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Friends Trivia Quiz
Friends follows six twenty- and thirty-somethings — Ross, Rachel, Monica, Chandler, Joey, and Phoebe — sharing apartments and hanging out at the Central Perk coffee house in Manhattan. Across ten seasons it tracks their careers, roommates, and tangled love lives, above all the on-again, off-again romance between Ross and Rachel.
Q1. What is Rachel wearing when she runs into Central Perk in the very first episode?
Answer: Her wedding dress. Rachel has just left her fiancé, the orthodontist Barry Farber, at the altar. With nowhere else to go she turns up at the coffee house still in the dress, moves into her old high-school friend Monica's apartment and takes a waitress job at Central Perk, which sets up her whole first-season arc.
Q2. Where is Rachel about to move for a new job in the series finale?
Answer: Paris. After Ralph Lauren fires her, Rachel's old Bloomingdale's colleague Mark offers her a job at Louis Vuitton in Paris. Ross chases her to the airport, and she finally gets off the plane after leaving him a voicemail in which she realises she loves him too.
Q3. What do Ross and Rachel name their daughter?
Answer: Emma. Emma Geller-Green is born at the end of season eight in "The One Where Rachel Has a Baby, Part Two". Erica is the name of the birth mother whose twins Monica and Chandler adopt, and Emily is Ross's second wife, which is why those two options trip people up.
Q4. Who officiates Phoebe and Mike's wedding?
Answer: Joey. In season ten a snowstorm paralyses the city, so nobody can reach the planned venue. The wedding moves to the street outside Central Perk and Joey conducts the ceremony for Phoebe and Mike Hannigan.
Q5. In which city do Monica and Chandler first sleep together?
Answer: London. It happens in the season four finale, when the group travels to London for Ross's wedding to Emily. The secret relationship that follows runs through much of season five before the others find out, and the episode was one of the few Friends stories actually filmed in the UK.
Q6. Which of the six main actors was cast first, because the creators had written the part with him in mind?
Answer: David Schwimmer. David Crane and Marta Kauffman had worked with Schwimmer before and wrote Ross Geller for him. The other five went through auditions that started with around 1,000 applicants per role; Aniston and Perry were only cast days before the pilot was shot because they were still under contract to other shows.
Q7. What is the name of Joey's character on Days of Our Lives?
Answer: Dr. Drake Ramoray. Joey plays neurosurgeon Drake Ramoray in season two, then gets him killed off after telling a soap magazine that he writes many of his own lines. In season seven the soap brings Drake back: he was only in a four-year coma and receives the brain of Susan Sarandon's character, Jessica Lockhart.
Q8. Ross gets married three times in the series. Whom does he marry in Las Vegas?
Answer: Rachel. At the end of season five Ross and Rachel stumble drunk out of a Las Vegas wedding chapel. In season six Ross promises an annulment but secretly does nothing because he cannot face a third failed marriage, so by the time Rachel finds out they have to get a proper divorce.
Q9. Where is Chandler transferred in season nine, the move that finally makes him quit his job?
Answer: Tulsa. Chandler unknowingly agrees to a transfer to Tulsa, Oklahoma, just as Monica is offered a head chef job at a new restaurant, Javu. After spending Christmas apart he quits, starts as an unpaid intern at an advertising agency and is eventually hired as a junior copywriter.
Q10. Which actor played Richard Burke, Monica's older boyfriend?
Answer: Tom Selleck. Selleck plays the recently divorced Geller family friend who is 21 years older than Monica. They split because he does not want more children, and he returns in season six just as Chandler is planning to propose. Selleck later said the cast were so close off-screen that he sometimes felt left out.
Q11. Courteney Cox auditioned for Monica, but which role did the producers originally have in mind for her?
Answer: Rachel. The producers saw Cox's "cheery, upbeat energy" as a fit for Rachel. Cox wanted Monica because she liked how strong the character was, and after her audition Marta Kauffman agreed with her. Jennifer Aniston was then cast as Rachel.
Q12. Bruce Willis guest-starred as Paul Stevens. Whose father was Paul?
