The very first line on “Friends” was “There’s nothing to tell.” Over a decade later, that’s still not true at all. With all 10 seasons of “Friends” available on Netflix — and to celebrate star Jennifer Aniston’s birthday — The Huffington Post spoke with original set decorator Greg Grande, art director (or today’s equivalent, production designer) John Shaffner and also combed through old interviews with the cast to get deeper trivia about “Friends” than just that it used to be called “Insomnia Cafe.”
1. The iconic orange couch was found ripped and tattered, deep in the corners of a prop basement.
It’s hard to remember a time when “Friends” wasn’t a huge money-making, cultural hit. But in the early days the show, the series just had a regular sitcom budget. That forced Grande to use materials that were within arm’s reach.
“The first thing I did was scour the Warner Bros. prop house,” Grande explained. “Literally in the basement, deep in one of the corners of the basement, was this sofa that was absolutely beautiful and the line of it was just gorgeous. It was very tattered. We cleaned it up a little bit, it had quite a few rips in the fabric. But we cleaned up.”
Not enough for NBC it turns out. The network had Grande reupholster the couch and clean it up even more. Grande said that the still memorable but slightly less recognizable green chair was also found in that basement. Grande attempted to find out what Warner Bros. had used these seats for in the past, but never had luck.
The orange sofa, along with the rest of the Central Perk set, is on display at the Warner Bros. VIP Studio Tour in Burbank, California.
2. The frame around the peephole was originally supposed to have a picture, but then the glass was accidentally broken.
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Unfortunately, Arnold’s Turtle, which was a vegetarian restaurant, is no longer open. In it’s place — at 51 Bank Street — is now Hamilton’s Soda Fountain & Luncheonette. Not exactly Central Perk, but, for superfans, maybe worth a trip.
Both Shaffner and Greg Grande talked about how this was sort of “before the coffee craze.” So despite pictures of New York coffee shops, the main inspiration came from, as Shaffner said, “yesteryears bohemian coffee shops where people really came in and hung and played music and did all that stuff.” Grande also mentioned Internet cafes where people would actually hang out for a few hours as a reasoning for why these friends would spend so much time at Central Perk.
BONUS: Yes, the orange couch at Central Perk was always reserved, it just wasn’t supposed to take us 10 years to discover that.
Bustle recently pointed out that the reason the characters always got their spot at Central Perk was because there was a very subtle “Reserved” placard on the coffee table. This realization briefly broke the Internet.
“Early on in season one, as we always found them at that table and the discussion was now, ‘They got there early. Or they were the first ones there. Or why do they always get this table?'” Grande said. “So the smartest solution was just to actually put together a reserved table and let your imagination, suspend your imagination so that as we progressed in the years — who knew it was going to be 10 years? — it was theirs.”
He added, simply: “That was always their space, so we put a reserved sign on it.”
Above image is screenshot from “Friends.” All other images Getty unless otherwise noted.
