Friends

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Question: Monica has different weird fruits in a bowl on her table. In an interview someone from the props department said that it was explained in an episode - does anyone know what episode it was?

Dan23

Answer: Season 6 episode 18: Ross dates a student.

Ssiscool

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Question: When Phoebe's mom died she went and lived on the street. But why? I am sure they had a house. Why would someone take it away from them? And what about her Grandmother?

Answer: Any answer would be a guess, it's never explained. But she mostly likely ran away from home and lived on the streets and later reconnected with her grandmother.

Answer: It's unlikely Phoebe's surrogate mother, Lily, owned a house. They lived in NYC, had little money, and probably rented a cheap apartment. Young Phoebe would be unable to support herself after Lily's suicide. It's unknown why Phoebe did not immediately go to live with her adoptive grandmother, Frances, but there appeared to be a rift between Lily and her mother. Frances may not have known right away that Phoebe was left homeless and assumed she and her twin sister, Ursula, were with their blood relatives. Phoebe, still a minor, may have run away to avoid being placed in foster care, and later lived with Frances.

raywest

Answer: According to Phoebe her mother had severe mental problems. It could be that had a house but lost it because of it, they lived on the streets and sometime later after her mother died she went to live with her grandmother. They could have lived with her grandmother, but the mother's mental problems drove her out. Either way Phoebe would want be with her to take care of her.

I don't believe it likely Phoebe and her mother would have been on the streets / homeless at the time of her mother's suicide. Multiple times in the series Phoebe explicitly states that her mom committed suicide by putting her head in an oven / was "in the kitchen." The context and phrasing as Phoebe describes it strongly implies they were in their house at the time.

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Question: How do you spell Rachel's surname? I always thought it was GREENE, but lots of subtitles seem to think it's GREEN.

Answer: The most often used spelling (in the credits where her parents appear, for example, is Green. However, Greene is used on occasion, such as the nameplate in her office.

pinkwafer

And on the wedding invitation to Ross and Emily's wedding.

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Question: What does Joey mean when he says "quarters, or rolls of quarters?" when he replied to the lady that says she can "pick up quarters with her toes"?

Answer: She says quarters, but then starts sliding her foot up his thigh and demonstrates that her toes are more dextrous than he first realised.

Jon Sandys

Answer: This can be answered two ways. Joey could be asking if she is nimble enough with her toes to be able to pick up an individual quarter as well as grab an entire roll of them. However, this is Joey, and he is likely implying a sexual double entendre to the meaning of "rolls of quarters" by implying they are phallic in shape.

raywest

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Question: When I was watching an episode the other day, Rachel said Richard, Monica's former boyfriend, gave her a little get-well kiss when she was young. This implies that she already knew Monica, as Richard was friends with Monica's dad. With this in mind, and with all relevant characters aside from the main group as well as the six 'Friends' I was wondering if anyone could provide a clear and concise explanation of the backstory to them all meeting, where they lived, school, etc.

Answer: Monica and Rachel went to school together and grew up in the same area of Long Island. Chandler met Ross at college and was introduced to both Monica and Rachel over thanksgiving. After college, Monica and Rachel lost touch, Rachel went off to get engaged to Barry the evil orthadontist, Phoebe moved in with Monica (we've never been told how Phoebe and Monica met, although coincidentally Phoebe mugged Ross when they were teenagers and she lived on the street), and after Kip (Chandler's roommate) left (either to get married or after a bad breakup with Monica, depending on which episode you watch), Joey moved in with Chandler (he was actually a second choice roommate, but Mr. Heckles scared off the first choice). Ross got married to Carol but got divorced due to her lesbianism, and Rachel ended up running out on Barry on her wedding day - she lived with Monica up until Chandler moved in.

Kara

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Question: I recently read in a magazine that Lisa Kudrow had to wear a wig for an entire season because of a dramatic haircut that would not suit her character. Is this true and if so which season?

Answer: In Season 6 Lisa Kudrow had a short bob, and as this would not suit her character (couldn't possibly have a short-haired hippy) so they added hair extensions to the end of her hair. Her real haircut at the time was shown in The One That Could Have Been, part 1 (and 2). In Season 9 episodes she wore a wig, as she dyed her hair brown for her part in the movie 'Wonderland'.

Answer: If you look at the clip when Lisa Kudrow won her best supporting actress in 1998 she has a mousey blonde short bob.

Answer: "Here he comes to save the day...Underdog..." and "There's no need to fear Underdog is here" are two of the famous sayings that I remember. It was a cartoon that ran in the 60s and 70s. Underdog was modeled after Superman, and he had a canine girlfriend named Sweet Polly. The canine superhero was the secret alter ego of Shoeshine Boy. As for Curious George, he's a monkey that lives with the 'man in the yellow hat' and is a character in children's story books.

Super Grover

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Question: When the friends gang can't get in or out of Monica's apartment because they have locked the keys in or out why couldn't the other gang members let them borrow theirs? In the last ever episode it shows them having a key each.

Shadow5

Chosen answer: That doesn't mean they all had keys before the final episode. The lockout incident happened earlier in the series when Rachel was still living with Monica. It could be that after they got locked out, the girls decided everyone should have a key to their apartment to avoid another similar dilemma.

raywest

Chosen answer: Rachel attended college, but in one of the Thanksgiving flashback episodes she mentions that her major was psychology but there was no parking around the psychology building, so she switched majors. She never says what her new major was.