Answer: Ross's student Elizabeth. In season six Ross dates his NYU student Elizabeth Stevens even though it breaks university policy. Her father Paul disapproves of Ross, then falls for Rachel. Both relationships end: Elizabeth is too immature for Ross, and the newly emotional Paul turns out to be more than Rachel can handle.
Q13. What is the name of Joey's cable TV series in which he co-stars with a crime-fighting robot?
Answer: Mac and C.H.E.E.S.E.. Joey lands the series in season six after struggling to pay his bills and taking a job at Central Perk. It is cancelled in season seven, which is how he ends up back on Days of Our Lives when Drake Ramoray wakes from his coma.
Q14. Phoebe's triplets are born in the show's 100th episode. Which name goes to the girl who was expected to be a boy?
Answer: Chandler. Phoebe carries the triplets as a surrogate for her brother Frank Jr. and Alice. The babies are Frank Jr. Jr., Leslie and Chandler, the last name having been promised to a boy before the baby turned out to be a girl. The episode's official title is "The One Hundredth".
Q15. Where does the group travel for Ross's keynote speech in the season nine finale?
Answer: Barbados. Ross is giving the keynote speech at a conference in Barbados. On the trip Joey and Charlie realise they have nothing in common, and after Joey sees Ross kiss Charlie he goes to Rachel's hotel room, ending the season with Joey and Rachel's kiss.
Q16. Before it became Friends, which working title was dropped because it sounded too much like the ABC sitcom These Friends of Mine?
Answer: Friends Like Us. Crane and Kauffman first pitched the show to NBC as Insomnia Cafe, a seven-page treatment, in December 1993. They wrote the pilot in three days as Friends Like Us, which NBC changed to Six of One because of the ABC show. Only after further rewrites did it become Friends.
Q17. Most episode titles start with "The One...". Apart from the pilot, which episode breaks that rule?
Answer: The Last One. The producers chose the "The One..." format because the titles were never shown in the opening credits, so most viewers would never see them anyway. Only the pilot and the series finale, "The Last One", are exceptions. "The One Hundredth" still starts with "The One".
Q18. How much was each main cast member paid per episode in the final two seasons?
Answer: $1 million. The six negotiated together from season three onwards, rising from $22,500 an episode in season one to $750,000 in seasons seven and eight and $1 million in seasons nine and ten. That made Aniston, Cox and Kudrow the highest-paid TV actresses of all time at that point.
Q19. NBC pushed for an older character to give the friends advice. What was the character the writers drafted and then dropped?
Answer: Pat the Cop. NBC also wanted one dominant storyline per episode instead of three equal ones; the writers refused that, but had to draft an early episode with "Pat the Cop" as an adviser figure. Kauffman joked that it was named after the children's book Pat the Bunny. NBC eventually let the idea go.
Q20. When was the famous fountain opening sequence filmed?
Answer: At 4:00 a.m. at the Warner Bros. Ranch. The opening titles were shot in a fountain at the Warner Bros. Ranch in Burbank at four in the morning, on a particularly cold day. Friends was never actually filmed in New York: the series was shot in front of a live audience at Warner Bros. Studios, on Stage 5 in season one and Stage 24 afterwards.
Friends quiz answers and explanations
Every question from the quiz above with its correct answer, the story behind it, and where the fact comes from.
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What is Rachel wearing when she runs into Central Perk in the very first episode?
Answer: Her wedding dress. Rachel has just left her fiancé, the orthodontist Barry Farber, at the altar. With nowhere else to go she turns up at the coffee house still in the dress, moves into her old high-school friend Monica's apartment and takes a waitress job at Central Perk, which sets up her whole first-season arc.
Source: Wikipedia: Friends
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Where is Rachel about to move for a new job in the series finale?
Answer: Paris. After Ralph Lauren fires her, Rachel's old Bloomingdale's colleague Mark offers her a job at Louis Vuitton in Paris. Ross chases her to the airport, and she finally gets off the plane after leaving him a voicemail in which she realises she loves him too.
Source: Wikipedia: Friends
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What do Ross and Rachel name their daughter?
Answer: Emma. Emma Geller-Green is born at the end of season eight in "The One Where Rachel Has a Baby, Part Two". Erica is the name of the birth mother whose twins Monica and Chandler adopt, and Emily is Ross's second wife, which is why those two options trip people up.
