While the iconic theme song by @The_Rembrandts (yup they're on twitter) is now an earworm, NBC had considered REM's "Shiny Happy People" as a potential alternative.
Check out what could've been:
The show was originally called "Insomnia Cafe" (hello to all late night putting people!).
David Crane and Martha Kauffman wrote a 7 page pitch with the main couple as Joey and Monica. NBC purchased the pilot, renamed it to "Friends Like Us" then "Six of Us".
The iconic opening sequence wasn't shot in New York, it was shot at a Warner Bros ranch in Burbank, California.
(Note to self - stop saying "iconic" for every aspect of the show)
It could've been @jonfavs as Chandler, had @MatthewPerry opted to work on a show called LAX 2194 about an Alien-baggage claim show. Jon Favreau played Pete Becker, one of Monica's boyfriends.
Watch -
The six of them negotiated as a group and increased salary from $20,000 to $100,00 and eventually to 1M per episode by season 10.
@mskelseymiller in her must-read book, "I'll be there for you" shares lovely stories about how they were always united in negotiations with NBC.
Since @LisaKudrow was playing Ursula on Mad About You, Kauffman - Crane liked the show and decided to write Ursula into their own show.
So much fun to unleash such playful creativity :-)
Everyone's favourite, Gunther was cast based on the fact that James Michael Tyler was the only one around who knew how to operate a coffee machine.
He was a Barista IRL at that time.
Poor Marcel was written out of the show because as it was difficult and time consuming to film with animals.
The whole show did a @FarahKhanAli-esque end-credit tribute in "The One After Vegas" since Courteney Cox and David Arquette got married.
Bruce Willis appeared for free on the show after losing a bet to Matthew Perry. They both were shooting for "The Whole Nine Yards".
Yup, those were some facts from the show that we could find. What fun facts do you have?
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A trip from Mysore to Bangalore is simply incomplete without indulging in the mouthwatering Maddur Vada in Maddur.
In 1938, the town of Shivapura in Maddur proudly hoisted the Indian national flag, leaving an indelible mark on India's freedom struggle!
A thread🧵
In 1938, The Indian National Congress held its session in Haripura village in Surat, Gujarat.
The session was presided by Netaji Subash Chandra Bose. At a time when hoisting the national flag was banned by the British, the Indian flag was hoisted at the Haripura session!
The Haripura Congress session where the tricolor was hoisted, inspired the Mysore leaders to hold a similar event!
But, the administration in Mysore got a whiff of these plans & banned public gathering. This did not stop leaders like Siddalingaiah & others
Arun Shourie once called the BJP government policies Congress plus Cow. During the first ever election in 1952, Congress had a pair of bullocks as its election symbol.
It is because of this lady from Tamil Nadu that the Congress Party has the hand as a symbol. 🧵
The very first elections took place in 1952. Given that the large portion of the population were illiterate, Sukumar Sen, India's first chief election commissioner decided on symbols to identify each party.
The congress party chose a pair of bullocks as its symbol.
Even during Nehru's time, there was a lot of dissatisfaction with the "Kamraj Plan". It required Congress Leaders to give up government posts, in order to strengthen the party.
K Kamraj realized that the party was losing its vigor and resigned from his post as CM of Madras to focus on rebuilding the party.
Jamnagar these days is famous for being the epicenter of Reliance industries and for welcoming the who's who of the world for a pre-wedding.
But in 1942, it played a significant role in saving over 1000 Polish children from certain death in WW2.
A thread 🧵
In 1939, Nazi Germany attacked Poland which started World War 2. Some Poles tried to escape the wrath of the Germans by moving into Soviet territory.
The Soviet authorities forced hundreds of thousands of Poles to migrate deeper into Soviet territory, including Siberia.
The invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany in 1941 prompted the USSR to declare an amnesty, resulting in the liberation of these Polish exiles. They were asked to find refuge themselves.
They embarked on arduous journeys to various destinations.
"Except for cricketers, poets, and singers, others found it relatively hard to come to India."
This was director John Mathew Matthan's rationale for portraying a ghazal singer as the villain!
25 years ago, crime drama changed forever with the release of Sarfarosh!
A Thread 🧵
John Matthew Matthan was an ad-film director, and "Sarfarosh" was his debut. But, he was an assistant to Govind Nihalani in Nihalani's first film "Aakrosh" and in "Gandhi," where Nihalani was the cinematographer!
He met Naseeruddin Shah on the sets of Aakrosh!
Aamir Khan's rationale to work with a debutant was as follows:
"When I read the script, I realized the social implications of what the film was trying to say (...) I reacted emotionally to it because of what I had been going through as an Indian, it talked of Hindus & Muslims living together."