The Pilot
From Friends Central
| "The Pilot" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Friends episode | ||||
.jpg) Rachel explaining why she ran out on her wedding. | ||||
| Alternate Names | "The One Where It All Began" "The One Where Monica Gets A Roommate" | |||
| Season | 1x01 | |||
| Episode no. | 1 | |||
| Written by | Marta Kauffman & David Crane | |||
| Directed by | James Burrows | |||
| Guest stars | John Allen Nelson - Paul the Wine Guy Clea Lewis - Franny Cynthia Mann - The Waitress Barry Hines as Guy in the Coffee House | |||
| Original airdate | September 22, 1994 | |||
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| ← Previous | Next → | |||
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"The Pilot" (also known as "The One Where It All Began" or "The One Where Monica Gets A Roommate") is the first episode of Friends. It premiered on NBC on September 22, 1994. This first episode focuses on Rachel Green running out on her wedding, Ross Geller's wife moving out and Monica Geller's date with Paul the Wine Guy. The first episode was written by Marta Kauffman & David Crane and was directed by James Burrows.
Contents |
[edit] Plot
The episode begins with four of the six friends sitting around in their favourite coffee house Central Perk talking about love and life. Firstly it's about Monica going on a date with Paul the wine guy which the other three are jokingly messing with her saying that there has to be something wrong with him as Monica is going out with him. A little time has passed and the conversation changes to Chandler telling them about a dream he had where he was standing totally naked in school and a phone starts to ring and it's somewhere it shouldn't be.
Some more time passes when Ross walks into Central Perk looking like a mixture of sad, heart broken and completely lost because his gay ex-wife Carol has just moved her stuff out of his apartment. Joey trys to persuade him into going to a strip club to try to get over Carol but Ross says that he just wants to stay married. That's when Rachel bursts into Central Perk with a wedding dress on. Rachel is looking for Monica and Monica goes to her a little shocked. Rachel then goes on to explain how she didn't love her fiance that she was supposed to be marrying, Barry and that is why she ran out of the wedding and to find Monica as she was the only person she knew in the city.
They then arrive back at Monica's apartment where they are watching a Spanish soap opera and Rachel is talking to her father on the phone in the kitchen. She tells her father that she is staying with Monica (which Monica didn't know about until then) and that she didn't need his money (which she didn't mean). Her father hangs up and Rachel is left in a bit of a panic. After going into a panic Rachel is sitting down breathing into a paper bag while the rest try a calm her down and tell her everything will be okay. The buzzer goes and Chandler answers it. It's Monica's date, Paul the wine guy. Everyone is happy that her date is with Paul as she had been wanting to go on date with him for some time. Paul knocks on the door and Monica lets him in and introduces him to everyone. Monica gets ready to go on her date while Ross ask Rachel if she would like to help him and the guys put furniture together for Ross's new apartment, but she declines.
The guys are in Ross's new apartment putting the new furniture together (trying to anyway) and Ross is reminiscing about his ex-wife. While this is happening Monica is on her big date with Paul and he is telling Monica about his cheating ex who had an affair with a dentist and that he smashed her watch. Also around the same time Rachel is leaving a really long sorry message for her fiance Barry on his answering machine. The guys are still in Ross's apartment but less work is been done and more drinking is been done. Joey tells Ross to get out there and start dating again and grab a spoon (an ice-cream metaphor)when Ross wonders if there is only one woman out there for him. Monica and Paul are still having dinner and this time Paul is telling Monica that he hasn't had sex in two years which makes Monica spit out her coffee. Rachel in the meantoime is sitting at home watch "Joannie loves Chachi". Ross then wonders looking out the window who he could ask out while Rachel is looking out the window at the same time.
The next morning Rachel is making coffee for the first time ever for Joey and Chandler (which is awful) when Monica and Paul walk out of her room after the night before. Monica sees him out the door while the rest try to listen to what is been aid. Monica looks really happy with herself. Rachel then asks them about getting a job and how to get one. Chandler than makes fun of Joey's performance in "Pinochio" before they leave to go to work. Rachel decides that see is going to get a job. While Monica is in work her work mate Franny has just come back from Florida and she instantly know that Monica has had sex just by looking at her. Monica tells her that her date was with Paul the wine guy but Franny then tells Monica that she had slept with Paul and that she helped him get over his not having sex for two years situation, the same thing that he told Monica the night before. Monica looks horrified.
Back at Central Perk Monica has just told everyone (Rachel is not there) what had happend and Joey finds it hysterical that she didn't realise that it was a line that Paul was using just to get her into the sack. Rachel then bursts in as Monica pushes Joey of the couch. Rachel has just been shopping and bought herself and brand new pair of "i don't need a job" boots. They ask her where she got them if she has no job and she tells them with her credit cards. they tell her that, that is not been independant as her dad pays for the credit cards. Back at Monica's apartment they are all around the table and Rachel's credit cards are all on the table. They persuade her cut up all the credit cards and welcome into the real world. Later on the night Ross, Rachel & Monica are finishing watching TV, Moncia gets up to go to bed when Rachel finds Paul's watch lying on the floor. Monica tells her to leave it where it is and she then stamps on the watch smashing it. she then goes into her room leaving Ross and Rachel. Ross and Rachel both go to take the last remaining cookie that was on the plate and decide to split it in half and share it. Ross then tells Rachel that he had a crush on her which tells him she knew. He then in a round about way ask Rachel if she would be interested in going out sometime, which replies "maybe". Rachel gets up to go to bed says her goodnights to Ross, Ross is about to leave when Monica comes back out and wonders why Ross is so happy. He tells her that he was "just grabbing a spoon".
