(1/21)

Jennifer Aniston and other cast mates were initially terrified to meet Matt LeBlanc, based solely off of Joey's straight forward and macho personality.

(2/21)

Matthew Perry had to go to rehab twice during the show for alcohol and drug abuse. He says he would frequently show up on set hungover, although he would never do drugs while filming Friends. After completing rehab in 2001, he has since lobbied for drug courts, and in 2013, he received the Champion of Recovery award from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy for opening Perry House, a sober living home situated in his former mansion in Malibu, California.

(3/21)

Only a handful of people knew that Rachel was going to get off the plane before the episode was released. It took the writers a long time to come up with a proper ending, sometimes going days without writing a word. They would watch series finales of other sitcoms to take notes on what to do and what not to do.

(4/21)

Chandler Bing's awkwardness and speaking style were directly based off Matthew Perry. Jennifer Aniston explained: "He has this way of speaking, using questions like, 'Could this be any more this or that?'". On top of that, many of Perry's dating mishaps that happened while filming the show would sometimes find their way into various episodes.

(5/21)

The show rarely used a laugh track, filming all their episodes in front of a live studio audience, sometimes numbering up to 300 people. The laughs were authentic, though they would sometimes edit the laughs in post-production so that it wouldn't interfere with the actors' lines.

(6/21)

For the famous scene where Phoebe's handmade dollhouse is burnt, they actually had six different dollhouses made for when they had to burn it down. One of the models was actually never used, which means the dollhouse is still out there somewhere!

(7/21)

The apartments' design and and size were actually based on the set designers' own apartments that they had when they were growing up in the 70s.

(8/21)

The alternate titles for the show weren't as simple, and we can be thankful none of them made past the idea stage. Some of the sample titles include: Friends Like Us, Six of One, Across the Hall, Once Upon a Time in the West Village, and Insomnia Cafe.

(9/21)

Monica's prop refrigerator actually worked and was put to good use. Set designers made sure it was fully functional and stocked up with various drinks for the cast and crew between shots.

(10/21)

The show was on a very tight budget in its early days, and the creators were looking everywhere to cut costs. The iconic orange couch was actually found in the Warner Bros. prop room, deep in the basement. It was ripped and tattered, but after extensive work to patch it up, it found its way onto the set.

(11/21)

The frame around the peephole was originally supposed to have a picture, but then the glass was accidentally broken while they were dressing. They decided to see what it would look like if they just had the frame around the peephole, and as such, it stayed like that for the next ten years.

(12/21)

Many fans have called out the 'mistake' that is the establishing shot of the apartment. Among the problems are the lack of a balcony, and a fire escape where there shouldn't be one.

The series' creator explained that he grabbed a bunch of pictures of sixth floor apartments that matched Monica's, but the show ended up using the wrong one anyways. They reasoned it with: "it's the other side of her apartment building.'

(13/21)

Joey's famous white dog originally belonged to Jennifer Aniston, not Joey. Aniston got the dog as a gift from a friend in real life, and graciously volunteered it for the show to become one of the show's classic recurring gags.

(14/21)

Before the six actors were cast in their iconic roles, many others auditioned for the role in the classic sitcom. Iron Man director Jon Favreau turned down the role of Chandler Bing, Eric McCormack of Will & Grace fame went through several auditions before he lost the role of Ross, and Janeane Garofalo famously turned down the role of Monica to appear on Saturday Night Live.

(15/21)

While 'Central Perk' is an entirely originally creation, it was based heavily off a small restaurant that John Shaffner and the staff would go to called 'Arnold's Turtle.'

"The coffee house came about because there was a little restaurant that we used to all go down to on West 4th Street in Manhattan, and it had a door in the corner," Shaffner said. "So we went to Kevin and Margaret and David and when we showed them the model and I said, We want to do a little corner door like the restaurant that we used to go to, and they remembered it as well. It was called Arnolds Turtle."

Arnold's Turtle has since closed down.

(16/21)

The show's writers wrote the lyrics for "Smelly Cat, the famous tune sung my Phoebe, played by Lisa Kudrow. Kudrow wrote the tune.

(17/21)

The opening credits were shot in a Warner Bros. lot at 4am, although luckily the water was heated.

(18/21)

When Tom Selleck appeared on the show as Richard, the studio audience would applaud so loudly and for so long that he had to reshoot some scenes later on without an audience there.

(19/21)

The kids in the episode 'The One with the Football' are actually the children of Friends creator Marta Kauffman.

(20/21)

Because filming of episodes that took place in London ran so late, the crew ordered 400 pizzas for the patient and grateful audience members.

(21/21)

NBC was expecting loads of phone calls and hate mail for the lesbian wedding in Season 2. They ended up getting a grand total of four complaints by telephone.

The episode 'The One with the Lesbian Wedding' has been credited with helping push for equality in mainstream television, and helped improve the show's image after earlier gay panic jokes and having an all-white cast.