Despite the fact that it’s been off the air for two full decades, Friends remains one of the most rewatchable shows in TV history. Many of us fanatics can recite full scenes of dialogue, if not full episodes, from all of our repeated viewing, but the same can’t be said for the stars of the show. Lisa Kudrow has admitted she doesn’t remember filming many of the episodes, and it was only recently that she felt compelled to start watching them back for herself. When she did, she revealed that there was one episode that made her particularly emotional.
Lisa Kudrow has said she was too embarrassed to watch herself on TV — even if Friends was considered one of the best sitcoms ever — but after her co-star Matthew Perry died in October 2023, she started watching it in Perry’s honor. The actress who played the hilariously off-beat Phoebe Buffay has raved about how amazing her co-stars are on the show, but it was actually her own character who caused tears to spill. Kudrow explained the Armchair Expert podcast:
The episode where Phoebe got married is on, and I’m watching it, and I got so caught up that I cried watching her, ‘cause she looked so happy! She had such a real smile. She was just, I’ve never seen Phoebe that happy.
That is the sweetest response ever, and I think lots of people had the same reaction when Phoebe got married to Mike (Paul Rudd) in Season 10’s "The One with Phoebe's Wedding."
It makes so much sense that Lisa Kudrow would have that kind of emotional attachment to Phoebe, as she was the one who literally brought her to life for a whole decade’s worth of television. Phoebe had already been through some traumatic experiences by the time we meet her in Season 1 — abandoned by her father, estranged from her twin sister and left homeless after her mother’s death. Her character finally getting her happy ending must have been such a relief for the actress as she said:
It really touched me. I was so happy for her.
On top of what we already knew about Phoebe and her family’s tragic past, she also learned over the course of the series that her late mom was not her birth mother (a fact that was revealed in a suicide note that her sister Ursula never showed her) and that Ursula had sold her birth certificate, keeping Phoebe’s middle name a mystery and causing her to think she was a year younger than she actually was.
Mike Hannigan ended up being the perfect complement to Phoebe — or should I say the perfect Crap Bag to her Princess Consuela Banana Hammock — and it’s heartwarming to think that all these years later, Lisa Kudrow still thinks so too.
If you want to relive the moments that made you cry or laugh at some of the most ridiculous episodes of Friends, all 10 seasons are available to stream with a Max subscription.