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Question: I know that some shows/films changed their cityscape shots between scenes after September the 11th but did Friends? I noticed in an old episode from series 6 the Trade Center Towers are still standing. I thought they might have changed it for the later episodes, but are there any plans to go back and edit episodes featuring shots of the Twin Towers?

Answer: No I don't think so. Earlier episodes show the Trade Center Towers in some of their shots but after 9/11 Friends started using new cityscape shots, which makes sense.

Tobin OReilly

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Question: I've always wondered about this - how is the Friends set/studio laid out? It's fairly obvious that the two main apartments and corridor are one large set with the audience behind the camera (as is fairly standard), but what about Central Perk? Is that part of the same set with the audience...somewhere, or is that filmed elsewhere and shown to the audience separately?

Jon Sandys

Chosen answer: Monica's apartment is centre stage, with Joey's on the audience's left, separated by the hallway in between. Central Perk is on the right of Monica's, and stays up permanently because it features in every show. Ross' appartment is on the right of Monica's but alongside the audience. 1. Monica's room and the guest room formerly known as Rachel's room are not set up all the time because they are often used for filming from different angles. When they are set up it is often on a different part of the set. 2. The poster next to Monica's tv hides a camera hole for filming kitchen/door scenes. 3. The street outside Central Perk is also part of the set, not filmed outside. However I am unsure of where this is in relation to the set. 4. Monica's secret closet is actually a door to the backstage area, the shelves featuring in The One With The Secret Closet were a one time thing. These facts were correct at the end of series nine, details of the layout of the series 10 set are not yet available.

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Question: What does the insult "Fafanapolie" mean? I don't know if it's spelled correctly but the meaning is what I really want to know.

Answer: "Va fa Napoli" means go to Naples (Joey is speaking Italian). What Joey probably meant to say was "vaffanculo" which is a very rude saying in Italian.

Shay

The saying is technically va fa in il culo (Americanized as bafangoo), which means go f*** yourself (in the a**).

Answer: His middle name was stated by the writers in interview, and is mentioned in the Friends Trivia Game, but is not confirmed in any episode.

pinkwafer

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Question: What is the episode and the season where Chandler and Monica get engaged? They share a bathtub together, and the other friends (sans Ross) do the "They don't know that we know that they don't know".

Answer: You are actually referring to three separate episodes from two different seasons. They share a bath in the season five episode "TOW all the Kissing" (2nd episode). The episode with the "they don't know that we know that they know" is "TOW Everybody Finds Out" (14th episode of season 5). They get engaged in the season six finale, a two-part episode titled "TOW the Proposal".

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Question: Last year, before Friends had finished being filmed, I read an article in a paper that friends would have a special "Friends Reunited" episode and film it while they were still making the program. Did this happen or was the whole idea replaced with the spin-off series Joey?

Answer: Accorting to Martha Kauffman, no reunion will ever be filmed because, in her words, "reunions tend to suck". So this was probably all just a rumor.

Answer: We first meet Janice in the season one episode The One with the East German Laundry Detergent, during which Chandler gets Phoebe's help to dump Janice. Chandler then asks her out for New Year in The One with the Monkey, and once again dumps her before the episode is over. In The One with the Candy Hearts, Joey sets Chandler up on a blind date which turns out to be with Janice. Janice next appears in the season two episode The One Where Heckles Dies - Chandler calls her as is he is feeling lonely, and she reveals she is now married, and pregnant. In The One With Barry And Mindy's Wedding, Chandler falls for a woman he meets online, who then turns out to be Janice. This is the first time their relationship lasts across multiple episodes, as they continue to see each other until breaking up in the season three episode The One With The Giant Poking Device, in which Chandler discovers she has been seeing her ex-husband on the side. In the season four episode The One With All The Rugby, they meet again, and to avoid starting up a relationship with her again, Chandler pretends to be moving to Yemen. This is the end of all romantic involvement between them, although Janice does cross paths with Chandler and the others several times. She is seen for the last time in season ten episode The One Where Estelle Dies, in which Chandler pretends he is still in love with her to try and put her off moving in next door to him and Monica.

pinkwafer

Answer: He means that they have all turned 30 by this point in the series - this episode flashes back to all the 30th birthday stories. Ross & Chandler were in the same college class and Joey states that he is 28 during the second season (TOW Joey Moves Out). Monica and Rachel were in the same high school class, and were seniors when Ross was a college freshman, implying a 1-2 year gap. The run from oldest to youngest is: Phoebe, Joey, Chandler, Ross, Monica, Rachel.

Steph_Jared

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Question: Did Joey ever mention moving to L.A. or did he just move and not tell anyone? Moving to the other side of the country is pretty much bigger than anyone else's reason for splitting up the group, surely?

Answer: We never saw what happened after the last episode of friends, we do not know how much time passed between that last episode and Joey's move. I assume at some point after the last episode of friends he decided to move to LA, and I am sure he told everyone at some point. If you remember he was kind of depressed that all of his friends where married and starting families, I am sure this helped him decide to move.

pross79

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Question: Does anyone know which episode it is where Joey and Chandler are at another apartment and Joey runs out of the bathroom and says "now would be a great time to leave because I've just clogged the toilet"?

Answer: This is in season four. The episode is called "The One With All The Haste". Monica and Rachel are trying to get their apartment back from the guys.

jess924

More mistakes in Friends

Kathy: So, what did you do today?
Chandler: Well, I had an appointment to get my hair cut...
Kathy: Oh, it looks great!
Chandler: ...and then it got cancelled.

More quotes from Friends
More trivia for Friends

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