Back in the ‘90s and early aughts, Friends featured a lot of A+ guest stars. Some of them had direct ties to the main cast — including Brad Pitt, who was married to Jennifer Aniston when he appeared on a Friends Thanksgiving episode and Courteney Cox’s then-husband David Arquette — while other celebrities’ guest spots were more of a question mark. I’d always wondered how Gary Oldman ended up on the show, and someone finally asked him.

It was Friends Season 7, “The One With Monica and Chandler’s Wedding,” when Gary Oldman appeared as Richard Crosby, an actor co-starring with Matt LeBlanc’s Joey Tribbiani in a World War I movie. It turns out it was LeBlanc who helped Oldman secure the role after the two became pals filming Lost in Space in 1998. Oldman said during a TIFF panel (via EW):

Gary Oldman was, unsurprisingly, amazing as the veteran actor. In Part 1 of the Season 7 finale, Joey struggles to act opposite Crosby because of his tendency to spit when he's delivering lines. Then in “The One With Monica and Chandler’s Wedding: Part 2,” Crosby shows up to set extremely drunk, causing Joey to be late for the titular wedding.

The role won Gary Oldman an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series, and it sounds like he really enjoyed the process of filming a sitcom (much more than his hectic Batman Begins schedule at least!). He told the crowd:

Not everyone had a great experience on the set of Friends, and Jennifer Aniston has said many actors were “terrified” to guest-star on the sitcom. Gary Oldman, however, seemed to enjoy every minute of it, especially watching the well-oiled machine at work:

I love hearing these behind-the-scenes accounts from former Friends guest stars, because you’d never imagine stories like Isabella Rossellini not thinking she was famous enough to cameo as herself or Alison Sweeney being intimidated when she appeared as a fictional soap opera star.

If you want to relive Gary Oldman’s Friends episodes or any others, all 10 seasons can be streamed with an HBO Max subscription.

It’s hard to imagine anyone not watching Friends. However, those people exist, and it turns out an actor from another one of the best comedies of that era is one of them. Yeah, Julia Louis-Dreyfus may have been part of Seinfeld’s funniest moments, but that doesn’t mean she was tuned into other funny moments happening over on Friends. I have to say, though, while I’m surprised she has barely watched Friends, I do understand the reason why she hasn’t.

When she stopped by the Friends Keep Secrets podcast, she dropped some fun facts about her time on “the biggest show ever.” And naturally, the topic came around to the friends-themed sitcom thanks to co-host Lil Dicky, who asked the Veep actor, “Did you like Friends?” That’s how we got to this bombshell, as she admitted:

She’s not the first celebrity to get real about the ‘challenges’ of being a working mom. Zoe Saldaña has called the nomadic life of an actor challenging to balance as a parent. Even with the stability of a long-running series, Louis-Dreyfus would have been working long hours on set and parenting when at home. So it’s understandable she wouldn’t have time for anything else.

However, the question didn’t surprise me, as while the sitcoms weren’t technically “pitted against each other,” fans often consider them rivals for being the most iconic. We even see it regarding the fashions, particularly between Elaine and Rachel. (However, Louis-Dreyfus has apologized for her character’s fashion.) Even her costar Jerry Seinfeld has previously (and cheekily) gone off about Friends. He often gives credit to their comedy for the latter’s success. But while they were briefly airing at the same time, there wasn’t an actual rivalry.

Furthermore, I was surprised that Louis-Dreyfus brought up the crossover that was never in the cards. Back in 1994, NBC decided to do a “Blackout Thursday” with its sitcoms each having a blackout-themed episode. However, Seinfeld famously didn’t participate and refused to change the content of their episode for that week. The Elaine actor shared that co-creator Larry David would never “in a million years go along with that.” The two comedies being so separate from each other may be another reason why she never fully watched Friends.

However, thanks to the dedication of Seinfeld fans watching the sitcom with a Netflix subscription, the antics of Elaine and her friends haven't gone away. But fans, like the hosts of Friends Keep Secrets, still want the tea from the Seinfeld cast about their opinions on Friends.

So I don’t see Louis-Dreyfus or her co-stars ever getting away from the Friends questions. However, I do wonder if anyone has ever asked Lisa Kudrow if she’s seen Seinfeld.

For Lisa Kudrow and the other stars of Friends, that’s the TV role they’ll always be remembered for, regardless of the other work they’ve gone on to do. Ask them about it, though, and they’ll mostly tell you they’re OK with that. Friends, after all, is what skyrocketed them to fame and allowed them so many other opportunities (not to mention how it continues to make them millions every year). Kudrow says call her “Phoebe” all you want, but there’s one fan request she simply won’t do.

Lisa Kudrow has a lot of love for Phoebe Buffay, the character she played on Friends for 10 seasons (she also played Phoebe’s twin sister Ursula, who appeared on Friends and Mad About You). She even cried at how happy Phoebe was when her character married Mike (Paul Rudd) late in the series. So when she was asked on NPR’s Fresh Air about her relationship with the show, she had glowing things to say:

Lisa Kudrow said she, Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Matthew LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer intentionally fostered real friendships by eating lunch together every day and hanging out on set. She continued:

If you can sense a “but” coming in Lisa Kudrow’s response, your instincts are on point, because it turns out that no matter how much she cherishes those memories and relationships, and the way Friends changed her life, she draws the line at one request:

That is completely understandable, and I think Lisa Kudrow might want to look into how Bryan Cranston trolls Breaking Bad fans who ask him to recite a famous Walter White line.

There have been a few fans — celebrity fans, I should say — who have been lucky enough to hear a post-Friends Lisa Kudrow sing Phoebe’s most famous song. The actress once joined Taylor Swift on stage for a “Smelly Cat” duet (I can’t decide who I’m more jealous of!), and Lady Gaga sang the kitty ditty with her on Friends: The Reunion back in 2021.

Friends still means so much to so many people, including me (I watch it with my HBO Max subscription every night to go to sleep). But hopefully fans can help Lisa Kudrow keep all the positivity she associates with the sitcom by respecting her boundaries when it comes to “Smelly Cat.”

Friends is one of the best sitcoms of all time, and with any show that has that label, there’s a lot of discourse around it. But since the series is streaming for those with an HBO Max subscription, new people are always discovering the classic series. Someone who had “zero internet influence” about the NBC series just watched the whole thing for the first time, and they’ve got a hot take on Ross. Or is it?

Is Ross The Worst Or Actually The Best?

When it comes to the post-internet discourse about Friends, there are two popular topics fans tend to talk about: “why Ross is the worst” and “if Ross and Rachel were on a break”. As one Reddit user said this week, their off-the-grid best friend just finished Friends, and had a surprising take on Ross. Here’s what the new fan allegedly said:

Funny enough, when the longtime Friends fan heard the take, it got them thinking about Ross and how “isn’t she kind of right?” As the user also wrote:

Obviously, we’re talking about a sitcom character, so shenanigans are part of what makes Friends so funny. And Ross gets into a lot of shenanigans, that’s for sure. But there are definitely a few reasons why Ross is disliked nowadays. He often exhibits arrogance, is quite possessive and controlling of Rachel, and never takes fault for cheating on her. But hey, I haven’t seen it in a while. Are we too hard on Ross? Here’s who they actually think might be the worst:

I don’t know. I think you could make a case for anyone in the cast being “the worst.” Heck, the character of Rachel definitely has a lot of haters herself, and I know I’ve found Monica to be quite annoying on multiple accounts.

How Friends Fans Feel About This Take

The post has gotten pretty popular on Reddit, leading to hundreds of comments on the topic. Interestingly enough, this take was mostly well-received on the internet, with a lot of comments totally agreeing that Ross is getting a bad rep when he’s actually kind of the best. Check some of these out:

• "Whether you love or hate Ross, you have to agree David Schwimmer was brilliant in the role."
• "I love Ross. Has faults but he's not unlikeable. Obviously by design. It is a show and has to be interesting after all."
• "I don’t hate any of them but Ross is my favorite too. He’s a good friend. He can be a bit whiny though which is why a lot of people dislike him."
• "I liked Ross fine. I just didn’t like him with Rachel."
• "I watched friends in real time and Ross was my favorite back then too"

It does make you think! How do our TV opinions change without the internet? These days we're inundated with online thoughts, but there was a time when it was just watercooler chat, and perhaps more diverse ideas about our shows were discussed in social circles. Either way, it’s going to be a long time before we stop talking about Friends.

We’ve heard from plenty of actors who guest-starred on Friends that the iconic comedy series ran like a well-oiled machine, and that’s probably part of the reason why it remains one of the most beloved sitcoms of all time. However, not even Friends’ six stars were perfect when the camera was rolling, and there have been enough bloopers released over the years to prove it. The latest clip going viral may be the cutest one I’ve seen, and this is exactly the energy I need to start the week.

While most Friends bloopers can inspire fits of giggles — like seeing Courteney Cox accidentally spit on Jennifer Aniston or watching Aniston try not to laugh at Lisa Kudrow’s wild Phoebe performance — the one I’ve seen making its way around Instagram is absolutely adorable, featuring not one of the sitcom’s adult actors but rather baby Emma, Ross and Rachel’s daughter. Please enjoy these outtakes as much as I have:

Emma was played by two sets of twins — first, Athena and Alexandra Conley in Season 9 and then Noelle and Cali Sheldon as slightly older Emma in Season 10. That means the behind-the-scenes gems shown above would have featured one of the Sheldon sisters.

The first clip, which shows Christina Applegate guest-starring as Rachel’s sister Amy, comes from Season 10’s “The One Where Rachel’s Sister Babysits.” I just love how Emma laughs as if she actually understood Amy’s joke, and then the look she gives Jennifer Aniston is priceless.

The second clip comes from just one episode later, Season 10’s “The One with Ross’ Grant,” where Rachel advises Chandler (Matthew Perry) on how to handle a situation involving one of Joey’s (Matt LeBlanc) audition tapes. When Rachel says, “Just tell Joey that you liked the tape,” Emma agrees, saying, “Yeah!” This, of course, caused Jennifer Aniston to break character and snuggle the baby actor, while Perry kept going with the joke:

I think they could have gotten away with keeping Emma’s script additions in the show — just like they did when David Schwimmer and a young Cole Sprouse pulled an epic prank on Jennifer Aniston in Season 7.

It’s kind of funny that The Morning Show star is at the center of so many Friends bloopers. In addition to all the ones mentioned above, there was also the time Jennifer Aniston accidentally took a phone call in the middle of a scene, and we can’t forget the one where she keeps “blowing” one of Friends’ more risqué jokes.

Between the funny outtakes, the cute Emma bloopers and 10 seasons of episodes that I’m only slightly embarrassed to say can still make me laugh as hard as the first time I watched them, Friends is giving me the good vibes I need to make it through this Monday.

Friends is available to stream with an HBO Max subscription.

The 2026 TV schedule introduced us to Off Campus, and since then, the actors who bring Briar U to life have skyrocketed to a new level of fame. Belmont Cameli, Ella Bright, Stephen Kalyn, Mika Abdalla, Jalen Thomas Brooks and Antonio Cipriano have become heartthrobs online, and people love seeing these colleagues and friends interact both in the show you can stream with an Amazon Prime subscription and in real life. Now, someone has compared this group’s dynamic to the cast of Friends, and some valid points were made.

This comparison came up when a source made claims about just how tight the Off Campus cast is to Deux Moi. They said that they are genuine friends, they’re all going through this crazy situation together, and allegedly their dynamic is very healthy. Here’s what the source had to say:

This all comes amid fan speculation that there’s drama among the cast. In an episode of the Deux/U podcast, Deux spoke about this, and she made it abundantly clear that she does not believe there’s any drama at all among these actors. That’s where the direct Friends comparison came in, as she explained:

To this day, the cast of Friends is beloved for their friendship both on screen and off. They’re also still incredibly tight; as Jennifer Aniston once said, they’re “family forever.” I mean, Aniston, Courteney Cox and Lisa Kudrow talk about each other and post about being together fairly regularly. While the Off Campus cast has only been working together for about a year, they also speak very highly of one another and the genuine friendship they all share.

Take one look at the comments section on Ella Bright’s Instagram post about performing with Suki Waterhouse (which her castmates went and saw), and you’ll see exactly what I mean. Almost all of them were posting about how much they loved her and that performance. And that’s just the most recent example of them going out of their way to support one another. If you watch an interview or look at their social media, it becomes clear quickly that this group is tight and dealing with this whirlwind together.

On top of the genuine friendship, these casts have also experienced extreme rises to stardom. Friends is one of the best sitcoms, and it sent its six actors to a level of fame that’s overwhelming. A similar thing is happening to the cast of Off Campus. This show made them household names and served as a major breakout moment in their careers. I also think these projects are worth comparing, because these shows didn’t just propel one actor into the spotlight, it put a light on an entire ensemble.

Obviously, the two shows are quite different. Friends is simply a sitcom about six friends (and there's some romance). Off Campus is a romance series that puts a couple at the center of each season. However, at the heart of Prime Video’s book-to-screen adaptation is the friendship between Garrett, Logan, Tucker and Dean, as well as Allie and Hannah. Yes, romance is the primary focus; however, the bond all these characters share as pals is very comparable to Friends and one of the reasons why I love it so much.

So, overall, I totally see why someone compared the cast of Off Campus to the Friends ensemble, and I hope that stays true as this hockey romance continues into Season 2 and beyond. Now, if you want to see all these friends in the projects that made them…well…friends, you can stream Off Campus on Amazon Prime and Friends with an HBO Max subscription.

It’s hard to imagine a world in which Lisa Kudrow plays anyone other than Phoebe Buffay on Friends. The Emmy winner arguably made the "weird" character endearing and someone viewers would want to pal around with. Kudrow has frequently spoken about her love for Phoebe, so much so that I’m shocked to learn that she initially wanted to play a different friend. Apparently, the actress was eyeing the role of Rachel Green and was trying her hardest to get the part.

Kudrow -- who's been candid about how representatives would refer to her as “the sixth friend” -- recently spoke with THR. During that chat, Kudrow recalled learning of the Rachel role and, based on her comments, she was quite enthusiastic about it:

Of course, that part ultimately went to Jennifer Aniston, who proceeded to nail it (and become a pop culture icon in the process). Still, I can't help but wonder what Kudrow's version of Rachel would've looked like. Kudrow went on to mention how her reps responded when she expressed interest in playing Green:

While I disagree with the reason she wasn’t right for the role, I do believe no one else could have made Phoebe the icon that she began. Kudrow also opens up in that interview about how at this time, she didn’t look like the women getting leading roles. To the point that she was even told “you’re not gorgeous.” However, the actress seemingly didn't let that discourage her in the long run.

