} Each of the following characters of
Friends may or may not be particularly significant to the story of the series; each was introduced in one season and would usually appear in subsequent seasons.
Introduced in Season 1 Gunther Gunther (
James Michael Tyler): The manager of the Central Perk coffee house, who first appears as a background character in "The One with the Sonogram at the End". He is a former actor who once played Bryce on
All My Children before that character was "killed in an avalanche." Gunther develops an
unrequited crush on Rachel in the third season, which he keeps to himself until "
The Last One". Gunther appears in a majority of the episodes, but only occasionally calls attention to himself and almost never has a large role in the plot of an episode. In "The One with The Stain", Gunther is shown to be fluent in
Dutch (although with a strong American accent), calling Ross an "
ezel" as he converses with him. James Michael Tyler was cast as Gunther because he was the only extra who could competently work the cappuccino machine on the Central Perk set. Tyler appears as Gunther in a co-host voice-over in the
Friends trivia game for
PS2, PC and
Xbox, and in the board game
Friends: Scene It?.
The Seattle Times ranked Gunther as the eighth best guest character of the series in 2004. Aside from the main cast, he appears in the most episodes.
Jack and Judy Geller portrayed Jack Geller, Ross and Monica's father, in 20 episodes, spanning from 1994 to 2003.
Jack (
Elliott Gould) and
Judy Geller (
Christina Pickles): Ross and Monica's parents. In early appearances, Jack frequently makes inappropriate comments, which he punctuates by exclaiming "I'm just
saying...!", while Judy makes condescending remarks about Monica's lack of a love life and sometimes forgets her daughter even exists, while overtly favoring Ross. Jack is more balanced in his attention and care towards both Ross and Monica, though after the Gellers sell their house in season 7, it is revealed that Jack used boxes of Monica's old stuff to block rainwater from getting to his
Porsche. As penance, Jack decides to gift Monica the Porsche. Despite each of them having their own quirks, they are occasionally dumbfounded by the crazy antics of their son and daughter, such as Ross' disastrous wedding to Emily and Monica's ridiculous speech at their 35th anniversary party. They are also sometimes bemused by the antics of the other four friends, such as idiotic or crazy comments from Phoebe and Joey, a revolting trifle cooked by Rachel, and Chandler entering a coed whirlpool alongside Jack without wearing anything underneath the towel wrapped around his waist. In the season 10 episode The One with The Cake, the couple record a message for their granddaughter's 18th birthday in which they state they might not be around by then. Pickles was nominated for the
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for her appearance in "The One Where Nana Dies Twice" in 1995. In 2004,
The Seattle Times ranked Jack and Judy jointly as the second best guest characters of the series. and is having the baby with her partner Susan, though she wishes Ross to be part of the baby's life. Carol and Susan are often bemused by Ross' behavior throughout his onscreen appearances with them. Though Ross and Carol are on good terms after their divorce, Ross resents Susan for losing Carol to her. Although Susan and Ross are initially, naturally enough, often at odds, they briefly put aside their differences when Carol gives birth to a boy, whom they all agree, after weeks of argument, to name Ben. Carol and Susan announce their plans to get married in "
The One with the Lesbian Wedding", but Carol's parents refuse to attend the wedding, leading Carol to doubt her decision. Ross, initially hesitant to see his ex-wife remarry, finds himself in the position of being the one to encourage her to go ahead with the ceremony despite her parents' opposition. At the reception, Susan thanks Ross for his part in saving the wedding, and offers to dance with him; he agrees, apparently resolving their strained relationship. Carol and Susan make irregular appearances until "The One That Could Have Been" (Susan), and "The One with the Truth About London" (Carol). Carol and Susan were based on creators
Marta Kauffman and
David Crane's best friends in New York: "We didn't create them for any particular political reason or because of lesbian chic. It was just an opportunity to tell a really interesting story." The characters were called a positive example of a gay couple on television by
GLAAD. Jessica Hecht originally auditioned to play Monica.
