The "Sexist" Friends Storyline One of the Show's Female Writers Argued Against

Every Friends fan knows that Central Perk was second home to Rachel, Joey, Monica and the rest of the gang. During 10 seasons, the characters spent a small fortune on coffee. Coinage. Life, well spent. Presented by Geico. Well spent. Presented by GEICO. one friend's superfan Kate Lovely re-watched all 236 episodes and calculated their caffeine consumptions. In total they drink over 1150 cups. Phoebe drank the most, consuming 227 cups, nearly one per episode. The smelly cat musician was followed by Chandler, with 212. Monica with 198, Joey with 191, Ross with 188, and Rachel with 138 cups of joe. Based on a bill Monica receives, one coffee and a scone at the cafe costs $4.12. Assuming one cup would be around a $1.50, plus a 20% tip for Gunther, the Friends' coffee total would be over $2,070. Phoebe's caffeine addiction accounted for nearly a quarter of it at $400. With all that money she could have purchased a computer to inform her fan about her upcoming coffeehouse performances. In today's economy, everyone's favorite BFFs would have spend around $3,340. Could the gang be anymore caffeinated? Coinage. Life, well spent. Presented by Geico.

In the early years of Friends, the writers’ room (like most across the media landscape) skewed male. This imbalance is never more apparent than during the show’s post-Super Bowl episode in season 2, aptly titled "The One After the Superbowl" [sic]. The two-part hour-long episode was widely dubbed a ratings ploy, relying heavily on A-list guest stars like Brooke Shields and Julia Roberts. With 52.9 million viewers, the episode was the show’s most-watched, narrowly topping even the series finale.

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In retrospect, many of the show’s plotlines could be deemed sexist — Ross’s inability to accept that his son enjoys playing with a Barbie doll, Ross’s issue with hiring a male nanny, Joey’s entire attitude toward women … But for Alexa Junge, one of two female writers on staff at the time, the sexism in “The One After the Superbowl” was so glaring that she was compelled to take it up with co-creator David Crane.

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In the episode, Monica and Rachel get into a fight (which turns physical) over dating action star Jean-Claude Van Damme. According to Saul Austerlitz’s book Generation Friends: An Inside Look at the Show That Defined a Television Era, Junge railed against the storyline to the other writers, telling them, “if [Monica and Rachel are] friends they’re not going to do that. That’s bad for the sisterhood.”

But it wasn’t just the ethos of the plotline that irked Junge. She was “disturbed by the girl-fight vibe of the episode, complete with the wardrobe choices,” Austerlitz writes. “Why were Monica and Rachel wearing flimsy T-shirts on a cold set on what was supposed to be a winter day, their nipples instantly visible beneath their clothing?”

Junge shared her concerns with Crane, but to no avail. Crane, confused by Junge's objections, told her to flag anything she found offensive during the shoot. The storyline remained and so did the T-shirts.