Behind the scenes of Friends' tapings, there were some major misses that had the live audience
roaring for all the wrong reasons as the cast fumbled with their lines,
took occasional potshots at each other, and simply could not stop cackling about any of it.
What do we smell? In the season 4 episode "The One with Rachel's Crush," it's Monica
Geller's fresh-baked cookies that entice all her friends to come across the hall.
Before the scene could play out as fans remember, though, there were a few takes that didn't quite
make it. The cast and crew had Matt LeBlanc to thank for bringing a bit of toilet humor
to the mix, responding to Lisa Kudrow's line, "What do I smell?" with a coy ad-lib.
"What do I smell?"
"Sorry."
Needless to say, that wasn't in his script. This little ad lib
ended up wasting a lot of time as LeBlanc and co-star David Schwimmer
simply couldn't get past his one-line fart joke to finish out the scene.
"What do I smell?"
"...LeBlanc!"
Eventually, they managed to collect themselves for long enough to make it through the scene,
but it took a few tries — including one where they got so close.
"What do I smell?"
"I don't know. Smells good."
Ross didn't live with Joey and Chandler for long,
but he wore out his welcome pretty quickly thanks to that air purifier, his obnoxious hand gestures,
and the many, many boxes of stuff he left scattered across their living room.
The latter does prove to be a boon for the boys in season 5's "The One
Where Ross Moves In," once Joey realizes he can build a fort with Ross' stuff.
"Why don't you be a grown-up and come watch some TV in the fort?"
In the closing scene, Chandler comes home to find them playing "Cowboys
and Indians" in an innocent — if culturally insensitive — moment.
The blooper reel version, though? Now, that was some racy stuff.
"What are you guys doin'?"
"Nothing."
Friends fans have often wondered why Ross saw so little of his son Ben throughout the series,
but perhaps this blooper reel can shed some light on that creative decision.
In "The One Where Old Yeller Dies," Ross is frustrated by how many "firsts" he's been missing
in the boy's life, and he wants to witness at least one of those major milestones for himself.
To that end, Ross tries to coax the toddler into saying his very first word during his visit.
As Ross takes Ben to see Rachel at the coffee shop,
he tries to talk the baby into saying "Dada," to no avail.
"Can you say 'Dada?' I'm gonna tell you, Mommy's just said it anyway, so you might as well try."
"No luck, huh?
"No…"
For a couple of takes, however, the tiny actor portraying Ben didn't quite stick to the script.
"You know, you might as well say it, because I told you --"
"Da… da…"
The good news is, that baby is growing up to be sharp as a tack.
The bad news is, it's the last thing the writers of this episode wanted to happen.
"Mommy just said it anyway, so you might as well try."
"Da… da…"
"Huh?"
"Da… da…"
"Yeah, he's saying 'Dada.'"
Who knew Matthew Perry had such a penchant for crappy jokes?
There were several instances on Friends when Chandler would
emerge from the bathroom for one reason or another, and as the blooper reels reveal,
a lot of times the actor went off script to make jokes about what he was doing in there.
"You girls got a measuring tape?"
Eventually, Courteney Cox decided to play along, and the results were pretty great.
While filming a scene for "The One with the Nap Partners,"
in which Monica confronts Chandler for breaking up with a girl over her weight,
he was scripted to be bothered by her knock at the bathroom door. Instead, he took another approach.
"Honey, you gotta see this. This is like the size of my arm."
Cell phones have been ruining takes since they
could fit in people's pockets -- but at least the results are often funny.
During production on "The One with Joey's New Brain," Jennifer Anniston
got a legitimate call on her cell phone while she and Lisa Kudrow were filming a
fight about a different cell phone. To quote Phoebe, "What are the chances?!"
"He- Whoa, somebody's actually here. Hello? Hi! Lemme call you right back -- I'm doing a scene."
That wasn't the only cellular mishap of the series, though. Aniston was also the
recipient of another unexpected dial-in while taping her birthday scene on the set of "The
One Where They All Turn Thirty," which just goes to show that she was, as widely reported,
very popular during her time on the show.