Janice Litman-Goralnik Janice Litman-Goralnik (née
Hosenstein) (
Maggie Wheeler): Chandler's on-again, off-again girlfriend for the first four seasons. Janice is one of the few supporting characters who appears in all of the
Friends seasons (along with Gunther and Ross and Monica's parents). She has a distinctive nasal voice, a machine gun laugh, and a thick New York accent, all of which annoy the friends, especially Joey. She first appears in "The One with the East German Laundry Detergent", when Chandler breaks up with her (through Phoebe); he then invites her to New Year's in a moment of weakness, only to dump her again before midnight. She then shows up as Chandler's blind date the night before Valentine's Day where they sleep together; Chandler breaks up with her the next day but she is fine with it, telling him she knows they will meet again. In season two, in the wake of Mr. Heckles' death, Chandler resolves not to die alone and calls Janice, but is disappointed to discover that she is married and pregnant. In "The One with Barry and Mindy's Wedding", Chandler arranges a meeting with a mystery woman over the Internet, who turns out to be Janice, who reveals that her husband is having an affair with his secretary and that they are divorcing. To the surprise of the others, and to Joey's indignance, Chandler stays with Janice through the beginning of the third season, having fallen in love with her and no longer finding her annoying. Joey later sees Janice kissing her husband Gary while in the midst of their divorce and tells Chandler. Chandler confronts Janice, who admits that she loves both men. However, Joey implies to Chandler that were he in his position, he would not try to interfere with Janice being happy with the father of her child. This, combined with Chandler's lingering trauma from his own parents' divorce, leads to the end of their relationship in "The One with the Giant Poking Device" when Chandler urges Janice to go back to her husband, not wanting to destroy her family. Following this, Janice becomes a
running gag on the show, appearing in some form in one episode per season (two in season 8 when counting "
The One Where Rachel Has a Baby" as two separate episodes) from season 4 onwards. When Janice returns to Chandler's life, having finally gotten divorced after her reconciliation fell through, Chandler finds her insufferable again, and pretends to move to
Yemen to get away from her. In season five, Janice has a brief fling with Ross shortly after he has broken up with Emily, where he spends the entire date complaining about everything, causing her to find him insufferable and leave him, with the irony of the situation quickly dawning on him and persuading him to get his act together; she then implies to Joey that she will date him next. She later makes a voice cameo on a mix tape that Chandler plays for Monica, having passed it off as his own and not knowing Janice had made it for him. When Chandler and Monica become engaged, Janice re-enters their lives and, now mostly over Chandler, attempts to forcibly invite herself to the wedding; she only leaves when Monica states that Chandler still has feelings for her. When Ross and Rachel await the birth of their daughter Emma in season 8, Janice and her new, partially-deaf husband Sid are placed in the same labor room as Rachel; she gives birth to a son, Aaron, who she jokes will be Emma's future husband. She also strongly advises Rachel that Ross will not stay around to raise the baby if they are not married, citing how her own ex-husband is largely estranged from their daughter. In season 9, as Monica and Chandler make plans to have children, they go to a fertility clinic where Janice and Sid are coincidentally visiting; when Chandler worries about his sperm, she offers Chandler advice and support. In season 10, Janice and her family come close to buying a house next door to the one Monica and Chandler are buying; to get rid of her, Chandler once again pretends he still loves her, causing her to become fearful that they will end up ruining their marriages if she lives next door to him, so she decides not to buy the house after all. She leaves, seemingly for good, but does kiss him one last time before she goes. Throughout the series, Janice enjoys spending time with the six friends, which is ironic and very inconvenient for them, since none of them can stand to be around her. She utters her catchphrase, "
Ohhh—myyy—Gawd!", almost every time she re-enters the show, and Chandler sometimes imitates her with it. Janice's distinctive laugh was born out of a slip-up Wheeler made during the rehearsal of "The One with the East German Laundry Detergent";
The Seattle Times ranked Janice as the best guest character of the series in 2004.
