I can't even begin to tell you that this experience was one of the best in my entire life! It was UNBELIEVABLE!!! SO.. here it goes!
 
3:00 my two friends and I went to Warner Bros lot, studio 24.  (We were family, so we got to get there late!)  We had 3 reserved seats in the DEAD center, second row.  For about 45 minutes, they had a audience pleaser talk about the show, answer questions, throw stuff out of the audience, etc.  Around 3:45, the Friends theme began and out ran the cast! I'm getting goose bumps just thinking about it!  Unfortunatly, David Schwimmer wasn't there because he was in a live play in Los Angeles. But at least Matthew Perry was.. That is all that mattered!!
 
So, the filming began!  We sat through a few scenes, etc.. It was awesome to see them screw up, and then quickly jump back into the swing of things.  They are truely professionals.  
 
Around the end of the 2nd scene, my cousin came up to me and told me that he is going to put me and my two friends in a SCENE! I could hardly believe it!!!!!!!!! He knows I LOVE Matthew, so he put me in a scene with him.. I had NO idea that he was planning on doing that.  The scene was the 6th scene of the show, with Joey and Chandler in Central Perk.. DIRECTLY behind the couch, there is a high top table with 3 stools.  I am on the left, and my two friends are on the right (if you are watching tv).  Our scene was w/ Matthew Perry and Matt LeBlanc sitting on the couch and table discussing money.. Then when Chandler yelled Monica doesn't need a boob job, the whole coffee shop is supposed to look at them like, Um, you guys are talking loud, etc.  So we give them that look and the boys look back AT ME AND MY FRIENDS like "sorry, shhh.." etc. I locked eyes with Matthew and almost melted.  They shot the scene 3 times and then it was done!
 
Right before our scene, my cousin walked Matthew Perry up to me and introduced me to him and my friends. I shook his hand and literally stared at him in his eyes. He also gave me his BEAUTIFUL smile. AHHHHHH!!!!    So as I'm talking to him, I can feel someone standing right to my right. I turn to look and it's Matt LeBlanc. I then introduced myself, shook his hand, etc.  I couldn't even believe it!!!  
 
As for meeting the girls, we didn't  I wish that we did but keeping the professional aspect of everything, they went backstage as soon as their scenes were over. And for the fact that 1, I love Matthew and 2, we were in a scene with him helped out that we got to meet them.
 
After our scene, we went back up to the audience and watched the rest of the taping.
 
I'm not going to tell you ANYTHING about the show, but the ending is kind of sad!! But I can see it turning around in the next few episodes.
 
As soon as the taping was finished, security kicked everyone out.. When everyone was out, we were allowed back in to take pictures, etc.  (the take your cameras away prior to entering the studio). As I was waiting outside for everyone else to leave, Matthew drove by us in his nice little Porsche.
 
After everyone left the studio, we were allowed to go back in and take pics of the set. The cast was gone at that point and no pictures are to be taken of them at all.  I took a TON of the sets in general (Chandler and Mon's apartment), Joey and Rachels and then Central Perk.  My friend took a picture of me laying on Joey's bed, in between the apartments in the hallway, sitting on Chandler and Mon's couch, sitting in Joey's chair and then the three of us sitting on the couch in Central Perk.  
 
My scanner is broken and I'm waiting for my lazy friend to come over and fix it so I can scan the pics to Bob.  
 
But that is the jist of it! I can't even believe to tell you I felt like I was in a fairy tale. Everything was so real and unbelievable!! I would give anything to do it all over again!!!!
 
I hope I answered this well!! Let me know if you guys have ANY questions about this!!!
 
I'm so happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On September 7th, 2001, I was luckily enough to attend a taping of Friends. The name of the episode is “The One With Rachel’s Date”. The episode was suppose to air on October 11th, 2001, but was delayed and aired on Oct 25th, 2001. If you would like to just read about the episode, click HERE This was my first time seeing the show live and I was very excited. In the following paragraphs I hope to try to convey the whole experience to whoever reads this, and especially help anyone out who would like to see the show in person too. If you have a Friends website and would like to post this info, please give my site credit for it.

Tickets were released on June 1st of this year. I wrote for the tickets a few days before the release date so that my letter would get there on the first day. A friend of mine wrote for tickets on the day they were released and heard back a week later that the show was sold out. I didn't hear back from Audiences Unlimited until just 3 weeks before the taping, which was also two weeks sooner than I had planned on being in L.A. So as you can imagine we modified out plans to be in L.A. for the taping.

The tickets said that the show was at 2:30pm and that we should be there an hour to and hour in half before that time, which is also what a woman at Audiences Unlimited told us. The day of the taping we decided to swing by Warner Bros. to see what they thought. When we drove by at 11:30am there were already people lined up across the street from the studio. We pulled in the studio entrance anyway and asked a guard about the show. He told us that they would let us in at 12:45pm, but for now we needed to park in the street and line up where someone from Audiences Unlimited would check us in. I jumped out of the car and waited in line for about 20 minutes until I got up to the guy that was checking people in. He gave us a number for what we were in line, which was 73-75, meaning that a lot of people were in front of us. He also told us to be back at 12:45 to enter the studio. We also learned that the people who were first in line got there around 3am and camped out.