Also, while Phoebe may not have been the “romantic interest” in the will they-won’t they drama, she did get a fairytale ending with Mike (played by Paul Rudd). He and Buffay married in a snowy wedding during Season 10, and it's arguably one of the show’s best (and most romantic) moments.

Today, Kudrow still has a considerable amount of love for Friends. On that note, she’s even found herself finally watching it (which may delight Aniston who was previously surprised she hadn't). The No Good Deed star does as a way to celebrate late co-star Matthew Perry, who died in 2023. Of course, the NBC show is only one part of Kudrow's body of work, as she's also known for The Comeback, for which she adds a considerable amount of magic to the role of Valerie Cherish. At present, she's also set to reprise her role in the Romy and Michele sequel.

I'd say that as far as Friends goes, though, everything worked out well for both Kudrow and Aniston as well as their co-stars. Still, I'll continue to be curious about what Kudrow would've done in the role of "princess" Rachel Green.

Stream all 10 seasons of Friends with an HBO Max subscription. And definitely treat yourself to some of the more ridiculous episodes (some of which involve Lisa Kudrow's Phoebe).

One of the things that proves Friends is one of the best sitcoms of all time is how much we’re still talking about it today. The Ross and Rachel “on a break” debate has evolved over the past three decades, for one thing, and there are also some big questions left unanswered: Why did we never see Ugly Naked Guy’s face? How did Rachel really spell her last name? Was Matt Damon once an extra on Friends? That last rumor is making the rounds again on the Internet, and I love how bizarre this is.

In the Season 2 episode “The One With Five Steaks and an Eggplant,” there’s a Central Perk scene toward the end, where one of the background actors looks suspiciously like Matt Damon. See for yourself:

If that’s not the star of The Odyssey, I’d say Matt Damon has a doppelgänger. Unfortunately, the above screengrab is the clearest shot we get of the uncredited extra’s face as he reads a newspaper at a table behind Matthew Perry’s Chandler.

This has been a debate amongst Friends fans off and on for years, as people continue to rewatch the series with their HBO Max subscriptions, and it was brought up again recently on Reddit. It’s a super fun theory, but unfortunately it seems as if this one’s been fully debunked.

For one thing, Matt Damon had small roles in several other movies that would have filmed around the time of this Friends episode, including The Good Old Boys, Glory Daze and Courage Under Fire. He and Ben Affleck were also reportedly writing Good Will Hunting at the time.

The strongest argument, however, is that the same extra appears to also be in an earlier scene of the episode, standing behind Chandler and Ross (David Schwimmer) at the Hootie & the Blowfish concert. While he still looks like Matt Damon from the side, you can clearly see when he faces forward that it’s not the Oscar winner:

That does appear to be the same background actor as the one in Central Perk, especially considering these two scenes are in the same episode. Now I'm just laughing at the hilarious commentary on the Matt Damon look-alike’s haircut, as Reddit user ledlunar wrote:

Others chimed in with:

• Can confirm. I had that same haircut for most of the 90s. – RealSunglassesGuy
• Yeah, for instance, that also looks like 90s era Jack Noseworthy from the side. Or, like, 200 dudes in my high school. – downwithlevers
• That looks like every Kevin and Jeff I knew in the ‘90s growing up. – sexandliquor

Well, the theory was fun while it lasted. For what it’s worth, Friends did shout out Matt Damon and Ben Affleck in a way later in the series. In Season 5’s “The One With the Inappropriate Sister,” when Joey (Matt LeBlanc) is having trouble finding acting work, Ross suggests that he write his own movie, like “the Good Will Hunting guys.” Joey’s response?

Probably about as good as Friends’ chances of getting Matt Damon as a background actor.

All 10 seasons of Friends and the 2021 reunion are available to stream on HBO Max.

The question of whether Ross cheated on Rachel when they were on a break in Friends Season 3 has got to be one of the best TV debates ever. The storyline is one that still causes me emotional turmoil (in the best way) when it comes around during my binges via HBO Max subscription. What’s really interesting is how people’s opinions of the breakup have changed over time, so what did people think of the issue back in the ‘90s?

It’s been nearly three decades since "The One Where Ross and Rachel Take a Break" and "The One the Morning After" aired on NBC, and fans are still constantly taking the issue and finding new perspectives on what went down between David Schwimmer and Jennifer Aniston’s characters. Even Lisa Kudrow has switched whose side she’s on. The debate came up on Reddit, and nutcracker_78 recalled hearing the issue discussed back when it aired, writing:

The phrase that has become a viral point of contention is “on a break,” but can we now agree that while their breakup was short-lived, it was a breakup nonetheless? Both Ross and Rachel say that. (Well, Rachel tells Monica she and Ross “broke up,” but later argues with Ross that a “break” was not a “break up,” so do with that what you will.)

The bigger question is whether what Ross did was considered cheating. I’ve always thought Ross was innocent on a technicality. He had sex with another woman within hours of his argument with Rachel (as Chandler says, “Bullets have left guns slower”), which sucks, but he was technically free to do whatever he wanted.

For some, though, it was more the events leading up to the situation with Chloe the Xerox girl that has stuck with them. Redditor lizziesiddalss recalls Ross shouting at Rachel and throwing her shoes earlier in Season 3:

Some Friends fans will die on the hill that Ross is the worst (I still cringe every time he says, “Get your butt in there and pick out any shoes that fit your feet.” Ugh, she should have made him drink the fat.). Others, however, have pointed out how awful Rachel was to Ross — breaking up him and Julie, convincing Bonnie to shave her head, crashing Ross and Emily’s wedding, etc.

In response to the above argument from “The One Where No One’s Ready,” Fragrant_Response391 wrote:

I hate to admit, that drives me crazy, too.

It’s safe to say that back in the ‘90s and early aughts, most of us really yearned for the day Ross and Rachel would get back together for good, but the more we watch it back over the years, the more toxic their relationship seems. Another fan, NoReason87, said:

Each Friends fan can have their theories on what happened after Ross and Rachel’s series finale reunion — when he convinced her to choose him instead of her dream job in Paris (sigh) — but Jennifer Aniston has offered an update on what she thinks.

It’s interesting to recall how people experienced Ross and Rachel’s “break” back in 1997 and then how we’ve all recontextualized it over the years. Regardless of who’s right and who’s wrong in their debate, I will always love that storyline for how much debate it’s caused.

Jerry Seinfeld has made his feelings regarding Friends well known over the years, and his opinion doesn’t seem have changed any. Seinfeld and the aforementioned sitcom overlapped in TV history, and it’s easy to see the comparisons, especially when the comedian points them out. Both sitcoms were about a group of friends and were set in New York City, along with being among the most popular '90s sitcoms. Seinfeld took aim at Friends during a recent discussion and, with that, it's hard not to think about the other times he's spoken out about the series.

What Did Jerry Seinfeld Say About Friends This Time?

The topic came up yet again during Netflix is a Joke festival (via Hollywood Reporter) in which the comedian asked the audience to guess his favorite sitcom. They gave the usual answers from his own comedy (which in true Seinfeld attitude, he swiftly denied) to Curb Your Enthusiasm. During the festival, Seinfeld also shared his theory on Friends:

It's obvious that the comic is being playful here, though it's hard not to see the similarities between his show and that of David Crane and Marta Kaufman's. Sure, Seinfeld's eponymous show was successful, but it's clear that he has strong feelings about the sitcom's primetime counterpart.

What Jerry Seinfeld Previously Said About Friends

Seinfeld premiered on NBC in 1989 and ran for nine seasons, so it predated Friends which came on a “few years later” in 1994. When the latter debuted, it followed Seinfeld reruns. That fact seemed to elicit a cheeky - although very on brand - response from the comedian after he ran into Lisa Kudrow at a party. He had a funny response when the Phoebe actor told him hello:

Well, that was direct and to the point, and Kudrow also recalled saying, "You're right. Thank you" after a moment of confusion. Given the overlap of the sitcoms, it's not surprising to think of the two as competitors. Both of the NBC Must See titles were known for having insightful and funny moments. I still hear quotes and see merchandise everywhere with those sayings. However, some fans have pointed out other ways in which the iconic series overlap

A fan list (shared via Vice) speculates that perhaps some of Friends' fame stems from storylines that are a little too similar to Seinfeld's, such as a battle with pants that are just a little too tight. Interestingly enough, this isn’t the first time the the Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox-headlined series has been considered a "little too similar" to another sitcom. It's also been compared to the Queen Latifah-led comedy Living Single.

On top of all that, both NBC sitcoms were shot primarily before a live audience, with Friends taking longer to film. So, needless to say, there's a lot of connective tissue between these two programs.

Despite the similarities between Friends and Seinfeld and the jokes from the latter's star, it's clear that both comedies hold special places in people's hearts and continue to be enjoyed by different generations of viewers. For that, the cast and crews of both sitcoms should be proud.

They also remain especially meaningful for the cast themselves. While the Seinfeld cast drifted apart for a time after the show ended, they have reunited off and on throughout recent years. And, of course, the Friends cast has remained quite tight, and they even gathered for a reunion a few years before cast member Matthew Perry's death.

Of course, fans can be reassured that they don't have to pick a favorite, as they're free to enjoy both. You can rewatch Seinfeld with a Netflix subscription and Friends using an HBO Max subscription.

When we think of Friends, the names Ross, Rachel, Joey, Phoebe, Chandler and Monica likely come to mind. Yet devoted fans will also remember the stellar cast of recurring characters that rounded out the iconic sitcom. Over its 10-season run, the show introduced some great acquaintances, lovers, and relatives of the core crew, including Morgan Fairchild's Nora Bing. Chandler’s mom is introduced about halfway through Season 1, but Fairchild was actually first introduced to the late Matthew Perry long before becoming his TV mother.

By the time Fairchild stepped onto the Friends set in 1994, she was already a household name due to her many appearances in popular ‘80s primetime soaps like Falcon Crest and Search For Tomorrow. So it was a huge deal for the NBC sitcom to nab a big name like Fairchild to guest star as Chandler’s mom, famous erotica author Nora Bing. The Concrete Cowboys actress recently told People why she decided to sign on:

I would say so. Friends is widely considered one of the best sitcoms of all time, and the finale was watched live by 52.5 million people. Clearly, Fairchild has an eye for good TV and, as it turned out, her fateful decision would also come with an incredibly sweet surprise. Fairchild eventually reunited with Perry, after which she realized they'd already been acquainted in a very sweet way years prior:

Fairchild would have briefly first crossed paths with the elder Perry on Flamingo Road in the early ‘80s but may have really gotten to know the George Of The Jungle actor in 1984 when the two worked together on the TV show Paper Dolls. That show was immediately followed up by Season 5 of Falcon Crest in 1985, in which Perry played Sheriff Floyd Gilmore.

Presumably, these are the times Perry was hanging out with his dad and future TV mom on set. At the time, the younger Perry would have been 15 and 16 years old, so it’s no wonder he chose to follow in his father’s footsteps, after spending his formidable teen years on a TV set.

I will say, this background info makes a lot of sense now. Nora Bing may not have been the perfect mother, but Morgan Fairchild was the perfect Nora Bing. From the jump, Chandler and Nora have seemingly easy comedic chemistry as a mother son duo and, now, we know why.

Though she only appeared in five episodes throughout the series’ run, Fairchild certainly made her mark as a memorable Friends guest star early on by kissing Ross and embarrassing her son on national TV. Check out a clip of Nora's conversation with Jay Leno from her first episode:

Over the years, Morgan Fairchild has spoken fondly of Matthew Perry and previously even talked about how the show's theme song deeply resonated with the late actor. Though Fairchild told People she and Perry lost touch toward the end of his life, she never lost that motherly instinct. She said she was really proud of the 17 Again actor’s bravery in regards to his struggles with addiction, and his willingness to help others experiencing the same. All in all, it seems that Fairchild now relishes the time she spent with Perry at different points in his life.

You can relive all the best Friends moments and guest appearances by streaming all 10 seasons and the reunion special with an HBO Max subscription.

Friends had a lot of guest stars throughout its 10-season run, with some being very memorable and others not so much. Even in the final season, there were quite a few great performers, including Anna Faris. The Scary Movie star in four episodes, including the two-part series finale, but she still managed to make a mark in that short amount of time. At the same time though, Faris apparently felt weird about joining the series during its big farewell.

In Season 10, Faris recurred as Erica, a pregnant woman who ultimately chose Monica and Chandler to be her babies' adoptive parents. The fan-favorite actress recalled that experience during a segment for Variety, in which she tried to recall some lines she’s had over the course of her career. Faris' role on Friends was brought up, prompting memories of how emotional the set was amid production of those final installments. In the midst of the emotions, though, Faris found it awkward to engage in group hugs:

It’s understandable why Faris would feel that way. Joining an already-established show is one thing, but being involved during the final episodes of its 10-year run is something else. Obviously, in terms of Friends, the cast had a shared history and, naturally, they were emotional. Faris wasn't the only one who felt that way either. Paul Rudd, who recurred in the final two seasons as Phoebe’s boyfriend and eventual husband, Mike Hannigan, wondered why he was included in the series finale.

Despite the awkwardness about being included in sentimental moments with the cast, the former Mom actress has nothing but fond memories of filming Friends. She even reminisced about filming in front of a live studio audience, who were witnessing the end of a very special era:

I can only imagine what it was like to be in the audience for the final episodes, and I love that Faris got to be a part of it. On top of that, her character played such an important part in Monica and Chandler’s final arc, and it was quite sweet to see Erica welcome the twins that the parents would raise. Faris also previously talked about getting to work with the late Matthew Perry and, even then, she felt weird speaking about it due to not spending too much time with him.

All in all, though, I'd say the icing on the cake of Anna Faris' entire experience was the fact that she was still embraced by the cast. Honestly, I'd expect nothing less from the cast of Friends. On that note, I'm feeling the need to rewatch Faris' episodes, and fans can check them out now using an HBO Max subscription.

The TV world lost an absolute giant at the end of this past week, as James Burrows sadly died at the age of 85. Even if some don’t recognize Burrows’ name right away, they’re surely familiar with his work, as he directed some of the greatest sitcoms of all time, including The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Taxi, Cheers and Will & Grace. Another notable entry in Burrows’ directorial work is Friends, on which he became close with the cast, including Jennifer Aniston. Now, Aniston has penned a tribute to Burrows, which has me emotional.