David played David, Phoebe's recurring love interest, in 1994, 2001 and 2003.
David, "the Scientist Guy" (
Hank Azaria): a physicist with whom Phoebe falls in love in "
The One with the Monkey", when he receives an academic grant for a three-year research trip to
Minsk (incorrectly—and consistently—described in the scripts as being in Russia, rather than Belarus). Two years later, he returns for another visit in "The One with the Male Nanny", where he kisses Phoebe before she admits she is seeing
Mike Hannigan, who catches them together. He returns permanently in "The One with the Donor", having failed in his research, and when he finds out that Phoebe and Mike have broken up, he and Phoebe begin dating again. In "
The One in Barbados—Part 1", David proposes to Phoebe but is turned down in favor of Mike. In 2003, Azaria was nominated for the
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his performance. Azaria originally auditioned for the role of Joey.
Nora Tyler Bing Nora Tyler Bing (
Morgan Fairchild): Chandler's mother, a best-selling erotic novelist whose works include
Euphoria Unbound,
Euphoria At Midnight and
Mistress Bitch. She first appears in "The One with Mrs. Bing", where she meets the gang while on a book tour in New York. She divorced Chandler's father after discovering his affair with the family's pool boy, and the news explained Chandler's intense dislike for Thanksgiving. According to the shows creators, Nora was inspired by outspoken female characters from 1980s television dramas, and her strained yet humorous relationship with Chandler is used to explore themes of embarrassment, identity, and parental boundaries. After dinner, she kisses Ross. She makes a cameo appearance in the flashback scenes of "
The One with All the Thanksgivings" and later appears in "
The One with Monica and Chandler's Wedding" (with
Kathleen Turner as Chandler's dad) and "The One After 'I Do.
The Seattle Times ranked Nora and her ex-husband jointly as the fifth best guest characters in 2004. (his final show)—in which he is moving out of his apartment and Ross tries to get the apartment by ingratiating himself with Ugly Naked Guy by cavorting with him in the nude. (In "The One with the Flashback", it is learned that he used to be "Cute Naked Guy", but then, in 1993, started putting on weight). For many years, the identity of the actor that played him in his extremely limited appearances was a mystery. It was speculated that
Mike Hagerty, the actor who played Mr. Treeger, was Ugly Naked Guy. However, Hagerty denied this theory. On May 31, 2016, an article was published by Todd Van Luling in
The Huffington Post, detailing his search for the identity of Ugly Naked Guy. His article revealed that an actor named Jon Haugen played the role.
Introduced in season 2 Estelle Leonard Estelle Leonard (
June Gable): Joey's talent agent. She is usually seen wearing colorful clothes, heavy make-up, and a
bouffant. She chain smokes and has a strong New York accent. Gable's first appearance as Estelle, in "The One with the Butt", was cut for time, though the character appears off-screen when she signs Joey and lands him his first film role, playing Al Pacino's butt-double. The cut scene is included in the episode's DVD release. Her first on-screen appearance comes in season 2's "The One with Russ", where she gets Joey a recurring part in
Days of Our Lives. Although she is shown to be supportive of Joey's career throughout the show, in "The One Where Joey Loses His Health Insurance" it is suggested she has instead been bad-mouthing him after mistakenly assuming he has found another agent. She dies in the final season, In 2004,
The Seattle Times ranked Estelle as the sixth-best guest character of the series. and they begin dating despite their 21-year age difference. Ross is initially upset, but becomes supportive of their relationship, especially when Monica decides to tell their parents. This does not go well at first, but even Monica's parents have to admit that they've never seen Richard happier and that he's not just "fooling around" with a younger woman. He and Monica break up in "The One with Barry and Mindy's Wedding" and later they briefly attempt to rekindle their romance as "friends" before accepting that the reasons they broke up remain valid. In "
The One in Vegas", Monica and Richard bump into each other off-screen and have lunch together. Monica does not feel anything for Richard but refrains from telling Chandler because of their upcoming anniversary. When he learns the truth, they fight for most of the episode until Monica assures Chandler that she will never see Richard again. In "
