Monica Geller

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Monica Elizabeth Geller-Bing
CHARACTER

First appearance	The Pilot

Last appearance	The Last One, Part 2

Number of episodes	236

Portrayed by	Courteney Cox

Information
Name	Monica Elizabeth Geller-Bing

Nicknames	Mon, Harmonica, Crazy Plate Lady (by Amy), Felula (middle name by Phoebe^[1]), Candy Lady,^[2] Big Fat Goalie,

Date of birth	April 22, 1969

Occupation	Chef at Iridium (S1-2) Waitress at Moondance Diner (S2-3) Head chef at Alessandro's (S4-9) Chef at Javu's (S9-10)

Relatives	Biological: Jack Geller (father) Judy Geller (mother) Ross Geller (brother) Althea (maternal grandmother) Ben Geller (nephew) Emma Geller-Green (niece) Adoptive: Jack Geller-Bing (son) Erica Geller-Bing (daughter) Marital: Carol Willick (ex-sister-in-law) Emily Waltham (ex-sister-in-law) Rachel Green (sister-in-law) Chandler Bing (husband) Nora Tyler Bing (mother-in-law) Charles Bing (father-in-law)

“	Married a lesbian, left a man at the altar, fell in love with a gay ice dancer, threw a girl's wooden leg in the fire, live in a box!	”
—Monica , describing her friends in The One With Chandler In A Box.

Monica Elizabeth Geller-Bing (born April 22, 1969) is a fictional character on the popular U.S. television sitcom Friends (1994–2004), played by Courteney Cox. Monica was known as the "Mother Hen" of the group and her Greenwich Village apartment was one of the group's main gathering places.

BackgroundEdit

Early lifeEdit

Monica Geller is Ross' younger sister, and daughter of Jack and Judy Geller. Monica, who like the rest of her family is Jewish, had a slightly difficult childhood, not only characterized by the bickering which took place between her and her brother (some culminating in memorable events such as the Geller Cup, which took place every Thanksgiving), but also by her parents, who unconsciously favored Ross over her on various occasions (although her father did try to fix this by giving her his Porsche in The One Where Rosita Dies).

High school was a difficult time for Monica, who gained a substantial amount of weight, peaking at 255 pounds. However, she did have a few friends, including best friend Rachel Green, and for prom she even had a date, Roy Gublik. Her first kiss, however, was (by accident) her brother Ross.^[3] She met Chandler Bing during Thanksgiving 1987, and initially had a crush on him until she heard him calling her "fat" to Ross. The shock was so great for her that she resolved to take off all her extra weight by the next time he would see her, which she manages by Thanksgiving 1988.^[4] She unintentionally got back at him by dropping a knife and severing one of his toes during a faux attempt to seduce him.

After college, Monica pursued life in New York as a chef at Iridium, and lived with Phoebe Buffay across the hall from Chandler; she would later date, marry and raise two kids with him. Phoebe moved out because she had worries that their friendship would suffer due to Monica's obsessive tidiness. She had a crush on Joey Tribbiani when he first moved in with Chandler, although he repelled her by stripping naked in her apartment the day they met.^[5]

Season 1Edit

In the first episode Rachel goes to Monica after leaving Barry at the altar. Rachel decides, more or less without any consultation with Monica, to move in with her. During the season she again becomes good friends with Rachel and Rachel stays with her for another four years. Monica also hosts, as every year, Thanksgiving, but this fails, as everyone wants to do something else and the food burns. The Thanksgiving episodes will keep to be a prominent happening each season.

