"The One With The Screamer"
Friends episode
Tommy screaming at Ross
Season	3x22
Episode no.	70
Written by	Shana Goldberg-Meehan Scott Silveri
Directed by	Peter Bonerz
Guest stars	Jon Favreau as Pete Becker Dina Meyer as Kate Miller Reg Rogers as The Director June Gable as Estelle Leonard Jennifer Milmore as Lauren James Michael Tyler as Gunther Ben Stiller as Tommy Laura Cayouette as Cailin Jeff Brooks as Stage Manager Peter Bonerz as Theater Patron Scott Sandler as Jonny
Original airdate	April 24, 1997
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"The One With The Screamer" is the twenty-second episode of the third season of Friends, which aired on April 24, 1997.

PlotEdit

Joey gets tickets for his friends to see him premiere in the play. Rachel surprises Ross when she says she is bringing a date, and comes with Tommy, a seemingly perfectly normal guy. However, he turns out to be an aggressive, testosterone-fuelled bully who intimidates and frightens an elderly couple sitting in his and Ross' seats by, for no necessary reason, yelling his throat hoarse at them, and then calms down instantly, seemingly in a good mood now. However, as Ross is the only witness to this, Rachel doesn't believe him when he tries to warn her what an aggressive bully Tommy is, assuming he's just making up the story about Tommy screaming at the elderly couple and then calming down instantly in order to split them up and have her all to himself.

The play takes place, and Ross blows his date off when he starts focusing attention on Tommy (waiting for him to scream his head off) rather than on her. She leaves, and the director brings the early edition of the newspaper containing the review of the play. He's furious to find that the review is pretty much abysmal about everything, even the direction, and storms off. Katie, still destroyed by the review, reveals to Joey that the director dumped her after the review, and Joey supports her by staying with her at her apartment, where she passes out, and the two spend "the night" - talking to each other about their feelings. Soon after, Ross, still disapproving of Tommy, almost spills hot coffee over him. The bully intimidates Ross by ranting and shouting insults at him before calming down just as instantly as he did before, apparently in a good mood afterwards. Rachel still hangs out with Tommy despite Ross' advice, but when she, Monica, Phoebe, Chandler and Ross see him shout and rant insults at the chick and the duck after the chick urinates in his hand, she and the others realize Ross was right about him being an aggressive bully with little apparent control over his anger, and when Tommy can see that they are all clearly scared of him now, the bully breaks up with her before leaving.

Joey's new relationship with Kate does not last long, as Kate obtains a part in General Hospital in LA and leaves Joey, though not without watching him perform the play with understudy Lauren.

Phoebe spends a lot of time on the phone support line to claim the warranty on her broken phone. The support line keeps telling Phoebe that she's next in line, but Phoebe never gets picked up. She keeps herself busy by swapping Monica's and Rachel's stuff in each other's rooms, but when two days pass and she's still not picked up (by a Utah number, contrary to what Phoebe believed was a toll-free number), the guys make her. Phoebe breaks Monica's phone in the process, and she gives Monica the number of the company she can call.

Cast and CrewEdit

Main CastEdit

Jennifer Aniston - Rachel Green
Courtney Cox - Monica Geller
Lisa Kudrow - Phoebe Buffay
Matt LeBlanc - Joey Tribbiani
Ben Stiller - Tommy

Supporting CastEdit

Jon Favreau - Pete Becker
Dina Meyer - Kate Miller

June Gable - Estelle Leonard
Jennifer Milmore - Lauren
James Michael Tyler - Gunther

Jeff Brooks - Stage Manager
Peter Bonerz - Theater Patron
Scott Sandler - Jonny

CrewEdit

Directed By:
Peter Bonerz

Written By:
Shana Goldberg-Meehan & Scott Silveri

TriviaEdit

• Phoebe swapped round the furniture in both Rachel and Monica's rooms. The switch was permanent and stayed the same until the end of the series.
• Although not really a running gag on the show, Phoebe is shown to be quite accident-prone, and also has a tendency to ruin most things she touches.
  • In this episode, she breaks her own and Monica's phones.
  • In The One With The Flashback, she reveals to Monica that she stained her couch pillow from one side with an ink dot, and with a big spaghetti stain on the other.
  • In The One With The Hypnosis Tape, she stains her tablecloth with mustard (although she does this as bait for Alice to talk her out of marrying her little brother Frank Jr.).
  • In The One With All The Candy, she keeps falling off the bike she receives as a gift from Ross (until she has Stabilizers attached to her bike at the end of the episode).
  • In The One Where Chandler Takes A Bath, Phoebe returns Monica's iron only to reveal that she had broken it.
  • In The One With The Lottery, she drops the bowl that holds all the lottery tickets on the street.

Goofs Edit

• When the director is reading the paper about the play, Ross moves place without time to do so.
• Before the director reads the review, he says "Ah, Boxing Day.", even though the episode aired in April. It is possible that this season was meant to be broadcast over two years, before last-minute scheduling changes and a fourth season renewal. Counterargument: "Boxing Day" is the name of the play!
• Goof: When Tommy is screaming at the chick, he's holding paper he used to clean his hands. He puts the paper down, but when the camera angle changes it's in his hand again
• Goof: When Gunther brings Chandler the cup of coffee from the woman at the bar, Chandler does not take it by the handle. However the shot quickly switches to him holding it by the handle.

Episode NavigationEdit