Arguably the most loved sitcoms of all times, Friends is one of those shows you can never get tired of. But did you know that?

• The six main characters of the show were named after the show All My Children characters. Joey was named after Dr Joe Martin, while Ross Geller was named after All My Children star Ross Chandler. Monica was named after the character Monique.

Madalyn Cox/Unsplash. The show has become a huge part of pop culture.

• Actress Courtney Cox, who plays the character of Monica of Friends, was first selected for her best friend Rachel’s character. Cox turned down the role and preferred playing Monica.
• Ellen DeGeneres was selected to play Phoebe’s character, but she turned it down. Kathy Griffin and Jane Lynch were also considered for Phoebe Buf
  

  Ian Baldwin/Unsplash. The show was first supposed to tbe called The Insomnia Cafe

  fay’s character.

• The guest star on the show, Bruce Willis, ended up paying a guest appearance because he'd lost a bet to Matthew Perry. He later went on to win an Emmy award for the Best Guest Actor. The bet which started it all was about the success of the movie The Whole Nine Yards. Perry believed it would be number one at the box office, while Willis disagreed.
• The theme song ‘I’ll be there for you’ was written by show creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman. The song became an instant hit. It was not only popular in the US, where it reached the Top 40, it became a super hit internationally.

• The show wasn’t supposed to be named ‘FRIENDS’. The creators of the show, David Crane and Marta Kauffman had planned on naming the show ‘The Insomnia Café’. Various other titles were also considered before they settled on the simple but iconic, ‘Friends’.

Tao Qi/Unsplash. The show was filmed in front of love audience of more than 300 people.

• The show Friends was filmed in front of a live audience, omitting the cliffhangers. The audience usually consisted of around 300 fans, and was used as a litmus test to see if the jokes were landing or not.
• The actress who played Rachel Green, Jennifer Aniston was involved with another sitcom called Muddling Through. She had planned on discontinuing Friends if the other sitcom took off.
• The show creators had considered bringing in a seventh friend. The cast was considered to be too young, and an older character was planned to sometimes advise the youth who was shown to be in their 20s. A few characters they had planned on bringing in were Coffee Joe or Pat the Cop, but the plan didn’t work out well.