I'm going to break the episodes up in separate posts (meaning 6.02 gets its own post, 6.03 gets its own post, and 6.04 gets its own post).
I also will be taking excerpts from the transcripts at The Complete Friends Script Index so you guys can see the changes that were made. :)
By the way, the script changes in this post are in caps (only the actions are. Dialogue is regular...) because that's the format.
And off we go!
S P O I L E R S
J U S T
I N
C A S E . . . . .
The broadcast version where Ross was telling Phoebe why he didn't get an annulment went like this:
Ross: Well, I tried! But when I got to my lawyer’s office all I could hear was, "Three divorces. Three divorces!" Look, I just don’t want my tombstone to read, Ross Gellar, Three Divorces.
The script version says:
Ross: Well, I tried. But I got to my lawyer's office, and I kept hearing "three divorces, three divorces." Yes, in that high voice. Pheebs, I don't want my tombstone to say Ross Geller: Three Divorces.
Later in the broadcast version, after Phoebe tells Ross his tombstone can say anything he wants:
PHOEBE: So okay what? You’re gonna be married to a girl who doesn’t even know about it?!—Op, woman! Sorry. ROSS: Well, okay so, I don’t have it all worked out quite yet. Just don’t say anything to Rachel, please? PHOEBE: Rachel is one of my closest friends. (Pause) Although, being the only one who knows anything about this does makes me feel special. Okay!
Script version:
ROSS: Okay, so maybe I don't have it all worked out yet. But please, don't say anything to Rachel. PHOEBE (CONSIDERING IT): Rachel is a close friend of mine. But she could use a little comeuppance.
Later in the broadcast version, Monica and Chandler dread telling Joey and Rachel they're moving in together:
MONICA: Y’know, I really have to tell Rachel, but I… We just have to get it over with! Y’know, the next time we see them we’re just gonna tell them. Okay? That’s it. CHANDLER: Oh, so that’s this is gonna work now? You’re just gonna order me around all the time? MONICA: Pretty much. CHANDLER: All right.
The script says this:
MONICA: Y’know, I really have to tell Rachel, but I… We just have to get it over with! Y’know, the next time we see them we’re just gonna tell them. Okay? That’s it. CHANDLER: Is this how it's gonna be? You odering me around all the time? MONICA: Pretty much. CHANDLER: Okay. MONICA: I'm so excited about you living here! CHANDLER: Me, too. Just look at the size of this living room. And the great kitchen. And the clean bathroom. And the balcony.
MONICA SHOOTS HIM A LOOK
CHANDLER: Would be the perfect place for me to tell the world how much I love my Monica!
In the broadcast version, Chandler consoles Joey by saying:
CHANDLER: Look, I-I’m just gonna be right across the hall and I promise you, the minute Monica and I break up I’m moving right back in with you!
In the script, Monica says:
CHANDLER: Look, I-I’m just gonna be right across the hall and I promise you, the minute Monica and I break up I’m moving right back in with you! MONICA: Maybe that's now.
The scene then moves to Monica entering central Perk. But before that, there's a Phoebe/Ross interaction:
PHOEBE (reading a magazine): Oh, look, here's an article about people who marry people and don't tell them. ROSS: Really? PHOEBE: Yes, I'm reading Ross Geller Magazine.
The broadcast version skips this and moves right into Monica telling Phoebe she's moving in with Chandler:
MONICA: Hey Pheebs! PHOEBE: Hey! MONICA: Hey, have you seen Rachel? PHOEBE: No, why? MONICA: I have some pretty exciting news! PHOEBE: (gasps) You’re pregnant! MONICA: No! Chandler and I are moving in together!
The script goes like this:
MONICA: Hey, have you seen Rachel? PHOEBE: No, why? MONICA: Well, I have some pretty exciting news! PHOEBE (gasps): You’re pregnant! MONICA: Is this a really unflattering shirt or something? No, Phoebe, Chandler and I are moving in together! PHOEBE (excited): And...? MONICA: That's it. We're moving in together.
