Would you watch a show called Insomnia Cafe? Whether or not you would, the fact was millions of people did — for ten years, no less. By the time the show made it to air, it got the more prosaic name of Friends.
By now, even the world “friends” may conjure up images of Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Courteney Cox, Matthew Perry, Lisa Kudrow, and Matt LeBlanc, even if people are not referring to the NBC sitcom. As it turns out, Friends was the sloppy second name that ended up sticking.
(L-R) Matthew Perry as Chandler Bing, Jennifer Aniston as Rachel Green, David Schwimmer as Ross Geller, Courteney Cox as Monica Geller, Matt Le Blanc as Joey Tribbiani, Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe Buffay | NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images via Getty Images
According to Vanity Fair’s oral history of the show, after NBC bought the pilot, the title got closer to what it became: Friends Like Us. Another suggested title was Across the Hall.
When cameras rolled, it had a name almost as odd as Insomnia Cafe: Six of One. By the time the show premiered on September 22, 1994, NBC shortened one of the suggested titles to Friends. Simple and to the point.
Insomnia Cafe sounds like the name of a coffee shop in a college town, with students slamming back cup after cup as they cram for exams. Instead, it was the original name of Friends, or one of them, at least, according to Mental Floss.
Specifically, Insomnia Cafe was the name of the seven-page pitch that creators David Crane and Marta Kauffman wrote. At this stage of the game, Ross and Rachel weren’t the key relationships; Joey and Monica were.
According to Vanity Fair’s oral history of the show, after NBC bought the pilot, the title got closer to what it became: Friends Like Us. Another suggested title was Across the Hall.
When cameras rolled, it had a name almost as odd as Insomnia Cafe: Six of One. By the time the show premiered on September 22, 1994, NBC shortened one of the suggested titles to Friends. Simple and to the point.
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