Jennifer Aniston Pays Loving Tribute To James Burrows

Burrows directed multiple episodes of Friends throughout the first four years of its 10-season run. He even notably directed the pilot episode, which introduced the six titular characters. This weekend, Aniston took to Instagram to pay tribute to the man she affectionately knew as “Papa Burrows.” In addition to sharing a carousel full of photos, Aniston shared her recollections of working with the late director/producer. Something she specifically noted early on was the loving way Burrows would refer to her and her castmates:

The Rachel Green actress shouted out Burrows’ “incredible children” for being “generous enough to share him with all of us who were lucky enough to experience his unicorn presence.” She also referred to the Frasier helmer as a “father figure” to her and noted how he was also there for her amid the “hardest times and the best of times” of her life. She concluded her message off with this:

As a sitcom fan, I was already in my feelings about the death of James Burrows, and the tribures that have poured in for him only added to that. However, Aniston’s message is a staunch reminder of not just Burrows’ talent but the endearing relationships he forged with his actors. This man truly left a mark on those he worked with, and it’s wonderful that so many – including members of the Friends cast are memorializing him.

Friends Alums And More Are Honoring James Burrows After His Passing

Before Jennifer Aniston shared her tribute to James Burrows, she David Schwimmer – who played her love interest, Ross Geller – shared photos and a lovely message on Instagram. Schwimmer had nothing but kind thoughts to share about the director:

Matt LeBlanc, known for playing the food-loving Joey Tribbiani, also posted some warm words on Instagram as well as some sweet photos. When paying tribute, LeBlanc wrote:

Another lovely tribute came from the Phoebe Buffay actress Lisa Kudrow, who most recently worked with the Burrows on the third and final season of The Comeback. Kudrow – who notably delivered the lobster joke in an iconic Friends episode directed by Burrows – posted a photo to her Instagram story. She also included the comment, “Thank you Jimmy. I mean, for everything…”

Various other actors Burrows worked with over the years, including Danny DeVito, Ted Danson, Debra Messing, Eric McCormack and Tony Danza. Burrows’ body of work is unmatched, including titles ranging from The Mary Tyler Moore Show to Mike & Molly. He also directed the pilots for shows like Two and a Half Men and The Big Bang Theory. Of course, amid all that he’ll be known for directing some of the most beloved (and humorously ridiculous) episodes of Friends.

The TV landscape – and the world as a whole – is a poorer place for not having James Burrows. Still, I take comfort in the fact that his work will surely be enjoyed for generations and that Jennifer Aniston and other stars will remember him fondly.

Thanks to streaming, fans have been able to rewatch their favorite classics and discover new favorites. Friends, which is one of the best sitcoms of all time, is still being watched over and over again by fans even years after it ended. It’s hard to imagine someone these days not watching the show, streaming with an HBO Max subscription. Not surprisingly, Jennifer Aniston was pretty taken aback when she found out co-star Lisa Kudrow had never watched the NBC hit.

Aniston and Kudrow recently participated in Variety’s Actors on Actors segment, not only reflecting on their experience on Friends, but on their careers as a whole and how the show is still impacting their lives today. At one point, Aniston recalled her reaction when she found out that Kudrow had never actually watched Friends, and it’s definitely on par with how I reacted:

Considering a lot of actors actually avoid watching their own projects for numerous reasons, it’s understandable why Kudrow hadn’t watched Friends. And it’s not like she was avoiding the show altogether, especially since it sounds like she and the cast watched it quite a lot back in the day. Kudrow and Aniston shared their own thoughts on watching the series, and how awkward it can be watching themselves:

• Kudrow: It was really fun. And then we got busy. There were whole episodes that I hadn’t seen. I just couldn’t sit there at home and have anybody walk by seeing me watching a show that I’m in. Because it felt embarrassing to me.
• Aniston: Just like, ‘Oh, here I am, watching my own self be brilliant and funny?’ Because you were.
• Kudrow: Well, I wouldn’t feel that way. Watching it, sometimes I would just be like [she affects a loud, reedy voice], ‘He’s her lobster!’ Why that voice?

Since she and Aniston last did Actors on Actors in 2020, Kudrow has watched more episodes of Friends than before. She previously revealed that she couldn’t watch the show for years, but things changed after Matthew Perry died in 2023 because she’d be watching it for him. It’s a sweet gesture that probably makes it a little harder to watch. However, it sounds like she’s gotten over being embarrassed to watch Friends since she’d be watching her late friend and co-star.

Kudrow has also shared some feelings she’s had while rewatching Friends, including the episode that made her emotional. In 2024, she admitted that she cried while watching Phoebe’s wedding to Paul Rudd’s Mike, noting how happy her character was and how she’d never seen her so happy. Earlier this year, Kudrow said it’s been comforting to watch Friends following Perry’s passing, and since Chandler Bing had some of the funniest lines, I can only imagine how much she both cried and laughed in the same breath while remembering him.

As someone who doesn’t particularly like hearing herself on a recording, I can sympathize with Kudrow and not wanting to watch herself. Of course, that has changed in recent years, especially since she’s putting more focus on Chandler, rather than Phoebe, because of Perry, but it’s all the same. With Kudrow rewatching the show, though, this does make me wonder if she’ll ever jump on the rewatch podcast train like a lot of her colleagues have been doing. You never know.

It’s not super common to have a sitcom with six main characters of equal billing, but that’s how Friends operated for its 10 seasons — with the cast ensuring their parity by sticking together during salary negotiations. Still, every fan has an opinion about who was their favorite and which Friend was the worst. You better believe Hollywood executives did too, and Lisa Kudrow got real about people seeing her as Friends’ least popular cast member also known as the “sixth Friend.”

Phoebe Buffay was a beloved member of the Friends ensemble, irreplaceable with her consistently off-beat humor. However, it seems that people in Hollywood didn’t value her as much as they did, say, Jennifer Aniston or Courteney Cox. Lisa Kudrow was asked about representatives referring to her internally as the “sixth Friend,” and she told THR:

It seems like even as executives were pessimistic about Lisa Kudrow’s career outside of Friends, she was proving them wrong in real time. In 1995 she had a role in Mother, which Albert Brooks wrote, directed and starred in, and in 1997 she did the cult classic Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion with Mira Sorvino and Clockwatchers, as well as several other projects during Friends’ run.

I can definitely see how Lisa Kudrow and her character on Friends might not have gotten the respect they deserved. The sitcom — one of the greatest sitcoms of all time — centered a lot of its stories around Ross and Rachel (Jennifer Aniston and David Schwimmer). Chandler (Matthew Perry) brought the laughs and Monica (Courteney Cox) was kind of the glue that held them all together.

However, Joey (Matt LeBlanc) and Phoebe started out as having less depth than their counterparts, making jokes about food or injecting weird and whimsical observations. Lisa Kudrow worked hard to develop her character and put a lot of thought into details like making Phoebe bad at guitar, which resulted in someone Kudrow was proud of. She even became emotional watching Phoebe’s arc as she rewatched Friends in recent years.

Even post-Friends I’d have to say those executives were wrong, because Lisa Kudrow has had plenty of success over the past two-plus decades, most recently with the third season of The Comeback (streaming with an HBO Max subscription), which got meta with a great Friends reference, as well as starring in No Good Deeds and Time Bandits.

It’s unfortunate that business executives underestimated Lisa Kudrow enough back in the day to refer to her as the “sixth Friend.” However, I love that she didn’t let it stop her and let her work speak for itself.

There’s a famous story about the cast of Friends taking a trip to Las Vegas ahead of the sitcom’s premiere in 1994, with legendary TV producer James Burrows predicting it would be the last time they’d ever be anonymous in public. That turned out to be true, and even over 30 years later, Lisa Kudrow and the rest of the gang get recognized by fans wherever they go. Sometimes, however, people can’t place exactly where they know the actors from, and Kudrow revealed probably the wildest case of mistaken identity I’ve ever heard.

Lisa Kudrow — who played the hilariously off-beat Phoebe Buffay on Friends and recently wrapped the third and final season of her meta-comedy The Comeback — participated in a roundtable with other comedic actresses for THR. They were asked about bizarre fan interactions. She had quite a doozy, too, telling the others:

Lisa Kudrow getting mistaken for Dionne Warwick is actually wild, because I can’t even figure out where the confusion would come from. Their names are nothing alike; the “Walk On By” singer is more than 20 years older than Kudrow; they don’t look alike or even work in the same corner of the entertainment industry (though I’d totally listen to Warwick try her hand at a rendition of “Smelly Cat”).

It’s a complete mystery to me how the hostess in Lisa Kudrow’s story could have mixed up the two. However, the actress hilariously admitted that wasn’t even her first thought when the woman failed to identify her, saying:

Sometimes it’s easier to understand how these cases of mistaken identities happen, like when a fan thought Kelly Clarkson was Carrie Underwood. They’re both American Idol champs who sang pop and country. Then there’s people mixing up Emma Stone and Emma Watson. They share a first name, are both accomplished actors and are around the same age — it’s not great, but you see how it could happen. Now, Ken Jennings getting mistaken for Richard Jenkins? I’m not so sure about that, despite their last names starting with the same three letters.

I have to admit, Lisa Kudrow’s bizarre fan interaction makes for a great story, but she’s not the only Friends star with one of those. Matt LeBlanc — who played the eternally hungry Joey Tribbiani — recalled shooting a series in the middle of nowhere in Morocco. The locals wore robes and lived in caves, but they still recognized him, as LeBlanc said they called him “Joey” and said, “How you doin’?” He also once saw a fan get in a wreck after recognizing him in traffic.

I don’t think either of those stories beat Lisa Kudrow getting mistaken for Dionne Warwick, though. You can see more of Kudrow by streaming Friends and The Comeback with an HBO Max subscription.

No matter how many times I rewatch Friends with my HBO Max subscription, and no matter how many behind-the-scenes stories come out about the inner workings of one of the best sitcoms of all time, I am still enthralled anytime someone speaks out about their experience on set — especially if that person is one of the many fabulous guest stars. Craig Robinson is the latest to share his story, and I love how he said Lisa Kudrow spoke up for him during filming.

Craig Robinson is a well-known comedic actor these days for his roles in Hot Tub Time Machine, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and so many more. However, back in 2004 — a year before his breakout role as Darryl Philbin on The Office — one of his first acting jobs came on Friends’ 10th season, where he played an office clerk who helped Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow) change her name after marrying Mike Hannigan (Paul Rudd). Recalling his time with Kudrow, Robinson told EW:

Even though they did go on to work together again, Lisa Kudrow wouldn’t have known who Craig Robinson was at the time, but maybe she saw something in the up-and-comer, because the actor continued:

You have to love that. It didn’t matter that Craig Robinson was a relatively new actor and didn’t have a decade of experience under his belt like she did. Lisa Kudrow heard him throw out something that she thought would make the scene better, and she used her position to give him a platform for his voice to be heard.

Others must have agreed with them that the pitch was funny, because it sounds like it made it the show. Robinson said:

The episode in question is Season 10’s The One with Princess Consuela. Phoebe asks the clerk if she's supposed to write “Buffay-Hannigan” or “Hannigan-Buffay” on the name change form, to which he replies she can write down any name she wants. Because Phoebe is consistently and hilariously off-beat, she ultimately chooses to become “Princess Consuela Banana-Hammock.”

Too bad we didn’t get a scene between Craig Robinson and Paul Rudd, after Mike threatens to give Phoebe a taste of her own medicine by changing his name to “Crap Bag.” Ah, the missed opportunity.

You’ll be able to hear more of Craig Robinson soon, as he’s lending his voice to Toy Story 5, which hits the 2026 movie release calendar in June.

Noah Wyle is continuing to dominate television with the critically acclaimed Emmy-winning HBO Max drama The Pitt, which recently wrapped up its second season on the 2026 TV schedule. The show marks his return to the medical drama genre, following his role as Dr. John Carter on ER, which ended in 2009 after 15 seasons. While the role shot him to superstardom, there were rumors that he auditioned for fellow ‘90s NBC series Friends, and Wyle had an A+ reaction to that speculation.

Coincidentally, there are a couple of fun connections between Friends and ER. The two shows premiered in 1994, just days apart on the same network. Friends has a character named Rachel Green, one of the main friends played by Jennifer Aniston, while ER has a character named Rachel Greene, the daughter of Anthony Edwards’ Dr. Mark Greene, who is played by various child actors throughout the show’s run.

For some reason, fans also got the idea that another connection was made thanks to Wyle, thinking that, before landing Carter, he auditioned for David Schwimmer’s Ross Geller. That was not actually the case. Before ER, he actually turned his nose up at having a TV career, and his response to Variety regarding potentially auditioning for Friends is pretty great:

The fact that Wyle was so against doing television until he got ER, and the fact that that’s mostly what he’s done throughout his career, is pretty hilarious. It’s even more hilarious knowing that he actually went on to appear in Friends. Wyle and George Clooney guest-starred as doctors, different from Dr. John Carter and Dr. Doug Ross from ER, during the first season of Friends. It was likely a way for NBC to put eyes on both shows, which were just starting out, but it turned into a pretty memorable episode. And it makes me so happy that Wyle changed his tune about television.

Even though Wyle confirms that he never auditioned for Friends, it does make me wonder just how different things would be had that happened and he got the role of Ross. Friends and ER would be wildly different shows, and Schwimmer and Wyle would have wildly different careers. We probably wouldn’t have The Pitt, we wouldn’t have a lot of other shows and movies, too. It’s hard to imagine anyone else playing Ross and Carter, so I’m glad things ultimately worked out for both of them, especially Wyle.

So, with all that said and done, fans can look forward to a show that Wyle is definitely in, and that’s The Pitt. The show may be done with Season 2, but Season 3 is already on the way. The upcoming season will be streaming with an HBO Max subscription in early 2027, and considering the way that Season 2 ended, there is going to be a lot to catch up on, depending on how far ahead the time jump will be. Both seasons of The Pitt, as well as all seasons of Friends, are streaming on HBO Max.

Watching an episode of Friends, a.k.a. one of the best sitcoms ever, often garners only good vibes, giggles and chuckles, but it wasn’t always the same experience creating the show itself. According to Lisa Kudrow, the TV show’s writers room could get pretty nasty behind closed doors.

It’s not exactly new information that things were different off-camera, given Friends writers’ assistant Amaani Lyle claimed back in 1999 that she was subjected to sexual and racial harassment through offensive comments made by several producers and writers during meetings. Kudrow shared her own less than savory experiences with those comprising the Friends writers room, which she said amounted to around 12 to 15 people, predominantly men. In her words:

Now, Lyle’s case was dismissed in a California Supreme Court case that held that vulgarity can be a necessary part of a creative workplace environment when it comes to a sitcom like Friends. Even so, it sounds like Lisa Kudrow and the other leading women on the show were subject to commentary from the writers’ room they didn’t appreciate. As she added:

Kudrow discusses this element of Friends with The Times amidst recently bringing back her own commentary about making TV shows in her and Michael Patrick King’s HBO series The Comeback. While the latest season is set around the hot-button topic of an AI-crafted sitcom for Valerie Cherish, she’d previously drawn directly from her time on Friends to call out toxic writers rooms she's experienced herself. Case in point, the Season 1 scene where Valerie brought baked cookies to the writers, only to find Paulie G. & Co. making sexualized jokes about her.

