Friends: 16 Easter Eggs You Totally Missed

No matter how many times you watch, you still miss things.

Friends Rachel Green
NBC

It's a testament to the quality of Friends that people are still poring over it over a decade since it ended.

Of course, it probably helps that in the time since it went off the air, it's never actually been off the air. The show has remained in syndication across the globe, and there's nary a time of day when you aren't able to switch on the TV and catch an episode or two.

Its move to Netflix has only increased this, because no show makes for more comfortable binge-watching. It's like an old comfort blanket: warm, cosy, makes you feel better, and it's always gonna be there for you (and without the risk of your mother throwing it out).

Because of the endless viewings, you can start to pick up on more and more that you might've missed the first (or the 20th) time around, as evidenced by recent discoveries of both Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox being replaced in a couple of episodes.

Those details that you may have missed, combined with cameos, references, and plenty of in-jokes, mean that along with the laughs, the tears, and the friendships, the show also gave us plenty of Easter eggs over its decade on TV.

16. Mad About Pheebs

Friends Rachel Green
NBC

Before the character of Phoebe Buffay had ever graced our screens, audiences had already met her rather less pleasant twin sister Ursula. 

The character, played by Lisa Kudrow, was a character on NBC sitcom Mad About You, which started a couple of years before Friends. This is referenced in the episode The One With Two Parts, Part 1, when Helen Hunt and Leila Kenzie make cameo appearances. 

They mistake Phoebe for Ursula, much to the befuddlement of Pheebs, and the reason is that they were playing their own characters from Mad About You, where they would regularly frequent Riff's, the restaurant Ursula works at.

Contributor
Contributor

NCTJ-qualified journalist. Most definitely not a racing driver. Drink too much tea; eat too much peanut butter; watch too much TV. Sadly only the latter paying off so far. A mix of wise-old man in a young man's body with a child-like wonder about him and a great otherworldly sensibility.