The One with the Proposal", he runs into Monica and Chandler at dinner. While Chandler is planning to propose but pretends to be against marriage because he "wants it to be a surprise", Richard stuns Monica by telling her that he still loves her, and wants to marry her and have kids with her. Monica rejects him but later arrives at his apartment, frustrated with her own situation. She complains to him for a bit about how bad things are going in her love life before leaving to think things over. Eventually, Chandler comes to his apartment searching for Monica and tells Richard of his own proposal plan. Richard seems to lack sympathy for Chandler at first, responding to Chandler explaining away his plan to make her initially think he was against marriage by stating it had "worked very well" but when Chandler angrily tells him he has no right to ruin another man's relationship with her because he's already ruined his own, he realizes Chandler is right and tells him, "You go get her, Chandler. And can I give you a bit of advice? If you get her, don't let her go. Trust me" — noting that he hates the fact that he is a nice guy when Chandler thanks him. His apartment is put up for sale in season 9, in "The One with Ross's Inappropriate Song", but Richard is not seen. While there, Chandler finds out that Richard made a
sex tape with Monica which he steals and watches, but he and Monica later discover that Richard taped over her, relieving Chandler but leaving Monica feeling insulted. All of Selleck's entrances in season 2 had to be refilmed after the audience left because "it was like The Beatles with the screaming and the applause". Selleck was nominated for the
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series in 2000 for his appearance in "The One with the Proposal". In 2004,
The Seattle Times ranked Richard as the third-best guest character of the series. she arrives at Rachel's birthday party and is unaware for the whole night that her ex-husband is also there, as the six friends successfully prevent them from finding out each other are there by setting up two different parties, bemusing them both with their strange, wacky behavior in the process; Joey even ends up kissing Sandra to distract her from her ex-husband's departure. In "The One with the Baby Shower", she is invited at the last minute to attend Rachel's baby shower, where she offers to move in with Ross and Rachel to help with the baby's first months; Rachel first accepts, then Ross makes her change her mind. When Rachel was planning to move to Paris, Sandra would fly out with Emma a few days later. However this never happens as Rachel chooses to remain in New York with Ross. For her appearance in "The One with the Lesbian Wedding", Thomas was nominated for the
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series in 1996.
Frank Buffay Jr. Frank Buffay Jr. (
Giovanni Ribisi): Phoebe and Ursula's half-brother by their father. In "The One with the Bullies", Phoebe meets him after finding the courage to knock on her father's suburban door, but learns from Frank Jr.'s mother (played by
Laraine Newman) that her father walked out several years ago. Despite not finding her father, she connects with Frank Jr. who later visits the city where he hits on Jasmine, one of Phoebe's coworkers, and mistakes her massage parlor for a whorehouse. He eventually falls in love with and becomes engaged to Alice Knight (
Debra Jo Rupp), his former home-economics teacher who is 26 years his senior. In "The One with Phoebe's Uterus", Frank and Alice ask Phoebe to be a surrogate mother for their child, and she later gives birth to their triplets, whom she then says goodbye to in an emotional scene in "
The One Hundredth". Frank makes a final appearance in "The One Where Ross is Fine", when he and the triplets meet Phoebe at Central Perk. In the episode, he claims he "hasn't slept in four years" and is so exhausted with raising the triplets he even proposed that Phoebe take one for her own. However, he soon realizes he loves his children too much to give any of them up; Phoebe proposes to start babysitting them so that Frank and Alice can enjoy some more time off. Previously, Ribisi appeared in "The One with the Baby on the Bus" as a stranger who leaves a condom rather than money in Phoebe's guitar case when she is singing on the street, then comes back to retrieve it. It was never addressed if this was intended to be the same character as Frank, who had not yet been introduced by name. In 2004,
The Seattle Times ranked Frank as the fourth-best guest character of the series.
