Memorable piece of furniture from the show is actually in front of a fountain in central park. So lets take a look back at the friends magic and whats next for this tv juggernaut that really never went away. This is friends forever 25 years of laughter. Were here in burbank, california on the Warner Brothers lot, and since this studio was founded in 1923, tens of thousands of tv shows and films have been created here. So throughout this hour, were going to give you a behind the scenes tour of the friends home. Lets start at the beginning. The early titles of this show, what were you considering . Insomnia cafe. We were driving down the street and i thought that was an amazing name and interesting setting. Why not . I dont think the network liked it. We talked about friends like us, the six of us across the hall. I just want to be married again. We ended up simply with friends. And i just want a million dollars. Our partner kevin bright said if we get a good time slot you can call it cavorkian for all i care. Mad about you opened up thursday night at 8 00. Not a bad lead in of a young adult marriage. And then the led out was seinfeld. When ill driving i let people ahead of me all the time. Im always waving everybody in go ahead, go ahead, go ahead. Oh. No, dont, stop cleansing my ora. Pilots are difficult because your job is to give a lot of ex position and background. Everybody, this is rachel. Another lincoln high survivor. This is chandler and phoebe and joey and you remember my brother ross . Sure. Oh, god. And youre also doing kind of a sell job on an audience why they are supposed to like these people and possibly tune in next week. You okay, sweetie . I feel like someone reached down my throat, grabbed my small intestine, pulled it out of my mouth and tied it around my neck. Cookie . You dont know whats going to hit. The dream was lets not get cancelled after six episodes. That was our goal. Youre the only person i knew who lived here in the city who wasnt invited to the wedding. I was kind of hoping that wouldnt be an issue. You know, what i remember is that when they tested it, it didnt do that well which is very scary. What if i dont want to be a shoe. What if i want to be a purse or a hat . How does a Network Still have confidence in it after it tests poorly . They were smart. If you dont feel like being alone tonight, joey and chandler are coming together to help me put together my new furniture. Yes, were excited about it. I hope shell be very happy. No, you dont. No, i dont. To hell with her, she left me. You never knew she was a lesbian. We had a sense of they really know what they are doing. There is nothing to tell. Some guy i work with. Come on. Youre going out with a guy. There has to be something wrong with him. So does he have a hump, a hump and a hairpiece . It was less conventional than what was on tv at that time, except for seinfeld definitely but nbc was a little uncomfortable. In the first episode, monica sleeps with a guy on a first date. Paul, this is everybody. Everybody, this is paul. Someone shes crazy about. He tells her falsehood and makes her take a fall for him. Ever since she left me, i havent been able to perform sexually. And nbc was very concerned. What the hell do you do . And they handed out a survey to the audience that was so skewed and it was some version of do you think monica is a, a slut, b a whore, c, easy, d all of the above for sleeping with someone on a first date. Thats leading the witnesses. You had sex, didnt you . They didnt care. Nobody checked those boxes. Everybody was like we dont care. You mean you know paul like i know paul . Are you kidding . I take credit for paul. Before me there was no snap in his turtle for two years. I hate to admit this, but moni monicas story and the pilot was an experience i had in college. Hold on a second. You went on a date with a guy you really liked and he fed you a line, a b. S. Line. Uhhuh. About how he was so heart broken he hadnt been able to have sex for two years. That is correct. And you fell for it. I fell for it hook line and sinker. Of course it was a line. They were also nervous that there wasnt an older character. She got the furniture, the stereo, the good tv. What did you get . You got screwed. They were afraid older people werent going to watch the show. All right, kids, i got to get to work. If i input those numbers, doesnt make much of a difference. We tried, actually. We did one script of a cop on the beat that comes in and chats with the friends. So horrible that we went no, and we threw it out. What we said to the network is we will introduce parents for all these characters. I told her you had a restaurant mom, i dont have a restaurant. I work in a restaurant. Well, they dont have to know that. When i read the first episode, i thought wow, this is good. And i loved my character. Were having spaghetti. Thats easy. Because it was extremely funny but it had a lot of heart. Those earrings look really lovely on you. Thank you. Theyre yours. Actually, they were fan thrw why did you want to take a risk with this show that wasnt yet established. I thought the ensemble work, two different talents was very good. I did have a good eye and so i said yes, you just start with half a dozen european cities and ball y bam, you have a book. You got a job. Are you kidding . Im trained for nothing. Courtney cox who was the most notable name at the time had been in a hit movie that year. A pet detective. If you do anything to embarrass me in front of camp. Like this . She was kind of the most bankable name and nbc wanted courtney cox to be front and center. Anyway. They all made a pact very soon to stay together, negotiate together, nominate themselves so there