt ending.

Credit: Warner Bros.
Credit: Warner Bros.

Later, she admitted to Vanity Fair: "That was really painful. It was a family, and I don't do great with families splitting up,""It was hard to have such a wonderful constant in your life, a place to go every day, and then all of a sudden it's not there."

Monica was offered Rachel's role first

Courteney Cox turned down the role of Rachel as she wanted to play Monica - looks like she got her way!

Sting dropped out of his cameo at the last minute

In 'The One With Monica's Boots', Phoebe finds out that Ben is in Sting's son's class.

Sting was meant to have a cameo in the episode, but pulled out last minute, which is why his wife Trudie Styler stepped in.

Credit: Warner Bros.
Credit: Warner Bros.

She was never meant to feature, according to Metro who caught up exclusively with Friends costume designer Debra McGuire, set designer Greg Grande and producer and director Kevin S Bright.

Central Perk almost wasn't a thing.

NBC thought a coffee shop was too hip and wanted the gang to hang out in a diner, according to Collider. Imagine not having Central Perk, or Gunther? Hello?

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Ahh Friends, it'll forever be loved by us, so here's to another 25 years of us all watching it whilst we eat dinner and sobbing every time we find out that *spoiler alert* Rachel does in fact get off the plane.

Topics: TV News, TV Entertainment, Friends

Lauren Bell
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