10 Mind-Blowing Facts About Friends
6. The Show Almost Ended After Season 5 Due To A Pay Dispute
Friends almost ended up running just half its eventual length due to a brutal pay stalemate following completion of the fifth season.
The show's cast famously banded together and formed a "union" of sorts, where they would negotiate new salaries as a unit and take democratic votes on how to proceed.
The stars ended up demanding a virtually unprecedented $100,000 per episode, which despite the show's immense popularity and profitability gave NBC a major moment for pause.
Harold Brook, who was NBC's Executive Vice President of Business Affairs at the time, would later confirm that Friends came dangerously close to being cancelled outright. He said, "We had two promos made - one was the season finale, and one was the series finale." Yikes.
Thankfully logic prevailed, the cast got their healthy raises and this trend continued until the show's final two seasons, where they snagged a mighty $1 million per episode.
Given that an episode took just five hours to film - without prep, obviously - that's one hell of a rate.