We quickly grabbed lunch and then drove into the studio where they directed us to park in the parking ramp. We left that and walked across the street in the studio and got in another line where we were lined up by number. At the time there were three main lines. One was for people who had tried to see the show before but didn't make it in. They somehow filled out some form at the studio and then they were given guaranteed tickets. There were about 25-30 people in that line. The next line was the one I was in, which was the first seating, non-guaranteed tickets. This line had around 100 people in it and I was #73 in line. The third line was really small, only like 6 people who had second seating tickets. They got there really early.

We waited in line for a long time and around 1:30pm the people from Audiences Unlimited escorted the guaranteed ticket holders into the studio. Then about 2:30 they took some of the people from our line, but only 16 people. So we started to really worry that we weren't going to make it in. About 20 minutes later came back and took in another 17 people. I asked one of the employees if we would get in and he said he didn't know because it was really starting to fill up in there. He said that he has seen it where they only let 3 people in. I guess that it all depends on how many V.I.P.s come to the show. They must escort them in from somewhere else because I never saw them. Around 3:15 I was getting really worried that we wouldn't get in and that we would have to wait for the second seating. Then one of the employees started counting the number of people in line and when he got to two people behind my group, #76 and 77, he cut it off and said this is all that gets in. So I was very lucky that he didn't cut the line off a few people sooner. The employees then took us and marched us single file for a little ways to studio 24, where they film Friends. We walked through a metal detector and were checked for cameras and cell phones. Then I entered the studio.

I headed in and heard a lot of music and the first thing I saw was part of the Friends set. They marched us up some stairs and I could see a set with two elevators and next to that was a hallway and then Chandler's office. When I got to the top of the stairs I looked out and saw what was the street area of New York that they film the cast walking on a lot and the outside of Central Perk. To the left of that was Central Perk and then to the left of that was a big black curtain that said "Friends" on it. To the left of the curtain was Joey and Rachel's apartment. One of the employees led us over that way and seated us in the last three seats just in front of their apartment. I looked off to the left and saw Monica's kitchen for her restaurant and just up from that was a doctor's office, which turned out to be a set for a "Days of Our Lives" skit with Joey.

We sat down and looked all around at all of the people. At least half of them in there were V.I.P.s. There was also a comedian who was telling jokes and keeping people entertained until the show started. He also walked around and gave away many prizes like Friends pencils, cups, and t-shirts. I was lucky to get some cups, a pencil, and two hackey sacks. Unfortunately I didn't get one of the rare shirts he gave away. People mostly had to dance for him to get those.

Shortly after I was seated they started up the Friends theme and everyone stood. The curtain in front of us razed and behind it was Monica and Chandler's apartment. Then the comedian announced 5 of the 6 Friends cast members' names and they came running out. It was very exciting to see them in person. Unfortunately they told us that Courteney Cox was not there because she was off shooting a movie somewhere. So that was disappointing.

Soon the lights dimmed and someone told us that we had to be seated because they were about to shoot a scene. The first scene they shot had Phoebe visiting Monica's restaurant. For all of Monica's scenes, they had a stand-in. Lisa Kudrow did an awesome job and they only had to shoot the scene once. Since Courteney was not there they were only going to do one take on the scenes she was suppose to be. The scene had Monica introducing Phoebe to this new assistant chef named Tim. Phoebe hit it off with the guy and later they go out on a date. The scene was quick and when it was done the cameras and all the crew headed across the stage to Chandler's office.

During the break the comedian talked to the audience some more and gave away a few more things. Then Matthew Perry walked out and into his office set. His scene had him sitting at his desk when his boss walks by and enters the room. Chandler asks him if he there is any way to by pass the network on the computers so that he can get to some of the really good office porn. His boss just laughs and says you are a funny one Bing. After the scene the writers got together and decided to make a few changes to the script. They wanted to change a few lines to get a better reaction from the audience. So they changed a few things and actually shot this scene 3 times. All of the scenes they shot at least 3 times, except for the ones with Monica in them, which they shot only once. They also would shoot a scene again or go back a little bit if one of the actors made a mistake. During one take on the second scene, Matthew Perry made a mistake. When he asked about the office porn, he broke out in laughter and it was really funny to see.

The next scene took place right over by me. I had to lean back behind my chair to see it because it was in the doctor's office set that was suppose to look like a set on "Days of Our Lives". I luckily had a clear view of this set and was able to look at Joey and Rachel while they prepared for the scene. This scene dealt with Joey talking to another doctor who was informing Joey that the brain transplant of Jessica into his body wasn't working right. He also told Joey that they went to dig up Jessica's body and that it was gone. Then Joey gave his cool inquisitive look into the camera. They actually had to shoot him giving the look a few times. During the time he is filming this, Rachel is standing on the side watching his Days of Our Lives scene on a TV.

