The One With the Thing: All Episodes Talk

[Rhondinella]

Use this thread for general discussion of the show.

[nitai4andra]

Hi!

We are translating Friends to russian, and have got a disagreement about the following dialog from 07x07 TOW Ross's Library Book:

Janice: Oh. Oh I just cannot believe Clark stood me up!

Monica: He might still show up.

Janice: Oh, what are you, stupid? It’s been three hours.

Monica: Is that all?

I think that Monica meant "I didn't notice the 3 hours here, they flew like a second to me", but my opponent think that Monica meant "Are you finished with your talking?". We definetely need a native speaker opinion here :-)

Thanks in advance!

[leighroda]

I would have to watch the episode, I don't remember to tone off the top of my head, but just reading, I think if I remember correctly it's more sarcasm, like Monica was trying to be patient because generally it can be exhausting to hang out with Janice (at least that's what the general theme seems to be with her) so she was trying to be helpful/optimistic but when Janice shot her down and said "it's been 3 hours" Monica was being sarcastic in saying "is that all" because she was losing patience or didn't really want to be around Janice.

[TOWTooMuchTV]

I believe it was related to the time but in an opposite way - like the three hours spent with Janice felt more like three days to Monica..."is that all? (I thought we had been here longer)"

[nitai4andra]

Great thanks, it helped a lot!

I have another question: about Elizabeth Hornswoggle from 05x11 TOW All The Resolutions. Chandler explained in the end that her surname is funny because it sounds like name of a character from "Fraggle Rock". I didn't watch that "Fraggle Rock" show, so maybe this is the reason I didn't get the joke when "Hornswoggle" was used in the middle of the episode. Could you explain - is "Hornswoggle" a generally funny surname by itself (because it has some word play etc.), or is it funny just because of "Fraggle Rock" show?

Hope I asked the question right :-)

Thanks in advance!

[yeswedo]

I don't think Fraggle Rock had much to do with Hornswoggle being funny to Chandler. Sarcasm is a big piece of his personality and Hornswoggle is unusual enough that he would want to make fun of it. The last name is just one of the challenges to him keeping his resolution in this episode.

[nitai4andra]

Great thanks, that helped a lot!

[alegtostandon]

I did not know where else to put this....something I thought about last night while watching 'Friends'.  It seems that they live on an upper floor in an older apartment, when they go out to the terrace or firescape, whatever it is, they are looking at the skyline.  Yet, when someone buzzes at the door, and whoever uses the intercom and says to come on up, the person is right there within a minute.  I cannot imagine a building that age having that fast of an elevator, if even having one at all...

[CJ70]

They appear to live in a walk up, probably a 6-story building, but not sure what floor they live on. So if someone was coming up the stairs, they could be there quickly.

[Aprilshowers]

Hi everyone new the friends forum! I am up to the one wear Joey has feelings for Rachel in season 8. Gotta say that pairing makes so much more sense than Ross and Rachel. I remember thinking back to when it first aired so many people were against it. A shame they didn't work out, Joey being the step-kid to Ross's kid would actually have been great story line. Well I know I'm pretty much alone with liking them though.

[Expat]

Hi everyone new the friends forum! I am up to the one wear Joey has feelings for Rachel in season 8. Gotta say that pairing makes so much more sense than Ross and Rachel. I remember thinking back to when it first aired so many people were against it. A shame they didn't work out, Joey being the step-kid to Ross's kid would actually have been great story line. Well I know I'm pretty much alone with liking them though.

 

I'm a Joey/Rachel fan too. I don't like what the show did with them though. The initial storyline of Joey falling in love with Rachel was beautiful and really gave Matt LeBlanc a chance to shine. I thought it was very well done.

 

But the revisiting of it where Rachel developed a thing for Joey...it was just badly written imo. The show was so married to Rosschel (and their vehement fanbase) that they were never really gonna give it a real chance, so I wish they hadn't of gone there. I know they were basically scrambling to find ideas at that point because the show was so late in it's run, but I just wish it never happened.

 

[Inquisitionist]

I guess this is as good a place as any to ask:  What is the back-story on how Phoebe came into the Friends circle? I think she was Monica's roommate in that apartment at one time, but how did that happen?  Did she answer an ad?  She doesn't seem like the type of applicant Monica would go for.

[Ringthane]

I don't think they ever said on the show how she came to be part of the group (or outside the show, for that matter).  She does seem to be an odd choice, especially when her character changes after the triplets are born.  She seems to dislike the rest of them to the point where I don't see why she'd hang out with them, let alone why they'd hang out with her.

