The shows most prolific guest star, with appearances in 148 of the 236 episodes of Friends that were produced, was the man behind luckless coffee shop worker Gunther, James Michael Tyler. Tyler wasnt cast as a guest star, however. He was a struggling actor working in a coffee shop called The Borgeouis Pig to support himself, and happened to serve an assistant director of the show one fateful day. Offered the role of the guy behind the counter in Friends as a non-speaking extra because he knew his way around a coffee machine, Tyler was tempted by the additional pay and the offer of one free meal a day, something that a starving actor living on tips desperately needed. By the middle of season two, he had the occasional short line, and fans of the show had already begun to speculate about the perennial background fixture of so many coffee shop scenes. Eventually, the role blossomed into an actual character. James Michael Tyler was Gunther, a former child star actor who speaks fluent Dutch, and who is hopelessly and secretly in love with Rachel for ten years and therefore despises Ross.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
