The Friends Cast Didn’t Want To Reshoot An Iconic Scene

To mark the 30th anniversary of Friends, the cast and crew have been reflecting on the beloved sitcom — including the show’s line producer, Todd Stevens, who revealed how things changed behind the scenes as the cast ascended to global fame.

Stevens recently discussed working on the sitcom with the Guardian, and recalled how lead stars David Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston, Matt LeBlanc, Courtney Cox, Matthew Perry, and Lisa Kudrow resisted filming a scene for the Season 6 episode “The One That Could Have Been.” The two-part, alternate reality episode follows Monica, Chandler, Rachel, Ross, Phoebe, and Joey as they imagine what their lives might look like if they had taken different paths.

Stevens explained to the Guardian that producers wanted the cast to reshoot the iconic Friends opening credits for the episode, but this time as their alternate-reality characters. However, they weren’t keen on recreating the famous scene in which the cast danced in a water fountain to The Rembrandts track “I’ll Be There for You.”

“It’s one thing to do that when you’re on the pilot,” Stevens said. “Revisiting the uncomfortable nature of that, cold and wet, was very different when they were big.”

Despite their initial reluctance, the Friends cast later did ultimately agree to the opening credit reshoot. The two-part episode premiered in February 2000.

This wasn’t the only behind-the-scenes issue sparked by the cast’s rising fame. In his Guardian interview, producer Stevens also revealed that Aniston, Schwimmer, Cox, LeBlanc, Kudrow, and Perry were “hounded” by paparazzi while filming Season 5’s “The One with Ross’ Wedding” in London.

Friends’ “Fraught” Anniversary

Premiering on Sept. 22, 1994, Friends followed the lives of six close pals living in New York City. The Emmy-winning sitcom ran for 10 seasons, with the final episode airing on May 6, 2004, to more than 50 million viewers.

Series creators, Marta Kauffman and David Crane, recently discussed the show’s bittersweet 30-year milestone on Today. The anniversary comes almost a year after the death of cast member Perry, who passed away at age 54 in October 2023.

“It’s a huge loss,” Kauffman said of Perry’s death. “It does make the 30th a little fraught. He made us laugh every day — David always said he was the funniest man in the room.”

Indeed, Perry was the one who made the original “grueling” fountain shoot fun, according to Kudrow in the foreword she wrote for her co-star’s 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing. Recalling his comical comments from that night, she described him as “the reason we were all laughing in that fountain in the opening titles.”