Season 2Edit

The season doesn't start very well for Monica. Ross, Monica's brother, is dating Julie, while Rachel is in love with him, but Monica really likes Julie, which causes problems between her and Rachel. She also gets fired from her job and doesn't have a boyfriend for a long time. When she caters a party for a friend of her father, Richard Burke, she falls in love with him. This is the start of a long relationship, with a lot of troubles: first they have to confess it to Monica's parents, who don't like the idea of them dating at all.^[6] Then Richard bonds a bit too much with Chandler and Joey, but the problem is solved when it's revealed that they see him as a father.^[7] Worse, in the season finale it is revealed that Richard didn't see kids in their future - he disliked the idea of how he would be when his and Monica's children were in college. As Monica really wants to have children, she breaks up with him. Later she describes getting over him was one of the hardest things she had to do.^[8]

Season 3Edit

She has to take a job at Moondance Diner, where she has to wear a blonde wig, rollerskates and massive fake breasts during work time, which she really hates. On the positive side, she meets Julio - a waiter - there, which she dates briefly. He loves writing poems, but in one poem, about a vase, her friends thought it was a metaphor for Monica. He admitted that it was about the vapidity of American women, and Monica soon broke up with him. She becomes very distraught when her brother and best friend break up in her living room. ^[9]

After some time on her own, Monica meets Pete, who made billions from designing a widely-used software. Pete courts her, but Monica insists that she is not attracted to him. He eventually offers her the head-chef position in a restaurant he has bought. Monica won't take the job because she thinks he still has feelings for her and doesn't want to hurt him. Pete, however, kisses her when she tries to leave, and Monica discovers she does feel sparks with him. They date for a couple of months, until Pete's obsession with becoming the next Ultimate Fighting Champion leads Monica to call it off.^[10]

Despondent at being single once more, at the end of the season, Chandler offers to be Monica's boyfriend; she finds the idea ludicrous. While on vacation in Montauk, he tries to get her to reveal why - and to convince her that he would make a good boyfriend.

Season 4Edit

When Monica has to visit the eye doctor, she gets a surprise: Timothy Burke, the son of Richard, works there now and they really like each other. When she invits him to celebrate Thanksgiving together, they break up because it's too weird for Monica.

When she writes a terrible restaurant review, the owner tracks her down. Surprisingly, after she shows him how to make food, she gets offered the job of head chef, but all her co-workers hate her. Therefore she hires Joey for the sole purpose of firing him in front of his co-workers so that she acquires control over them. Monica's coworkers were initially obnoxious to Monica, and so firing Joey was perceived as a good way of changing the rude behaviour of staff workers, so that she could be treated more respectfully as chief head of staff, and head chef.

In a escalated contest between Monica, Rachel, Joey and Chandler, Monica eventually bets the apartment. Sadly, she loses and is forced to switch apartments with Chandler and Joey, which she really hates. She has to sleep on the floor,^[11] the living room stinks and it's way too small for them. After a couple of months they finally get their apartment back by kissing with each other for one minute.

In the season finale at Ross' wedding, she becomes depressed: her brother is getting married for the second time while she doesn't even have a boyfriend, her mother keeps making cracks suggesting she'll never get married and some drunk guy thought she was Ross' mother. She decides that maybe a night of meaningless sex will make her feel better and goes looking for Joey.^[12] He isn't there, but Chandler is, and when Chandler attempts to console her, telling her he thought she was the most beautiful woman in the room that night, that she was the most beautiful woman in most rooms, Monica throws herself at him and they end up spending the night together. The next day, initially things are quite awkward between them, and when they meet up at the wedding they agree that sleeping together was a stupid thing to do, but that's not enough to keep them from agreeing to meet up again that night.

Season 5Edit

In the beginning of season 5, Chandler and Monica agree that they won't have sex again once they get back to New York, but decide there's no reason they can't keep doing it as long as they're in London. The only problem is, every time they try to find a place to be together, they get interrupted. Upon their return to New York, they initially agree to stick to their "not in New York" rule. However, moments after Chandler leaves her apartment, Monica starts to follow after him, stopping herself just before reaching the door only to have Chandler re-enter her apartment and say "I'm still on London time; does that count?" Monica enthusiastically agrees that it counts and they kiss.^[4] Over the next several episodes, they hide their relationship from the others but eventually all of them find out. Joey is the first to find out about them, and the only one to actually figure it out without either hearing or seeing them together. When Chandler and Monica decide to go away together for a weekend, both reveal to Joey that they saw Donald Trump waiting for an elevator. Later, the hotel calls and leaves a message for Chandler that they found an eyelash curler in his room, and when Monica later mentions the fact that she lost hers Joey realizes that they'd gone away together, but when they beg him not to tell anyone he agrees to keep it a secret. Rachel finds out by overhearing a conversation between Monica and Chandler on the phone. Phoebe finds out when she sees them do it through Ugly Naked Guy's window. Rachel and Phoebe decide to mess with Monica and Chandler to expose their relationship, resulting in an escalating game of chicken where Phoebe and Chandler are each pretending they want to sleep with each other and hoping the other will back out first. When things get as far as a kiss, Chandler breaks and tells Phoebe he can't have sex with her because he's in love with Monica. Monica hears this and tells him that she loves him, too.^[13] Ross finds out when he's showing his boss Donald his new apartment and sees them doing it.