You then hear the "Days" director yell cut and Joey walks over to Rachel, who asks his what happen to Jessica. Joey says that he can't tell her because she has to tune into find out. Then Rachel says, "you don't know do ya?" And Joey says, "Nope, and I don't care". Then Rachel wants Joey to introduce her to the other actor playing a doctor, who is Cash Ford. Rachel talks to him like she is a total soap opera nut by knowing his favorite ice cream and that his dog's name is Wally. While she is unknowingly stroking Cash's arm, Joey grabs her and says let's go. She yells goodbye to Cash and that was the end of that scene. During the break in between reshooting that scene, Jennifer Aniston stood right in front of me so I was able to get a really good look at her. Then suddenly she lifted her head and looked right up at me and waved to me. It was the highlight of my night. I was sooooo excited that she actually waved.

The next scene was back over in Chandler’s office. This time Ross walks in and asks if Chandler is ready to head off to lunch. Chandler asks him where he wants to go, and Ross tells him something like, “you know where”. Chandler says, “The Hard Rock Café again?” Ross happily replies, “Uh-huh”. Then the two of them walk out of the office. The cameras move once more over by the elevators and then Chandler and Ross come walking around a corner to the elevators. Ross is making some comment about where he hopes to get a table but he messes up his line and breaks out in laughter.

Matthew Perry also laughs and starts jumping and pointing at him. They do the scene a few more times and the writers actually change what Ross says when they walk around the corner. After that they make it to the elevators and while they are working another actor playing the part of Bob walks by and pats Chandler on the shoulder and says “Hey Toby”. Ross looks at Chandler and asks why that guy just called him Toby. Chandler explains that 5 years ago Bob offered him a donut and called him Toby. Since he was hungry, he just went along with it. But he says to Ross that it’s better than being called something like Muriel. Ross looks at him and says, “Why would he call you Muriel?” Then he goes, “Wait wait, wait a minute, Chandler….M….Bing. Your middle name is Muriel!”

So this basically sets up the three main plots of the show. For the next few hours they continued to shoot more scenes of the show. Phoebe later gets tired of dating Tim because he calls her all the time and wants to know how she is doing and what she is doing. And if she doesn’t answer, he stops by her place. So she finds this really annoying and decides it’s time to break up with him. But when she goes over to Monica’s apartment, Monica tells her that she wants to fire Tim because he is a terrible assistant and even set one person on fire.

So the two of them argue about who is going to deliver the bad news first, because the second one “will be the bigger b*tch”. As Phoebe explained it, if a guys girlfriend dumps him and then later that day his boss fires him, that boss must be a real b*tch. And if a guy looses his job and then his girlfriend dumps him, she is a super b*tch. This scene was really funny to see being shot because Lisa Kudrow kept messing up her lines. At one point she turned to the audience and said, “You’ll have to excuse me, I just took some cough medicine before coming back in here”. It was funny. She was totally acting like Phoebe. After that scene we were left with Tim being paged by Monica at Central Perk just as Phoebe was trying to break up with him. So Phoebe took off after him to meet him at Monica’s restaurant. Unfortunately we were not able to see how this story line ended because the crew decided not to finish shooting without Courteney being there.

As for Rachel, Joey comes into the apartment and tells Rachel that Cash really liked her and wants to go out with her. But he says he figures since she is pregnant and all that she is done with the whole dating thing. She says no way, it doesn’t count since it’s Cash Ford and also says that she isn’t going to tell him that she is pregnant. So Joey sets up a date for her. Later on Ross shows up at their apartment with pizza and beer as Rachel is getting ready for her date. She tells him that she has a date and Ross informs her that it doesn’t bother him at all. But as she runs back in her room to get earrings, Ross asks Joey what is going on. Joey explains how he set it up and how they are going on a ferryboat ride, which gets Ross really irritated. He tells Joey that he is really bothered that Rachel and his baby are going on a date with “some actor”.

A few minutes later Cash shows up at the door and Ross acts all weird around him asking him strange questions. Then Rachel walks out embarrassing herself by saying, “hey guys, does this dress make me look slutty?” She then notices Cash is there and the two of them quickly take off for their date. The scene was neat because they filmed two different endings to it. As the door is closing with Rachel and Cash walking out, Ross yells out, “keep your hands and feet inside the boat at all times!” The other ending has him yelling out “yes that dress does make you look slutty!” I think they will end up using the second one.

As Rachel is gone on her date, Joey and Ross try to figure out what they want to do. Ross actually wants to just hang out there so he can be around when Rachel gets back from her date. You can see that the date really worries him. So he explains to Joey how he figured that with his next kid it would be with his wife and how he has these dreams of having a perfect family and a nice home, where on Sunday mornings the kid would run into his bedroom and they would read the paper together. He also tells Joey that he has a picture of his wife in his head, and that it used to be Rachel, but not anymore. The girl in his dreams didn’t have a face.

