There’s an outside chance you may of heard of a little show called Friends, which pretty much took over the 90s and launched the careers of screen royalty like Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox.
Friends went on for a whopping ten seasons and remains hugely popular to this day, with even the likes of Netflix having to reassure fans that the streaming service will keep the show in its repertoire a full 15 years after the show last aired.
So if you, like so many out there, are obsessed with Friends still, then read on, because we’ve got everything you need to know about where the show was filmed and the sets and locations you can actually visit…
Sorry to burst your bubble, but, aside from establishing shots of exterior buildings, Friends wasn’t actually filmed in New York. Season one was filmed on Stage Five of Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank California, and the iconic opening sequence was filmed in a fountain at the Warner Bros. Ranch, which some claim is inspired by the fountain in the Grand Army Plaza in Central Park which depicts Pomona, the Roman goddess of abundance.
The Ranch at Warner Bros is part of a large variety of exterior sets owned by the production company. The official Warner Bros. website boasts that, ‘The sets can be dressed to resemble any time, period or look imaginable.’
At the start of season two, filming moved to the bigger Stage 24, which became known as The Friends Stage after the show ended. Some parts of the set, such as the Central Perk set, is still available to tour.
Other well-known California filming locations were the Vasquez Rocks, which served as the Las Vegas filming location for Shutter Speed, the movie that was supposed to be Joey’s big break in season five, and the Leo Carrillo State Park in Malibu, which famously appears as the Montauk beach setting for The One With The Jellyfish.
While so much of the show was shot in California, a Greenwich Village building, located on the corner of Grove and Bedford, served as the outside of Monica’s apartment building.
If you’re planning on looking around that area for the Central Perk Cafe however, don’t bother – it only exists on Warner Bros. Studios.
Sadly, The Moondance Diner – which was used for the exterior shots of the themed diner of the same name where Monica worked for a time – was a real place that could once have been found in Manhattan, but it was closed down in 2012 after moving to Wyoming in 2007 and now has a hotel on its site.
For the season finale of season four, The One with Ross’ Wedding, the Friends gang filmed on-location in London in front of the likes of the London Marriott hotel, Grosvenor Square, Westminster Abbey and on top of a bus in which Joey and Chandler cross Tower Bridge.