Introduced in season 4 Emily Waltham Emily Waltham (
Helen Baxendale): The English niece of Rachel's boss Mr. Waltham, who arrives for a two-week visit to New York in "The One with Joey's Dirty Day". She has a whirlwind romance with Ross and they decide to get married. Her friendly relationship with Rachel soon changes during the wedding. The friends fly to London for their wedding in "The One with Ross's Wedding" (airdate May 7, 1998; Season 4, No. 23 & 24), and Ross accidentally says Rachel's name at the altar, humiliating Emily in front of her friends and family. She aims to reconcile with him at the airport in "The One After Ross Says Rachel" (airdate September 24, 1998; Season 5, No. 1) but sees Rachel with him about to go on their honeymoon and storms out again. Ross tries to convince her to move to New York. She agrees but makes him promise to get rid of everything Rachel has ever come into physical contact with in the friends' apartments (which would be virtually impossible) and she demands that he never see Rachel again. When she learns that he's having dinner with the old gang—including Rachel—she tells him she cannot trust him and she decides to end the marriage. She makes a final voice cameo in "The One with the Ride Along", when she leaves a message on Ross's answering machine the night before her new wedding, telling him she is having second thoughts about it and is worried that they made a mistake splitting up. Rachel accidentally deletes the message, but tells Ross about it and convinces him not to respond to it. In a later episode Ross reveals Emily is getting married again. Emily's surname is that of the city where both creators of the show attended college.
Patsy Kensit was originally approached to play the role but she was removed from the role after early rehearsals. Emily and Ross's marriage was intended to last much longer in the series, but Helen Baxendale became pregnant prior to season 5 and was unable to travel for the show; hence, her limited appearances after season 4. Helen Baxendale was asked to reprise the role in season 10, but turned it down to star in the West End play
After Miss Julie, and because she did not want the same level of tabloid attention she received in 1998.
Introduced in season 7 Tag Jones recurred as Tag Jones in six episodes of season 7 and one episode of season 8. Tag Jones (
Eddie Cahill): Rachel's inexperienced but attractive new assistant at Polo Ralph Lauren. She hires him after being promoted, not because he is the best choice for the job but because she is smitten with him. After he also becomes interested in her they try to keep their relationship a secret from her boss Zelner; otherwise Tag's employment would be a conflict of interest. In "The One Where They All Turn Thirty" Rachel breaks up with Tag when she realizes that their six-year age difference makes him too young and immature for her to be dating if she intends to follow her marriage schedule. He reappears in "The One with the Red Sweater" in season eight when Phoebe thinks he is the father of Rachel's unborn baby. He tells Rachel that he has matured a lot since their break-up and wants to resume their relationship, but backs off when he finds out she is pregnant by someone else. He later meets up with Ross—who is the real father and is wearing the same kind of red sweater.
Charles Bing/Helena Handbasket Charles Bing/Helena Handbasket (
Kathleen Turner): Chandler's father and Nora's ex-husband, regularly referred to as an
unseen character in previous seasons. The character's gender identity is ambiguous within the series, but a later interview confirmed Charles was intended as a
transgender woman. Determined to invite them to their wedding in "The One with Chandler's Dad", Monica drags Chandler to Helena's burlesque show in Las Vegas, where they are seen for the first time, performing under the name "Helena Handbasket". Chandler invites them to the wedding, and they and Nora walk Chandler down the aisle in "The One with Monica and Chandler's Wedding, Part 1". They do not appear at the reception in "The One After 'I Do, The role was not specifically written for a black actor. Tyler told the
St Petersburg Times, "I hope [people's] frustration over [the lack of diversity] is tempered by the fact that when they wrote this role, they didn't wimp out. They wrote her so smart and sexy and elevated, she wasn't just the black girl on
Friends." ==Characters appearing in only one season==