Friends is known for many things, including its catchy theme song, but if the producers had stuck with their initial plan, the opening sequence would have had a very different song, and one that could have hurt the show. Created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, Friends debuted on NBC in 1994 and came to an end in 2004 after ten successful seasons. The series followed a group of six young adults (Monica, Rachel, Phoebe, Chandler, Joey, and Ross) living in New York City and doing their best to balance their social, personal, and professional lives, and everything else adulthood threw their way.

Many Friends characters, situations, and jokes are now part of pop culture, including the series’ theme song. When it comes to TV series, theme songs are more important than most people think, as they can dictate whether a show will be a hit or not – it’s the first hook, and if the audience can’t connect with it or doesn’t find it attractive or catchy, it’s very likely they won’t stay to watch the rest. Luckily for Friends, its theme song became a (unexpected) hit, and while it has a proper title, it’s still known as “the Friends theme song”.

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However, when the show was still in development, the producers had a different song in mind for the opening, and actually presented the pilot episode with that song (and a very different sequence). Had the producers not changed it, it would have ended up affecting the series.

Friends’ Original Theme Song Was R.E.M’s “Shiny Happy People”

Friends’ theme song is “I’ll Be There For You”, by The Rembrandts. The lyrics were a collaboration between The Rembrandts, Crane, Kauffman, composer Michael Skloff, and songwriter Allee Willis, and was re-recorded as a full song after being so well-received by the audience. The song was accompanied by an opening sequence with the cast dancing in a fountain and with the now iconic orange couch there (and umbrellas, of course). Although the main cast was not a big fan of the song and all the dancing in a fountain, they surely are relieved the producers changed their mind and went for a different song.

When the series was still titled Friends Like Us, it had R.E.M’s “Shiny Happy People” playing over the opening credits. Although the song is catchy, many find it to be annoying as well, and that would have played against the series – and the opening sequence wasn’t good either. It included shots of the city for context, and then jumped to a very cheesy montage of the main characters playing cards and various scenes from the first episodes (and the font used for the title and the cast’s names looked like the one used in Full House). Producer Kevin Bright was the one who suggested a change, and as he was a fan of The Rembrandts, he suggested they played the theme song.

This decision not only helped the series, as it wouldn’t have been good for it to have a song that many consider to be annoying, but also The Rembrandts and even R.E.M. The latter have been quite vocal about their dislike towards “Shiny Happy People”, and even refuse to play it live, and having it play over and over in a TV show definitely wouldn’t have helped the situation – though it was briefly used one time, in the episode “The One with the Monkey”. In the end, R.E.M. does what they want with the song, Friends became one of the best TV shows to date, and has one of the catchiest and most iconic theme songs.

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