You can find the transcript from this episode here
[edit] Cast and Crew
[edit] Main Cast
Jennifer Aniston - Rachel Green
Courteney Cox - Monica Geller
Lisa Kudrow - Phoebe Buffay
Matt Le Blanc - Joey Tribbiani
Matthew Perry - Chandler Bing
David Schwimmer - Ross Geller
[edit] Supporting Cast
John Allen Nelson - Paul the Wine Guy
Clea Lewis – Franny
Cynthia Mann - The Waitress|The Waitress]]
Barry Hines - Guy in the Coffee House
[edit] Crew
Directed By:
James Burrows
Written By:
Marta Kauffman & David Crane
Produced By:
Wendy Knoller
Jamie O'Connor
Todd Stevens
Andy Zall
[edit] Production
[edit] Casting
David Schwimmer was the first to be cast. Having already auditioned for a different pilot for Kauffman and Crane in 1993, the part of Ross was written with him in mind. Lisa Kudrow's role as Ursula on Mad About You attracted the producers to her (later episodes would establish Ursula as Phoebe's twin sister). Courteney Cox was considered for the role of Rachel, but after reading the script, she read for Monica. Matt LeBlanc was cast as Joey because the producers wanted "a guy's guy". LeBlanc auditoned over eight times, and his final one was a reading with Jennifer Aniston and Cox. Matthew Perry had previously worked with Kauffman and Crane in an episode of Dream On, and requested an audition after identifying with Chandler. He was denied the audition because he was "off the market" after appearing in a pilot called LAX 2194. Jon Cryer auditioned for Chandler while appearing on stage in London. He read for a British casting director who sent a video tape of his audition to the casting executives in Los Angeles, though the tape did not arrive in time. Perry was eventually cast when the network and producers decided his other pilot would not be commissioned for a full series. Jennifer Aniston was cast last, having originally been eyed for Monica.
[edit] Writing and filming
When the pilot was first pitched the producers intended Phoebe and Chandler to be secondary characters who provided humor around the other four main characters, though by the time filming began they were a part of the core six. Joey and Chandler were originally written similarly but at the request of Burrows, Joey was "dumbed up a bit". NBC Entertainment president Don Ohlmeyer was worried that the audience would see Monica as "a slut" because she slept with Paul on the first date, but the producers did not share the concern. A questionnaire was issued to the audience after the taping and the results sided with the producers. The same questionnaire was issued to focus groups, whose response was the same as Ohlmeyer's, but the episode went out unaltered. The series was known as Friends Like Us during casting and Six of One at the time of the pilot, but was retitled Friends before broadcast. Several scenes that were cut from the episode were restored when the series went into syndication, bringing the running time to 37 minutes.
[edit] Reception
Entertainment Weekly rates the episode B+ and states that "After 22 minutes, these six people are believably set up as lifelong buddies". Ross's line, "Do the words 'Billy, Don't Be a Hero' mean anything to you?" is singled out as the best line of the episode. The authors of Friends Like Us: The Unofficial Guide to Friends call it a "good, solid start to the series" but say "the regular cast (particularly Perry and Schwimmer) might be trying just a little too hard". Schwimmer recalls enjoying the physical humor that surrounded Ross, particularly a scene where Ross greets Rachel and opens an umbrella on her.
The production of this episode was the subject of a feature series in The New York Times on the creation of a network pilot.
[edit] Trivia
[edit] General
- According to the producers, a questionnaire regarding Monica's promiscuity was passed out at the taping of "The Pilot" at the request of NBC. Apparently NBC considered Monica a slut for sleeping with Paul the Wine Guy on their first date.
- The Spanish-language soap opera that the Friends watch at Monica's apartment is the very successful "Tres Destinos (1993)". The lady that doesn't seem to be too happy about the pipe organ is Puerto Rican actress Angela Meyer.
- In the pilot Barry's surname is Finkle. In later episodes, his name has been changed to Barry Farber.
[edit] Goofs
- Joey's wristwatch appears and disappears during the whole episode.
- After Rachel runs into the café, Monica introduces her to Chandler, Joey, and Phoebe and says "Remember my brother Ross?". In later episodes it shows flashbacks that Chandler was at Monica's house while Rachel was there, so Rachel should have remembered Chandler when she got to the café, instead of being introduced for the first time there.
[edit] Episode Navigation
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| Preceded by "-" | Followed by "The One With The Sonogram At The End" |