Phoebe teasing Ross when Monica wants them to tell Rachel bad news so hers isn't as bad in the broadcast version went like this:
ROSS: Could ya just, could ya just lay off, please? All right? My life is an embarrassment! I should go live under somebody’s stairs!
The script version says:
ROSS: Could ya just, could ya just lay off, please? All right? My life is an embarrassment! I shouldn't even be allowed in public.
Phoebe has a monologue where she cheers up Ross in the broadcast version:
PHOEBE: Y’know that’s really fair. Y’know? Most guys who have been divorced three times are like 60. Ross, nobody cares about this except you! This-this embarrassment thing is all in your head! Here, I’ll show you! Come here.
In the script, it goes a little bit differently:
ROSS: Have you ever dated anyone who has been divorced three times? PHOEBE: Now, that’s not fair. Most guys who have been divorced three times are like 60. (PUTTING A GOOD SPIN ON IT) You're toung! ROSS: That is true. I am young. PHOEBE (SKEPTICAL): Well...(THEN): Anyway, nobody cares about this except you! This embarrassment is all in your head! Here, I’ll show you!
Rachel has work problems in the broadcast version:
RACHEL: Ugh, the worse day! Y’know, you think you’re making progress at work and then your boss calls you Raquel. CHANDLER: Hey listen, for the first four years of my work everybody called me Sha-la-lap. (Awkward silence ensues.) Seriously. RACHEL: I believe you. So, it was right in the middle of a staff meeting so of course no one else wants to correct her so everyone else is calling me Raquel! By the end of the day, the mailroom guys were calling me Rocky! CHANDLER: Well, I-I still think you’re very-very nice and very pretty
The script version is a little different, and not quite that funny...
RACHEL: Ugh, I had the worst day. Y'know, you think you're finally making progress at work, and then your boss calls you Raquel. CHANDLER: Yeah, that's happened to me. RACHEL: And it was right in the middle of a staff meeting. So, of course, no one wants to correct her so everone else starts calling me Raquel. So now I'm just Raquel. CHANDLER: Well, either way, you're very nice and really very pretty.
In the broadcast version, Phoebe asks Meg, on of the three women on the couch in Central Perk, if she'd like a date with Ross:
PHOEBE: (interrupting) Whatever! What about you Meg? MEG: Well, I don’t care about the divorces either, but I wouldn’t date him. It’s just that he’s obviously still in love with this Rachel girl. ROSS: What?! PHOEBE: (leaning to him) She said, "He's obviously still in love with this Rachel girl." (He glares at her.)
In the script, it goes like this:
PHOEBE: (interrupting) Whatever! What about you Meg? MEG: Well, I don’t care about the divorces either.
ROSS SMILES.
MEG: But I wouldn’t date him.
ROSS' FACE FALLS.
PHOEBE (SOTTO, TO MEG): He normally doesn't sweat this much. MEG: It’s just that he’s obviously still in love with this Rachel girl.
THERE IS A PAUSE. ROSS LOOKS SHOCKED.
PHOEBE: Wow, and to think I was getting bored with you ladies.
The broadcast version continues like this:
ROSS: This is crazy! I mean, yes-yes Rachel is my good friend and I-I have loved her in the past, but now, she is just my wife! Phoebe, will you-will you help me out here? PHOEBE: Well, I thought you loved her when you-when you married her. ROSS: We were drunk! I would’ve married uh, Joey with that amount of alcohol!
The script has this extra line:
ROSS: This is crazy! I mean, yes-yes Rachel is my good friend and I-I have loved her in the past, but now, she is just my wife! Phoebe, will you-will you help me out here? PHOEBE: Well, I thought you loved her when you said her name instead of Emily's. And then I thought you loved her when you married her. ROSS: We were drunk! I would’ve married uh, Joey with that amount of alcohol!
After Monica tells Rachel that she's gonna live alone with Chandler, the broadcast version switched to this scene in Chandler and Joey's apartment:
JOEY: God, it’s gonna so weird like when I come home and you’re not here. Y’know? No more Joey and Chan’s. No more J and C’s. "You wanna go over to Joey and Chandler’s?" "Can’t, its not there."
But here's what we didn't see, according to the script:
JOEY IS GOING THROUGH SOME VIDEOS.