"Better to be over the hill --"
"It comes with a phone."
"It does!"
Sometimes a blooper isn't an accident. Sometimes, it's a prank.
In "The One with the Secret Closet," Joey has to take a pregnant Rachel to the hospital after she
begins experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions. Ross shows up late, complaining about the distance
between himself and his baby's mother-to-be. Schwimmer had a hard time hitting his cues
for the scene, though, so Matt LeBlanc and Jennifer Aniston decided to pull a prank on him.
After Schwimmer missed his mark and had to go back out of frame to try again,
the two decided to hide and let him walk into an empty room just to see what he'd do.
"Action!"
Later, when he forgot his line during a take,
Aniston playfully laid into him for bringing the whole gang down.
"At the, uh, movie theater…"
"You just suck! What happened to you? You used to be able to act!"
"I know…"
Remember Joey's disastrous noodle soup commercial
audition with the kid who was a more competent actor than him?
"Mmm… soup. I mean, noodle soup. I mean, soup!"
"Come on!"
Well, life imitated art in that regard, because Cole Sprouse, who portrayed Ben
in the later seasons of the show, seemed to be the only one who'd memorized the script.
While shooting a scene with Jennifer Aniston for "The One with the Truth About London," for
example, Sprouse confidently fed her the missing line when she forgot what to say.
"Now what is my first line?"
"'Let it be agreed.'"
"Aw."
Then, when he shared the screen with David Schwimmer for a scene in "The One with the
Holiday Armadillo," Sprouse had to again remind his co-star of what to say next.
"'You're part Jewish...'"
"Oh yeah."
"Man, I know all of his lines."
Chandler and Monica's storyline in "The One Where Ross Meets Elizabeth's Dad" is kind of a
throwaway. The two have a silly misunderstanding over what time they're supposed to meet up for
a mini-date, and their snafu becomes fodder for Phoebe's next book chapter.
Their argument doesn't make many Friends fans' lists of best moments, of course,
but perhaps it would have if it had gone down the way it did in the bloopers.
"Chandler, we said we would meet at the coffee house at six."
"We said seven, you dumb w---- bag."
Of all the cast members who were paired for two-person scenes throughout Friends,
Lisa Kudrow and David Schwimmer had to be among the most entertaining.
Phoebe is never afraid to call Ross on his worst decisions, and since she seems to be the one woman
in his life who is neither a relative nor an ex, she's often his go-to friend for unbiased advice.
The two also get into a lot of weird situations together,
including the time that they each date half of a divorcing couple and start
bickering with each other in "The One with the Engagement Picture."
As their arguments started to mimic the separated couple, David Schwimmer and
Lisa Kudrow had a lot of trouble keeping it together and finishing their scenes.
"And, she uses sex as a weapon."
"Fine."
Things got so out of hand, that Schwimmer suggested shooting the scene line by line,
which Kudrow seemed game for. Apparently, it had worked out pretty well for her before.
"We'll just do the scene one line at a time."
"I did that once."
"I'll lead you in."
"I got an Emmy."
As friends, Joey and Chandler definitely find comfort in each other. They're known
to hug so often that they eventually have to ask themselves if it's getting
out of hand in the season six episode "The One with Mac and C.H.E.E.S.E."
During shooting, all of the repeated hugs and back rubs started to get under their skin.
"While we're here, anything else?"
"Get off me."
Then, things really went off the rails when the Matts decided to lean
into the discomfort of prolonged physical contact.
"What's that in your pocket?"
After so many seasons of bringing the "Friends" cast to life,
the actors started to know their characters all-too-well.
While filming a scene for the season eight episode
"The One with the Birthing Video," David Schwimmer realized mid-line
just how much of a dope his character was for letting his pregnant ex-wife move in with him
while he had a new girlfriend — and neither he nor Lisa Kudrow could stop laughing about it.
"I knew it! I knew I wasn't crazy!"
For a while, all the actor can seem to do is sit there and think
about Ross' bad decisions. Eventually, Kudrow has to ask him if he's really so surprised.
"Alright, ready."
"Have you ever seen this show?"
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