[Madding crowd]

Phoebe was Monica's roommate but we don't know how they actually met or why they continued to hang around after Phoebe moved, especially since Phoebe was apparently mad at Monica at the time, and they mentioned a couple of times that Phoebe lived far away (probably not really, but in their terms).

 

It was also never explained why Ursula dislikes her twin sister to the point of refusing to let her into her apartment, where Phoebe's loving grandma was when she was living in the street or in cars. Phoebe also seemed to have an extensive wardrobe and a large apartment (after grandma died) while working part-time as a massage therapist.

 

Lisa Kudrow was amazing in the part but I could never really stand Phoebe. I'm a bit obsessed with friends, so I have the episodes pretty well memorized and even before she had the triplets Phoebe was never that nice. She often joked about hurting the others, cutting the others and made comments that made it seem like she was minutes away from snapping. I also didn't like her aggressive sexual comments which just didn't match up to her because she always seemed kind of asexual and cold to me. I especially didn't like it when she married Mike and would talk about their sex life in front of the group even though it made mike uncomfortable. Then of course both she and Rachel sexually harassed people at their workplace. Yes, I could go on and on with my Phoebe dislike.

[memememe76]

One of my favourite Rachel/Phoebe exchanges: 

 

Rachel: Oh, it was just a matter of time before someone had to leave the group, I just assumed Phoebe would be the one to go.

 

Phoebe: Ah!

 

Rachel: Honey, come on, you live far away. You're not related, you lift right out.

[Inquisitionist]

Happened to watch The One with the Birth (1-23) this weekend, and realized that the nurse was played by the same actress who later played Joey's agent, Estelle.  According to IMDb, June Gable played Estelle in an earlier episode (The One with the Butt, 1-6), but her scenes were cut.  After appearing as the nurse, she showed up as Estelle nine times.

[helenamonster]

Were her scenes cut from the original airing of "The One with the Butt" though? Because they're included in the DVD version.

[Inquisitionist]

Good question.  This wiki for Friends also lists the first appearance of Estelle as The One with Russ.

[Bort]

Estelle was cut from the original airing but added back on the DVDs -- which had lots of added material that was cut out, some of which had cursing in it. I can't remember the exact episode (though I do remember it was a later season), but I remember being really thrown when Joey uttered the line, "Does a bear shit in the woods?"

[Ringthane]

Estelle was cut from the original airing but added back on the DVDs -- which had lots of added material that was cut out, some of which had cursing in it. I can't remember the exact episode (though I do remember it was a later season), but I remember being really thrown when Joey uttered the line, "Does a bear shit in the woods?"

 

I think that was the one where both Ross and Joey were fighting over Kristen. 

[chitowngirl]

This is more of a nitpick against Nick at Night. They started the cycle over again earlier in the week, but now they skipped ahead to the end of season 8 and Rachel is having the baby.

TBS skips episodes too and it annoys me. The holiday episodes always seem to be skipped.

[mojoween]

I saw a piece on the CBS Evening News a while back and now I hate Nickelodeon.

They said that some channels, when showing syndicated reruns, have figured out a way to speed up the rebroadcast so they can fit in more commercials.

So now when I watch on Nick all I can focus on is how strange they all sound because I can tell the dialogue is at the wrong speed.

[kiddo82]

Hey gang, I'm watching The One Where the Monkeys Gets Away (I started a series re-watch not too long ago) and I can never tell, is Ross being a jerk to Rachel when he lashes out at her for letting Marcel get away?  Or are his feelings justified?  I mean, she did lose his pet but he does seem to overreact towards her.  I know his reaction is intensified by his unrequited love boiling underneath but I don't know.  I still come down more on the side of "jerk." 

[chitowngirl]

I usually err on the side of "jerk".

[mojoween]

I say jerk because while Rachel WAS irresponsible, she TRIED to do the right thing and it is not at all her fault that Ross never told them Marcel was being illegally kept.

[mojoween]

This probably amuses only me but every time I see commercials for Matt LeBlanc's new show "Man With a Plan" I laugh and think "I don't have a plan.  I don't even have a pl."

[willco]

In my opinion, both TBS and Nick abuse their rights to airing of Friends. Tbs like to cut a line here and there and sometimes a whole scene. For example,  there is a time where Phoebe and Mike are at her apartment and Mike's friend (who we've never seen before) comes in and on TBs, they cut him to one line, while on Nick he has several more lines. But Nick always cuts of the tag ending, which ticks me off, too. So they both are at fault and yeah, they can add a couple more commercials by doing this. The whole run is on Netflix, but I think the dvd's have more content, based on some of your comments. The Netflix version is what aired on tv, I think. I only have it on tv when I'm doing something else.