At the end of the season, they decide to take a trip to Vegas to celebrate their anniversary. This doesn't go really well at first: Phoebe accidentally let's it slip that Monica had lunch with Richard, much to Chandler's irritation. They however make up and start gambling in the casino. They make the ultimate bet: if Monica throws a hard eight, they'll get married. When Monica does throw a hard eight, they start making plans to get married, including stealing a blue sweatshirt from the hotel gift shop so that Monica will have something new, borrowed, and blue, and going to a wedding chapel. They are waiting their turn to go in and get married when they see a very drunk and now married Ross and Rachel stumbling out of the chapel...

Season 6Edit

Instead of getting married, they decide to just move in with each other, forcing Rachel to move out, which falls hard for both of them. Not much happens for Monica the rest of the season, but Monica and Chandler have a fight about what to do with Rachel's room and at Thanksgiving, it's revealed that Monica's parents don't like Chandler because Ross told them that Chandler is a drug addict, and are sometimes disagreeable with Monica's point of view, and prefer to take Ross's side, instead of Monica's. Monica sometimes complains about her parents favouring Ross over Monica. Monica is not perturbed by their excuses.

At the end of the season Chandler wants to propose to her, but the evening is ruined when Richard appears. Things get worse when Chandler says that he doesn't want to get married at all to hide it from Monica that he's going to propose. Worst, Richard shows up and declares his love for her, saying that he does want to marry her. Monica doesn't know what to do, till Joey tells her everything about Chandler's plans and they get engaged.

Season 7Edit

Monica and Chandler start to prepare for their wedding, which causes all kinds of problems: her parents have already spend their wedding fund on the beach house (which is solved by using Chandler's money that he has saved), they can't get a good engagement picture because Chandler always looks weird on pictures (solved by putting Joey on the picture), they can't find a good minister for the wedding, which eventually leads to Joey marrying them. Buying a good dress causes problems too as a fellow bride-to-be takes the dress. But the biggest problem is choosing a bridesmaid: both Rachel and Phoebe want to do.

The wedding itself is a bit problematic too: Chandler's father and mother can't get along. Another problem is that while hearing everyone calling them 'the Bings', Chandler gets afraid of getting married and runs off. Even worse, Phoebe finds a pregnancy test in the garbage in Monica's bathroom, and she guesses that Monica is pregnant. The wedding seems to be completed ruined when Joey is stuck at the set of the movie he's shooting and can't make it to the wedding, but in the end everything is well and they happily get married. In the end it's also revealed that it's not Monica but Rachel who's pregnant.

Season 8Edit

Monica gets out of control as she unwraps all the wedding presents without Chandler. Also, after she and Chandler go on their honeymoon and meet another married couple, Craig and Jenny, Monica stresses about the fact that they gave her and Chandler a fake phone number (although it turns out, they didn't). While Rachel is at the end of her pregnancy, Monica and Phoebe bet on when the baby will be born, and Monica always bets that it will be very soon, thus losing lots of money to Phoebe (and eventually Rachel and Ross, once they join in). At the end of the season, when Rachel is in labor, Monica and Chandler decided they want to have a child and try to make one in a janitor's closet.

Season 9Edit

Monica and Chandler prepare to get started on having children. They try everything and then at the end they learn they have a slim chance of having a baby.

