Can you imagine a world where Joey and Chandler didn’t live across from Monica and Rachel? I’d rather not — but it almost happened.
The beloved show’s production designer John Shaffner recently revealed to Architectural Digest that his initial model for the set of Monica (Courteney Cox) and Rachel’s (Jennifer Aniston) New York City apartment featured an entrance area just outside the hallway. But executive producer Kevin Bright actually turned down the extra space for the pilot at first.
Shaffner recalled pushing back on the idea, telling Bright at the time, “I think we should have another working space for the performance. And don’t you think that ultimately the boys [Matt LeBlanc’s Joey and the late Matthew Perry‘s Chandler] should live across the hall?”
Bright was ultimately convinced to leave the extra space, leading to plenty of memorable Friends moments in that hallway throughout the show’s 10-season run, from 1994 to 2004.
Shaffner also revealed to AD that he initially had the two apartments on the building’s top floor for season one, as he thought it would be funny to see the cast huffing and puffing every time they finally reached the landing.
“It was a moment we went, ‘Oh, can’t do that. That joke will be too old,’” Shaffner explained. “So we dropped them down a few floors and never talked about it again.” (Monica’s apartment number actually changes between seasons one and two.)
The design for the show’s New York City apartment building was also notably personal for Shaffner as it was nearly identical to his old sixth-floor walk-up in Manhattan that he shared with his partner Joe Stewart. Throughout his time creating the sets, he continued to pull from real-life memories and details to help bring the Friends world to life.
“Our world of New York that we created for 10 years [in the show] was, in a weird kind of way, a soft landing place of New York,” he said. “We romanticized it. I mean, where else would you leave your apartment door unlocked?”
