Today in History: "Friends" airs for the first time 25 years ago

Whenever I hear someone say that they "don't like Friends" I normally feel as though we are not going to have a lot in common. I get it if you don't love Friends, but every now and then someone pops up that says they hate it and I don't understand how anyone can feel that way. It is one of the most popular television sitcoms of all time: It was nominated for 62 Emmy awards (and won quite a few of them,) TV Guide ranks it as the 21st best television show of all time and Empire Magazine (whatever that is) rates it at number 7.

The year was 1994

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I didn't actually even know about this show until several years after it was released but this was because I had just started college and was experiencing living outside of my parents' house for the first time in my life. Mainly I was focused on girls and booze as well as a little bit of going to school mixed in. I don't think we even had cable in my horrible apartment, probably because doing so would have seriously interfered with our beer money.

I'm not going to bother telling what this show was about because, well, if you don't know already, I'm not sure how far away your cave was from civilization between '94 and '04.

Instead, I'm going to focus on a few things that you may not have known.

Courteney Cox was supposed to be Rachel

It's difficult to imagine anyone being Rachel other than Jennifer Aniston but that was the original idea. It was only because of the fact that at the time Cox was the most famous person in the lineup and she insisted that she had to be Monica because she felt that Rachel was too weak.

The main 6 cast members were paid $22,000 each per episode in year 1

For us mere mortals, this is an insane amount of money for a 22 minute episode, much of which is filmed in one session. However, they didn't start making super-duper money for another 3 years when all six of them collectively bargained for $100,000 per episode and none were willing to budge on that amount. This is one of the first times that the members of a TV show kind of formed their own miniature "union" instead of bargaining behind closed doors with secret salaries. I think it probably helped them function as a cohesive unit because people might be a bit jealous if say Ross was making twice what Phoebe was.

By the final season they were all making a cool million per episode.

Courtney Cox was pregnant in the last season

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It wasn't possible for them to write this into the storyline like they did with Phoebe's real-life pregnancy because Monica's story up to that point was based entirely on her ability to not be physically capable of getting pregnant. They had been leading up to this for years. Instead they used wardrobe and camera angles to hide the fact that "Monica" actually was in reality quite well-along in her pregnancy.

The series nearly abruptly ended in 2003 because of Aniston

By the early 2000's, most of the cast members had tried their hands at films but for the most part they didn't succeed, except for Jennifer Aniston. She had gathered quite a lot of Hollywood appeal due at least in part to her then-husband Brad Pitt. Contract negotiations failed multiple times but eventually (and thankfully) she agreed to do one last season but only if they cut the total episodes from 24 to 18 to accommodate her schedule.

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Bruce Willis was a guest character for free

He didn't do it out of the goodness of his heart. He lost a bet to Matthew Perry while they were both working on the film The Whole Nine Yards. He appeared as the father of Ross' girlfriend at the time and was one of my favorite minor characters of the entire series. His portrayal of Paul Stevens, the father of Ross' very young girlfriend who takes a romantic interest in Rachel was a lot of fun.

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He was still technically paid but he donated the entire paycheck to charity.

Ellen DeGeneres was supposed to be Phoebe

There were a lot of other people considered for the various roles on the show. Only Cox and Schwimmer were guaranteed a spot during the early days - the rest had auditions. Ellen DeGeneres was courted by the producers but time and time again she turned the role down.

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Some people like to think that Ellen regrets turning down this role since Friends went on to be such a success but you would be terribly wrong. Ellen is one of the highest paid celebrities in the world and pulled in $87 million last year. She is surpassed only by Judge Judy, who makes substantially more

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There are a lot more but this is already one of the longest posts I have ever made. For a little bit of fun, head over to Google and type in "Ross Friends" and then click on the sofa a bunch of times. There is something different for each of the major cast members.

If I had to choose a couple of episodes to call them my favorites I would say they would be

• The one where Brad Pitt appears as an old friend of Ross' but he hates Rachel Green (this was filmed when they were married.) It's called "The One with the Rumor" and it is the 9th episode of season 8.

• The one where they flashback to a time when everyone first met Joey because Chandler was shopping for a new roommate. It is aptly entitled "The One with the Flashback" and it is the 6th episode of the 3rd season.

Friends premiered 25 years ago and if you were around my age at that time you can start to feel a bit old now. It was a wonderful series that I looked forward to every week and when the DVD's became available i bought the collector's edition.... twice. I loved that show (still do) and a lot of other people felt the same way.

So if you are a fan of Friends, do you have a favorite episode(s)?