Throughout Friends’ 10-season run, the sitcom had a gaggle of iconic guest stars coming through. While some of them were recurring, others were just fun one-offs, including ER stars George Clooney and Noah Wyle. The duo appeared in a very early Friends episode together, and I am loving how it all came together.
When Clooney and Wyle weren’t saving lives at Cook County General Hospital as Dr. Doug Ross and medical student John Carter on ER, the two briefly took a break to play doctors on the Friends Season 1 episode, “The One With Two Parts: Part Two.” The episode saw Rachel and Monica having to go to the hospital after Rachel hurts herself, and the two, having swapped identities since Rachel didn’t have insurance, go on a date with Clooney and Wyle’s characters, who are not Doug and John.
While the crossover may seem like a somewhat random one in the hindsight of 2025, it’s not as random as you would think. Both NBC shows were coming up at the same time and filmed at Warner Bros. Studio in LA. Wyle told People that he and the future Oscar winner couldn’t keep away from the Friends set during downtime, and that’s when someone got the brilliant idea:
[George and I] would go over there and watch them tape. We would wrap, and then we'd go over there and watch them tape their show just because we were all buddies. And I think the fact that we were there hanging out put a bug in — put the idea in somebody's mind.
Considering that episode of Friends is definitely one of my favorites, and I have wondered for years how Clooney and Wyle were chosen, it makes a lot of sense now. It’s not surprising that the two casts would become close since they had a lot in common. Wyle reflected on filming the episode and how natural it all felt, and the Friends guest appearance just keeps getting better:
So it felt quite natural and quite organic to have all these people that I knew and liked, to see them be on these shows that were very popular. We were all working hard and selling them hard, and it was a great time.
Friends remains one of the best shows streaming on Max, and it’s always fun seeing Clooney and Wyle pop up during every rewatch. It would have been even more fun if they played their ER characters who were just in New York for some conference or something, but their characters on Friends were pretty entertaining regardless. Plus, they still played doctors, and they still definitely melted hearts whenever they were on the screen.
Now that Wyle is once again playing a doctor on Max’s hit new show The Pitt, which has been renewed for a second season, perhaps someone from Friends or ER can make an appearance. If that were to happen, the episode would be filled with nostalgia, and it’s something that I would absolutely love to see. But for now, fans will have to settle with what they have. Both Friends and ER are streaming in full with a Max subscription.
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