Dan's Experience at a Friends Taping
This
page contains a description of my experience at a Friends taping. It does not
include any specific information about the actual episode itself. The original airdate of the episode, The One
with the Secret Closet, was
Check out my episode summary, which includes cut
lines, script changes, mistakes, and more.
Take a look at my list of notable events during the
taping of the episode, including lines cut from the original airing, the
testing of different lines, acting mistakes, and more interesting information.
Dan's Friends Cut Lines and Mistakes
Please note that I wrote this entire description just a couple days after attending the taping. At the time, all of us were extremely giddy over our experience. As I go back and read through this years later, I realize that many of my reactions as I describe them sound quite irrational. Reading this out of context makes my friends and me sound way too obsessed and almost fanatical. All I ask is that you keep in mind that at the time I was writing this, our trip had just ended and we were all feeling overwhelmed that something we'd hoped to experience for years had finally happened…
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Ever since Friends
debuted over seven years ago, I have been a huge fan of the show. For over a year, I desperately tried to get
tickets to a taping. On
I originally tried to obtain tickets through Audiences
Unlimited. I sent my ticket request by
Priority Mail on
Just as I was going to give up hope, I discovered a random
connection. The sister of a woman in my
mom's book club used to write for
Two of my friends and I arrived in
After the taping, we took a cab to the hotel, The Safari
Inn. We watched television for a little
while and then went to sleep. We got up
around
If you've ever seen The One That Goes Behind the Scenes on The Best of Friends DVDs (Volumes 3 and
4), you've seen the famous gigantic Friends
poster at Warner Bros. Studios. We were
very excited when we finally arrived at it.
Unfortunately, after talking to a security guard, we then discovered
that Gate 8, where we were supposed to go to claim our tickets, was another
mile away. I was getting nervous, as it
was
We arrived at Gate 8 around
We were led on a very strange path around the various
studios until we finally arrived at the studio where Friends is taped. We went
through more security, where we had to empty our pockets and cameras, cell phones,
and pagers were confiscated. We didn't
have any of those items though, as we knew in advance not the bring them. Next, we finally got to enter the studio! This was the first time we were extremely
affected by a sight and a feeling that could never be described. As we entered, we first saw Joey and Rachel's
apartment! We walked up the stairs to
the audience section, and from there we could see Monica and
We were then showed to our seats. Our contact person was listed as being Kevin S. Bright, an executive producer and director of the show. We sat in the four best seats reserved for him… IN THE FRONT ROW!!! We literally had the four best seats in the whole place! We were SO excited!
We were seated around
After the episode ended, we were shown about a minute of clips from the following week's episode, which will air this Thursday night. The clips we were shown were simply to get us up to date on the Joey/Rachel storyline. I won't describe them here, since I don't want to give anything away to anyone who doesn't want to know.
After the clips, Bentley asked who had found the lines. The four of us yelled and waved our arms at him, and he told us to come up. We ran over to where he was, and as we ran, the DJ played the theme from Jeopardy! Kevin S. Bright, whom we recognized from the behind-the-scenes special, came over as well. We were very excited to see him! Bentley handed me the microphone and asked me to list to Bright the lines we'd found that we thought were cut. We thought we'd found six or seven. Bright was very impressed as I listed for him the first six lines we thought were cut, all of which were correct! The seventh, which we weren't sure about, actually did appear in the original airing of the show. Bright informed us we'd gotten six of the eight parts that were cut. A group of girls who thought they had one of the other cut lines were than asked to come up as well. It turned out they had five of the six we got as well as one additional one, meaning we each had a total of six. The one they had that we didn't was from the introductory scene, which we didn't see because we were running around the airport trying to find a television (as explained before). I explained this to Bright, and he was very impressed we'd paid to watch Friends at the airport. Bright told Bentley both our groups should win. We were given The Best of Friends DVDs (Volumes 1 and 2). I already had about ten sets of those DVDs (because I'd won them many times through TBS's Enhanced Friends contest), so I later traded the DVDs to a girl who was sitting behind me for a Friends shirt, cup, and pencil. Apparently, these three prizes are only given out at Friends tapings, so I think I got the better end of the deal!
We then headed back to our seats. Minutes later, around
They quickly started filming the first scene, which took
place in Monica and
Nearly every scene was taped at least four times. A few were taped three times, and one went so well they only needed to tape it twice. The plot, which I won't describe here, was a great one! It was both hilarious and extremely moving! This may be one of the most moving Friends episodes ever!
