5 Thing You Didn’t Know About Friends

There have been countless TV shows through the years but only a select few can stand the test of time and reach multiple generations. One of these shows would be Friends! A global phenomenon, Friends has become the most watched show in the UK, the USA and although it finished 18 years ago, the show still airs globally and earns $1 billion annually. Friends has amassed a huge fanbase that will buy official Friends socks, nightwear, accessories and all things Friends related. This is where we come in! As Friends is within our licencing portfolio, we can provide excellent designs and quality manufacturing for socks, nightwear accessories and general merchandising.

Here are five weird facts about Friends that you may not have known:

1. The apartment numbers switched during the series.

At the beginning of the series, Monica’s door had the number 5 on it. The producers later realised that didn’t make sense as Monica lived on a higher floor. They changed her apartment number to 20. The number on Chandler’s apartment changed as well—from 4 to 19.

2. Bruce Willis appeared on the show for free after losing a bet to Matthew Perry.

Mathew Perry got into a debate with Bruce Willis while the two were making The Whole Nine Yards. Perry believed that the film would be number one in the box office on its opening weekend, but Willis disagreed. In February 2000, the film was number one. Willis was set to appear on Friends as the dad of Ross’s girlfriend and Rachel’s love interest. As a result of the bet, he had to donate his earnings for the guest stint to charity.

3. The opening credits were not shot in New York.

Don’t let your New York City tour guide trick you into thinking that you’re looking at the fountain from the iconic opening credits of Friends. Although the fountain looks a lot like Central Park’s Pulitzer Fountain, the actual shoot occurred on a Warner Bros. lot.

4. Lisa Kudrow didn’t know how to play guitar.

“I didn’t like the guitar” Lisa Kudrow admitted about Phoebe Buffay’s chosen musical instrument. “I wasn’t getting it. So I think I even asked, ‘What if she plays the bongos?'” They ended up bringing a guitar teacher in. Kudrow learned a couple of chords, then announced that she was done with the lessons. She decided that Phoebe would only know a handful of chords anyway. And thank goodness because “Smelly Cat” is perfect just the way it is.

5. None of the actors was a huge fan of the theme song.

Though it’s impossible to imagine Friends without also envisioning the opening credits, in which the cast play in a fountain and dance along to the Rembrandts’ “I’ll Be There for You,” apparently no one was a huge fan of the tune. “No one was really a big fan of that theme song,” Aniston said while appearing on The One show in 2016. She then backtracked a bit: “I don’t mean to say that. We felt it was a little, I don’t know. Dancing in a fountain felt sort of odd, but we did it.”

If you would like to partner with us and have access to Friends along with many other licences within our portfolio, please email:

webenquires@misirli.co.uk