Source: Wikipedia: Friends
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Who officiates Phoebe and Mike's wedding?
Answer: Joey. In season ten a snowstorm paralyses the city, so nobody can reach the planned venue. The wedding moves to the street outside Central Perk and Joey conducts the ceremony for Phoebe and Mike Hannigan.
Source: Wikipedia: Friends
-
In which city do Monica and Chandler first sleep together?
Answer: London. It happens in the season four finale, when the group travels to London for Ross's wedding to Emily. The secret relationship that follows runs through much of season five before the others find out, and the episode was one of the few Friends stories actually filmed in the UK.
Source: Wikipedia: Friends
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Which of the six main actors was cast first, because the creators had written the part with him in mind?
Answer: David Schwimmer. David Crane and Marta Kauffman had worked with Schwimmer before and wrote Ross Geller for him. The other five went through auditions that started with around 1,000 applicants per role; Aniston and Perry were only cast days before the pilot was shot because they were still under contract to other shows.
Source: Wikipedia: Friends
-
What is the name of Joey's character on Days of Our Lives?
Answer: Dr. Drake Ramoray. Joey plays neurosurgeon Drake Ramoray in season two, then gets him killed off after telling a soap magazine that he writes many of his own lines. In season seven the soap brings Drake back: he was only in a four-year coma and receives the brain of Susan Sarandon's character, Jessica Lockhart.
Source: Wikipedia: Friends
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Ross gets married three times in the series. Whom does he marry in Las Vegas?
Answer: Rachel. At the end of season five Ross and Rachel stumble drunk out of a Las Vegas wedding chapel. In season six Ross promises an annulment but secretly does nothing because he cannot face a third failed marriage, so by the time Rachel finds out they have to get a proper divorce.
Source: Wikipedia: Friends
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Where is Chandler transferred in season nine, the move that finally makes him quit his job?
Answer: Tulsa. Chandler unknowingly agrees to a transfer to Tulsa, Oklahoma, just as Monica is offered a head chef job at a new restaurant, Javu. After spending Christmas apart he quits, starts as an unpaid intern at an advertising agency and is eventually hired as a junior copywriter.
Source: Wikipedia: Friends
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Which actor played Richard Burke, Monica's older boyfriend?
Answer: Tom Selleck. Selleck plays the recently divorced Geller family friend who is 21 years older than Monica. They split because he does not want more children, and he returns in season six just as Chandler is planning to propose. Selleck later said the cast were so close off-screen that he sometimes felt left out.
Source: Wikipedia: Friends
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Courteney Cox auditioned for Monica, but which role did the producers originally have in mind for her?
Answer: Rachel. The producers saw Cox's "cheery, upbeat energy" as a fit for Rachel. Cox wanted Monica because she liked how strong the character was, and after her audition Marta Kauffman agreed with her. Jennifer Aniston was then cast as Rachel.
Source: Wikipedia: Friends
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Bruce Willis guest-starred as Paul Stevens. Whose father was Paul?
Answer: Ross's student Elizabeth. In season six Ross dates his NYU student Elizabeth Stevens even though it breaks university policy. Her father Paul disapproves of Ross, then falls for Rachel. Both relationships end: Elizabeth is too immature for Ross, and the newly emotional Paul turns out to be more than Rachel can handle.
Source: Wikipedia: Friends
-
What is the name of Joey's cable TV series in which he co-stars with a crime-fighting robot?
Answer: Mac and C.H.E.E.S.E.. Joey lands the series in season six after struggling to pay his bills and taking a job at Central Perk. It is cancelled in season seven, which is how he ends up back on Days of Our Lives when Drake Ramoray wakes from his coma.
Source: Wikipedia: Friends
-
Phoebe's triplets are born in the show's 100th episode. Which name goes to the girl who was expected to be a boy?
Answer: Chandler. Phoebe carries the triplets as a surrogate for her brother Frank Jr. and Alice. The babies are Frank Jr. Jr., Leslie and Chandler, the last name having been promised to a boy before the baby turned out to be a girl. The episode's official title is "The One Hundredth".
Source: Wikipedia: Friends
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Where does the group travel for Ross's keynote speech in the season nine finale?
