The year 1994 was special for some people. For me, it was the year my big sister was born, and in television, it was the year that NBC debuted not one but two shows that arguably changed TV. Both Friends and ER premiered in September 1994, just days apart. One went on to become one of the best sitcoms of all time, and the other was one of the longest-running primetime medical dramas. These shows also share a fun connection, too, as Noah Wyle and George Clooney appeared on Friends during the first season. But that's not the only crazy connection, and Wyle has only just realized the other one.
When you think about it, Friends and ER have a handful of similarities. Both filmed on the Warner Bros. lot in Los Angeles, both premiered during the same month and year on the same network, both went on to become massive successes, and both are streaming with an HBO Max subscription. Then there’s also the fact that both shows have a character with the same exact name, although it's spelled a tad differently.
Friends has Rachel Green, played by Jennifer Aniston, who is one of the main friends for all nine seasons. ER, meanwhile, has Rachel Greene, the daughter of Dr. Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards), and she is played throughout the series by Yvonne Zima and Hallee Hirsh. During an interview with People, this fact was brought up to Wyle, who was on both shows, and it blew his mind:
I have to say that until you just said that, I have never made that connection in my life. I'm not kidding. Like, until you just said Rachel Green, I realized that that, of course, was Dr. Greene's daughter as well. I never made that connection. That's crazy. I don't know that anybody ever did.
It’s not surprising that Wyle didn’t realize this until it was mentioned. There are over 300 episodes of ER, and Rachel Greene only appeared in 26 of them.
Plus, both shows are so different from each other, and the characters are not alike. I also know that when I'm watching, I don’t necessarily think about the character names, even though they’re said quite frequently.
It is funny to know that the writers on both shows had the idea to name a character Rachel Green[e], though, and you can’t even fault them for it because they came out at the same time.
The coincidence is certainly a fun one, especially knowing that it likely was pure luck that the writers chose the same name for their characters. It would have been even better if the last name were spelled the same way, but I do appreciate that we can easily differentiate the two between Green and Greene.
Now, even though Friends and ER don’t have many connections, fans haven’t stopped comparing the sitcom to The Summer I Turned Pretty due to a particular “We were on a break” storyline courtesy of Jeremiah Fisher’s trip to Cabo. Fans have also been comparing Conrad to Jess Mariano from Gilmore Girls. Even after all these years, shows are still being brought up in discourse with either new comparisons or connections, and I just love to see it.
So, maybe we can find a way to sneak a Friends reference (like a character's name) into Wyle's new hit medical drama, The Pitt.
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