The next scene in this plot had Ross outside on the streets of New York at the newspaper stand. He runs into Rachel there and asks her how the date went. She says that since it’s still early and she’s alone, it didn’t go well. She says that he didn’t take the news of her being pregnant very well, but better than Ross did. So Ross sits down with her on some steps to cheer her up and tells her about Chandler’s middle name. That makes her happy and then he starts talking about kids with her and the two of them really have a great moment. You would think that it would’ve ended with a kiss or something, but unfortunately it didn’t. Ross gets up and asks her if she wants to join him for coffee. She says no and that she is going to go back to her place and eat 10 candy bars. A few minutes later we see Ross enter Central Perk to get some coffee. Before he gets to the counter this girl jumps up and says that Ross owes her a dance. I guess that it was some girl Ross met at Monica and Chandler’s wedding. So Ross offers to take her to a Ukrainian film instead. Just as Ross is talking with her, Rachel walks in the doors behind him. But she stops right in the doorway and sees Ross talking with this girl. Everyone in the audience wanted to yell out to Ross to turn around, but he never did and Rachel gets a disappointed look on her face and leaves. Unfortunately that is where it ended with that plot.

The final plot of the show was the one with Chandler and Bob, who thought Chandler’s name was Toby. Chandler’s boss sees him talking with Bob and approaches Chandler later and asks him what he thinks about promoting Bob to their department on the 11th floor. Chandler tries to come up with some excuses why not to promote this guy because he doesn’t want him working up there. Otherwise Chandler would have to tell him the truth about his name. His boss buys the excuses and doesn’t promote Bob. Later Bob comes up to Chandler and asks him if he knows whom this jerk Chandler is because this guy stopped him from getting a promotion. Chandler gets all nervous and just says something about not really knowing him, but that he hears he is a nice guy. A little later on we find Chandler walking to his office and Bob pops up right next to him and asks him if he knows where Chandler’s office is. Chandler quickly forces his name tag off of the door when Bob isn’t looking and points down the hall telling him that he thinks his office is down that way. But then Chandler tries to tell Bob the truth but Bob says to him, “Toby, I know what you are trying to do, and anything you say now just makes me more angry at this Chandler”. So then Chandler tries to convince Bob to not doing anything to Chandler and to not drop to his level. Bob agrees and leaves.

For the ending of the show, they actually shot three different ones. The first has Chandler walking into his office and finding it a total mess. He walks in wondering what happened and then his boss walks in. As Chandler finds some things he never knew he had, like a Rolodex, his boss explains that Bob went nuts and messed up the office and that it was a good thing that they didn’t promote him since he was a nut. Just then you see two security guards escorting Bob down the hallway as he yells something in to Chandler like “I’m sorry Toby, but I had to do it”. Chandler and his boss just look at each thinking what is wrong with this guy. Just after they cut the scene, Matthew Perry turns to the actor playing his boss and says, “So do you want to get it on?” The second ending started off the same, but instead of Bob being escorted by the office, Chandler reaches down and picks up something. He then says to his boss, “hey look, the good porn!” Then the two of them just stare at it and the scene ends. This one was funny because Matthew Perry couldn’t keep from laughing. The final ending they shot is probably the one they will use. Chandler walks into his office and finds Bob in there throwing stuff around. Bob turns and says something like, “Hey Toby, I found Chandler’s office. Come here and help me mess it up”. Chandler pauses for a few seconds and than says, “ok” and jumps in and starts throwing stuff around.

After that scene Matthew Perry walked by and waved to everyone. Then we all had to leave so they could clean everything up. We left around 9pm, almost 5 and half hours after I got inside the stage. It took a long time, but it was definitely worth it. And it never seemed like it was that long. It definitely was a great experience and I recommend it to anyone that gets the chance. All of the cast members seemed really cool. They all waved to the audience at some point or another. And you could really see that they were friends because between takes many times they would talk with each other. Plus David liked doing goofy little dances to the music between takes. Matthew Perry looked like he had gained some weight since last season too which was good. He was the only one that actually came up to the audience and signed an autograph. But it was for some people from Australia who made him a flag. Most of the time when the actors were done with their scenes they would exit backstage through the green door in the back of Monica's apartment, by the balcony. I thought that was interesting. Thanks for reading this and I hope I gave you a good insight into what it was like to go to a taping.

Wow, so where to begin! This was the greatest experience ever and the best thing that’s ever happened to me. So, I guess I’ll start at the beginning…

My parents, little sister, and myself flew to LA Thursday, December 12, 2002 around 8:30 that night. I was hyperventilating the whole 3 hours of the flight. Shaking, crying, nausea…you name it, I had it. I was mostly nervous about meeting Mary and Mads for the first time later that night. “What do I do? What do I say? How do I act? Is my hair okay?!” We landed, got the rental car and drove to the hotel. By this point, I was about dead. We got to the hotel and I had to wait a few minutes just to prepare myself and gather my thoughts before I went inside to meet the two.
Now it’s time to go in…

I saw them at a nearby table watching the big TV in the lobby. They hadn’t seen me yet. I just kinda stood there for a while in complete and utter shock. I finally got up the nerve to walk over to them. They saw me, we hugged, I was shaking, at first I couldn’t tell who was who.. It was kinda awkward, for me at least. We even got on the 2 free computers in the lobby and immediately went to different message boards talking to eachother online. I thought it was pretty funny…and ironic. Heh. After a while it was time for us to go to sleep, so we all went back to our rooms knowing that tomorrow we were going to see Friends. !

