23 Awesome Things You Definitely Didn't Know About 'Friends'

Thanks to constant re-runs and unlimited Netflix access, we've never truly said goodbye to our Friends. You have to admit, life in the past two decades would have pretty dang boring without Rachel, Joey, Chandler, Monica, Phoebe and Ross, so we may as well keep obsessing over them! Here are some 23 little-known facts about our fave TV sitcom: 

1. Lisa Kudrow was originally cast as Roz in Frasier, but the casting directors changed their minds and fired her before the show aired, leaving Lisa open to take the role of Phoebe. She has said it was one of the best things that has ever happened to her.

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2. Even though he received no credit throughout the show, crew member Paul Swain was the mastermind behind the Magna Doodle drawings on the door in Joey and Chandler's apartment.

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3. Before they decided to name the show Friends other working titles included Insomnia Café, Friends like Us and Six of One.

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4. David Schwimmer was the first friend to be cast in the show and Ross was written specifically with David in mind for the part.

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5. The six friends had a private huddle backstage before every single episode. They wouldn't allow anyone or any cameras in the room while they prepped for the show.

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6. Courteney Cox was asked to play Rachel, but in true Monica fashion, she told them she was Monica, not Rachel.

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7. David Schwimmer directed 10 Friends episodes, including the episode where the group finds out that Ross is the father of Rachel's baby.

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8. Joey and Monica were originally supposed to be the love interests on the show.

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9. Before Friends, Courteney Cox appeared in various commercials. In fact, she was the first person to say "period" on national television for a Tampax commercial.

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10. Friends co-creators Marta Kauffman and David Crane are also co-writers of the show's theme song "I'll Be There For You" by the Rembrants.

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11. They wrote the triplets storyline for Lisa Kudrow to cover the real life pregnancy of her son Julian.

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12. When Rachel is trying to find a new officiate for Chandler and Monica's wedding, she finds a Greek Orthodox priest coming out of the Anastassakis/Papasifakis wedding. Anastassakis is Jennifer Aniston's family name. It was changed to Aniston by her father before she was born.

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13. Some of the laughter from the show's live audience was cut in scenes so the next punch line wasn't lost.

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14.Marcel the monkey is actually a female and her name is Katie. In fact, we hear she's got she's had some pretty recent modeling gigs lined up.

15. There is a scene in "The One with Monica and Chandler's Wedding" where Gary Oldman is drunk and says that he is wearing two belts. They accidently use the same joke in season nine because they completely forgot they had already used it. Oh yeah, and Kevin S. Bright, the executive producer, came to work with two belts once.

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16. The big white dog in Joey and Chandler's apartment belonged to Jennifer Aniston. A friend gave it to her as a good luck gift when she got her role on the show.

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17. Besides Sara Ferguson making a surprise appearance in the London episode, Richard Branson, CEO of Virgin Airlines, also made a quick appearance as a tourist hat salesman.

18. Even though there have been a few mistakes throughout the show, this may by far be one of the worst. Notice the ice cream's magic colors?

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19. In case you've been wondering why Matthew Perry's missing part of his middle finger, he slammed it in a door when he was in nursery school.

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20. Lisa Kudrow had already been guest-starring on Mad About You as Ursula Buffay for two years before Friends aired. They decided to make Phoebe a twin to create a crossover between the two shows.

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21. The actor who plays Joshua's father in the show is actually Matthew Perry's father, John Bennett Perry.

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22. Matthew Perry once had to be Courteney Cox's slave for five months when he lost a bet over whether Anthony Michael Hall said the line "Chicks cannot hold their smoke. Dat's what it is," in The Breakfast Club or Weird Science. The correct answer is The Breakfast Club!

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23.It was recently revealed by the shows co-creator, Marta Kauffman, that Monica and Chandler were only meant to be a one night thing — never an item. However. After the live studio audience made it known that they'd fallen in love the with the ideal of their relationship and had always anticipated "them" during the shooting of, The One With Ross's Wedding (Part 2), they changed the direction of the show. Thus, the one's that got their happy ending. (Yes, I just created my own Friends episode.)

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