wouldnt be a demark cawh was the biggest star and who wasnt. That little naked guy could be me. Look at the little thing. Yes. Your job is a joke, youre broke, your love life the theme song which is so iconic, how did that happen . The music was composed by my exhusband. How did it come to pass you guys sang the theme song for friends. We got the offer on wednesday and went over it on thursday with the music director and cut the song on saturday and it aired on the following thursday. Ill be there for you this is the famous fountain you see on the opening sequence of every episode. A few things you should know, first, its not in new york city. Its on the Warner Brothers lot in los angeles. They shot this at 4 00 in the morning. The actors were freezing and wet. How were they cast and which ones almost didnt make the cut . All that when we come back. People, our sales now apply to only 10 frames. A new low. At visionworks, our sales are good on all of our frames. Why are you so weird . Get 60 off any pair of glasses. No exclusions. Really. Visionworks. See the difference. Enhanced up to 48 hours. Unbelievabrow longwear brow gel, by loreal paris. No smudge. Sweat resistant. Waterproof. Its unbelievable. Unbelievabrow longwear brow gel. Loreal paris. Unbelievabrow longwear brow gel. [happy irthday music] dont get mad, put those years to work with e trade. We know a thing or two because weve seen a thing or two. Even a ernie lost rubber duckie . burke you mean this one . ernie rubber duckie cookie what about a broken cookie jar . burke again, cookie . cookie yeah. Me bad. grover yoooooow oh what about monsters having accidents . I am okay by the way burke depends. Did you cause the accident, grover . grover cause an accident . Maybe. bert how do you know all this stuff . burke just comes with experience. all muppets yup. We are farmers. Bumpadum, bumbumbumbum we cant give you, unlimited summer, but we can give you unlimited talk, text and data okay, so im response skpibd organized but i can be a cooc. When do we get to meet the guy . Never. Okay. Heads up. Score how was rachel cast . We asked her to do the rachel character. Rachel and shes pretty and warm and said no, no, no, i totally see myself doing man mo man co co monica. I connected with her. I was going to play rachel. More corky. Oh my god look, look, look, my first paycheck. Look in the window. There is my name. Hi, me. Latte. [ laughter ] and an iced tea. Getting pretty good at this. Excellent. Really good. Good for me. Rachel is really difficult part because on the face of it, it could be a really unlikable character. Well, maybe thats my decision. Well, maybe i dont need your money. Wait, wait, i said maybe. Shes selfish and spoiled and walked out on a guy during her wedding. I was on another show at the time. Jennifer aniston was in first position to another series called muddling through. If that show had succeeded, we already shot like four, five episodes, we would have had to reshoot the first five episodes of friends with another actress. Are you going to eat that steak or argue with it . Were Going Forward and well do everything in our power to kill muddling through. Tell me something, how often do we have steak on the hmenu. Hardly ever. Thats right. What you have there is a rare steak. We said all right, Danielle Steel movies up against muddling through. Well talk out the audience that would probably watch that sitcom on a saturday night and it worked. Saturday night, the big night. Date night, saturday night. Saturday night. Now youre choking. Are you all right . Okay. I dont sound like that. That is so not true. [ laughter ] that is so not. That is so not that oh, shut up. Matthew perperry, you really wanted him. He was the first person we offered chandler to and he was doing another show called l lax 2194. About baggage handlers in the year 2194. I sorted out aliens luggage. That is not a winning title. No, its not. Its not. But that was in first position. That happens when you find a talent that you think is perfect for a role and youll take the chance, the other show will fail and they will become available. We were nervous about it but saw a Million People and made an offer to someone else. Who . No. Its the 25th anniversary. Now the truth can be told. Hes a lovely actor named craig bierco and he didnt want to do an ensemble show. Ill go with not craigs best decision. Today is the day we first consummated our physical relationship. Sex. Surprise. I dont know. You dont want to mess with corn nuts. They are crazy. We had auditioned david for a previous pilot as we started writing this script, we thought you know who would be good for ross . David . He would be great for i guess there was something about his expression and his delivery and this guy who was sort of a victim of the world that we just loved. Just loved it. Oh, oh, oh, my butt check is waking up. Oh. Okay. Thank you very much. Whats going on . Oh, oh, oh. So great. Lisa kudrow came into the audition and nailed it. She just nailed it. Oh my god, dont do that. What, what, what . That man across the street just kicked that pigeon. Lisa had made appearances on mad about you. My partner jeffrey clergy was working on mad about you. One iced tea and one nice cool bowl of water. When we were writing this script, he said oh, you have to, phoebe is lisa kudrow. When you see her, you wont want to see anybody else. When im with a woman, i need to know im going out with more people than she is. Can you stop yelling . Youre making me nervous and lau[ laughter ] how are you doing . I auditioned about i guess five or six times. Matt leblanc was the greenest in terms of acting so why did you risk hiring him . I have to admit, there was a little nervousness about that, and the woman who was the head of casting at Warner Brothers at the time looked me in the eye and said he can do it. Joey, stop hitting on her. Its her wedding day. What . Like there is a rule or something. When we originally wrote the part of joey, he was supposed to be more of this kind of like sexy actor, intense guy and it wasnt funny. And then he came in and when matt read it, suddenly, it was really funny. Oh, ross. [ laughter ] you get me so hot. I want your lips on me now. Huh . About 3,000 people per day. Thats more than half a million per year take the Warner Brothers studio tour and when they do, they come to this iconic couch in central perk. Thats how big of a phenomenon friends still is. So what happens to the cast members when a show becomes that type of smash success . 