10 TV Moments IMPOSSIBLE To Watch Same Way After This
2. Monica's Blatantly Obvious Stand-In - Friends
In recent years, with Friends becoming available on streaming platforms in high resolution and widescreen, viewers have noticed an increasing number of "mistakes" which were basically imperceptible in the original standard-def, 4:3 editions of the episodes.
Perhaps the most famous of all the gaffes occurs in the season eight episode "The One with Rachel's Date," where while Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) is talking to Monica (Courteney Cox) in Central Perk, for a lengthy close-up it's clear that Phoebe isn't actually speaking to Monica at all.
For a number of seconds on the edge of the frame, an actress who definitely isn't Courteney Cox can be seen.
This is in fact Courteney Cox's stand-in, who serves as a lighting reference for the crew and gives Lisa Kudrow somebody to perform lines opposite while her coverage is being shot.
The stand-in is visible because while the show was always filmed in widescreen, it was framed and composed for 4:3 playback given that widescreen displays weren't yet ubiquitous around the world. As a result, the production never really expected the stand-ins to be seen.
This is just the most egregious of the many mistakes made visible by Friends' glorious HD widescreen presentation, but given the general uptick in image quality it's most certainly worth enduring the odd mistake - most of which are amusing, at least.