Arguably the single most popular sitcom of the 90s and early 2000s, you’d be hard-pressed to find somebody who’s never seen Friends. Similarly, however, you’d also be hard-pressed to find fans of the show who haven’t spotted at least a handful of obvious continuity errors over the course of its ten-season run.
While most sitcoms do a decent job at hiding these blunders, almost every episode of Friends is a treasure trove of production gaffes and inconsistencies for those who enjoy seeking them out. With that in mind, here are 10 of the biggest continuity errors from the show’s eighth season.
Rachel’s Bathroom Trouble
It goes without saying, but by the time the episode titled “The One Where Rachel Is Late” rolled around, Rachel was heavily pregnant, even struggling to sit up and down without help. This is reinforced when she asks her friends whose turn it is to help her off the toilet at one point in the episode.
Later, however, Rachel can be seen getting off the toilet by herself without issue. Sure, it’s not exactly the most egregious error the show has ever made, but it’s an error nonetheless.
Visible Hallway
An unfortunate victim of Friends’ transition to a widescreen format, the fifth episode of the show’s eighth season – titled “The One with Rachel’s Date” – quite literally breaks the fourth wall. As Ross and Chandler leave the latter’s office and enter a hallway, the front wall of the office set appears to be non-existent, and the hallway can be seen before the door is even open.
While this error was likely much more well-hidden before the rise of widescreen, it’s now become an incredibly distracting mistake in an otherwise fun episode of the show.
A Stand-in Stands Out
Appearing in a total of 20 episodes throughout the course of the show, Ross and Monica’s inappropriate father, Jack Geller – played by Oscar-nominated actor Elliott Gould – is one of the show’s best-supporting characters.
In the episode “The One in Massapequa”, however, it appears the actor has been replaced by an impostor when a stand-in for Gould is very obviously used during a conversation with Ross and Rachel. While stand-ins are a common practice in the world of production, they’re usually much more well-hidden than this.
Switching Dishes
When it comes to set dressing, it should be relatively simple to stick to continuity regarding what decorations are sitting on the table at which two of your central characters are sitting. In “The One Where Rachel Tells…” however, there’s a glaring continuity error regarding the dishes on a table where Joey and Phoebe are sitting.
In one shot, there appears to be an empty dish and a bottle of water on the table, whereas in other shots, it’s replaced by a bright blue dish of assorted fruit.
Hole In The Wall
When Ross begins recording himself on Joey’s camera in “The One with the Videotapes,” he’s suddenly startled when a stressed-out Rachel enters the apartment. While viewers may be too wrapped up in the episode’s antics to notice, there’s an extremely apparent error with the set during this scene.
Just by Rachel’s head, there’s a huge square hole in the apartment set – as well as the apartment opposite – that allows you to see straight through the hallway.
Vanishing Vase
The episode titled “The One with the Birthing Video” wraps up with a somewhat dramatic moment, in which Joey reveals his burgeoning feelings for Rachel to a shocked Ross.
The next episode picks things back up immediately following this moment, but since the filming took place at different times, the scene’s layout is subtly different. All of a sudden, the giant, colorful, incredibly noticeable vase of flowers sitting behind Joey has completely vanished, while the items of clothing on the coat hangers beside him have also changed.
Two Sets Become One
One of three mistakes appearing on this list from the episode titled “The One with Rachel’s Date”, this mistake occurs when Tim leaves Phoebe at Central Perk. Since actress Lisa Kudrow is standing near the edge of the set, the shot reveals another set sitting behind Central Perk – that of Monica’s restaurant.
Once again, it’s a problem only visible in the widescreen version of the show, but it’s visible, regardless – and once you’ve seen it you’ll never look at Central Perk the same way again.
Safety First
One of the more charming errors to slip through the cracks in Friends’ eighth season, there’s a very noticeable safety mat visible in one shot during “The One with the Baby Shower.”
The slip-up occurs when Monica attempts to follow Rachel’s mother to apologize and subsequently falls over. Once actress Courteney Cox connects with the mat, it clearly comes into frame. Sure, it’s important to keep your actors safe on set, but maybe one more take would have been worth it here.
Unwrapping Gifts
During “The One with the Red Sweater,” Monica can be seen sitting in her apartment, surrounded by wedding gifts. As she begins to open one, the brown cardboard box underneath can be clearly seen. As the camera cuts around to different characters, however, the wrapping on the box changes states multiple times, jumping back and forth between wrapped, unwrapped, and partially wrapped.
While food is typically a nightmare on set from a continuity standpoint, this should’ve been significantly easier to deal with, though it still managed to slip through, nonetheless.
Impostor On Set
Whereas many of the continuity errors found within Friends can be put down to complicated technical issues or the unfortunate transition to widescreen television, it’s incredible that the show’s creators expected nobody to notice this huge blunder.
In the episode titled “The One with Rachel’s Date,” Monica and Phoebe are having a conversation at Central Perk. During the shots of Phoebe talking, the audience can clearly see Monica’s face in the bottom right corner of the screen. In one shot, however, Monica has been replaced with someone else entirely, making it one of the most obvious stand-ins in the show’s 10-season run.