'Friends' trivia and fun facts

Because of a bet between Matthew Perry and Bruce Willis on the set of Falsas apariencias (2000) (which Perry won), Willis appeared in his three-episode guest role for free. Willis went on to win an Emmy for his guest role in Friends (1994).

The original idea for the show was going to focus on four characters with Phoebe and Chandler in supporting roles. In the early stages the creators toyed with the idea of Chandler being gay. They changed their mind when they met Matthew Perry. They did, however, insert many jokes about Chandler having gay mannerisms (not knowing about sports, loving show tunes, etc.).

Courtney Cox added Arquette to the end of her name after her marriage to David Arquette between seasons five and six. Her father, Richard L. Cox, died in 2001 and during the midst of the seventh season, she dropped the Arquette in her father's memory.

Hank Azaria auditioned for the role of Joey. After being rejected, he begged to audition again. He auditioned again and was rejected again, but he later appeared as David, Phoebe's scientist boyfriend.

The episode where Phoebe thinks her dead mother has been reincarnated as a cat was written by Marta Kauffman at the time when her own mother recently passed away (the episode was dedicated to her). In an interview with one of the other writers, they admitted that said this would have gotten shot down at the table read, but nobody felt comfortable saying "no" under the circumstances.

When Matt LeBlanc auditioned for the role he only had $11 dollars to his name. When the cast got their paychecks, the first thing that Courteney Cox bought was a car. Matt LeBlanc bought a hot dinner.

Lisa Kudrow was terrified of the duck that showed up in Season 3.

The artwork in Central Perk is changed every three episodes.

Lisa Kudrow based her hippie character Phoebe on her co-star Jennifer Aniston - because of the actress' interest in "spiritual" subjects.

In the opening credits to Friends: The One After Vegas (1999), all of the names in the opening (actors and crew) were changed to have "Arquette" at the end of them, a gag on Courteney Cox Arquette who had just recently married David Arquette.

Joey's statue of a white dog was originally given to Jennifer Aniston as a good luck present from her best friend when she started acting. She offered to lend it to the show for the episode where Joey became rich and bought a lot of stuff. After that episode, the producers decided to keep it.