In the new interview, she confirms that The Comeback has provided her the “closest thing” to her experience in writers rooms which she describes as being filled with “male energy” and “the sophomoric madness that happens when people are trapped, trying to do a series”. Friends certainly had a grueling schedule for a decade, with each episode taking a week to film in an industry that didn’t typically take so long per episode.

While making Friends might not have always been the best workplace environment, Kudrow has said before that she’ll always talk about it because gave her “everything.” And, following the death of her cast mate Matthew Perry, Kudrow has recently been rewatching Friends and weighing in things like if Ross and Rachel were on a break and about the show’s lack of people of color.

While we might expect a show like Friends to be all fun and games, Kudrow's comment show that the show from the 1990s and 2000s had its workplace faults.

When I think of Friends, I prefer to think of all the good things that make it one of the best sitcoms of all time — Chandler’s hilarious jokes, Phoebe’s most offbeat moments, Joey’s ever-growing food obsession, etc. However, for the sitcom’s six principal actors, the price of such monumental fame could be hard to deal with — particularly for Matthew Perry, David Schwimmer and Matt LeBlanc.

We all know about Matthew Perry’s struggles with addiction that ultimately led to his death in 2023 at age 54. He had opened up about his dark times in his memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, which came out almost exactly one year before a ketamine overdose caused him to drown in his hot tub.

The Chandler Bing actor reflected on how bad his addiction was and how it could be tracked by his weight fluctuations throughout Friends’ 10 seasons. He said one time Jennifer Aniston even confronted him about his drinking, and Maggie Wheeler — who played Chandler’s ex-girlfriend Janice — said he talked to her about his struggles. Matthew Perry’s story came to a tragic end, but he wasn’t the only one who went through hard times.

David Schwimmer Had ‘Terrifying’ Fan Encounters That Made Him ‘Want To Hide’

While playing Ross Geller undoubtedly changed David Schwimmer’s life, he told the Making a Scene podcast in 2025 that it took him a long time to adjust to the kind of fame he and his co-stars experienced. Cars tracked his every move, people staked out his house, and that dang Friends theme song haunted him everywhere he went. He recalled a scary fan encounter he had one time, saying:

Back in 2016 he told THR’s Awards Chatter podcast that his fame messed with how he related to other people and how he moved through the world — including how he did his job. David Schwimmer said:

He also took the same approach as Jennifer Aniston after the show ended and took roles that were nothing like their Friends characters. David Schwimmer also turned to directing.

Matt LeBlanc Went Into Self-Imposed Exile

For Matt LeBlanc, his troubles went beyond not being able to separate himself from Joey Tribbiani (though that was definitely an issue too). The year that Friends ended, LeBlanc’s daughter was born, but within the first year, she began having seizures and was diagnosed with a form of dysplasia. Then he and his wife Melissa McKnight divorced in 2006.

That was around the time the Friends spinoff Joey was canceled, and Matt LeBlanc told The Mirror in 2016 that he went into hiding and basically told his agent to lose his number. He said:

Because he’s so well-known for his role on Friends, Matt LeBlanc told The Sun that it affects how people talk to him, saying:

But do they ever offer him meatball subs? It seems like that might be a perk.

It’s terrible to know that the price of fame was so high for the men on Friends, especially because in Matthew Perry’s case, some of that damage can never be undone.

However, if you prefer to keep your Friends fandom in a more optimistic headspace, just take a deep breath and fire up that HBO Max subscription for another rewatch or two.

It’s amusing that even though Friends aired its final episode on NBC more than 20 years ago, we’re still learning details about the inner workings of one of the best sitcoms of all time. For example, who would have guessed the cast went through a combined 75 wardrobe changes in the span of a half-hour? Well, Lisa Kudrow just spilled a little more tea, and it turns out Friends took quite a bit longer to shoot than other sitcoms at the time.

It’s a good thing Lisa Kudrow doesn’t mind recalling her days as Phoebe Buffay on Friends, because she’s been doing quite a bit of it lately as she promotes The Comeback Season 3 (both of which can be streamed with an HBO Max subscription). During an interview with the Table Manners podcast, she got into what a week in the life of a Friends star looked like, and when asked how long each episode took, she said:

It was like a play in the way that they had plenty of rehearsal before giving their final performance to a live crowd; however, at the theater, nobody stops to retake a scene if Jennifer Aniston can’t stop laughing at Lisa Kudrow singing along with David Schwimmer’s bagpipes, or when Aniston accidentally answers a real call on her cellphone while filming.

Even more than that, sometimes scenes or jokes had to be rewritten, Lisa Kudrow said, if they didn’t go over with the live audience as intended. Kudrow continued:

Yes, filming a Friends episode actually took so long that they had to replace the live audience halfway through. But before you go thinking that’s unfair to the fans who only get to see production of half an episode, Lisa Kudrow assured the hosts that after three hours, they were “happy to leave.” She said:

Maybe that’s where Ellen DeGeneres got the idea to order pizza for the Oscars audience. That’s really wild, when you think about it — the crew having to order food because they’ve kept the audience so long. You’re not going to get those laughs any easier if everybody’s tired and hungry.

Speaking of being tired, though, with Friends episodes taking two or three times longer to shoot than a typical 30-minute sitcom episode, that meant some long nights for the cast and crew. To add to that, Lisa Kudrow said:

Too bad Central Perk wasn’t serving up real coffee!

While producing one sitcom episode per week isn’t unusual, I don’t think you’ll hear about many productions keeping their stars late into those a.m. hours. That couldn’t have been easy, but hopefully in hindsight they can see their hard work was worth it. They are still reportedly making 10 figures a year in royalties, after all.

Either way, Lisa Kudrow is still out here killing it in the comedy department on the third and final season of The Comeback, even managing to throw in some pretty meta Friends references. Keep your eye out for more as new episodes air at 10:30 p.m. ET Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.

It’s inevitable that Lisa Kudrow will always be known for her role as Phoebe Buffay on Friends, but that doesn’t take away from “enormous magic” she’s creating as Valerie Cherish on the third and final season of The Comeback. Kudrow’s two worlds combined in the most recent episode “Valerie Faces Reality” (which can be streamed with an HBO Max subscription), with that meta moment following another almost-reference in Episode 2 that left me speechless.

The Comeback confirmed in the episode that aired April 5 on the 2026 TV schedule that Friends does exist in Valerie Cherish’s world. Valerie arrived at Warner Bros.’ Stage 24 — where Friends was famously shot — for her new show How’s That?! She gets excited looking at the plaque outside the stage, saying:

As Valerie walks away, the camera zooms in on the plaque where Friends is listed.

Lisa Kudrow said at a Los Angeles press conference (via UPI) that they couldn’t pass up the opportunity to make a Friends joke there, saying:

I can’t quite put into words why this acknowledgement was so exciting for me, but I’m sure it was, at least in part, because Valerie has teased a Friends reference in the previous episode, “Valerie Has a Secret.” Upon hearing that James Burrows had passed on How’s That?!, Valerie said:

At that point the writer she’s talking to (Abbi Jacobson) interrupts her to say they have to go. How brilliant is that?

Valerie definitely had my attention when she started naming shows created by Jimmy Burrows — who famously took the Friends stars to Las Vegas for one last hurrah of anonymity ahead of the 1994 premiere. When she said “Frasier,” I thought she was going for “Friends,” and then she got cut off when she actually went to say it. Series co-creator Michael Patrick King seemed to confirm the joke was, indeed, meant to drive Friends fans like me crazy. He said:

It’s pretty meta to have Valerie Cherish and Lisa Kudrow existing in the same universe. Do we think James Burrows has noticed their resemblance to each other? Now I’m really going to be on the lookout for more little easter eggs in The Comeback’s remaining episodes, which is likely to make me read way too far into things.

For example, I’d already quietly wondered if Ella Stiller’s involvement as Valerie’s social media manager Patience was a Friends nod, since both her parents, Ben Stiller and Christine Taylor, guest-starred. There’s also the How’s That?! actor (Man with a Plan’s Matt Cook) playing triplets while having his own tragic twin story — possible references to Phoebe and Ursula, and Phoebe giving birth to triplets?

I better quit while I’m ahead. Tune in to see the rest of Valerie Cherish’s story, with new episodes at 10:30 p.m. ET Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.

So many actors have that one role they’ll never get away from, and for the six stars of the ensemble comedy Friends, that’s the case for all of them. Even as Lisa Kudrow does promotion for The Comeback, which is airing on the 2026 TV schedule, she’s fielding questions about the sitcom that debuted more than 30 years ago. It turns out, though, that’s not a problem, and Kudrow explained why she’s always happy to talk about Friends.

Lisa Kudrow, of course, played Phoebe Buffay for all 10 seasons of one of the best sitcoms of all time but, even now, as she’s wrapping her arc as Valerie Cherish on the third and final season of HBO’s The Comeback, she doesn’t mind sharing her updated opinion on whether Ross and Rachel were on a break or discussing why it’s better that Phoebe was bad at playing guitar. Kudrow told CBS Sunday Morning:

It’s not rare to see actors jump into a wildly different role after a big project in hopes of not getting typecast as one specific character. In fact, Jennifer Aniston did it with movies like The Good Girl and Friends with Money. Kudrow has played plenty of characters who are nothing like her role on Friends, but she said she still gets called “Phoebe” by fans and doesn’t mind if Phoebe’s hilariously offbeat quotes are the ones that stick. She explains:

Opinions may vary amongst the other Friends stars on that sentiment. Jennifer Aniston admitted the love/hate aspect of the show being a “lifetime commitment.” David Schwimmer has said he got really sick of hearing the iconic theme song for a while, and Matthew Perry even addressed the issue before his death, writing that he didn’t want to just be remembered as Chandler Bing.

We can’t know what Lisa Kudrow’s career would look like today without Friends, but it’s pretty safe to say that Valerie Cherish wouldn’t exist. Kudrow’s character on The Comeback is an actor trying to stay relevant (in the cringiest of ways) after her long run as the star of a hit sitcom comes to an end. The series premiered in 2005 — just a year after Friends’ finale.

I definitely understand actors getting frustrated when one project continues to outshine others that came after, but as a huge Friends fan, I’m also grateful when Lisa Kudrow and the others are willing to talk about it.

You can stream all 10 seasons of Friends with an HBO Max subscription. That’s also where you can stream The Comeback, which airs on HBO at 10:30 p.m. ET Sundays.

There are some shows I never tire of watching, and Friends is one of them. The beloved '90s comedy series has no shortage of great jokes, so I decided to narrow it down to a more specific topic for this week's movie and TV quiz. All of the clues in the Friends crossword puzzle below involve food on the series. While many of them do involve Joey -- the character most well-known for loving food-- all of the main characters are featured in the questions.

It’s been over 20 years since Friends’ series finale aired, and still somehow that last episode — a two-parter appropriately titled “The Last One” — can bring on such a flood of emotions. Saying goodbye to Ross, Rachel, Monica, Chandler, Joey and Phoebe (and Mike?) still feels like such a loss after spending 10 seasons with the gang. That's especially true now, after learning one behind-the-scenes fact that makes that last line hit way different.

At the end of the episode, the core group of six somberly leave Monica’s apartment for the last time. Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) asks if they have time to stop for a cup of coffee, and Chandler (Matthew Perry) smartly replies: “Where?” The joke is that we all know where — Central Perk, where the friend group spent so much time at that orange couch reserved for them. However, one viral meme adds a whole new layer of meaning to that final word:

Before, this was simply just one last funny line from Chandler Bing, but now I’m always going to see its double meaning — at that point during filming there actually was nowhere for them to go, because the Central Perk set had already been torn down.

Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman confirmed as much in the DVD commentary for “The Last One,” when she talked about the heartwrenching process of closing out a decade-long sitcom. Kauffman said:

During the final Central Perk scene, Marta Kaffuman said they had to stop several times because people were crying. Executive producer Kevin Bright said it wasn’t until David Schwimmer pointed out that it was the last time they’d be on the set together that the tears started to flow. Even after they wrapped the scene (and the set), nobody wanted to leave, Kauffman said:

That’s heartbreaking enough to read as a fan, so I can only imagine what it was like for the cast and crew who’d spent 10 years of their lives there. Luckily for us, though, Central Perk will always exist via seemingly constant cable reruns and the ability to stream all 10 seasons — plus the 2021 reunion special — with an HBO Max subscription.

Still, even though I’m sure that line wasn’t written to be a secret reference to the Central Perk set, I’m afraid I’ll never be able to hear Chandler’s final line without thinking about it that way.

It’s been more than two years since Matthew Perry died at age 54, and yet a piece of him lives on through his role as Chandler Bing on Friends. Perry’s five former co-stars from what is considered one of the best sitcoms of all time have paid tribute to the actor in several ways over the years and spoken out about how his death affected the group. It turns out for Lisa Kudrow, she’s found comfort in the place where it all began.

Lisa Kudrow, who played Phoebe Buffay on the NBC sitcom's 10 seasons, has been open about not being able to watch Friends because she didn’t like watching herself (and all of Phoebe’s offbeat hilarity). However, after they lost Matthew Perry, her perspective changed. She told the Capital FM:

No apology necessary, I’m sure! Chandler Bing did have the funniest lines on Friends, and the fact that fans could still hear those jokes — whether through a TV marathon or streaming with an HBO Max subscription — undoubtedly helped people process his death. Being able to focus on Chandler rather than Phoebe certainly helped Lisa Kudrow’s rewatch. She continued:

As someone who’s seen every Friends episode 2.7 billion times, it’s hard to process the fact that Lisa Kudrow and her co-stars haven’t watched the show — she and Courteney Cox have said they don’t remember most of the episodes — but it does make sense. That was their job, not their escape like Friends is for so many of us.

However, watching the show back after Matthew Perry died allowed the actress to remember things like how hard he made them all laugh when they filmed that “nightmare” opening scene in the fountain. It even helped Lisa Kudrow come to terms with her own character, with Phoebe’s story bringing her to tears.

Perry’s life ended in tragic fashion, as the actor was ruled to have drowned in his hot tub after a ketamine overdose, but he worked hard when he was alive to help others who were also struggling with addiction. Perry addressed his legacy in his memoir Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, writing that he hoped to be remembered for that as much as for his role as Chandler Bing.

I’m not sure he realized how much comfort Chandler would end up bringing to his fans and co-stars.

