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Of all the great things about television, the greatest is that it’s on every single day. TV history is being made, day in and day out, in ways big and small. In an effort to better appreciate this history, we’re taking a look back, every day, at one particular TV milestone.
IMPORTANT DATE IN TV HISTORY: May 7, 1998
PROGRAM ORIGINALLY AIRED ON THIS DATE: Friends, “The One With Ross’s Wedding” (Season 4, Episode 23/24). [Stream on Netflix.]
WHY IT’S IMPORTANT: Friends was a phenomenon from the very beginning, and NBC had been using it as its featured series since at least the Super Bowl episode in its first season. But even still, the season 4 finale felt special. Five of the six friends (save pregnant Phoebe) hopped the pond over to London for Ross’ wedding to Emily. One of those friends, Rachel, showed up uninvited, leading to perhaps the most famous slip of the tongue in TV history. Weddings! Betrayals! Fancy new locales! A two-part episode! This season finale had everything you could possibly want out of an event episode of television. And that’s not even getting into how Monica and Chandler ended up in bed together and changed the entire trajectory of the series. This episode could not have been more pivotal.
The episode is greatly aided by the on-location shooting in London. Kudrow was in real life too pregnant to fly to England to film, so her scenes were filmed back in L.A. It’s to her credit that Phoebe’s scenes are still so wonderful despite her isolation. Certainly it took quite a presence to hammer it home to Rachel that she should go after Ross. Other good bonus points: guest-starring roles for greats like Jennifer Saunders and Tom Conti (as Emily’s parents), Olivia Williams, even this easter egg of a cameo from a pre-House Hugh Laurie:
(The way he says “Feebs”!)
Of course, the whole thing boils down to two of the biggest developments in the show’s history. The first being the surprise reveal that Chandler and Monica slep together. Which elicits such a whoop from the studio audience that it’s no surprise the show decided to take this relationship and run with it.
And then there’s Ross’s ultimate faux pas on the altar. Thrown by Rachel’s sudden appearance, Ross speaks his vows thusly:
And then BAM, season’s over. Three months to speculate and enthuse and anticipate where Ross and Rachel go from here. In many ways, Friends went back and forth on the Ross-and-Rachel thing so many times that it ended up grinding the audience down. This was pretty much the peak of Ross-and-Rachel enthusiasm, and easily the show’s best season finale.
[You can stream Friends‘ “The One With Ross’ Wedding” on Netflix.]