Season 10Edit

Instead they decide to adopt a baby. Erica finally gives birth to twins who Monica and Chandler name Jack Geller-Bing and Erica Geller-Bing. They finally move out of their apartment and into a house in Westchester.

PersonalityEdit

This section is (partially) copied from Wikipedia. There may be an updated version available.

Monica is known as the mother hen of the group, hosting them at her apartment most of the time and for special occasions such as Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Monica is perhaps most notorious for her obsessive cleanliness (classifying places by cleanliness, where 'Monica-clean' is even cleaner than 'Health-Department-clean'^[14]). She is also known to talk abnormally loudly (such as in The One With The Apothecary Table) and for her bossiness and unnatural organizational skills (such as The One On The Last Night). Phoebe and Rachel also call her high-maintainece.^[15]

Cleanliness and OrderlinessEdit

"Neat Freak" Monica is comically obsessive about the state of her apartment and loves cleaning (she described the dry cleaner as her Disneyland). This personality trait became progressively exaggerated as the series progressed. Examples of this tendency include:

She categorizes towels into 11 sections, examples being "everyday use," "fancy," "guest," and "fancy guest."^[16]
She labels everything, from dishes to photographs. She even numbers the mugs in her kitchen so that if one of them goes missing, she will know which one is missing.
In Season 1, she tried acting like a "kook" and didn't care that she left her shoes in the living room but couldn't sleep, wondering if she should go and get them. Also, Rachel moves the green ottoman when cleaning the apartment, making Monica anxious. Chandler exclaims to Rachel, "Thank God you didn't try to fan out the magazines — I mean she'll scratch your eyes right out."
In another episode, it is learned that she has supplies for cleaning cars because there was a dirty car parked out front of the building. She washed it, and six others.^[17]
Rachel didn't want to go to an eye appointment and tried stopping Monica by knocking over a box of cereal. Monica pretends she isn't bothered and they leave, but Monica gets Chandler to clean it up.^[18]
In Season 6, Rachel doesn't pack when she is supposed to, but Rachel defends herself by claiming that packing Rachel's belongings is a gift for Monica. Monica is immediately and immensely pleased at this, apologizing for not getting Rachel a gift.
She is obsessive to the point that she cleans her cleaning supplies, using a Dustbuster to remove dirt from a vacuum cleaner and wishing there was a smaller vacuum to clean the Dustbuster.
In Season 10, when Phoebe says they couldn't meet because she was "cleaning and organizing" her apartment before Mike moves in, Monica "forgets" and goes to Phoebe's apartment with her label maker.
After Rachel's birthday party Rachel offers to help Monica clean up to which Monica replies, "Are you kidding? You had your party, now I'll have mine!"^[19]
Also in the same birthday party upon discovering that Phoebe has brought rats, she is shell shocked and mutters to herself, "So this is what a stroke feels like!"
When Rachel is telling Phoebe about her kiss with Gavin, Monica asks how she didn't see it when it was on her balcony, and Phoebe replies, "It was after the party — you were probably ironing the wrapping paper." Monica looks offended, but then replies, "Oh, yeah," reminiscing happily.^[20]
In another episode, Chandler cleans the apartment as a surprise. Ross sees him doing this and explains that she will "kill" him if everything is not back in exactly the same place. She returns home after a hard day at work and notices that the apartment is different (even though it appears the same).
While Monica and Chandler are together, Monica discovers that none of Chandler's CDs are in the right cases when he states, "If I can't find the right case, I just put it in the nearest one." Monica responds nervously, "OK, no need to panic... deep breaths everyone, I'll just have to spend some time putting them back in the right cases."
In The One With The Stain Monica comes home to find that the apartment has been cleaned. After finding out that Chandler didn't clean, Monica asks, "Oh, no, was I cleaning in my sleep again?" to which Chandler replies, "I got a maid." Monica nervously replies, "I hope that by maid you mean mistress, 'cause if some other woman was here cleaning, then...!". Chandler tells her, "Honey, I know you don't like to relinquish control...," to which Monica replies, "Relinquish is just a fancy word for lose!". Also when she becomes anxious about the maid, Chandler asks her, "What's wrong," and she replies: "Usually when I'm this anxious, I clean!"
In The One With Rachel's Other Sister Rachel and her sister, Amy, had a fight, and Rachel accidentally breaks a plate from Monica's and Chandler's wedding china, causing Monica to nearly faint.
In The One Where Ross Is Fine Monica and Chandler are given a binder about adoption, which is perfectly neat and organized, from another couple. Monica whispers to Chandler, "I think I just had a tiny orgasm." Monica also makes Chandler wash his hands before he touches the binder because "It's so pretty and white."
When Monica and Chandler discuss having a baby, Monica panics that the baby's stuff will take up so much space that there will be no room for the "ribbon drawer," causing Monica to scream "where will all the ribbons go!?" Chandler then suggests they make a baby right now before Monica changes her mind, to which Monica's says she might have to fake it because "I'm a little shook up."
It is revealed that one of the reasons why Monica is able to keep such a clean apartment is because she has a secret closet full of junk. Monica is deeply ashamed of this, calling herself "sick," but she also won't let Chandler put anything in the closet because he might mess it up.^[21]
When Chandler is searching for a job, Monica spends "eight hours with [her] label maker", organizing a file system in which she has researched and written about tons of different job fields. Chandler ends up picking the first one and apologizes for all her wasted hard work, to which Monica replies that it was immensely fun and she doesn't mind at all.
At one point, Monica is excited about organizing all the photos, and even shows Rachel a prototype - a picture of her old dog at her birthday party, which Monica says she can find under "birthdays" and "dogs" or "dead" and "dogs". When Monica asks Rachel to pass her the box of organized photos and Rachel accidentally spills them all out, Monica freaks out.
When Monica and Richard are together and Richard makes the bed as a surprise to Monica, Monica remakes it, explaining that the label should be on the other side, and many other things are also wrong with it.
When Ross dates a girl with an unbelievably messy apartment and finally breaks it off with her, Monica shows up at her door with a bucket full of soap suds and a broom and asks the woman if she can clean her apartment, saying she won't be able to sleep if the woman doesn't let her clean it.
In "The One With The Two Parties", Monica hosts Rachel's birthday party and has everyone write down their most embarrassing memory, repeatedly reminding everyone to put the covers back on the markers or they'll dry up.