All 10 seasons of Friends can be streamed on HBO Max, and be sure to check out 10 of the funniest Chandler episodes. You can also currently catch Lisa Kudrow on The Comeback Season 3, which is a must-watch for all Friends fans. New episodes air at 10:30 p.m. ET Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.

Both Lisa Kudrow and Noah Wyle are seasoned TV veterans with hit shows currently streaming on HBO Max. Season 2 of Wyle’s award-winning medical drama The Pitt is approaching its finale, while Kudrow’s mockumentary The Comeback premiered its long-awaited Season 3 last week on the 2026 TV schedule. Long before The Comeback and The Pitt, the two knew each other as young actors at NBC, and I can’t get over the story of how the Friends star used to flirt with Wyle, and the ER actor was completely clueless.

In 1994, NBC hit the ratings jackpot with the additions of Friends and ER to the Thursday night schedule. The hit NBC shows filmed next to each other on the Warner Bros. lot, and the casts used to mingle, with Wyle and co-star George Clooney heading over to watch Friends tape after wrapping episodes of ER. Apparently, the proximity also meant Lisa Kudrow could flirt with the man who played Dr. John Carter, but Wyle told Magic Radio he was totally oblivious to it at the time:

It's pretty funny to think about how long this could have gone on between Kudrow and Wyle, as both of their NBC shows ran for many years. Wyle and George Clooney even guest-starred on Friends as doctors in a Season 1 episode, called “The One With Two Parts: Part Two,” which can be streamed with an HBO subscription.

As it turns out, Kudrow also recently visited Magic Radio to say “hello hello hello” as part of her press tour for The Comeback, and she didn’t miss the chance to make a playful dig at Wyle’s sudden revelation:

I think it's safe to say that the then 23-year-old Wyle achieved heartthrob status thanks to ER. Standing next to prime George Clooney definitely gave the Falling Skies actor more of a baby-face, but there’s no denying he was cute, and Kudrow never missed an opportunity to tell him so:

That’s such a Phoebe line if I’ve ever heard one! I can totally see the character dead-panning an “Oh, OK, so you just hate me” on Friends. For his part, Wyle told Entertainment Weekly that it was very "collegiate” back in the day, that the young casts were always hanging out with each other. Many of them had other friends in common, and they were all auditioning for the same projects at the time, just before landing their individual legacy roles.

It’s funny to think what might have happened had Noah Wyle noticed Lisa Kudrow's flirtation, but it seems like everything worked out for the best, and it sure made for a hilarious reveal decades later. Now I’m hoping we get a Noah Wyle/Lisa Kudrow crossover now that they're both on in the HBO sphere. Both ER and Friends, as well as The Comeback and The Pitt, are available to binge now on HBO Max.

There are so many iconic things about Friends, with each of the six primary characters having their own quirks. Chandler had the jokes, and Joey had his food, but nobody was quirkier than Phoebe. Her musical “talent” was such a fun part of the show, and Lisa Kudrow explained why she thought it made sense that her character was actually not great at playing the guitar.

Of all the offbeat Phoebe moments in Friends, she’s arguably best-known for her songs like “Smelly Cat.” Lisa Kudrow opened up about preparing for that part of the role, admitting to Vanity Fair that musicianship wasn’t her strong suit. The actress said:

Just like Joey said in "The One With Ross And Monica's Cousin," if you get asked in an audition if you can do something, say yes and just figure out how to do it later. In Lisa Kudrow’s case, however, it actually made sense to make the adjustment to the character, rather than have her train to get really good at the guitar. She continued:

It really does speak to the character of Phoebe Buffay that she would play guitar for the love of it, not the money. She even says as much in "The One with the Baby on the Bus," when she takes to busking outside of Central Perk after being replaced inside by a professional musician. It also makes sense that Phoebe never would have had proper guitar lessons, given her rough childhood.

A lot of good stories came out of her being a bad singer/songwriter, too, like when she tried to teach Joey how to play guitar without knowing the names of the chords (“You nailed the old lady!”), how much of a fan Phoebe was of Ross’ awful keyboarding skills, and when she wrote inappropriate songs to play for children.

It really worked out for Lisa Kudrow, when she realized that she didn’t like playing guitar, that it was actually funnier if Phoebe wasn’t great at it either. Those brilliant character details are part of the reason Friends is one of the best sitcoms of all time and remains so popular nearly 22 years after its series finale.

You can stream all 10 seasons of Friends with an HBO Max subscription, and you can also currently catch Lisa Kudrow on The Comeback Season 3, airing at 10:30 p.m. ET Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.

Fame is a funny thing. Many people certainly hope to experience the (assumed) effects of becoming famous, but it seems like any good also comes with negative or just plain strange stuff. The stars of Friends know a lot about what that’s like, having immediately become famous when the comedy debuted in 1994, and lead Matt LeBlanc relayed a story about a woman driving next to him getting into a car accident upon recognizing him.

How A Woman Driving Next To Matt LeBlanc Got Into A Car Accident After Seeing Him

The 2026 TV schedule is in full swing, but I doubt that most of us even consider that one day soon we might happen to see one of our favorite current television stars as we’re just going about our day while stuck in traffic. Well, that’s just what happened to one Friends fan during the height of the show’s popularity, when she ended up driving next to Matt LeBlanc, who, of course, portrayed the funnily food-loving Joey Tribbiani for all 10 seasons (and the only Friends spinoff) of the show’s run.

When speaking to his Man with a Plan co-star, Kevin Nealon, on the SNL funny man’s podcast, Hiking with Kevin, LeBlanc was asked if it was “fun” to interact with fans and be recognized while Friends was on the air. He responded by saying, “I don’t know if it was fun,” and added that “some weird stuff happened” before telling this brief tale:

I can only imagine that innumerable celebrities have unknowingly and unwillingly caused accidents, but it must be a real trip to witness someone become so shocked at realizing you are nearby that they do something like cause a fender bender. It’s actually lucky for everyone involved that this happened at a time when traffic was basically at a standstill, otherwise the result could have easily been much worse.

As this occurred in the Los Angeles area, it makes sense that spotting the guy who actually played Joey (a character who’s said to have been inspired by a similarly named character on the sitcom, Blossom) would be relatively easy to do. However, LeBlanc said previously that the reach of not only one of the best NBC comedies but one of the best sitcoms of all time goes way further than even he suspected. The Emmy nominee once noted that he was recognized during a trip to the remote location of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, and there just aren’t many people who’ll have that kind of fame during their lifetime.

There are some movie and TV debates that will never die, like the iconic Titanic raft debate or whether Tony really died at the end of The Sopranos. Arguably, one of the most well-known comes from Friends: Were Ross and Rachel on a break? Nearly 30 years after the infamous Season 3 episode aired, the cast of Friends is still being asked their opinions, and apparently, Lisa Kudrow has switched hers.

The Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion actress hit the red carpet for the return of her comedy The Comeback, in which Kudrow plays a sitcom actress desperately trying to stay relevant in the evolving TV industry. Season 3, Episode 1 will be available to stream starting March 22 with an HBO Max subscription, but Valerie Cherish’s career is not the only thing being revived by Kudrow. Entertainment Tonight asked Kudrow where she stands these days on whether Ross and Rachel were on a break, and the Easy A actress shared that she's updated her take:

There’s no one I would expect to give their blunt opinion more than Phoebe Buffay herself. You’ll notice Kudrow doesn’t explicitly say whether or not Ross and Rachel were on a break when he hooked up with “coffee shop” Chloe, but does it matter? He didn’t even wait a full 24 hours after his argument with Rachel to have a rebound fling with someone else.

So I have to say, I’m in agreement with Kudrow. The fact that his cop out line to cheating on Rachel has sparked this decades-long debate is ridiculous.

Not being able to admit fault for sleeping with another woman while his relationship status was unresolved speaks volumes about Ross as a person, and is one of several reasons why he’s kind of the worst. You really can’t plan a future with someone like that, which is why the man was divorced three times over the course of ten seasons!

The No Good Deed actress recently revealed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! last week that she’s almost completed her rewatch of Friends, and clearly, the years between filming the show and watching it have given her a fresh perspective on the infamous TV break-up.

Up until a few years ago, Kudrow said she couldn’t watch the beloved sitcom without getting the ick from seeing herself on TV. After Matthew Perry’s sudden death in 2023, the Mad About You actress said she started watching it for her late friend. She was even able to separate herself from her character Phoebe, and said she was most emotional during the episode "The One with Phoebe's Wedding." It makes my heart so full to know that even though Kudrow has moved on to other projects like The Comeback, Friends is still very near and dear to her.

Much like Ross and Rachel, The Comeback has been on-again-off-again for decades, and although HBO is toting this third installment as the final season, who really knows? Right when the world needs her, Valerie Cherish always seems to reappear. You can watch new episodes of The Comeback as they release weekly on the 2026 TV Schedule. Meanwhile, you can always go back and watch Friends on HBO Max.

Following Valentine’s Day weekend, Wuthering Heights won out among new 2026 movie releases as the buzzy movie of the moment, and it dominated the box office, too. Now, Jennifer Aniston is even adding to the chatter of the smutty epic starring Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi by reminding people of the time the book was in Friends, and it made me chuckle.

Aniston took to Instagram on Tuesday to share a throwback clip from Friends circa 1998 in honor of Wuthering Heights’ release. Check it out below:

The comedy actress shared this clip from Season 5, Episode 9 “The One With Ross’ Sandwich”. In the episode, Rachel joins the literature class Phoebe is in, but they butt heads. However, when she attends, she’s late to class and asks her what happened in the book they are reading for class, Wuthering Heights, and Phoebe has to explain it to her.

I find it hilarious that Aniston took the time to post this clip along with the comment “Thanks to Margot and Jacob, no reading required” along with some funny emojis. And hey, she’s right. If the episode had taken place in the present day, Rachel could have simply gone to see Emerald Fennell’s take on the classic book and would have a better sense of what’s going on in the class. That’s probably what she would have done if given the option.

Though, as things tend to go with book-to-screen adaptations, the Wuthering Heights movie is not only not a word-for-word adaptation, it only covers about half of the novel from Emily Brontë. When the first trailer came out, the movie received some whitewashing backlash for Jacob Elordi playing Heathcliff when he’s thought to be a person of color.

Anyways, in the episode, you may remember that Phoebe gets frustrated with Rachel for not reading the class’s reading material and stealing her analysis from her. So during the next session she makes up things for Rachel to repeat in class that humiliates her. This leads to Phoebe and Rachel to talk about the different ways they were approaching the class.

Phoebe actually wanted to learn because she didn’t get to go to high school, while Rachel wasn’t thinking too much of it. The episode ends with Monica joining the class and hilariously being a way worse partner to Phoebe than Rachel was due to her competitive nature.

Jennifer Aniston reminding us of this episode has us imagining if Phoebe and Rachel would have gone to see the movie together and what they would have thought of the Wuthering Heights ending. I know I’m picturing Phoebe being the book purist who’s so not into it, and Rachel being all over it.

You can check out our Wuthering Heights review and go see the movie for yourself in theaters now.

I remember the first time I saw Ross and Monica’s dance in one of the most ridiculous episodes of Friends, and I distinctly recall the joy I felt as they busted a move on New Year’s Eve. Well, that same feeling came over me again when I watched Taylor Swift and Domhnall Gleeson dance in the “Opalite” music video. It turns out other Swifties were thinking about this too, because they can’t stop comparing the pop star’s silly dance to that scene from the legendary sitcom.

Right after the “Opalite” video was released, I knew it was one of my favorite Taylor Swift music videos, largely because of the dance she did at the end of it. It’s so funny and ridiculous, and there’s no denying its similarities to the dance Ross and Monica do in “The One with the Routine” (which is Season 6, Episode 10, and it’s available to stream with an HBO Max subscription). To prove that point, take a look at eventswithlana’s TikTok:

Ross and Monica’s moves even fit with “Opalite” perfectly!

Now, I have no clue if this was intentional. While Taylor Swift loves an Easter egg, I cannot confirm or deny if this is one. However, the serendipity here is wild, and it’s hard not to wonder if it was done on purpose.

I mean, along with the full commitment to silly choreo and the fact that Ross and Monica’s moves fit “Opalite,” the pop star did say she and the cast “made the effort to time travel back to the ‘90s,” in her Instagram post about the video. And it’s simply a fact that Friends was one of the best sitcoms of that era. So, in short, the parallels are paralleling in more ways than one, and fans are loving it.

Along with this TikTok and one particularly viral tweet from @everslay13 that featured the video of Ross and Monica and the caption “Opalite music video with no context,” lots of other fans pointed out this similarity too. Here are a few of the reactions that compared this iconic Friends moment to Swift and Gleeson’s dance:

• that Opalite dance sequence was giving Monica and Ross’ routine from friends #OpaliteMusicVideo -theveryfistnat
• This is just as iconic as the Monica and Ross dance routine omg #OpaliteMusicVideo -@sarahsromantics
• close enough. welcome back monica and ross! #opalite -@tswizzie4444
• this is such a monica and ross geller reference😭😭 -@everlikeme

Now that I’ve seen it, I can’t unsee it! This comparison is so spot on. Even though the moves are different, the vibes are certainly the same, and I love how shamelessly the pairs are dancing in both clips. Clearly, they love this routine, despite the reactions from others in their respective clips, and the joy radiating off them is infectious.

So, take this as your sign to choreograph a silly dance with a loved one or learn one of these. Clearly, they’re having a blast, and I love the fact that they radiate such similar positive energy that people can’t help but point it out.

Back in the ‘90s, Friends captured lightning in a bottle with its six main cast members, creating one of the best sitcoms of all time that lives on through syndication and HBO Max subscriptions. Seeing how popular the show remains today, it’s impossible not to wonder what would have happened if those specific actors hadn’t been cast, and it turns out NBC didn’t leave at least one of those decisions to chance. A former NBC scheduler admits they got another Jennifer Aniston series canceled so she’d be available to play Rachel Green.

It’s no secret that the entertainment industry is cutthroat, but this stunt that former NBC strategist Preston Beckman said they pulled at the time is nothing short of diabolical. Back before Friends’ 1994 premiere, Jennifer Aniston appeared on CBS’ Muddling Through. However, execs must have been pretty confident Friends would be a hit, because Beckman told THR they made an intentional move to free up Aniston’s schedule, so to speak. He said:

Second position is the term used when a series hires an actor who’s already booked on another show. This is typically only done for pilots, but Jennifer Aniston was NBC’s clear first choice to play Rachel, so when they learned of CBS’ scheduling plans for Muddling Through, they took action. Preston Beckman continued:

Airing romance novelist Danielle Steel book-to-screen adaptations opposite Muddling Through stole CBS’ female audience, effectively killing Jennifer Aniston’s show. Not only did the sitcom not get more episodes, but CBS only aired nine of the 10 that were filmed. Aniston made the move to NBC, and Friends premiered on September 22, 1994 — just two weeks after Muddling Through’s final episode on September 7.