 

Kind of off topic, but has anyone seen the episode titled "The One Where Chandler Dies" ? I saw it on Youtube and having seen every episode, I thought 'That's weird'. It's actually done by a fan, where he (she ?) splices scenes of different episodes to make to appear that, by what the other characters say, Chandler did indeed die. It's silly, but I thought it was fairly well done. If you haven't seen it, check it out.

[Katy M]

On ‎8‎/‎16‎/‎2016 at 8:27 AM, kiddo82 said:

Hey gang, I'm watching The One Where the Monkeys Gets Away (I started a series re-watch not too long ago) and I can never tell, is Ross being a jerk to Rachel when he lashes out at her for letting Marcel get away?  Or are his feelings justified?  I mean, she did lose his pet but he does seem to overreact towards her.  I know his reaction is intensified by his unrequited love boiling underneath but I don't know.  I still come down more on the side of "jerk." 

Ross is actually my least favorite of the friends, but I'm going to semi-defend him just a little in this case.  Rachel lost his pet (which he shouldn't have had in the first place, and I will in no way justify that), and he was worried.  If Marcel had been a two year old child nobody would think he was a jerk for yelling at her for losing him.  When you are in charge of a living being, you have to be responsible.  But, anyway, when you are worried about someone, you tend to overreact and yell until you know they are safe.  Is it right?  Probably not.  But it is normal.

[Bort]

Ross got really bent out of shape over Rachel calling animal control, like she was supposed to know that Marcel was illegal to have and not supposed to call. I didn't like that he acted like she was an idiot for calling animal control.

[helenamonster]

I do like the part where he's lecturing her about how it's illegal for him to own Marcel and Rachel just goes, "Yeah, see, you never ever ever told us any of that." Jen's delivery is perfect.

[Amwell123]

My favorite part is where Ross and Rachel first kiss.

[Madding crowd]

I continue to watch my Friends DVD's on a nightly basis so I always find more to comment on. I'm going to be the lone wolf and say I thought Mike and Phoebe made a good match-even better than David. I love David and Hank Azaria is always awesome, but I think he and Phoebe would drive each other crazy. I also think Phoebe had such a bad, chaotic childhood, she was seeking someone normal to kind of even her out. And Mike was very low key but he was a bit quirky too-I think they made a good couple. And Phoebe is my least favorite Friend but I liked her wedding the most because it was so pretty with the snow, and very Phoebe-like, unlike Monica's wedding which wasn't Monica like at all. 

[Amwell123]

I love watching the old episodes too. I think you are right about Monica's wedding.

[Quof]

Monica's wedding was blan (trademark Four Weddings).  

I was waiting for the Bay City Rollers.

[nat-fthc]

I was watching some earlier episodes today, and I'd forgotten how much I love Carol. In TOW The Candy Hearts, after Ross' dates bails, they have such great chemistry together and you can really tell that they both still feel for each other. I really wish they would have shown more of that throughout the series. I can't stand Susan, so I definitely wouldn't have minded if Ross and Carol ended up back together. Anyone else feel this way?

Edited May 28, 2017 by nat-fthc
typo

[Fabian]

I liked the wedding a lot

[VCRTracking]

There were a lot of references to old TV shows and movies but this is one of my favorites:

Chandler: Oh My God Joey,You have to get over Kate and Stop Crying!

Joey: Hey I was crying because, because(pointing at TV) nobody believed Quincy's theory!

Edited June 3, 2017 by VCRTracking

[RainbowBrite]

On ‎5‎/‎27‎/‎2017 at 5:38 PM, nat-fthc said:

I was watching some earlier episodes today, and I'd forgotten how much I love Carol. In TOW The Candy Hearts, after Ross' dates bails, they have such great chemistry together and you can really tell that they both still feel for each other. I really wish they would have shown more of that throughout the series. I can't stand Susan, so I definitely wouldn't have minded if Ross and Carol ended up back together. Anyone else feel this way?

Whenever I watch the very early episode where Susan and (old)Carol sprung on Ross that they were going to hyphenate their own names to use as Ben's surname, I just fume! I don't sympathize with Ross very often (especially in any interactions with Rachel), but man that broke my heart. I don't see an issue with Susan being involved but it is a pretty new relationship (based on the fact that Ross and Susan were together recently enough for her to have just found out she was pregnant) and the fact that they're going to give the baby her last name is just crazy to me. I'm glad they were able to come together to raise Ben as a cohesive family.

[chitowngirl]

Is Rachel the middle sister? For years I assumed she was the oldest, but in TOW They Don't Go Skiing, she mentions using her sister's cabin for the weekend and she mentions in another episode that her sister would decorate their father's office in wicker. Jill is obviously the youngest, but would Amy be older? And how did she get a cabin?