December 13 was finally here. That morning was pretty chaotic. I had all these things going on in my head. “We can’t be late! Do I look okay? Do I have all my taping gear? My camera!! OMG! FRIENDS!!” We went down to the lobby where we met Mads, Mary, and their dads. We had a little breakfast and talked. My cousin, Natasha, was coming with us and my uncle dropped her off here with us. NOW, it’s time to go to the WB tour!

Mary, Mads, and I drove together with their dads. My family was in the car behind us. At one point we were trying to get their attention from the backseat, just for the hell of it. We took lots of pictures while still in the car. There’s a street called Chandler, so we took a picture of that. Haha. And a restaurant called Carl’s Jr. (which reminded us of you, Carls ). Hehe.

The tour started off kinda boring. We weren’t really interested in the old time movie stuff. We wanted some Friends! Blah, blah, blah, some more movie stuff. Finally, we got in the bus thingy and drove around a bunch of sets. We got to walk on the set of Gilmore Girls, The West Wing (where we unexpectedly saw Dulei Hill tap dancing in the hallway), and some ER sets. We even saw a group of people in front of the ER set in scrubs and doctor uniforms. We think we saw Noah Wyle, not quite sure. Mary and Mads can tell you about that. I don’t really watch ER, so.. We got to walk around some of the outside sets. We saw Frank Jr./Phoebe’s dad’s house, Hennessy Street, Doc Magoo’s (an ER set) and some other ones that I don’t remember.

After the tour we went to the gift shop where I bought a Friends pen. You press a button and it lights up in different colors. We then ate lunch in the Commissary where we sat across from the cast of The Drew Carey Show (minus Drew Carey ). Mary totally FREAKED out. She’s a huge Ryan Styles fan and he was sitting there eating right in front of her. .
Lunch was good. Chocolate cake was yummy.

After lunch, it was about time to go to the taping!! We were freaking out and couldn’t believe it. We got to be first in line and soon we were lead into the stage and up the stairs where we saw, with our own eyes, the Friends set. !! We couldn’t sit together because we had different connections, but we weren’t far from each other.

Now, at this time I jotted some notes down in a notebook:

OMG! *freaks out*! Everything is so much smaller!! The sets are beautiful! So colorful and bright, but SO SMALL!! I had no idea. They look huge on TV compared to the actual sets. We’re sitting in the second row on the far left. Directly in front of what would be Joey’s apartment (they weren’t using it), the hallway, and just a little to the right, Monica & Chandler’s apartment. To the left there was Chandler’s workplace and Joey’s audition room. To the right (after M&C’s apartment) were Central Perk and a street.

I see one of the set people is playing on the piano in one of the sets (Joey’s audition). It’s so cute! I see a lot of familiar faces from the DVD documentary. The Friends soundtrack is playing the back round. I see a lot of really young people work here as helpers on the set. Jim Bentley was awesome. He came out and got everyone clapping, then started The One With the Stuff You’ve Never Seen on all the TVs. It was so much more fun watching it in a room full of Friends freaks, let alone sitting right in front of the set. When it came time for the theme song, everybody clapped (during the clapping part ) and laughed. It was funny. Now it was time to introduce the cast…eek!!

“Now, everyone, meet the cast of Friends!! Jennifer Aniston, Courteneny Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry, Matt Leblanc, and David Shwimmerrrr!!” They all came out running from the “secret closet”. I felt like I had just died. We looked everywhere for Jennifer and couldn’t find her. Jim Bentley then said that she could not be here today; she’s off filming a movie. Everybody groaned “Aaaaawwww!” We couldn’t believe it. I started crying. I know Mads, and maybe Mary did too. But I couldn’t think about it too long. The other 5 were just smiling and happy as can be. They are all GORGEOUS. My God. You think they look great on TV…boy, have you got another thing comin’. Lisa Kudrow was the most stunning of all. I had no idea she was so beautiful. TV does NOT do her justice at all. She looked so young, 30 at least. Courteney too. And of course, when I saw Matthew come out, my jaw dropped to the floor. I have never seen a more gorgeous man ever. He looks GREAT. And it didn’t hurt that he was wearing suits the whole time. Wow…I am so gonna marry that guy. Matt LeBlanc is so built! He doesn’t really look that way on TV, but he’s gorgeous! And he looks so young. David Schwimmer is one of the most handsome men I have ever seen. I’ve never really been a HUGE fan of him, but wow. He’s so adorable and has the most beautiful eyes. Really, these people are the most breath taking, drop-dead-gorgeous beautiful people I have ever seen. I’m speechless.