The cast screwed up their lines fairly often, which was great to see! They also joked around with each other quite a bit. One scene had to be shot nearly a dozen times! I won't describe the mistakes and pranks here, since I'd have to give away episode details, but be sure to check out my separate list of cut lines and mistakes… Many of them were absolutely hilarious!
This leads me to what may be the coolest moment of my life! Sitting in the front row certainly paid off! During this scene, Jennifer noticed my friend looking at her. She smiled at my friend and then noticed I was also smiling at her. She then waved at me! Yes, that's right, JENNIFER ANISTON WAVED AT ME!!! I couldn't believe it. A little later, David walked by, saw me looking at him, and nodded his head it me. Again, I was shocked!
Our other contact with the cast came at the end of the show. After they finished taping, Courteney, Matt, and David came out for a curtain call with I'll Be There For You again playing in the background. Afterward, the security guards were trying to get everyone to leave quickly. We were all very sad it was over. As we were leaving, we saw Courteney and Matt talking to the crew. My friend yelled out, "I love you, Courteney!" Courteney looked up at us, smiled, and said, "Thank you." We couldn't believe it! My other friend then said a similar thing to Matt. Matt looked at the four of us with a very appreciative smile and waved at us!
The entire time, we couldn't get over the fact that the six Friends cast members who we'd watched on television and loved for over seven years were walking around within a couple feet of us! We were particularly impressed by Jennifer Aniston and Matt LeBlanc, who were incredibly friendly! They were constantly smiling and joking around, and seemed very upbeat. Courteney Cox Arquette and Matthew Perry were the least talkative, although Matthew did interact with the audience a few times. He joked around a lot, and even helped change some of the show's lines to make them funnier. Matthew's sense of humor in real life was very similar to that of his character. David Schwimmer seemed friendly. He was frustrated at times, but this was understandable, as he was having a lot of trouble with his lines! Lisa Kudrow's son Julian, who's three-and-a-half years old, was there, and she spent most of the time between her scenes watching him. At one point, he was throwing a mini football with Courteney and Matthew. When Matthew threw the ball to him, he missed it and it went behind him. He couldn't find it at first, and Matthew tried to show him where it was. Her kid was SO cute, and he seemed to have a great relationship with his mom and the rest of the cast.
Because we'd watched the behind-the-scenes special before going to the taping, we recognized most of the crew. Marta Kauffman, the co-creator and one of the executive producers, had one of the most unique laughs we'd ever heard! It was very loud and very long. They often changed the lines in between takes, and every time she heard a suggestion for a new line that she found funny, she'd laugh for about ten seconds! She seemed like a very kind woman. We also saw David Crane, the other co-creator and one of the other executive producers. In addition, we recognized many of the writers and the people from the set crew and the props crew.
The taping ended around
Six hours may sound like a long time, but it went by incredibly quickly and we wished it could have lasted forever! After it was over, we took a cab back to the hotel and called our friends and family to tell them about it. That whole night, we were still freaking out about everything we'd seen.
To quickly summarize the rest of the trip, we went to Universal Studios Hollywood on Saturday, which was a blast. Afterward, we took a cab to Warner Bros. Studio and took pictures of ourselves with the huge Friends poster in the background. On Sunday morning, we took a cab to the airport and flew back home.
When we got home, three of us watched the People's Choice Awards. When they showed Matt, Matthew, and David, we freaked out again. They looked exactly like they did when we'd seen them two days before. Jennifer wasn't there, and when she won Favorite Female Television Performer again, they played a pre-recorded message she'd apparently taped on Friday at the taping while we were there! She looked exactly like she did when we'd seen her, and as she sincerely thanked her fans, it almost felt like she was talking to us. That probably sounds really dumb, but after all, she had glanced up appreciatively at us just an hour or two before she recorded that message. Of course, Friends won again for Favorite Television Comedy Series. Matt gave the acceptance speech, and it was amazing to watch him thank all the fans of Friends on behalf of the entire cast and crew.
I will always be thankful for the amazing luck I had in getting to attend a taping. Friends has been a HUGE part of my life for a very long time, and I could never describe the feeling of actually getting to see it in person. We were all very moved by the experience, and all of us agreed it was one of the best weekends of our lives.
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