CompetitivenessEdit

Monica is highly competitive, allegedly throwing a plate in a fit of rage during a game of Pictionary and claiming "rules help control the fun!"

When Joey and Ross were casually tossing a ball back and forth, Monica joined in and threw the ball too hard at Ross to which he exclaimed, "Monica, stop throwing the ball so hard! We're on the same team." Sometimes, however, she takes her competitive nature too far. One dramatic example of this was when Monica impulsively gambled her and Rachel's apartment during a trivia game created by Ross. When she and Rachel then lost the final question, they were forced to swap apartments with Chandler and Joey. However, they won their apartment back several months later by agreeing to kiss for one minute.

Monica also demonstrates athletic prowess, which, coupled with her competitive streak, makes her formidable, especially in foosball. During the group's trip to Barbados, Monica became obsessed with beating Phoebe's boyfriend, Mike, at table tennis, and the two became engaged in a marathon match, lasting hours. Sometimes, however, Monica becomes too rough. While attempting to give Chandler a sensuous massage, she hurts him to the point of his crying out. Later during the episode she becomes very upset that she "loses" at giving massages until Chandler says, "You give the worlds best worst massages," which immensely cheers her up.^[22] Moreover, she held firm in an arm wrestle against Chandler.^[23] Also, in their youth, Monica broke Ross' nose when a game of touch football turned ugly in an attempt to win the "Geller Cup." The cup was thrown into a nearby lake. What Ross didn't know was that Monica jumped into the lake to retrieve it.^[24] In the series finale, while trying to rescue the birds Joey bought, she managed to destroy the foosball table, without using tools for most of the process.