Throughout the taping we waved to David and he nodded and smiled right back at us. I smiled at Marta Kaufman and she smiled and waved back. She is really beautiful too. She looks great! She seems to have a great relationship with the cast. She and Matthew played around a few times. He played with her hair, they hugged, and she playfully hit him. It was so cute. When the cast was first introduced, I waved to Lisa and she waved and smiled back. She is so beautiful. My mom called out Matt’s name, he waved to her, and I pointed to my How YOU Doin’ shirt and he smiled and raised his eyebrows. Hehe! I almost died. And finally, I waved to Matthew and he smiled back at me! Aaaah. He has the sunniest smile. When he smiled at me I fell back and melted in my chair. I love him. I love him. I love him.

Oh! So, during one of the breaks, Jim Bentley was asking trivia questions from the new Friends Trivia game. He picked Mads out of the crowd after he spotted her huge Friends scrapbook. I’m talking HUGE. It’s like 6 inches thick. Anyway, she got all the questions right and gave her an autographed Friends picture (it’s the season 8 beach photo in black and white). He asked her where she was from, and then she pointed to Mary and myself and told Jim the story of how we met online at a Friends message board. It was so cool! All 3 of us were standing up in the audience. Jim thought this was so impressive that he gave us each a collection of every Friends prize he had. It was a shirt, the autographed photo, a hackey sack, silly putty, a hat, a water bottle, and I think that’s it. That was so sweet of him. I like Jim.

Throughout the show, there were many flub-ups. So funny! If they air another bloo.per show sometime, I’m sure they will show one from our taping. It was hilarious. Matthew was having trouble saying a line, “Kids! Kids!….” and Matt mimicked him in the voice Matthew was trying out. It was a lot like the “It tastes like FEET” bloo.per. It was so hilarious. And at one point, Courteney couldn’t remember her line, and said “sh.it!” Everybody cracked up. Marta was right, if one of the cast members curses, the whole audience goes nuts. That we did!

No, I did not get to meet David. I was supposed to. Arlene told him to come see us, but I guess he was busy. When we told Arlene this, she was so sorry and disappointed. She wants to make it up to us. Hmmm…what could that be? To tell you the truth, I’d much rather go see another taping (with Jen there, of course), where I would be around them for 6 hours than to meet David for a whole 5 minutes. Oh well, we’ll see what happens…

All in all, it was the greatest experience in my life and I’m so glad I got to share it with Mary and Mads. And it was so cool to tell the audience about our story of how we met. Every Friends fan should be blessed to experience an event like this. I will never forget it, ever.

Ever since Friends debuted over seven years ago, I have been a huge fan of the show. For over a year, I desperately tried to get tickets to a taping. On Friday, January 11, 2002, my dream came true as three friends of mine came with me to Burbank, California, to attend a taping of Friends.

I originally tried to obtain tickets through Audiences Unlimited. I sent my ticket request by Priority Mail on June 1, 2001, the day tickets were released for the current season. I didn't receive a "sold out" notice, which means I likely would have received tickets. However, after the tragedy of September 11, tapings for the next several months (through the present) were closed to everyone except VIPs and pre-approved groups, and Audiences Unlimited stopped distributing tickets.

Just as I was going to give up hope, I discovered a random connection. The sister of a woman in my mom's book club used to write for Family Ties and Home Improvement, and knows Marta Kauffman, one of the creators of Friends. I e-mailed this woman, who talked to her sister and was able to get me four tickets!

Two of my friends and I arrived in Los Angeles around 6:00 in the evening on Thursday, January 10. We met my third friend after her flight arrived at 7:40, about a half-hour later than scheduled. The Friends episode on NBC that night was new, and we all desperately wanted to watch it. We ran all around the airport trying to find a television. We found one at a bar, but we weren't twenty-one. We found one at a Disney store, and asked the woman there to turn off The Little Mermaid and let us watch the show, but the televisions in the store didn't get any reception. Finally, at 8:02, just as we were about to give up, I discovered one of those computer centers where you can pay to use a computer. The center also offered DIRECTV on their computers. We paid twelve dollars (forty cents per minute) to watch Friends, and it could not have BEEN more worth it! Not only was the episode amazing, but it also helped us win a prize and gain recognition at the taping the next day, as I'll get to in a moment.

After the taping, we took a cab to the hotel, The Safari Inn. We watched television for a little while and then went to sleep. We got up around 10:00 on Friday morning. After eating breakfast at the hotel, we left for the taping. We walked there, as we were less than two miles from Warner Bros. Studios, where Friends is taped. On our way, we passed by NBC Studios. We would have gone on the NBC Studio Tour, but it has been closed since September 11. This ended up being a good thing, as it took us a lot longer than we thought it would to get there.

If you've ever seen The One That Goes Behind the Scenes on The Best of Friends DVDs (Volumes 3 and 4), you've seen the famous gigantic Friends poster at Warner Bros. Studios. We were very excited when we finally arrived at it. Unfortunately, after talking to a security guard, we then discovered that Gate 8, where we were supposed to go to claim our tickets, was another mile away. I was getting nervous, as it was 12:45 at that point and we were told to get there by 2:00.