The rest is history, and while Friends fans are undoubtedly happy with the way things turned out, I can’t help but wonder what Stephanie Hodge and the other stars of Muddling Through think of the ex-NBC scheduler’s admission. Are conniving moves like this just business as usual in Hollywood?

Jennifer Aniston and the rest of Friends’ main cast — Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer — will always be known as those characters, and it’s strange to think about if things had worked out differently. For instance, Jane Sibbett originally auditioned for Rachel, while Jessica Hecht read for Monica. The actresses’ chemistry is undeniable, so it feels like fate that they were cast instead as two of Friends’ most beloved side characters, Carol and Susan.

Pour one out for Muddling Through the next time you catch a Friends rerun, with all 10 seasons available to stream on HBO Max.

Jennifer Aniston might have strong thoughts about why Friends could never be revived, but the actress having long-lasting relationships with her co-stars always puts a big smile on the faces of fans. Aniston and Courteney Cox in particular are besties, frequently sharing pictures together on social media and apparently boring everyone else around them about their frequent interior design conversations. Now we have a new video of the pair talking about what hair shade Jen should have.

Since Aniston is obviously very well known for her hair – particularly “The Rachel” haircut – the actress got herself into the haircare business a few years ago. She’s got a brand to her name called LolaVie, and boy, does her marketing department know what they are doing bringing back her and Courteney Cox for a new video. Check it out:

In the new video from Jennifer Aniston’s Instagram, The Morning Show star talked about how she’s a natural brunette, she’s just better known for being honey blonde. Then, out of nowhere, Cox appears from behind in a pink robe to use her own hair to show what Aniston looks like with darker hair on her head. It’s a cute moment that would only happen between best friends like them, and so sweet to see as we eternally miss Friends.

Cox’s brunette test on Aniston had the actress remembering the time she had brown hair for the Horrible Bosses movies, which came out in 2011 and 2014. That was a different look for Aniston, that’s for sure:

Cox commented that Aniston was a “badass dentist” in those movies before the LolaVie founder pointed to her hair and called it “fake.” Ultimately, it’s a fun little advertisement to highlight how great Aniston’s hair is doing despite coloring it so much throughout her career. So much so, that one might forget she’s naturally a brunette!

Aniston has involved Cox before in LolaVie, such as when she did her hair for her to show off her products. In that video, she called it the “greatest day of her life” because she had apparently never gotten to do it before, but wanted to help her out with all her frizz. Whether they are successfully influencing you or not, it’s just so lovely to see these two comedy queens play off each other any chance we get.

Outside of hair-related collabs between these two, Aniston has been enjoying her relationship with her new beau Jim Curtis as of late, and working on the adaptation of I’m Glad My Mom Died. Cox, on the other hand is set to return to her role as Gale Weathers in Scream 7, which hits theaters on February 27. You can always revisit their Friends days with the full series streaming on HBO Max.

There were a lot of great sitcoms in the 1990s, but it’s hard to argue about any show other than Friends, or maybe Seinfeld, being the most iconic of them. While the NBC series was a big deal for its stars, garnering newbies like Jennifer Aniston their first set gifts (in her case a washer and dryer) and eventually gigantic salaries, it wasn't all positive vibes. In fact, I just learned its reign on TV did negatively affect another beloved series: Sister, Sister.

Tamera Mowry-Housley, half of the duo at the center of the family comedy that we still love, has revealed that Friends was actually involved in pushing their show off of ABC after two seasons. This was back in 1995, and it eventually landed on The WB. As she shared:

At the time, the Mowry sisters were just teenagers, and trying to understand why their new series was getting moved onto a different, and less known, network. As People noted, the series ranked a “respectable” No. 33 on Nielsen ratings when the first season aired on ABC. So it was a surprise to be pushed off of primetime.

Still, the move from ABC helped build up the WB as a network, which launched in 1995, as Mowry-Housley continued:

Mowry-Housley made these comments in the HBO doc Seen & Heard, which features a series of big names talking about Black representation on television over the years. The primetime sitcoms that would debut on ABC in the years to follow instead of Sister, Sister included Sabrina The Teenage Witch, The Drew Carey Show, Ellen, Soul Man, Everybody Loves Raymond, Becker and Two Of A Kind with the Olsen twins, which all had predominantly white casts.

Sister, Sister’s move to The WB was joined by other Black-led shows like The Wayan Bros. and The Jamie Foxx Show, which helped make the new network (nicknamed the Frog Network) before predominantly white cast shows like 7th Heaven, Buffy The Vampire Slayer also became staples on the channel later on. Sister, Sister was on TV until it ended after six seasons in 1999. Following their sitcom, the Mowry sisters would star in Disney Channel movies like the Twitches, their reality TV show Tia & Tamera, Hallmark holiday movies, and more.

Over the years there’s been talk about a Sister, Sister revival, with the most recent comments coming from Tia Mowry who said “never say never”, but did not point to any clear movement on a project. These comments about how Friends impacted Sister, Sister have me looking at ‘90s television a bit differently, but it only highlights further how beloved and impactful Tia and Tamera's early sitcom continues to be.

Tuning into old Friends episodes (available to stream with an HBO Max subscription) can be like jumping into a time machine with all of its landlines, references to movies like Die Hard and all of the iconic ‘90s outfits. I can think of so many fabulous (and a few not-so-fabulous) wardrobe choices that defined the era, but according to the former Friends costume designer, there were way more per episode than I would have guessed.

Debra McGuire began working as the costume designer on Friends in 1994, the first season of what would become one of the best sitcoms of all time. It turns out when your series has six lead cast members, you go through a lot of clothes, as McGuire revealed at a recent event (via THR):

I need a second to process that number. Seventy-five wardrobe changes for one episode is actually insane. Debra McGuire was in charge of that classic Season 3 scene with Joey wearing all of Chandler’s clothes, but even that was just one piece that she painstakingly styled by layering items from Matthew Perry’s wardrobe.

So to get to 75, If we’re just talking about Ross, Rachel, Monica, Chandler, Joey and Phoebe, that would be about 12 different wardrobes per actor, so there would have to be some of the Friends side characters included in that number, right? But how often did we see, for example, Paul Rudd’s Mike or Anna Faris’ Erica in more than one outfit in an episode? I’m definitely going to start paying attention to that aspect of the show now!

The designer said she didn’t set out to make Friends fashion so emblematic of the ‘90s either, admitting:

After Friends ended in 2004, Debra McGuire continued to work with Jennifer Aniston and can take a lot of the credit for all the times Aniston wore the cutest outfits.

Today she’s still with the actress on The Morning Show, whose Season 4 finale just aired on the 2025 TV schedule. Work on Season 5 starts in January, she said, and she’ll be there, exclusively styling Alex Levy’s wardrobe. Debra McGuire said:

The fact that Debra McGuire continues to work with Jennifer Aniston on The Morning Show might explain why some of Alex’s clothes have strong Rachel Green vibes, and I think it’s lovely that these women have stuck together all of these years.

If you want to check out Debra McGuire’s latest looks for Jennifer Aniston, The Morning Show can be streamed with an Apple TV+ subscription, and if you want to try to count all of the Friends wardrobe changes, all 10 seasons are available on HBO Max.

It’s an inevitability that Jennifer Aniston will always be remembered for her comedic talents on Friends — one of the best sitcoms of all time — but that’s not to say she isn’t also well-versed in drama. She’s proven that in projects like The Good Girl, Cake and The Morning Show, whose fourth season is currently airing on the 2025 TV schedule. Turns out, drama was Aniston’s primary interest when she became an actor, and she was offended when it was suggested she try comedy.

Since Friends ended in 2004, Jennifer Aniston has appeared in a bunch of different genres, from rom-coms to murder mysteries to dramas and, yes, comedies. She divulged to Elle, however, that her initial motivations as an actor were not to make audiences laugh, recalling a high school memory:

Perhaps all of us Friends fans out there (who still enjoy laughing at Chandler’s funniest quotes and Phoebe’s offbeat hilarity on a daily basis with our HBO Max subscriptions) have this high school acting teacher to thank for planting that seed in Jennifer Aniston’s brain. The fact that she was apparently able to make audiences laugh naturally, without trying too hard, definitely speaks to her natural talent and longevity in Hollywood.

So what was it about comedy that turned her off at first? She explained:

It seems like a common-enough misconception that it’s easy to get laughs, while pulling out an emotional performance requires more skill on the part of the actor. However, just ask any of the Friiends guest stars how terrifying it was to try to get laughs from a live audience.

Thankfully, Jennifer Aniston got past her initial impression of what a comedic career could look like, because only seven years after graduating from the prestigious New York City high school, she skyrocketed to fame as Rachel Green on Friends.

It's got to feel pretty good that she’s now made a name for herself in both the comedy and drama circles, and she admitted that while she’s probably most like Rachel, there’s a part of her that loves being the “mean, badass bitch” Alex Levy on The Morning Show.

As a fan, it feels good knowing I don’t have to choose and can enjoy her as both! Be sure to check out Jennifer Aniston in her current dramatic role, as The Morning Show Season 4 is nearing its end. The finale is set to drop on Wednesday, November 19, and that — along with the rest of the series — can be streamed with an Apple TV+ subscription.

When talking about Jennifer Aniston movies and TV shows, Friends and Rachel Green are sure to top the list. The character created a pop culture movement that changed a lot from the '90s to today, including peoples’ hair. The NBC series star revealed that she most closely relates to her iconic Friends character. Yet, Aniston admits there’s another role she aspires to be more like over her pick from one of the best sitcoms ever.

As one of Elle’s Women of 2025, she opened up about plenty of personal and professional aspects in her life. When asked about which past persona she identifies most with, Aniston revealed it to be Rachel Green. Even though she chose the lovable and usually lighthearted fashion guru as her pick, she aspires to be like another: Alex Levy from The Morning Show. She explained that she’s not interested in the edge but more the vibe, saying:

I can 100% see some Rachel Green elements still intertwined with the woman who played her after all these years. For one, her and Courteney Cox continuing to be bestie goals screams Monica and Rachel forever. In addition, I think if Rachel were real, she’d agree with her real-life portrayer that letting the public in on details of her personal life would be something she’d never get used to.

The A-lister’s thought on adopting some of Levy’s traits could help balance out some of the more vulnerable Rachel Green elements. The two fictional icons in a room together would certainly make some waves.

With it, the trio would easily create another cultural phenomenon while giving Aniston space to take on some Alex. Though that’s fiction, the Horrible Bosses alum has plenty of pals who embody that spirit, including Reese Witherspoon, who defended her fictional sister.

Even looking at the picture of Levy gives me a shiver, and that’s coming from someone who isn’t as versed on the Morning Show anchor. Still, I understand why Aniston is interested in embodying parts of her – Alex gets things done. Regardless, I think we can all be happy that Rachel Green hits closer to home with the Hollywood heavy hitter.

If you’d like to return to Aniston’s Rachel Green days, you can stream Friends with an HBO Max subscription. Or, if you’re interested to see the punchier side of the star, watch Alex Levy and Co. with an Apple TV+ subscription. Season 4 of the Morning Show premieres on November 19.

The importance of February 13, 1997, cannot be overstated for what this date contributed to television history. It was on this Thursday night that Rachel Green suggested taking a break from boyfriend Ross Gellar, who went on to sleep with another woman that same night. The debate about whether Ross cheated or was single to do as he pleased has raged on for nearly three decades, and with Jennifer Aniston reviving the issue on social media, I fear there’s no end in sight. But whose side is she on anyway?

The question of whether or not Ross and Rachel were “on a break” was one that came up repeatedly throughout the remainder of the Friends’ 10 seasons — literally, David Schwimmer’s character even joked about it in the series finale. Time hasn’t done much to heal that divide amongst fans, either, and Jennifer Aniston provided proof of that recently when she reposted the following meme to Instagram Stories:

Jennifer Aniston must have found this meme pretty amusing, as someone displayed their “welcome” mat that asked others to weigh in on who was correct in the argument over whether or not Ross cheated. That’s admittedly a lot easier than writing an 18-page letter (FRONT AND BACK!) on whether or not he should take responsibility.

The photo shows a package on the “No” option, as in “not on a break,” suggesting the anonymous Amazon delivery person thinks Ross was in the wrong. The poster’s comment about needing to have a talk with that person leads me to believe that they disagree, and that Ross and Rachel were broken up when Ross brought Chloe back to his place that night.

So Jennifer Aniston happens upon this meme, finding it funny enough to share … Does this mean she also sides with Ross on the debate? That does seem to be the case. On the Friends reunion that aired in 2021, Aniston said definitively that yes, they were on a break.

It’s a bit surprising that the actress would take the side opposite her own character, but it’s hard to refute when Rachel was the one who suggested “a break from us.” She also told Monica they had broken up on their anniversary, and when she called Ross to reconcile, she asked if she could be his girlfriend again. I mean, honestly, it’s right there in the episode title: “The One Where Ross and Rachel Take a Break.”

(Don’t worry, though, it’s fair to still think Ross is the worst, in spite of the evidence supporting his argument.)

However, Jennifer Aniston hasn’t always stood by that belief. Following the reunion she seemed to backtrack on her comment by posting a photo in which she sported a ballcap that read, “We were SO not on a break!” And we wonder how this can still be in question so many years later.

It’s been 28 years since that fateful night — children who were not born when said break was taken are now able to give fully formed opinions on the debate — and it’s unlikely Friends fans will ever fully agree. If you want to rewatch how things went down (and how the debate showed itself for the rest of the series), all 10 seasons are available to stream with an HBO Max subscription.

We’d love to believe TV shows are perfect creations with choices made purely for creative reasons, and not scheduling, finances, ratings, studio exec whims, etc. However, that isn’t the case in an industry where the bottom line is the top dog, and so television history’s annals are riddled with fractured storylines, forgotten characters (like Chuck Cunningham) and completely ignored histories. Some of the biggest shows of their respective eras, like Friends and Yellowstone, are just as guilty as those with less pristine productions.

It’s a wide-ranging topic that TV audiences love to get into nitty-gritty discussions about, with yours truly in that group for sure, and one Redditor sparked a ton of conversations with a recent post asking for others’ thoughts on shows with unresolved plots. A ton of different shows were namechecked, going far beyond the usual suspects like Lost, that holiest grail of “Did that mean anything to the plot?” inquiries. (Even though some can argue that Lost’s story gaps don’t matter.) So let’s dig into some of the gripes that fans laid out.