Monica's competitiveness could stem from her constant attempts to make her parents proud of her, and for her to be praised, as opposed to living in Ross' shadow all the time. It could also stem from her childhood and teenage insecurities, particularly as her best friend, Rachel, was a popular school diva with several boyfriends, whereas Monica was obese and relatively unliked.

BossinessEdit

Monica is notoriously bossy. She is often referred to as such by her friends. Her bossiness is best seen in her relationship with Chandler, where she frequently wins the upper hand in their disputes. After becoming a couple, Chandler says "so I really don't get to win [arguments] any more?", to which Monica replies "how often did you ever really win anyway?"

However Chandler has notably won a dispute with Monica. After finding that her parents squandered her wedding fund, Monica turned to Chandler for help. Chandler revealed he had a considerable amount of money, and was outraged when Monica wanted to spend the entire fortune on the wedding. Chandler refused, and Monica later apologised.^[25]

When Monica becomes Phoebe's wedding planner, she orders the events run on "military time".^[26]
In Season 5, she and Phoebe co-ordinate Rachel's surprise birthday party, and Monica takes charge of everything except cups and ice, for which she gives Phoebe responsibility. In reaction to this, Phoebe surprises Monica by bringing hundreds of plastic cups (which she even decorates with) and various types of ice, including crushed, cubed, and dry mystical.^[27]
While Monica and Phoebe are living together, Monica once apologizes to Phoebe for leaving lipstick on the phone. When Phoebe tells her that she didn't, Monica replies "Oh, well, then it must have been you!".^[5]

RelationshipsEdit

RachelEdit

One of Monica's closest friends was Rachel, her friend since they were 6. In their high school years, it is revealed that Rachel was a popular cheerleader with a string of boyfriends, while Monica was her less attractive and overweight best friend. They lost contact for a number of years, but became close again when Rachel left Barry before their wedding and chose to move in with Monica. It is revealed that Monica didn't expect to become close friends with Rachel again, as during a flashback episode,^[5] set shortly before Rachel's scheduled wedding to Barry, Monica and Rachel have a chance encounter, resulting in Monica remarking: "Ten bucks I'll never see that woman again in my life."

During the period that they lived together, Rachel is revealed to be an exceptionally good roommate. As Monica tells Phoebe, Rachel has sweet little quirks, such as folding back the pages in catalogues of things she thinks Monica would like. She also leaves messages on the mirror when Monica takes a shower, and lets Monica borrow her hundred-plus pairs of boots.

Their living situation lasted for the first 5 seasons until eventually Chandler moved in with Monica during Season 6. Rachel's moving out drew the two women to tears. Rachel is Monica's maid of honour at her wedding. When Rachel moves to Paris, they also both hysterically cry.

JoeyEdit

She had a crush on Joey when he was moving in. Also in Season 7 episode 'The One With The Truth About London,' Phoebe revealed, much to Monica's anger, that she was looking for Joey instead of Chandler (which might have been the reason she asked if Joey was in Chandler's hotel room). Also in season 1 Monica states that Joey "has a nice but just not a great butt" whilst flicking through a pack of card in the coffee house.

RossEdit

Main article: Ross Geller

Ross is Monica's older brother. Monica is a year younger than Ross. They had some of the same friends in high school, such as Rachel and Will, a formerly overweight kid who was in Ross's class and came over once in Season 8 for Thanksgiving, but Monica says their relationship as kids and teenagers was the typical sibling one - fights, wedgies, teasing, and more. However, now, as adults, although occaisonally they act like immature kids towards each other, Ross is one of Monica's best friends and they have a very close sibling relationship.

