Friends - Characters Season 1
- Jack and Judy Geller (Elliott Gould and Christina Pickles)—Ross and Monica's parents. In early appearances, Jack frequently makes inappropriate comments, which he punctuates by exclaiming "I'm just saying...!" Judy often makes condescending remarks about Monica's lack of a love life and sometimes forgets her daughter even exists, while simultaneously favoring Ross.
- 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".The Seattle Times ranked Jack and Judy jointly as the second best guest character of the series in 2004.
- Barry Farber (Mitchell Whitfield)—Rachel's jilted fiancé. Barry, an orthodontist, decides to go on his and Rachel's honeymoon with her maid of honor Mindy, and soon begins a relationship with her. Their relationship hits a rough patch when he and Rachel consider getting back together. He decides to stay with Mindy, and the two are married.They are getting divorced by the time of "The One That Could Have Been, Part 1". Barry's last name is given as "Finkle" in the pilot and "Farber" in every other appearance—except in "The One with the Flashback",where he is referred to as "Barry Barber". He has also been called "Barry White", and is possibly named as an homage to long-time NY talk show host, Barry Farber.
- Carol Willick (Anita Barone for character's debut episode, Jane Sibbett thereafter) and Susan Bunch (Jessica Hecht)—Ross' lesbian ex-wife, who came out before the pilot, and her partner. In the second episode of the series, Carol tells Ross that she is pregnant with his child, and is having it with her partner Susan. Susan does not attempt to hide her contempt of Ross and vice versa, but they briefly put aside their differences when Carol gives birth to a boy—who they all agree, after weeks of argument, to name "Ben".Carol and Susan get married in "The One with the Lesbian Wedding" and make irregular appearances until "The One That Could Have Been, Part 2" (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.
- Gunther (James Michael Tyler)—the manager of the Central Perk coffee house, who first appears as a background character in "The One with the Thumb". The character develops an unrequited crush on Rachel in the third season, which he keeps to himself until "The Last One".His jealousy of Ross is made clear numerous times, most notably in "The One the Morning After" when he reveals to Rachel that Ross cheated on her when they were "on a break". Gunther appears in nearly every episode, 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 hint of an American accent), calling Ross an ezel as he converses with him. He also claimed to have played Bryce on All My Children and was "killed in an avalanche."
- James Michael Tyler was cast as Gunther because he was the only extra who could competently work the coffee 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. When asked in 2009 by Heatworld.com what Gunther would be doing "now", Tyler joked, "He'd probably have a very traditional marriage, with lots of white-haired babies running around with hair brighter than the sun.
- Marcel (live animal actor)—a Capuchin monkey that Ross initially keeps as a pet,and who provides comic relief for his geeky master. One time Rachel loses him in the city, and calls Animal Control—only to learn from Ross that Marcel is an illegal exotic animal that cannot be kept in the city. In order to keep Animal control officer Luisa (Megan Cavanagh)—a former classmate of Rachel's and Monica's—from confiscating Marcel, Rachel threatens to tell Luisa's boss about how she shot Phoebe "in the ass with a dart" that had been meant for Marcel. Later, as Marcel sexually matures and begins to hump everything, Ross has to give him away to a zoo—"where he can have access to regular monkey-lovin'." Ultimately, Ross finds out that Marcel then got stolen from the zoo and taken into a life of show business, and—after starring in a liquor commercial—is starring in a movie in New York, where they are reunited one last time.
- Drs. Michael Mitchell (George Clooney) and Jeffrey Rosen (Noah Wyle)—two doctors that Rachel and Monica meet at a hospital, then go on a date with, with Monica and Rachel pretending to be each other for health insurance purposes—eventually causing things to go wild.
- Jill Goodacre Connick (herself)—gets trapped with Chandler in an ATM vestibule in "The One with the Blackout". Chandler uses his cell phone to tell Joey and the others, engages in awkward conversion with her, and finally lets her play a "spin the phone pen over your head" game with him.