Answer: Barbados. Ross is giving the keynote speech at a conference in Barbados. On the trip Joey and Charlie realise they have nothing in common, and after Joey sees Ross kiss Charlie he goes to Rachel's hotel room, ending the season with Joey and Rachel's kiss.
Source: Wikipedia: Friends
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Before it became Friends, which working title was dropped because it sounded too much like the ABC sitcom These Friends of Mine?
Answer: Friends Like Us. Crane and Kauffman first pitched the show to NBC as Insomnia Cafe, a seven-page treatment, in December 1993. They wrote the pilot in three days as Friends Like Us, which NBC changed to Six of One because of the ABC show. Only after further rewrites did it become Friends.
Source: Wikipedia: Friends
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Most episode titles start with "The One...". Apart from the pilot, which episode breaks that rule?
Answer: The Last One. The producers chose the "The One..." format because the titles were never shown in the opening credits, so most viewers would never see them anyway. Only the pilot and the series finale, "The Last One", are exceptions. "The One Hundredth" still starts with "The One".
Source: Wikipedia: Friends
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How much was each main cast member paid per episode in the final two seasons?
Answer: $1 million. The six negotiated together from season three onwards, rising from $22,500 an episode in season one to $750,000 in seasons seven and eight and $1 million in seasons nine and ten. That made Aniston, Cox and Kudrow the highest-paid TV actresses of all time at that point.
Source: Wikipedia: Friends
-
NBC pushed for an older character to give the friends advice. What was the character the writers drafted and then dropped?
Answer: Pat the Cop. NBC also wanted one dominant storyline per episode instead of three equal ones; the writers refused that, but had to draft an early episode with "Pat the Cop" as an adviser figure. Kauffman joked that it was named after the children's book Pat the Bunny. NBC eventually let the idea go.
Source: Wikipedia: Friends
-
When was the famous fountain opening sequence filmed?
Answer: At 4:00 a.m. at the Warner Bros. Ranch. The opening titles were shot in a fountain at the Warner Bros. Ranch in Burbank at four in the morning, on a particularly cold day. Friends was never actually filmed in New York: the series was shot in front of a live audience at Warner Bros. Studios, on Stage 5 in season one and Stage 24 afterwards.
Source: Wikipedia: Friends
Friends by the numbers
- Seasons
- 10
- Episodes
- 236
- First aired
- 22 September 1994
- Finale viewers (US)
- 52.5 million
- Emmy nominations
- 62 (6 wins)
- Pay per episode, seasons 9–10
- $1 million each
- Working title
- Insomnia Cafe
- Filmed at
- Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank
Source: Wikipedia: Friends
About the Friends quiz
Friends has been rewatched so often that the obvious questions have stopped being a test: nearly everyone knows the coffee house and "we were on a break." The show still has plenty that fans half-remember, though: where each big relationship moment happened, which guest star played whom, and how close the series came to having a different title, a different Monica and an older adviser character. That half-remembered layer is where this quiz sits.
Questions cover all ten seasons — Central Perk, Ross and Rachel's relationship, Monica and Chandler, Joey's acting career, Phoebe's songs, the Thanksgiving episodes, and the catchphrases that became pop culture.
What this Friends quiz covers
The quiz covers all ten seasons and the six main characters, but it deliberately skips the questions every Friends quiz asks. Instead you get the storylines that actually moved the show forward (the London wedding, the Las Vegas chapel, Tulsa, Barbados, Paris), the guest stars who mattered, and a final round on how the show was made: the working titles, the casting, the "The One..." naming rule and the cast's famous pay deal. Each answer in the key below explains the story behind it and links to the source.
How to play
Tap an answer to see the right one straight away, with the story behind it, and check your score at the end. Play Again resets the quiz.
Friends quiz — frequently asked questions
Is this only about the main six characters?
Mostly. The six friends drive the questions, but a few cover guest stars such as Bruce Willis and Tom Selleck, and one round looks at the people who made the show.
Do I need to remember episode titles?
No. Questions describe what happened, not which episode it was in. The one question about titles is about the naming rule itself.
How hard does it get?
The easy round suits anyone who has seen the show. The expert round is about how it was made, from working titles to the cast's pay, which even big fans often do not know.