Gunther
From Friends Central
| CHARACTER | ||||
| Gunther | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Gunther in a promotional picture | ||||
| First appearance | The One With The Sonogram At The End | |||
| Last appearance | The Last One | |||
| Number of episodes | 93 | |||
| Portrayed by | James Michael Tyler | |||
| | ||||
| Name | Gunther | |||
| Gender | Male | |||
| Occupation | Central Perk barista | |||
| Relatives | Jasmine (roommate) | |||
Gunther is an employee at Central Perk, where the six main characters spent a great deal of their free time. He is portrayed by James Michael Tyler.
Contents |
[edit] History of the character
Tyler was cast as Gunther because he was the only extra who knew how to operate an espresso machine - imperative to working in a coffee house. Gunther didn't have a line until the 33rd episode he was in, in which he only had one word to say: "Yeah".
Gunther was nearly always a peripheral character in the series, both onscreen and off, generally only adding a humor component or fulfilling his role as coffee-shop guy, and almost never involved in the plot. However, he played a pivotal role in the arc of the entire storyline when he revealed to Rachel that Ross had slept with the copy-shop girl while Ross and Rachel were "on a break" in their relationship. When Ross identified him as a link in the chain of people who had found out about his tryst (Gunther found out about it from his roommate Jasmine, one of Phoebe's massage parlor co-workers; oddly enough, the fact that Gunther shared an apartment with a beautiful woman was never brought up again), he said "Gunther, please tell me you didn't say anything to Rachel about me and the girl from the Xerox place." Gunther, eager to see Rachel get back on the market, responded with mock innocence: "I'm sorry. Was I not supposed to?" This marked the breakup of Ross and Rachel and the beginning of the turbulence that characterized their relationship in the rest of the series.
Gunther and Chandler were both smokers. This was revealed in an episode where Chandler bribed Gunther with a puff of his cigarette in order to smoke inside Central Perk. ("Oh, dark mother, once again I suckle at your smoky teat.")
Gunther used to be an actor, having played a character called Bryce in All My Children. The character was eventually killed off after being buried in an avalanche, which he reveals to Joey after Joey's Days of Our Lives character is killed off in that series.
He was invited to Monica's Halloween party, where he dressed himself as Charlie Brown.
[edit] Appearance
Gunther's peroxide blonde hair was also a source of much entertainment. Rachel described it as being "as bright as the sun," and when Gunther told Joey he had an appointment to have it dyed, Joey said, "but I love your natural color." When guessing the identity of the father of Rachel's baby, Phoebe asked, "Is it Gunther?" Rachel denied it was, and Phoebe said, "Thank God, because that hair on a baby?" The hair color was actually an accident. The day before Tyler's audition, one of the actor's friends who had studied to become a hairdresser, experimented on his hair. When Tyler showed up, the producer liked it so much they decided to keep it.
Gunther is commonly used as an unattractive alternative to the main friends, but confusingly, is sometimes seen as somewhat of a sex symbol towards the end of the show. In season 5, when helping Rachel get over Ross, Monica lists prospective dates, including Gunther. Rachel begins to say "I guess he is kind of cute" before having her attention turned to an attractive guy she flirted with in the past. When she chooses him over Gunther, Gunther throws the guy out of Central Perk. Ross and Monica's mother, Judy Geller, remarked Gunther was a "sexy blonde" and prominently added him to her "list", which is a list of people she can have sex with outside her marriage. Phoebe also gave small impressions that she may secretly be attracted to Gunther, despite often mocking him before ("That hair on a baby!"). She once remarked "Sure, Gunther is sexy in an obvious way...", and when referring to the number of attractive men in Paris, said "it's like a whole city full of Gunthers".
Gunther was a permanent fixture in the everyday lives of the friends, yet he never penetrated their inner circle. This became a running joke. At Ross' bachelor party, Chandler announced that he wanted Gunther to be his best man. Gunther immediately asked Chandler what his last name was; Chandler thought about it before defeatedly answering "Gunther Centralperk?" His last name remains unknown to the audience for the entire series. Another example of this is when Ross is celebrating getting tenure. Ross asks Gunther for six glasses, to which Gunther asks hopefully "You want me to join you?" to which Ross replies "Oh, I thought Joey was here -- five is good." Gunther was fluent in Dutch, once calling Ross an 'ezel' (literally: donkey). When Ross looked up the word 'ezel' in the dictionary he added that Gunther was an 'ezel' himself. Gunther overruled Ross by saying "jij hebt seks met ezels" (literally: You have sex with donkeys), leaving Ross baffled, not knowing what the sentence meant.
[edit] Love for Rachel
Over the course of the series it emerged that Gunther had a crush on Rachel. He often fantasized about marrying her and let it slip to Joey that one of the perks of his job was being able to stare at her all day. He also dislikes Ross, as he was Rachel's boyfriend and the father of her daughter (when he hurt his hand at Central Perk, Gunther gave him a big smile of happiness). At Ross's bachelor party before his marriage to Emily Waltham he thanked Ross for not marrying Rachel and on the same night, he whispered to Emily "Rachel is my girlfriend". When Rachel wanted to have a relationship like Emily and Ross's, she suggested that Joshua marry her but he said no. Gunther came up to him and screamed "YOU IDIOT!" When Phoebe had a cold, Gunther caught it so she kisses him causing him to feel guilty and eventually he tells Rachel that he didn't initiate it but he didn't stop it and he's sorry. Gunther made several other comments that if put together, might show his love for Rachel, but since they were said to various characters, no one put it together. For at least part of the series, Rachel mistakenly thought that Gunther was gay, and in one episode, in what she thought was an encouraging remark, told him one day he would make "some guy the luckiest man in the world".
Gunther tells Ross that he can't put fliers up around Central Perk. When Ross mentions that everyone else does Gunther tells him that he can't. However when Gunther learns that Ross is selling things from his apartment, anything that Rachel ever touched, Gunther tells him he will buy everything.
Also, when Rachel buys a hairless cat that she hates she tries to sell it for $1,000, no one agrees to buy it. However then Gunther buys it for $2,000 and asks Ross if it is some type of snake.
In Season 8 when Joey tells Ross about how he loves Rachel, Gunther sneaks up behind him and screams "Rachel?!" in the last episode he confesses his love for Rachel and she tells him she loves him too but not in the same way and then tells him she'll think of him whenever she sees someone with hair brighter than the sun.
[edit] Gunther in the Friends game
Gunther's voice was used in Friends video game for PS2, PC and Xbox, "Friends: The One with all the Trivia" as a host along with Jack Geller, Judy Geller and Janice.
In the board game Friends: Scene It?, Gunther is also the narrator. During the Final Cut turns and sometimes the end, when the winner is congratulated, Gunther will tell the player(s) what to do or congratulate the winner. Before leaving, he says, "Rachel is my girlfriend."