- Janice Litman Goralnick (née Hosenstein) (Maggie Wheeler)—Chandler's on-again off-again girlfriend for the first four seasons. Janice is one of the few characters besides the six main friends who appears in all of the Friends seasons. Chandler has trouble dumping her in "The One with the East German Laundry Detergent" but gets back together with her for New Year's and for Valentine's. When Chandler, in the wake of Mr. Heckles' death, resolves not to die alone, he 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. Their relationship lasts into the third season, when Janice decides to leave her husband to be with Chandler. Later, Joey sees Janice kissing her husband, who runs a mattress business. Chandler dumps her in "The One with the Giant Poking Device". When Janice returns to his life, Chandler pretends to be moving to Yemen. She has a brief fling with Ross, and makes a cameo on a "discovered" mix tape that Chandler plays for Monica, not knowing Janice's voice is on it. When Chandler and Monica become engaged, she tries to interfer with their wedding plans—leaving only when Monica says Chandler still loves her. When Ross and Rachel await the birth of their daughter Emma, she is placed in the same labor room as Rachel at the hospital; she later gives birth to a son, Aaron, who she jokes will be Emma's future husband. As Monica and Chandler make plans to have children, she offers Chandler advice and support at a fertility clinic. In "The One Where Estelle Dies" she comes close to buying a house next door to the one Monica and Chandler want to buy. To get rid of her, Chandler pretends he still loves her.
- Janice speaks with a nasal New York accent and emphasizes each word of her catchphrase, "Ohhh — myyy — God!" Janice's distinctive laugh was borne out of a slip-up Wheeler made during the rehearsal of "The One with the East German Laundry Detergent"; after Chandler and Janice's "More latté?"/"No, I'm still working on mine" lines, Wheeler laughed. The Seattle Times ranked Janice as the best guest character of the series in 2004.
- Mr. Heckles (Larry Hankin)—Monica and Rachel's downstairs neighbor, an elderly man who constantly complains about the noise. He first appears in "The One with the Blackout", claiming to own a lost cat that Rachel has found. He appears again in "The One with Two Parts, Part 1" and "The One Where the Monkey Gets Away"before dying in "The One Where Mr. Heckles Dies". As a last spiteful act, he leaves all of his junk to "the noisy girls upstairs". He makes a final cameo appearance in "The One with the Flashback", set in 1993, where he complains that Phoebe's noise is disturbing his oboe practice, and inadvertently causes Joey to be Chandler's roommate.
- Paolo (Cosimo Fusco)—an Italian neighbor in Monica's building, who Rachel falls for in "The One with the Blackout". They start dating, making Ross jealous. She dumps him after he gropes Phoebe but has a last one-night stand with him in "The One with Ross's New Girlfriend".
- Terry (Max Wright)—the manager at Central Perk (before Gunther takes the title), who does not hide the fact that he thinks Rachel is a terrible waitress—and Phoebe is "so bad" as a musician. He denies her an advance on her wages in "The One Where Underdog Gets Away" and hires a professional musician, Stephanie (Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders), to replace Phoebe in "The One with the Baby on the Bus".
- "Fun Bobby" (Robert) (Vincent Ventresca)—an alcoholic boyfriend of Monica's. In his first appearance in "The One with the Monkey", his "fun" is sapped at Monica's New Year's party after his grandfather died. In "The One with Russ", the gang discovers that alcohol puts the "fun" into Fun Bobby. Monica tries to wean him off drinking but regrets it when he becomes extremely boring. It is revealed in the episode "The One with Phoebe's Husband" (airdate October 12, 1995; Season 2, No. 4) that the underwear on the telephone pole was Monica's when she was having sex with Fun Bobby on the terrace.
- David, "the Scientist Guy" (Hank Azaria)—a physicist whom Phoebe falls in love with in "The One with the Monkey".After a fight with his research partner Max (Wayne Pére), David decides to go on a research trip to Minsk with him, breaking Phoebe's heart. He returns to New York for a brief visit and shares an evening with Phoebe. He returns permanently in "The One with the Male Nanny" and he and Phoebe resume their relationship in "The One with the Donor". In "The One in Barbados—Part 1", David proposes to Phoebe. She turns him down and gets back together with Mike, and David leaves.