[Katy M]

32 minutes ago, chitowngirl said:

Is Rachel the middle sister? For years I assumed she was the oldest, but in TOW They Don't Go Skiing, she mentions using her sister's cabin for the weekend and she mentions in another episode that her sister would decorate their father's office in wicker. Jill is obviously the youngest, but would Amy be older? And how did she get a cabin?

They've never explicitly said.  I've always assumed Amy was older.

[Amwell123]

It looks like they all get along really well in real life, especially with Joey (Matt LeBlanc). I've heard rumors that they didn't get along on the set, but in their interview they said they did. It is cool to think they were, and have remained good friends.

[BBHN]

Quote

I've heard rumors that they didn't get along on the set

This is the first I've ever heard of it. Since the show started I've heard nothing but good things about the cast and their relationships off the set. They've all been good friends since day one.

[Guest]

On 6/5/2017 at 11:43 AM, RainbowBrite said:

Whenever I watch the very early episode where Susan and (old)Carol sprung on Ross that they were going to hyphenate their own names to use as Ben's surname, I just fume! I don't sympathize with Ross very often (especially in any interactions with Rachel), but man that broke my heart. I don't see an issue with Susan being involved but it is a pretty new relationship (based on the fact that Ross and Susan were together recently enough for her to have just found out she was pregnant) and the fact that they're going to give the baby her last name is just crazy to me. I'm glad they were able to come together to raise Ben as a cohesive family.

I hate this one.  Ben was conceived while Ross and Carol were still married (though I think they were separated at the time?) but she and Susan acted like Ross was a sperm donor or some other non-father figure a lot of the time.  If Carol had cheated on Ross with another guy, got pregnant with Ross' baby, and then married the other guy while still pregnant, it wouldn't have been considered "funny" for her to give Ben the new guy's last name.  

[Amwell123]

I never understood the hostility that Susan had for Ross. I guess it was supposed to be funny, but it simply made me dislike her character.

I've heard people criticize Pheobe's character, but I think she adds a uniqueness to the show. She is funny and sweet.

[OtterMommy]

1 minute ago, Amwell123 said:

I never understood the hostility that Susan had for Ross. I guess it was supposed to be funny, but it simply made me dislike her character.

I understood what they were trying to say it was--that she was jealous of Ross, but I don't think they executed it well.  The whole Susan/Carol/Ross/Ben thing was a mess.

[Katy M]

47 minutes ago, OtterMommy said:

I understood what they were trying to say it was--that she was jealous of Ross, but I don't think they executed it well.  The whole Susan/Carol/Ross/Ben thing was a mess.

I never felt like she was jealous of Ross.  I always just thought that she felt that Ross should fully support her and Carol's relationship and until he was willing to do that, she was going to be a jerk to him.

[OtterMommy]

1 minute ago, Katy M said:

I never felt like she was jealous of Ross.  I always just thought that she felt that Ross should fully support her and Carol's relationship and until he was willing to do that, she was going to be a jerk to him.

Hmm, that's an interesting take on it.  I think I can see that in later seasons, but in the earlier seasons it just seemed like she wanted Ross not to exist.

[Maharincess]

I HATED Susan. Nobody ever stood up for Ross when she was treating him like shit. If it was one of my brothers in that situation, I would have told the bitch a few things. I guarantee she wouldn't have spoken to him that way if I was around.  She was horrible. 

[MadyGirl1987]

I have been watching early seasons on Netflix and I have to agree that Susan, and Carol to a lesser extent, was horrible. In the episode where they have the sonogram Ross asks why she is in the name. She says "It's my baby to." I mean... really? Are you kidding me with that? No, it's not "your baby." You are a step-parent. It is the baby of the married woman you were having an affair with and the ex-husband you guys were cheating on. Yes, step-parents can be important figures, and even more influential parents then birth-parents(see Jay and Manny on Modern Family for a great step-parent/step-kid relationship) but birth parents have precedence. Ross might as well have been a sperm donor they hired for as much consideration they gave him. At least Ross got to have a better parenting experience when he and Rachel had Emma.

Edited June 22, 2017 by MadyGirl1987

[Guest]

Didn't Carol cheat on Ross with Susan, but then was together with Susan when she and Ross conceived Ben?  In that way, she had cheated on both of them with the other one, so I could see some of the animosity.  Of course, when your partner cheats, your anger should really be directed at them.

I can't even watch most of the episodes that Carol and Susan are prominent in because it makes me so upset how Susan acts like it is her and Carol's baby and not Ross and Carol's baby.