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How good of friends are you . Ill start with you, lisa. Very good friends. Thats what was happening at the end of season one. You guys watch the show together . Do you get together on thursday nights . We were better about that in the beginning. I was with them in chicago, and it was a little bit like beetle mania. I want to know how your new found fame changed your personal lives. Not at all. How did they respond to being on oprah. Very nervous. Are you anything like the character you play . I think to a certain extend, yeah. The friends were already getting big but oprah is oprah. What else did he say . Does he want to go out with me . Given hes desperately in love with you, he probably wouldnt mind getting a cup of coffee or something. We did crazy hours. All this time . And so i think we were living in a bubble. We werent really that aware of what was happening to the show, to the cast outside of our bubble and i remember after the first season ended, my partner jeffrey and i were walking through the airport because were finally getting a vacation and looked at the news stand and there is they are on every cover. It was crazy. I remember getting in my car and driving away from Warner Brothers one day and i just turn on the radio. And there was the theme song and to me, that was wow. This is big. This is huge. When we started the second season, we were the number one show on television. [ laughter ] rach. We had hit the home run, the grand slam home run. We were on everyones lips, and we were in their hearts. Oh my god, ross, no, hang up the phone. Give me the phone. Give me the phone. Is that when nbc started to try to capitalize on them and their success . There was this opportunity to do a diet coke commercial and for some reason, we all said yes. Buy specially marked packages of diet coke, watch the diet coke commercial during friends. There was this diet coke commercial people didnt seem to like. Why was there backlash . The truth is you had Warner Brothers and you had nbc wanting to capitalize on their show. I feel violated and not in a good way. For many years, we were the most watched Television Series in the history of television. Is that what you want to hear . I didnt do it. I wasnt mad. Wasnt me. It seemed like friends was everywhere. We were over saturated and we needed to get back to what we were best at, which is telling little stories. And we actually sat in the boardroom at nbc and said maybe we need to pull back and just let it breathe. I spent 20 years at nbc. I never had that discussion about a show ever. It was New Territory for us. Do we dare . We dare. So friends was working in a big way. It was a hit. Smelly cat, what are they feeding you smelly cat, smelly cat when there is success, contracts get torn up. The two breakout stars were david and jennifer aniston. [ laughter ] and so they ended up being approached by nbc to renew their contracts with the thought that they would be rewarded handsomely for becoming big stars. And traditionally, in a negotiation, once you get one, then you get another and then everyone kind of is forced to fall in line. And david swimmer came to the conclusion it will be in everyones interest to have a lock step negotiation where everyone received the same amount of money. His feeling was, were all doing the same amount of work, why should we be paid differently for doing the same thing . All right, listen, if you want this cart, you have to take me with it. So i remember being in a strategy session where the Business Affairs said whoa, bold move. The cast united. We have to negotiate with them as one. From, i think, season two on, they were equals, and in the history of television, probably the highest compensation that any actors ever had. Did they really develop a true friendship or what was it like . Yeah, they were very close. You know, they all got shot through a cannon together. They took care of each other and supported each other. I think they loved each other and that came across, and even when one of them would have a struggle, you could sort of see the others step income to property each other up. Was there anyone for whom all of this, all the smash, all of the limelight took a bigger toll on . I think that its very pub welco publicly known the show took a toll on perry. I was in denial about alcoholism and addiction. Once i had a drink, i could not stop. I couldnt stop. Now you stay out here and you think about what you did. Thats a duck. Thats a bad duck. I did show up to work in states of just insane hangover. In the history of television, producers have acted towards a cast member who has an addiction problem usually by either letting them kill themselves or stepping up and realizing that this is a disease, and this is not something that hes doing maliciously to hurt the show, or irresponsibly as an actor. So i fe