To kick things off, quite a few commenters were quick to point to Taylor Sheridan's rather hectic writing habits as a frequent offender of introduced-and-forgotten ideas on and around the Montana ranch in Yellowstone. I'll no doubt carry the third one listed below to my grave.

Yellowstone's Forgotten Plots

• In the first few episodes of Yellowstone, Kayce is having trouble adjusting to civilian life and calls his old commander and says he wants back in. The CO says "Pack a bag, im sending a chopper". Kayce says "i never unpacked" No helicopter ever arrives, no mention is ever made again of Kayce rejoining the service. Hell, at the end Sheridan's super cowboy character is at the Yellowstone helping with the liquidation auction. Then Teeter asks him for a job, and he says "why do you want to leave this place?", she says "too many memories". Both of them apparently forgot they just finished liquidating the ranch. - @UnderwaterKarma
• Still waiting for the bomb on the airplane to blow up on Yellowstone. - @PhutukKusi
• The one that immediately springs to mind is the kid - the grandson - finding the dinosaur. - @BlackbirdsGarden
• Also, when John stops to help the lady change her tyre and they both get shot we never find out what happened to her son. Makes me think that boy was originally going to be Carter since he appears at the start of the next series - @OnafridayR

I mean honestly, those dinosaur bones could have (presumably) been used in SOME way to argue for the ranch to be seen as a historical site of value. And it's not like fake bones would have another TV show to shoot that would conflict with a resolution. The same goes for Kayce's military background, which didn't come up nearly as much as it seemed like it might earlier in the run.

Now let's shift our focus to some shows that introduced main characters' family members and then dropped the siblings from the face of the earth.

Missing Siblings

• In the first episode of Sherlock it is deduced that John Watson has an alcoholic brother named Sam all from the appearance of his phone. This sibling is then said to be a sister. They are never referenced again even at Johns wedding. Nor is this quirk of Sherlock getting something 95% right because Sherlock is the one to notice and admit he deduced poorly. - @HatOfFlavour
• Seinfeld mentions he has a sister in the Chinese Restaurant episode ... She's never mentioned again. - @RunDNA
• In Brooklyn Nine-Nine, it’s pointed out that Amy is the way she is because she has 7 brothers, and not only do we only meet one (Lin-Manuel Miranda by the way) but none of them even to come to her wedding! - @alehansolo21
• On New Girl, Jess having a sister out of nowhere, and then sister disappearing again right after she was introduced. - @nomnomsquirrel

So often, TV siblings are just vehicles to bring in guest stars, which has a lot to do with why we never see them again. That wasn't so much an issue for Friends' Joey, whose gaggle of sisters showed up several times in the show's run. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case for Phoebe's long-lost-then-found dad.

Phoebe's Dad In Friends

• Also, there's no mention of Phoebe's biological father after she meets him for the first time. The storyline of her search for her dad was so great, and was the main story for a number of episodes. Then she finally meets him, and it looks like the two might be able to slowly heal old wounds and form a relationship. Then he never came up again and it's like the whole storyline never happened. For me, that's the most frustrating one in Friends by far. - @Scarred-Face

This is definitely the kind of story issue that bothers me the most, when more than a single episode of plotting goes into tracking down a specific character, where conversations are had about the importance of it all, and then it just never comes up again.

Speaking of lengthy build-ups to fatherly reveals that go the way of the do-do:

Jon Snow's Lineage On Game Of Thrones

• Everyone talked up Jon being a Targaryen for fucking YEARS too before it officially happened on the show. It was going to have such massive consequences and either put a massive wedge between him and Dany for their claims to the Iron Throne… OR it would draw them closer together to give them an undoubted authority to claim the throne together. Then as soon as its confirmed… no one really mentions it as being important that he’s the son of Rhaegar Targaryen. In a setting where names mean eveything and are the most important factor in determining who should be sitting on the throne. - @dynesor

This was one of those book plot points that the HBO series could not stop fans from talking about and theorizing over during the earlier seasons. But then when it came time to finally make Jon Snow's ancestry live-action canon, the showrunners didn't go as far as they could have in drawing out possible ramifications.

While I would have little problem with singling out tons of other TV plots that never panned out, let's go through a quick selection of snipes targeting Pretty Little Liars, Blindspot, and more.

• Aria murders someone in the season 5 premiere and this incident is barely mentioned again. The whole show was so messy but the good outweighs the bad for me so I still have a lot of love for it- even if the night Allison disappeared is extremely convoluted - @athmeystic
• Blindspot. Jane Doe shows up covered with clue-based tattoos related to various future crimes and terror attacks. We eventually find out who tattooed her and why, but not where they got the foreknowledge for them to be cued by things like sports scores and other unpredictable events - @Fancy-Television-760
• Landry killing a guy on Friday Night Lights. Just swept it under the rug - @spokanetransplanted
• Just as a new one that nobody mentioned: Thawne/Wells was seen to be stealing genetic tissue or blood or some shit from captured supervillains in a pre-credits sequence in the first season of the Flash but this never came up again. - @ContinuumGuy

If only we all had the powers of The Flash (or even Reverse-Flash) to go back in time to convince all of these showrunners to wrap up their stories in better ways. Justice for Judy Winslow!

There are so many examples of popular TV shows that formed great spinoffs — for example, Breaking Bad spawned Better Call Saul; All in the Family gave us The Jeffersons and many others; and Young Sheldon came from The Big Bang Theory. It’s surprising, then, that Friends — one of the best sitcoms of all time — inspired just one series (a failed spinoff at that) in Joey. Turns out, things could have been different if not for one big “no” from Jennifer Aniston.

Joey, starring Matt LeBlanc, premiered four months after Friends’ “The Last One” in 2004. However, it turns out the New York Knicks-obsessed, food-loving soap opera actor was not the first character NBC wanted to center a spinoff around. According to executive producer Kevin Bright, it was Jennifer Aniston who was first approached. He told Collider:

It seems like if we were going to see Rachel’s story continued, David Schwimmer would also have to be involved, given the fact that Ross and Rachel reunited in the series finale. However, I can see a world where Rachel ended up taking the job in Paris anyway and there would be mention of Ross taking care of their daughter, Emma, back in the States.

We’ll file that in the “what could have been” category.

Matt LeBlanc was actually the most sensible actor to lead a spinoff, because Joey was the only character whose future didn’t really play into the Friends finale’s plot. Ross and Rachel got back together, Monica and Chandler had surprise twins (I will never buy this as plausible), and newlyweds Phoebe and Mike had plans to start their own family.

However, after Jennifer Aniston said no to a Rachel spinoff, there was apparently another option before they landed on Joey. Kevin Bright said:

That is kind of understandable; it had been 10 years of their lives, after all. So, in the end, they landed on a show that followed the life and career of Joey Tribbiani because, the EP said:

That statement seems to be lacking the enthusiasm one would hope for in a Friends follow-up, but maybe I’m reading too much into the tone because I know how things worked out.

For as much flack as Joey got from critics and fans alike, it’s surprising that the sitcom aired 46 episodes over two seasons before being canceled by NBC. None of the other five Friends stars reprised their role in that time to visit Matt LeBlanc’s character (so much for “I’ll be there for you,” am I right?), and outside of the 2021 Friends reunion special, the six actors never shared the stage again.

Would things have been different if Rachel had been the show that premiered in 2004? There’s no way to know, but at least we can continue to stream Friends episodes with our HBO Max subscription. Also, the first two episodes of Joey are available to stream on YouTube.

Friends premiered over 30 years ago, yet it still permeates pop culture as arguably one of the best sitcoms of all time. Jennifer Aniston even called Friends a lifetime commitment, saying it will always hold a special place in the cast’s hearts. Now, Aniston is opening up about asking for a washer and dryer during a conversation with the head of NBC years ago and, of all the behind-the-scenes stories I've heard regarding this show, I may love this one the most.

Aniston was a guest on Dax Shepard’s Armchair Expert podcast, and she reflected her career, including moving to Los Angeles and trying to land just about any role she could. The star of The Morning Show Season 4 recalled how she was doing pilot after pilot with no luck, and she ran into then-NBC President Warren Littlefield at a gas station. While she couldn’t remember exactly what happened, she believes she either gave him a headshot or basically begged him to cast her. So, once Friends came along, she wanted to put her connection to good use:

I absolutely love the fact that out of everything Aniston could have asked for, she simply requested a washer and dryer, while other actors were asking for cars. That request could be an indication of just how much she was probably struggling before Friends. And, of course, ahead of the show's premiere there was no way for her to know just how well the show would do, so why not get the essentials why she could? Aniston certainly had her priorities straight (even if she simply couldn’t think of anything else in the moment):

Aniston confirmed that Littlefield did, in fact, give her a washer and a dryer, so it makes me happy that she was able to get those. Ultimately, the eventual A-lister she didn’t ask for something completely ridiculous on the spot, which is admirable. While a washer and dryer may not collectively be the most common “actor gift,” they are useful. I love an actor with a great sense of style and taste, but I truly admire one who's practical above all else.

It's always intriguing to hear about the early years of Friends and what the vibes were like behind the scenes at that time. For instance, Lisa Kudrow recalled filming the show's opening sequence and admitted she couldn’t remember not being in a fountain. There was also the time that the theme song got so big that the band, The Rembrandts, broke up because there was too much pressure.

Honestly, would love to know if any of the other cast members got a gift from Littlefield, and if they were extravagant or more low key like Jennifer Aniston's. If anything, this story definitely belongs in the proverbial Friends Hall of Fame, and I'll definitely be keeping it in mind. Check out the beloved show by streaming all 10 seasons with an HBO Max subscription.

In the entertainment business, sometimes actors happen upon a role that, for better or worse, sticks with them for the rest of their careers, and there’s no getting around it. That’s definitely the case for Jennifer Aniston and the cast of Friends. Despite the actress currently starring in another hit series (The Morning Show’s fourth season is airing on the 2025 TV schedule), to some, she will always be Rachel Green. So, with that in mind, she opened up about what that means and bluntly stated the chances of a Friends reboot.

Jennifer Aniston Opens Up About The ‘Lifetime Commitment’ The Cast Has With Friends

Thanks to endless reruns and the ability to stream all 10 seasons with an HBO Max subscription — not to mention lovable characters and jokes that somehow hit just as hard the 86th time as the first — Friends remains as popular as ever, despite having been off the air for 21 years. Jennifer Aniston and her colleagues likely couldn’t have predicted the level of success that would come from the NBC sitcom, and she told Harper’s Bazaar the experience bonded them together like a family, saying:

What I would give to be able to see that text chain!

I love to hear that the Friends stars still keep in touch, and Jennifer Aniston said she even had dinner a few weeks ago with Courteney Cox and Lisa Kudrow. As with any tight-knit group, it sounds like they — along with David Schwimmer, Matt LeBlanc and the late Matthew Perry — have had their ups and downs, but the six of them are bound together forever.

So will we ever get an update on the Central Perk coffee-drinkers?

Jennifer Aniston Shuts Down The Idea Of A Future Friends Revival

The six members of the main cast came together in 2021 for Friends: The Reunion, where they revisited the set, discussed whether Ross and Rachel were on a break and relived some of the show’s more iconic moments. As far as Jennifer Aniston is concerned, that’s all we’re going to get as far as a revival or reboot. She said since Matthew Perry’s death in 2022, there is no world where a sequel or remake could happen, giving a blunt, six-word response:

It’s tough to think that the six of them could never share the stage again, even if they wanted to, since the man who had the funniest lines as Chandler Bing drowned in his hot tub at age 54 after taking a large amount of ketamine.

However, even before Matthew Perry’s untimely death, the idea of a reboot or revival was shot down, and Courteney Cox also said the Friends cast wasn’t likely to do another reunion.

Friends fans will just have to settle for the glorious videos and photos the actors share when the besties do get together, as well as the knowledge that the actors have taken the words of their iconic theme song to heart and will always be there for each other.

Both the cast and fans have celebrated more than 30 years of Friends. Largely, that’s thanks to the series greatly influencing what TV friendship goals– whether platonic, romantic or friends-to-lovers–look like. Between the six, each relationship is as unique and special as the last, and also stands true of the show’s couples. Case and point: Chandler’s proposed storyline of cheating on Monica wouldn’t have equated Ross and Rachel's "on a break" arc, so, let’s dive into it.

The deep-cut trivia of Season 6’s planned script centered around Chandler Bing’s jealousy of Monica Gellar going out to lunch with ex-Richard Burke (Tom Selleck). Which surfaced after the death of Matthew Perry, through an interview with actor Lisa Cash, who was to play the other woman. She shared that Matthew Perry axed the cheating idea because he feared it would alter the show, and its fans' perception too much.

Now, Cash has revealed to NBC News why the late actor was spot on with the nixing. Agreeing with Perry’s stance on the alternate beat, she said if it had aired, it’d be entirely different from the longstanding R&R break discourse. In her explanation, she highlights that the status of the respective couples were in completely contrasting places and would’ve elicited a wildly different outcome, saying:

I agree with both of them. Regardless of where you lie between the break debate, there’s more gray area to maneuver in Ross’ decision. If Perry hadn’t convinced the writers to cut Chandler’s active cheating on Monica, while they were clearly together, the series may have taken a hard left turn and never bounced back.

And even for the some fans who disliked Chandler and Monica’s courtship, I believe the inevitable breakup would’ve altered too much. With the six being so interconnected, it would’ve bled into each dynamic with vast outcomes. And likely, could’ve led to Chandler being exiled, or cast as a villain. So, I’m personally glad that Lisa Cash, who was originally scripted to be a hotel employee who sleeps with Bing, was rerouted to be Ross and Rachel’s flight attendant.

If the bomb dropping Chandler Bing cheating scandal had been pulled off, who knows what kind of butterfly effect it absolutely would’ve had in television and movies, including this year’s ​2025 TV calendar. It certainly wouldn’t have read as ambiguously and endlessly debatable as the Ross and Rachel on a break moment. I, for one, am pleased not to know what could’ve been.

If you’d like to dive back into or check out Season 6, all of Friends is available to stream with a Max subscription.

Kenan Thompson, longest running SNL cast member, is stuff of legend at this point. From the beginning, he’s nailed characters: All That’s tub-bound frenchman, Pierre Escargot, scheming straight man to longtime pal, Kel Mitchell’s goofball on their eponymous Nickelodeon show and the slew of Saturday Night Live favorites (among so much more). On his list of feats sits Reba McEntire, and the funnyman shares how she got on the roster in 2009. Not only that, he reveals how she felt about it, too.

Ahead of returning as an SNL Season 51 cast member, the Good Burger star joined The Lonely Island and Seth Meyers podcast to talk all things 30 Rock. Quickly, the supreme 2000 digital short featuring the faux McEntire was brought to the table because of its innate humorous nature. (The music parody is Andy Samberg as himself and Thompson tricking the former to believe he is McEntire.)