JOEY: Yours. Yours. Mine. Aww, it's the first video we ever bought together. CHANDLER: I bought that.
JOEY LOOKS IN THE CASE. IT'S EMPTY.
JOEY: (NOSTALGIC) Yeah, and I lost it.
The broadcast version continues from the Joey and Chan's bit to this:
JOEY Yeah but we won’t be able to like get up in the middle of the night and have those long talks about our feelings and the future. CHANDLER: Not once did we do that.
The following joke was in the script but forever lost on the editing room floor...or wherever lost clips go ;)
JOEY: What about that night? It was late and I was feeling sick, and you said I would feel better tomorrow. CHANDLER (FONDLY): Yeah, I remember that night. JOEY: I'm really gonna miss living with you. CHANDLER: Me too, man.
THEY BOTH LOOK TO THE CEILING REMEMBERING THE GOOD TIMES. THEY NOTICE SOMETHING.
JOEY: What the hell is that? CHANDLER: That's disgusting.
In the broadcast version, Monica enters Chandler and Joey's apartment. She's upset about not making Rachel cry. She then says Joey cried his eyes out:
JOEY: Hey! I did not cry my eyes out!! Come on! It’s like the end of an era! No more J-man and Channie’s!! CHANDLER: Okay, I gotta ask, who calls us that?!
The script has a little extra joke:
JOEY: Hey! I did not cry my eyes out!! Come on! It’s like the end of an era! No more J-man and Channie’s!! CHANDLER: Okay, I gotta ask, who calls us that?! Because we shouldn't hang out with them anymore.
The script goes on:
MONICA: Didn't we have as much fun? Don't I deserve a few tears? CHANDLER: You're a strange woman. MONICA (LOOKING UP): Oh my God. What is that?
The script and broadcast version are pretty much the same up until the tag. Even the tag is the same, except for the Ross part.
Here's the broadcast version:
[Scene: Central Perk, Joey and Phoebe are talking.] JOEY: So, Ross and Rachel got married, Monica and Chandler almost got married, do you think you and I should hook up? PHOEBE: Oh we do, but not just yet. JOEY: Really?! Well, when? PHOEBE: Okay umm, well, first Chandler and Monica will get married and be filthy rich by the way. Yeah. But it won’t work out. JOEY: Wow. PHOEBE: I know. Then, I’m gonna marry Chandler for the money and you’ll marry Rachel and have the beautiful kids. JOEY: Great! PHOEBE: But then we ditch those two and that’s when we get married. We’ll have Chandler’s money and Rachel’s kids and getting custody will be easy because of Rachel’s drinking problem. JOEY: Oh-oh, what about Ross? PHOEBE: I don’t want to go into the whole thing, but umm, we have words and I kill him.
The script is like this:
JOEY: So, Ross and Rachel got married, Monica and Chandler almost got married, do you think you and I should hook up? PHOEBE: Oh we do, but not just yet. JOEY: Really?! Well, when? PHOEBE: Okay umm, well, first Chandler and Monica will get married and be filthy rich by the way. Yeah. But it won’t work out. JOEY: Wow. PHOEBE: I know. Then, I’m gonna marry Chandler for the money and you’ll marry Rachel and have the beautiful kids. JOEY: Great! PHOEBE: But then we ditch those two and that’s when we get married. We’ll have Chandler’s money and Rachel’s kids and getting custody will be easy because of Rachel’s drinking problem. JOEY: Oh-oh, what about Ross? PHOEBE: I don’t want to go into the whole thing, but he manages well with one eye.
MY COMMENTS:
I thought the differences in the script should've been kept. The Ross Geller Magazine bit was a pure Phoebism.
And Chandler's wit was much more prominent in the draft as compared to the final product.
The Ross/Rach situation remained pretty much the same (by the way, I got the final drafts, so that might explain it. But when Rach gets the telephone call in TOW Joey Loses His Insurance is much different).
Just my $.02...
I might get 6.03 up tonight... if I don't expect it tomorrow. -Andy
Monica: "Look, if you're going to be totally rational about this, I can't argue with you."
-"The One With The Ride Along"