We arrived at Gate 8 around 1:10 and checked in at the Visitors Center. Our fears of anything going wrong quickly began to disappear as they finally found our names… on the VIP list! They told us where to wait, and around 2:00, we were part of a group of twelve people taken through security and escorted to the studio. This was the first time we really started to freak out, because at this point, we finally knew for sure we were going to see Friends!

We were led on a very strange path around the various studios until we finally arrived at the studio where Friends is taped. We went through more security, where we had to empty our pockets and cameras, cell phones, and pagers were confiscated. We didn't have any of those items though, as we knew in advance not the bring them. Next, we finally got to enter the studio! This was the first time we were extremely affected by a sight and a feeling that could never be described. As we entered, we first saw Joey and Rachel's apartment! We walked up the stairs to the audience section, and from there we could see Monica and Chandler's apartment to the right of Joey and Rachel's, and next to that was Central Perk! The other sets were Phoebe's apartment to the far left and a set I won't describe (since it would hint at the plot) to the far right. We couldn't believe our eyes! The sets looked just like they appear on television, but they seemed a lot smaller. Of course, they were also incomplete. Central Perk ended at the carpet in front of the couch. Monica and Chandler's apartment ended just to the left of the front door. A bunch of people on the Friends crew were playing foosball on Joey and Chandler's foosball table! Our group of twelve was the first group of people to enter the studio!

We were then showed to our seats. Our contact person was listed as being Kevin S. Bright, an executive producer and director of the show. We sat in the four best seats reserved for him… IN THE FRONT ROW!!! We literally had the four best seats in the whole place! We were SO excited!

We were seated around 2:10. Over the next half-hour, people gradually entered until all the seats were filled. At about 2:30, the emcee, Jim Bentley, entered. He told us we'd be watching the previous night's new episode (the one we'd watched at the airport). However, he said the version we'd be watching would be the uncut version. He told us to try to find the lines cut for NBC's airing of the show. As they showed the episode, we wrote down every line we heard that we didn't think had been aired the previous night.

After the episode ended, we were shown about a minute of clips from the following week's episode, which will air this Thursday night. The clips we were shown were simply to get us up to date on the Joey/Rachel storyline. I won't describe them here, since I don't want to give anything away to anyone who doesn't want to know.

After the clips, Bentley asked who had found the lines. The four of us yelled and waved our arms at him, and he told us to come up. We ran over to where he was, and as we ran, the DJ played the theme from Jeopardy! Kevin S. Bright, whom we recognized from the behind-the-scenes special, came over as well. We were very excited to see him! Bentley handed me the microphone and asked me to list to Bright the lines we'd found that we thought were cut. We thought we'd found six or seven. Bright was very impressed as I listed for him the first six lines we thought were cut, all of which were correct! The seventh, which we weren't sure about, actually did appear in the original airing of the show.

Bright informed us we'd gotten six of the eight parts that were cut. A group of girls who thought they had one of the other cut lines were than asked to come up as well. It turned out they had five of the six we got as well as one additional one, meaning we each had a total of six. The one they had that we didn't was from the introductory scene, which we didn't see because we were running around the airport trying to find a television (as explained before). I explained this to Bright, and he was very impressed we'd paid to watch Friends at the airport. Bright told Bentley both our groups should win. We were given The Best of Friends DVDs (Volumes 1 and 2). I already had about ten sets of those DVDs (because I'd won them many times through TBS's Enhanced Friends contest), so I later traded the DVDs to a girl who was sitting behind me for a Friends shirt, cup, and pencil. Apparently, these three prizes are only given out at Friends tapings, so I think I got the better end of the deal!

We then headed back to our seats. Minutes later, around 3:20, came one of the most amazing moments of our entire lives, the introduction of the cast! Bentley introduced them with I'll Be There For You playing in the background. David Schwimmer came out first, followed by Jennifer Aniston. We were all freaking out so much that none of us can remember the order of the rest of the cast members' entrances. We were all in tears as they came out. The entire audience was standing up and cheering. It was a completely indescribable feeling. My friend informed me a few minutes later that Jennifer had seen the four of us in tears and smiled at us! Jennifer's character appeared a lot further along in her pregnancy than she was in previous episodes.

They quickly started filming the first scene, which took place in Monica and Chandler's apartment. There were a total of fourteen scenes (although the script listed sixteen, since two of them were split up into two separate parts). Two of them took place in Central Perk, which was right in front of us! We also had a great view of the many scenes in Monica and Chandler's apartment. We couldn't really see much of Joey and Rachel's, and we couldn't see the set of Phoebe's apartment or the other set at all. However, there were televisions everywhere on which we could watch the scenes we couldn't see.

Nearly every scene was taped at least four times. A few were taped three times, and one went so well they only needed to tape it twice. The plot, which I won't describe here, was a great one! It was both hilarious and extremely moving! This may be one of the most moving Friends episodes ever!

