From Gunther’s first words to Smelly Cat: take our fiendishly difficult Friends 30th anniversary quiz

Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry, Jennifer Aniston , David Schwimmer, Courteney Cox and Matt LeBlanc in 1994. Photograph: Photo 12/Alamy

1. How many episodes of Friends – excluding the reunion special – were there?

   1. 36

   2. 136

   3. 236

   4. 336

2. What number was Monica's apartment?

   1. 5

   2. 20

   3. 36

   4. It is impossible to give a definitive answer

3. True or false: all six main characters as played by Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer appear in every single episode of Friends?

   1. It's true – they all appear in every episode

   2. It is not true – in series six, Chandler and Monica are missing from two entire episodes while they are on a road trip due to scheduling clashes with Courteney Cox and Matthew Perry

4. 

   Which of these is a real name of one of the monkeys that played Marcel?

   1. Mary

   2. Eliza

   3. Sarah

   4. Katie

5. Where did Monica Geller mostly work as a chef?

   1. Rosario's

   2. Faustino's

   3. Allesandro's

   4. Ottaviano's

6. What was the name of Joey Tribbiani's agent, played by June Gable?

   1. Estelle Leonard

   2. Mindy Hunter

   3. Kate Miller

   4. Emily Waltham

7. Joey played Drake Ramoray. But what was the name of his evil twin, invented by Ross, to try to confuse Joey's stalker Erika Ford?

   1. Emil Ramoray

   2. Hans Ramoray

   3. Jannik Ramoray

   4. Roman Ramoray

8. Talking of Joey's stalker Erika Ford, which celebrity cameo was she?

   1. Christina Applegate

   2. Anna Faris

   3. Helen Hunt

   4. Brooke Shields

9. And what was the name of the TV show that Joey was in?

   1. Time of our Lives

   2. Fine Old Time

   3. Days of our Lives

   4. The Golden Old Days

10. The first ever line in Friends is “There's nothing to tell! It's just some guy I work with” but which character said it?

    1. Monica Geller

    2. Rachel Green

    3. Phoebe Buffay

11. What was the name of Chandler's incredibly screechy girlfriend played so expertly by Maggie Wheeler?

    1. Ruth

    2. Talia

    3. Elana

    4. Janice

12. 

    The lovely late James Michael Tyler played Gunther behind the counter at Central Perk and appeared quietly in the background of lots of scene. How many episodes did he have to wait to get his first actual line?

    1. 11

    2. 22

    3. 33

    4. 43

13. Everybody knows the theme tune to Friends is by the Rembrandts. But which band had their song initially selected for the opening theme, only to turn it down?

    1. U2

    2. REM

    3. Bon Jovi

    4. Weezer

14. What are Rachel's parents called?

    1. Charles and Nora

    2. Jack and Judy

    3. Leonard and Sandra

    4. Frank and Lily

15. How many times in the show did they depict Rachel and Chandler meeting for the first time?

    1. Never – it was immediately established they'd known each other a while

    2. Once – in the opening episode

    3. Twice – in the opening episode and then again on a different occasion during a flashback sequence

    4. Thrice – in the opening episode and then again on a different occasion during a flashback sequence and then again on a different second occasion during a second flashback sequence

16. What is the next line in the opening verse of Phoebe's appalling song after "Smelly Cat, Smelly Cat, What are they feeding you? Smelly Cat, Smelly Cat …"

    1. They can't love you

    2. It's not your fault

    3. You've gotten so fat

    4. Jesus that smell

17. True or false: there was a Friends game for the PS2, XBox and PC?

    1. True – there was!

    2. False – absolutely no way was there

18. And the very last question: who said the very last line in Friends?

    1. Matthew Perry

    2. Courteney Cox

    3. Jennifer Aniston

    4. Paul Rudd (who was guesting as Mike Hannigan in season nine and ten)

Solutions

1:C - Ten seasons, 236 episodes, six friends, 2:D - Indeed, in the opening season the flat was clearly number five in the apartment block, but that implied it would be on a low floor, so in later seasons it became number 20, 3:A - They are all in them all, 4:D - There were actually two animals used. The one that wasn't called Katie was imaginatively called Monkey, which must be annoying if there are a few of them in a room and you shout "Monkey!" and they all turn and look at you when you only wanted Monkey to respond, 5:C - She works there from season four to season nine, 6:A - Gable made appearances across eight of the show's 10 seasons, 7:B - It was Hans. Erika Ford was struggling with the concept that Joey was a separate person from his TV character, 8:D - It was Brooke Shields. She was told she would find the real Drake Ramoray/Joey in Salem, and was never seen again, 9:C - He got killed off in the show after he upset the writers by boasting in an interview that he came up with most of his own lines, 10:A - She is talking about a date she has planned for later that night, 11:D - Janice Litman-Goralnik featured in every season, with Chandler's attempts to dump her being a major plot line of the first few episodes, 12:C - He was given one word: "Yeah", 13:B - The producers originally selected Shiny Happy People as the theme, but Michael Stipe and co declined to play ball. Rumours that execs literally just then picked the next band alphabetically on their long list of bands are not true, 14:C - They were played by Ron Leibman and Marlo Thomas, 15:D - Imagine how sci-fi fans would feel if you kept altering the timelines like this, 16:B - Phoebe does later chastise the cat for its fatness, but the song at least starts by apportioning the blame for the smell on the cat's owners, not the cat, 17:A - There was. It was a trivia game and was voiced by several minor recurring characters including Gunther and the Geller's parents, 18:A - The show ended with the suggestion the Friends get one final New York coffee together, with Chandler saying "Sure. Where?"

Scores

1. 0 and above.

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