Before Andy Samberg and the creative crew's collab came to be, Thompson had tried to pitch a typical sketch himself. This was after seeing the country singer do a hyper-specific ad that inspired him to pick up mimicking her, as he said:

Even the origin of how this gag came to be is incredible. As mentioned, after having seen the ad, the Kenan star casually practiced his McEntire which led to fleshing out a parody commercial for Fiddle Faddle popcorn with a friend. Then, that’s how his straight pitch (with no explanation of why he was donning the red wig) made it to the table, but flopped. And even though the material didn't fly, it still made a path for the infamous “Two Worlds Collide” ft. Reba McEntire digital short.

But with no clear cut reason as to why the now 47-year-old would take on the role, the idea (as mentioned) was officially cut. He shared that’s when the oddball expression’s life was put on the shelf, as he said:

I’m so glad that The Lonely Island boys saw legs within Thompson’s out of left field vision and ran with it. Not long after the failed table read, the idea molted into the short we know today. It really is masterful in how the music video’s story splits and reveals the lol-worthy truth of why Thompson is in a signature red wig.

On top of the A+ online sketch, the impersonatee, and Reba star, apparently loved the bit. Seth Meyers was the first to bring up that McEntire got a kick out of Thompson’s getup but the rest agreed. The impersonator of the Grammy winner even accompanied her to present at the Country Music Awards in 2010 as her. He revealed that it was an excellent experience and she highly enjoyed showing him around that evening by saying:

Clearly there’s a lot of online sleuthing I need to get into between the original commercial and the CMA’s spot these two shared. I’m not surprised that she had fun with the joke and video, the “Fancy,” artist always seems like she’s up for a good laugh. It’s a comedy pairing I never would’ve known I needed until the two worlds actually collided, and now I’m hooked.

Fingers crossed that Reba McEntire shows up as a guest on Saturday Night Live as her show Happy’s Place returns to the 2025 TV guide this November. I’d also gladly accept a random revival of Kenan Thompson’s impersonation of her in just as a random way of how it all began.

Mark your calendars for SNL’s Season 51 return, October 4 on the titular night at 11:30 p.m. EST. Or, make sure to have a Peacock subscription ready to go to stream it the day after.

Friends has been a big part of my life since its original run on NBC that started 30 years ago, and through endless rewatches of the series with my HBO Max subscription, I’ve thought a lot about each character and the situations they get themselves into. Admittedly, I love them all — Ross, Rachel, Chandler, Monica, Phoebe and Joey — despite their sometimes-obvious faults, but I happened upon a thread criticizing Jennifer Aniston’s character, and I have to admit some good points were made.

Every Friends fan has their favorite and least-favorite characters. There are people who think Matt LeBlanc’s Joey is too obsessed with food or that Lisa Kudrow’s Phoebe is unrealistically off-beat. Many agree that David Schwimmer’s Ross is simply the worst. For one fan on Reddit, however, Rachel Green is the biggest offender, as they began a thread titled “Rachel from Friends is a pretty awful person who just got away with things because she was pretty,” and wrote:

I’m sorry, I was unaware that Will Colbert (co-founder of the “I Hate Rachel Green” Club) was on Reddit.

It’s a fair point, though. While Rachel does show more emotional maturity than her sisters Jill and Amy (portrayed excellently by Reese Witherspoon and Christina Applegate), there’s no questioning the character’s privilege and spoiled tendencies.

Even Jennifer Aniston has admitted Ross and Rachel were on a break during the Friends: The Reunion special, and it was pretty bad form to let Mark come to her place after he was the central figure of her and Ross’ argument. The fan continued:

I’ve always thought that Rachel convincing Bonnie (Christine Taylor) to shave her head was one of the character’s more diabolical moves (though I also blame Ross for being so repulsed by his girlfriend just wanting to live her best bald life). And yes, breaking up Ross and Julie was awful, because they were happy (they got a cat!), and Lauren Tom’s character was nothing but an angel.

Rachel was known to get in the way of pretty much every one of Ross’ other relationships, whether she was calling the baby store saleswoman a “horny bitch” for flirting with Ross or straight up flying across the globe to try to stop him from marrying Emily.

Phoebe even called her out for the baby store slut-shaming, exclaiming, “Oh my God! A woman flirting with a single man? We MUST alert the church elders,” and others on Reddit sided with House star Hugh Laurie when he guest-starred as a passenger on Rachel’s flight to London. AgeofVictoriaPodcast wrote:

Even for the most loyal Rachel fans, it’s hard to think back on how she behaved in several situations of one of the best sitcoms of all time and not admit that she sometimes acted like an awful person. But that’s not going to stop me from loving her or the show in general.

All 10 seasons of Friends can be streamed on HBO Max, while you can catch Jennifer Aniston on The Morning Show, whose fourth season just premiered on the 2025 TV schedule and is streaming with an Apple TV+ subscription.

Friends is one of the best sitcoms of all time, and it's brought comfort to its fans. A major part of the show's success has been the chemistry of the cast, who forged tight bonds that have endured since the show ended over two decades ago. One such long-lasting friendship to surprisingly result from the show is the one between Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston. Witherspoon recently gushed over the lovely way they first bonded on set, and the support she’s felt from Anison ever since.

Witherspoon was starting to gain some serious momentum when she appeared as Rachel Green’s sister, having just come off a year with two hit movies, Cruel Intentions and Election. She was still very young, though, (only 23) when she guest starred on Friends, and her life was already moving really fast. The Legally Blonde actress told The New York Times that being a public figure, while also navigating early marriage and motherhood was tough. However, she really leaned on her on-screen older sister after meeting her on the set of Friends:

I imagine that hearing that reaction from Aniston and Cox must have been so heartwarming. At least, that's the feeling I get, given the Big Little Lies actress told NYT that a lot of people told her having kids so early would hinder her acting career. I honestly can’t imagine having an acting career take off while also parenting a newborn.

Reese Witherspoon got married to Ryan Phillippe in 1999 (but divorced in 2008), and the couple had their daughter three months later. It sounds like the Sweet Home Alabama actress had to grow up pretty quickly. I'd be tempted to think it must've been nice for Witherspoon to have another actress a few years older to help her navigate the Hollywood of it all. After that guest spot on Friends, the Aniston/Witherspoon friendship just blossomed, according to the latter:

Isn’t that what friends (and surrogate older sisters) are for? Hearing Witherspoon talk about her bond with the We’re The Millers actress makes me wish we had seen them play sisters on Friends for more than two episodes. Perhaps, similar to the other Green sister, played just as excellently by Christina Applegate, Jill could have returned in a later season. Check out a clip of Rachel and Jill together:

Witherspoon did admit the producers asked her back on Friends but that she was so terrified the first time by the live studio audience. With that, she hasn’t performed in front of one since. However, it seems clear that she has no regrets about her short stint on the hit show, saying it was surreal to sit on the famous Central Perk couch and hear Matt LeBlanc ask her, “How you doin’?”

Of course, Reese Witherspoon also gained a firm friend in Jennifer Aniston as a result of the experience, as the two are still going strong well into their 40s and 50s. Luckily, these two BFFs have worked together again since then. They're currently starring on the Emmy-winning series The Morning Show. This time around, they play frenemies but, according to an executive producer, we will get to see the pair's characters, Alex and Bradley, bring out the best of each other as their relationship develops.

This bond all started with Friends, of course, and I remain grateful that it resulted in Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston becoming close friends. You can stream all 10 seasons of the comedy series now using an HBO Max subscription. Also, check out Aniston and Witherspoon on The Morning Show Season 4, as new episodes drop for Apple TV+ subscription holders on Wednesdays.

Today, when Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston come up in conversation many think of their streaming Apple TV+ subscription series, The Morning Show. But, if you are familiar with either, you likely know they had a small stint 25 years ago on Friends. Witherspoon played Rachel Green’s kid sister, Jill, and hasn’t been shy in recounting her surreal experience on set and acting for a crowd. Apparently, the 49-year-old revealed a new tidbit not even her current co-star knew.

Without question, Friends is far and away one of the most influential and best sitcoms ever. Between live tapings, the palpable chemistry and talent of the six person cast, the iconic series was big even then, bringing in great guest stars.

And the Big Little Lies actress’ guest appearance came up while the two A-listers interviewed each other for ET (per its Instagram). After sharing that Aniston was sweet then, she couldn’t do more than two episodes because she was terrified of the theater element. With that, Witherspoon asked the Rachel Green actress if she’d ever done it again:

After the question was posed, The Morning Show Season 4 co-stars locked eyes with one another in anticipation of the others’ reaction. The 56-year-old confirmed she didn’t know the count and was baffled at the answer after Witherspoon after showing the count with her hands.

It really does showcase how deep this fear went and apparently still is for her. As mentioned, the Legally Blonde star still considers her Friends guest spot as one of her scariest moments ever. So, all of it does make sense, but she explains some of her initial thoughts, including remorse about the gig:

Who knew there was something so jarring to Witherspoon? In my mind, I don’t think there are more than a handful of moments for her that are anything less than her signature hopeful sunshine-y self. But, everyone has something they’re at least fearful of including high profile celebs. Although, I’d be lying if the confession doesn’t retroactively make me want more Jill Green episodes, she would’ve been even better with a few more episodes.

For my own good, I won’t dwell on what could’ve been for Witherspoon’s stint on the live Friends stage. Legally Blonde was right around the corner anyway. Plus, we’ve had the pair of actresses behind the Green sisters back on screen together for a few years now. Speaking of, The Morning Show returns today, September 17, with its Season 4 premiere on the 2025 TV schedule.

If you’d like to catch or rewatch Witherspoon as Aniston’s fictional sister on Friends, that classic sitcom can be streamed in full with an active HBO Max subscription.

It doesn’t matter how many years pass; it will always be a delight to see the former stars of Friends showing that they actually are friends. In fact, the further away we get from that 2004 series finale, the more wonderful it is to see Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox and the others still showing love for one another. Those two in particular continue to be bestie goals, and a recent video proves they’ve also still got their comedy chops.

Jennifer Aniston will be fully entrenched in drama as Alex Levy when The Morning Show Season 4 hits the 2025 TV schedule, and Courteney Cox is returning to the horror realm as Gale Weathers, with Scream 7 coming to theaters in 2026. However, the Rachel Green and Monica Gellar portrayers slipped back into straight comedy in this Instagram video that shows Aniston blow-drying Cox’s hair. Check it out:

Honestly, how cute are they? You can tell they’ve been friends for 30 years by how easily they move around each other and play off of each other’s dry quips.

In the video, Jennifer Aniston says she’s been wanting to get at Courteney Cox’s hair with some of her LolaVie products to help her take care of that “frizz on top.” (Who else got immediate flashbacks of Monica’s hair in the Barbados humidity?)

Jennifer Aniston grabs some glossing detangler and starts to brush, which Courteney Cox calls a “miracle” because she apparently never brushes her hair. I laughed out loud at Aniston's reaction when she boasted that the product had won “like, 12 awards” (actually, it’s 14, per the LolaVie website) but was met with a distracted, “Has it really? That’s so cool,” from Cox.

Technical difficulties plagued the actresses when the blow dryer actually came out, but the Murder Mystery star got the hang of it and hit her friend with some Peptide Plumping Spray before leading a chant of:

Courteney Cox got some final touches of hair oil before Jennifer Aniston told her to turn to the camera and “show the people,” eliciting another chuckle from yours truly with this exchange:

• Courteney Cox: Is it good?
• Jennifer Aniston: I don’t know.

Other than a stray strand threatening to go in Courteney Cox’s mouth, I think Jennifer Aniston did a great job. It was certainly better than when Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) made Monica look like Dudley Moore:

And you know what? It sure beats those infamous Gale Weathers bangs!

This video is just further proof to me that these actresses have the best friendship, and they’d be a blast to hang around, even if all they were talking about was interior design.

Friends may be long since over, but I hope this friendship never dies. If you want to relive Rachel and Monica’s best moments, you can stream all 10 seasons of Friends — one of the best sitcoms of all time — with an HBO Max subscription.

Friends celebrated its 30^th anniversary in 2024 but, no matter how much time has passed, it remains one of the best sitcoms of all time. That's partly because of the show's lovably relatable characters and hilarious characters. There have been more than a few ridiculous episodes of Friends, and a handful of its wildest moments come courtesy of Matt LeBlanc’s Joey Tribbiani. And, as it turns out, Joey was actually inspired by a character from Blossom.

Four years before Friends premiered on NBC, the teen sitcom Blossom made its debut on the channel. Starring Mayim Bialik as the titular teen, the '90s network TV show lasted for a few seasons. The show actually ended not long after Friends debuted but, by that point, the series had made an impact, especially on LeBlanc. Joey Lawrence, who played Blossom’s older brother, Joey Russo, revealed to Us Weekly that LeBlanc would watch Blossom rehearsals and take notes on Lawrence’s portrayal:

A shared first name isn’t all that the two sitcom characters have in common. Both Joeys also aren't exactly the brightest within their groups of friends. They're also both known to be popular with the ladies, and they have specific catchphrases. Of course, the two Joeys aren't exactly the same, as they’re different ages and have different passions.

Still, the knowledge of Matt LeBlanc sitting in on tapings makes total sense, considering how similar his character is to Joey Lawrence's. I'd say that LeBlanc was smart to watch how Russo was performed, as Joey Tribbiani is arguably one of the best parts of Friends. During his interview, Lawrence went on to explain his approach to Russo and how it differs from LeBlanc's situation with Tribbiani:

It’s not unusual for an actor to take inspiration from something when fleshing out a character. As a fan, I loving learning the story behind Joey Tribbiani’s origins, and I think it serves a sweet piece of connective tissue between two fun shows. It's crazy to think that Friends' Joey may not have been played the way he was if not for Blossom's Joey. Of course, LeBlanc is a talented actor, and there's a firm chance he may have landed on a way to play his character without having seen the aforementioned teen sitcom.

Blossom also remains a favorite among fans to this day, so much so that the series very nearly got a reboot. A possible comeback for the series was discussed for a while, but it was canceled before seeing the light of day. Whether or not the project could be revived in some form is unknown but, in this era of reboots and revivals, I wouldn't be surprised if someone takes steps to jump over corporate tape to make it happen.

When it comes to the two Joeys, though, fans may have their favorites, but both Joey Lawrence and Matt LeBlanc both carved out their places in TV history. Anyone looking to watch Friends should grab an HBO Max subscription and stream it. Moving forward, I'm personally not sure I'll be able to watch Tribbiani without thinking about Russo.