The cast screwed up their lines fairly often, which was great to see! David, in particular, had problems with some lines. At one point, he kept saying "on line" instead of "in line," and they had to do that scene over and over again. The scene also included Jennifer and Matt, who kept laughing. It was hilarious! David was supposed to frantically enter the room by running past the entrance and then running back and into the room. However, somewhere around the tenth take, he jokingly entered the room by casually strolling into it. It was hilarious! At some points, we could tell David was getting very frustrated because he was screwing up and forgetting his lines so much, but the audience loved it! There were many other hilarious mistakes. At one point, Jennifer hesitated on the word "I," which led into "I can't remember my line." This was extremely funny! It happened right in front of us during a scene at Central Perk.

This leads me to what may be the coolest moment of my life! Sitting in the front row certainly paid off! During this scene, Jennifer noticed my friend looking at her. She smiled at my friend and then noticed I was also smiling at her. She then waved at me! Yes, that's right, JENNIFER ANISTON WAVED AT ME!!! I couldn't believe it. A little later, David walked by, saw me looking at him, and nodded his head it me. Again, I was shocked!

Our other contact with the cast came at the end of the show. After they finished taping, Courteney, Matt, and David came out for a curtain call with I'll Be There For You again playing in the background. Afterward, the security guards were trying to get everyone to leave quickly. We were all very sad it was over. As we were leaving, we saw Courteney and Matt talking to the crew. My friend yelled out, "I love you, Courteney!" Courteney looked up at us, smiled, and said, "Thank you." We couldn't believe it! My other friend then said a similar thing to Matt. Matt looked at the four of us with a very appreciative smile and waved at us!

The entire time, we couldn't get over the fact that the six Friends cast members who we'd watched on television and loved for over seven years were walking around within a couple feet of us! We were particularly impressed by Jennifer Aniston and Matt LeBlanc, who were incredibly friendly! They were constantly smiling and joking around, and seemed very upbeat. Courteney Cox Arquette and Matthew Perry were the least talkative, although Matthew did interact with the audience a few times. He joked around a lot, and even helped change some of the show's lines to make them funnier. Matthew's sense of humor in real life was very similar to that of his character. David Schwimmer seemed friendly. He was frustrated at times, but this was understandable, as he was having a lot of trouble with his lines! Lisa Kudrow's son Julian, who's three-and-a-half years old, was there, and she spent most of the time between her scenes watching him. At one point, he was throwing a mini football with Courteney and Matthew. When Matthew threw the ball to him, he missed it and it went behind him. He couldn't find it at first, and Matthew tried to show him where it was. Her kid was SO cute, and he seemed to have a great relationship with his mom and the rest of the cast.

Because we'd watched the behind-the-scenes special before going to the taping, we recognized most of the crew. Marta Kauffman, the co-creator and one of the executive producers, had one of the most unique laughs we'd ever heard! It wasvery loud and very long. They often changed the lines in between takes, and every time she heard a suggestion for a new line that she found funny, she'd laugh for about ten seconds! She seemed like a very kind woman. We also saw David Crane, the other co-creator and one of the other executive producers. In addition, we recognized many of the writers and the people from the set crew and the props crew.

The taping ended around 9:20, lasting a total of about six hours. Three of the four of us didn't use the bathroom the entire time, as we didn't want to miss anything! We were provided with cheese pizza and bottled water twice (around 5:00 and 8:00). In addition to Bentley, there was a DJ who played music between takes. Bentley was hilarious and did a great job of keeping the audience excited. He gave out many Friends prizes and interacted with the audience a lot. He provided many opportunities for people to ask questions about the show.

Six hours may sound like a long time, but it went by incredibly quickly and we wished it could have lasted forever! After it was over, we took a cab back to the hotel and called our friends and family to tell them about it. That whole night, we were still freaking out about everything we'd seen.

To quickly summarize the rest of the trip, we went to Universal Studios Hollywood on Saturday, which was a blast. Afterward, we took a cab to Warner Bros. Studio and took pictures of ourselves with the huge Friends poster in the background. On Sunday morning, we took a cab to the airport and flew back home.

When we got home, three of us watched the People's Choice Awards. When they showed Matt, Matthew, and David, we freaked out again. They looked exactly like they did when we'd seen them two days before. Jennifer wasn't there, and when she won Favorite Female Television Performer again, they played a pre-recorded message she'd apparently taped on Friday at the taping while we were there! She looked exactly like she did when we'd seen her, and as she sincerely thanked her fans, it almost felt like she was talking to us. That probably sounds really dumb, but after all, she had glanced up appreciatively at us just an hour or two before she recorded that message. Of course, Friends won again for Favorite Television Comedy Series. Matt gave the acceptance speech, and it was amazing to watch him thank all the fans of Friends on behalf of the entire cast and crew.

I will always be thankful for the amazing luck I had in getting to attend a taping. Friends has been a HUGE part of my life for a very long time, and I could never describe the feeling of actually getting to see it in person. We were all very moved by the experience, and all of us agreed it was the best weekend of our lives.