Geller FamilyEdit

Although Monica and Ross have become quite affectionate towards each other, a great deal of competition which existed between them as children has found its way in their adult lives. When they were children, Ross often played older-brother pranks on Monica which were too much for her, and although she has since forgiven him, they often fall back into childish brother/sister arguments. In many episodes, Ross and Monica resort to an odd childhood gesture whereby they would knock their fists together with their thumbs pointing outward (as an alternative to "the finger"), a habit which Rachel, Chandler, Joey and Phoebe picked up. Ross also mentions how he "grew up with Monica. If you didn't eat fast, you didn't eat!"^[28]

Although Monica's parents do favor Ross to her, it's her mother Judy who tends to be more critical of her daughter, often finding flaws in Monica's apartment such as dirty places or objects, refusing to answer her calls and discrediting her altogether as her daughter, referring to Ross as her only means to have grandchildren.

Some notable examples of Monica feeling neglected by her family include the following:

Her parents do not want her to make the toast at their 35th wedding anniversary party. When she does make the speech, which does not go well at all, Ross makes it up with an impromptu toast, one which like all his previous toasts, makes people cry;^[29]
Her old bedroom room was turned into a gym by her parents twenty minutes after she moved out;^[30]
Her parents spent her wedding fund to purchase a beach house when she was 23 (although her parents were supposed to close the fund by the time she was 30);^[25]
Her old mementos were destroyed by a flood in her parents' garage because the boxes they were stored in were used to block the water from Ross' old stuff, which all remained in perfect condition. However to make up for this, her dad gave her his Porsche 911, to Ross' indignation;^[31]
Her mother does not meet her for lunch with the excuse that she is out of town, although she is not as she was able to babysit Emma for Ross and Rachel.^[32]

Monica was always closer to her father because of her mother's neglections. It's Jack who visits Monica to check on her when she breaks up with Richard,^[33] as is also the one who tells her to ignore her mother's cynical comments, adding how proud he is of her independence.^[34] He often refers to her as his "little Harmonica." It might have been this closeness with her father that inspires Monica and Chandler to name their son Jack (although by Jewish tradition, she was not supposed to do this).

Romantic relationshipsEdit

See also: Relationships#Monica

Since the first season, Monica wants to settle down with a husband and have kids.^[35] Her desire for kids was such that she once considered a sperm donor for her children.^[36]

RichardEdit

Monica's first long serious relationship is with Richard Burke, her eye doctor, who is also 21 years her senior.^[37] The relationship is ended by Monica because of conflict of interest - her plans of having kids clashed with Richard's desire not to have any more (he already has an adult son and daughter). Although Monica does see Richard again after their relationship, most notably in The One Where Monica And Richard Are Just Friends, where they have sex for one last episode, and in "The One With The Proposal, parts 1 and 2, where Richard confesses his undying love for Monica, and his change of mind to actually have children with her. Monica, however, is happy with Chandler who is planning on proposing to her.

PeteEdit

In the third season, Monica has a brief relationship with millionaire Peter Becker, inventor of Moss 865 and manager of a large computer corporation. Although she wants to stop seeing Peter because she's not physically attracted to him, they share a kiss which makes her change her mind. When he takes part in the Ultimate Fighting Champion tournament, a feat which he fails abysmally to achieve, Monica can't stand him getting beaten up every time, and she breaks up with him.

ChandlerEdit

Main article: Monica-Chandler Relationship

From the fifth season till the end of the show Monica and Chandler are in a relationship, marrying in the finale of season 7 and adopting children in the series finale.

CareerEdit

This section is (partially) copied from Wikipedia. There may be an updated version available.

Monica is a chef, and, as with most areas of her life, she is obsessive and competitive. Originally, she was a poorly paid chef at a restaurant called Iridium. After accepting a promotion at a restaurant called Café des Artistes, she was fired for accepting a gift from a food distributor.^[38] Monica remained unemployed for a while before getting offered a job at a 1950s-themed restaurant called the Moondance Diner. At this time, Monica reveals that she worked at the famous Cafe des Artistes when she said "I was a sous-chef at Cafe des Artistes. How can I take a job where I have to make something called Laverne and Curly fries?" At the Moondance Diner, Monica wears a blond wig, roller skates and massive fake breasts. While working at the diner, she met millionaire Pete Becker, one of her boyfriends through the show, who used his money to open a restaurant and appoint Monica as head chef. After the relationship failed, Monica began a short-lived catering business with Phoebe. Also during her unemployed days, Monica worked for an unnamed food company, thinking up recipes and then making them, using substitute food products, such as 'Mocolate', a chocolate substitute which never took off due to its repulsive taste (Phoebe said "this must be what evil tastes like") and side effect of causing urination to become painful if a large amount was eaten.^[39] Also during this time, to avoid taking a job in the aforementioned Moondance Diner, she temporarily bought shares in the stock market using the few savings left in her bank account ($127), despite not knowing anything about how it works, buying shares from companies only because of their names, not knowing what the companies did or how successful they were.