- In 2003, Azaria was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his performance.
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- 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. 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 Chandler and Monica'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.
- Ursula Pamela Buffay (Lisa Kudrow)—Phoebe's identical twin. Kudrow originated the role of Ursula in the sitcom Mad About You, playing her as an inept waitress at Riff's who frequently forgets orders. She first appears in Friends in "The One with Two Parts": Chandler and Joey are eating at Riff's and mistake Ursula for Phoebe. Joey becomes attracted to Ursula and they start dating. Ursula tells Phoebe that she is bored with Joey, so Phoebe pretends to be her sister to let Joey down gently. In the same episode, Helen Hunt and Leila Kenzle cameo as their Mad About You characters Jamie Buchman and Fran Devanow, in a scene where they mistake Phoebe for Ursula in Central Perk. Ursula next appears briefly in "The One with the Jam", where she is being stalked by a man (David Arquette) who mistakes Phoebe for her. In "The One with the Jellyfish" Phoebe tells Ursula that she has met their birth mother, but Ursula already knows about her. In "The One Where Chandler Can't Cry", Phoebe starts getting unwanted attention from men, and discovers that Ursula is starring in pornographic films using Phoebe's name. Phoebe gets revenge by claiming Ursula's fees and embarrassing her many male fans. Flashbacks in "The One Where They All Turn Thirty" reveal that Ursula sold Phoebe's birth certificate to a Swedish runaway, and that both sisters are 31, not 30. In "The One with the Halloween Party", Ursula introduces Phoebe to Eric (Sean Penn), her fiancé. Phoebe is horrified that Ursula has told Eric that she is a teacher, a member of the Peace Corps, a non-smoker, and attends a church group (all lies). The series finale of Mad About You, set 22 years into the future, reveals that after a successful porn career, Ursula becomes Governor of New York.
- Ben (Various actors, 1995–1999; Cole Sprouse, 2000–2002)—Ross and Carol's son, born during "The One with the Birth". Ben is played as an infant by Michael Gunderson, by brothers Charles Thomas Allen and John Christoper Allen from Season 3 to 5, and by Cole Sprouse from Season 6 to 8.
- Julie (Lauren Tom)—an old graduate school colleague of Ross', whom he meets again while on a trip to China; she first appears in the final scene of the season 1 finale. They start dating but break up soon after, when Ross reveals he loves Rachel. She makes a final cameo in the tag scene of "The One with Russ", where she falls in love with a Ross lookalike.
- Gloria Tribbiani (Brenda Vaccaro)—Joey's mother. In "The One with the Boobies" (airdate January 19, 1995; Season 1, No. 13), Joey finds out that his father, Joey Sr. (Robert Costanzo), is having an affair with another woman, Ronni (Lee Garlington). Joey (the son) tries to set things right, but Gloria—who secretly knew about the affair all along—makes Joey change it back because her husband's been unusually nice to her since he started cheating on her.
- Ugly Naked Guy (uncredited actor)—an obese tenant in the apartment in the building across from Monica's apartment—who frequently, perhaps invariably, is naked with the drapes open—so the gang is frequently commenting on his activities—playing cello, wearing "gravity boots", etc. He is first mentioned in the second episode of the series,but only appears twice: First, his belly and right arm are shown in "The One with the Giant Poking Device"—in which he is being poked from across the street by the gang (who think he's dead) with a long device made from chopsticks; second, a rear view of him from head to waist is shown in "The One Where Everybody Finds Out" (his final show)—in which he is moving out of his apartment and Ross tries (successfully) to get the apartment. (In "The One with the Flashback", it's learned that he used to be "Cute Naked Guy", but then, in 1993, started putting on weight.)
- Writer Alexa Junge explained, "Originally, he was pure conjecture—based on various Ugly Naked Guys many of the writers had lived across from (especially those who'd lived in New York city). However, we received a letter from a woman who grew up in the building you see in the stock footage shot of M[onica], R[achel], C[handler] & J[oey]'s building, who said there was, in fact, an authentic Ugly Naked Guy living across from her and 'how did we know?' Life is crazy, huh?"