Monica was eventually hired as head chef at a local restaurant, Alessandro's, putting an end to the catering business. At first, her employees disliked Monica because three of them were the children of the previous head chef, coupled with a fairly vicious review she had published in a local newspaper about the restaurant. However, Monica hired Joey as a waiter, solely to fire him, thereby appearing to be a tough boss. It apparently worked, as her problems with her employees were reduced. She left Alessandro's when Chandler's firm required him to relocate to Tulsa, Oklahoma. However, when she contacted a job-hunter about Tulsa restaurant openings, she got a job as head chef at Javu, an upscale restaurant in Manhattan, forcing her to stay in New York.^[40]

Age and birthdayEdit

To keep with the line of the series of both Friends and Joey (TV series) being 1 year for each season, Monica's age should have been; 1 (25-26), 2 (26-27), 3 (27-28), 4 (28-29), 5 (29-30), 6 (30-31), 7 (31-32), 8 (32-33), 9 (33-34), 10 (34-35).

ProductionEdit

When Courteney Cox Arquette landed on the cast of Friends, she was asked to play the role of Rachel Green but she thought she should take the role of Monica Geller instead. Maggie Wheeler also auditioned for the part but ended up playing recurring character Janice Litman Goralnik (née Hosenstein) instead. Actress Jami Gertz was offered and declined the role of Monica before Friends went into production.

The role of Monica was originally conceived as the oldest of the friends, but was changed after Cox was cast. This is ironic because Cox is older than the rest of the Friends actors except Lisa Kudrow, who played Phoebe.

Monica's apartment was one of the main focal points of the series. Many critics of the show began to question how Monica could ever afford the apartment on a chef's salary, so the writers of Friends came up with the explanation that she illegally sublet the apartment from her grandmother, who had moved to Florida. In the series finale, Chandler remarks to his newborn child, "Thanks to rent control, it was a friggin' steal." Many decorators and fans have attempted to recreate the look of Monica's apartment by creating iconic items from the set of Friends. The webstie http://cooltvprops.com is one example - it offers an exact replica of the peephole frame found on the inside of Monica's apartment door, as well as several posters that are featured prominently in Monica's apartment.

Early in the series, the writers were going to have a relationship between Monica and Joey rather than Chandler. This can be picked up on the fact that she had a crush on Joey when he first moves in and is even sneaked in when it's revealed that Monica was looking for Joey on the night of Ross' wedding, not Chandler.

During the show finale in Season 10, Courteney Cox had to revert to baggy clothing to hide her pregnancy, which would have paradoxically coincided with her infertile state revealed earlier in Season 9.

TriviaEdit

Monica's mother commonly forgets about her (shown in many episodes, examples include her thinking she would be childless if Ross died; in The One With Ross' Inappropriate Song , her mother says Rachel was like "the daughter she never had", and at Monica's wedding she ignored her daughter after learning she was not pregnant, even though she also got married).
During the show, she was always mocked about her weight when she was younger (like in 'The One With The Prom Video,' when she says, 'The camera adds ten pounds;' and Chandler responds, 'So how many cameras were actually on you?')
Monica once stated she was allergic to cat hair, but in another episode mentions she once owned a cat. Also in the episode, "The One with the Cat", she is able to pet and be around Phoebe's cat with no apparent allergic reaction.
Monica utters the first line in the show: "There's nothing to tell, he's just some guy I work with." Monica's last line is answering Rachel's offer to have coffee before they leave: "We got some time".