The One with the Prom Video

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"The One With the Prom Video" is the fourteenth episode of season two of the television situation comedy Friends.

First aired: February 16, 1996

1 Plot
2 Production
3 Additional cast
4 Trivia
5 Goofs
6 References

[edit] Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Joey, now making money, decides to share some of his wealth with Chandler. He gives Chandler some money to repay him for head shots and pizza. He also gifts him with a gaudy gold bracelet. Despite hating the bracelet, Chandler wears it. When the bracelet costs him a date with a pretty woman at the coffeehouse, he makes fun of the bracelet - calling it an "eyesore from the Liberace House of Crap" and a "reject from the Mr. T collection." Joey overhears, and is quite upset. After promising to never remove the bracelet, Chandler finds it's missing. He buys a new one to replace it, but shortly after the bracelet has been found. He gives one to Joey, which patches over their argument.

Ross still tries to get Rachel to forgive him for "The List," but is upset when Rachel tells him that they as a couple will never happen. Despite Phoebe's insistence that he is her "lobster," she wants little more to do with Ross than just as a friend.

Monica, short on cash, has a disastrous interview with a restaurant manager with a salad fetish. She then decides to ask her parents for a loan. They come by with a couple of boxes, and an announcement - they're turning Monica's old bedroom into a gym. In going through some of the boxes, Monica finds several mementos from her childhood - including her old swimsuit (since Monica was larger then, Chandler quips that they used it to cover Connecticut when it rained), and a video of her and Rachel getting ready for their senior prom. The gang decides to watch the video, although Ross objects to everyone seeing the tape.

Monica - before she lost all her weight - and Rachel - sporting a huge pre-nose job nose that prompts Chandler to take back his earlier comment about Monica's swimsuit - are waiting for their dates to arrive. Monica's date, Roy Gublick (who saw Star Wars 317 times in the theater), comes - but Rachel's date, Chip Matthews, doesn't. Mrs. Geller convinces Ross - complete with mustache and bad Afro - to wear Mr. Geller's tux and take Rachel to the prom. Ross reluctantly agrees, but by the time he's dressed and ready to save her night, Chip has shown up and the girls leave, with the camera finally ending with Ross having a look of utter disappointment, kind of like when you are rejected.

Rachel, so touched by Ross's gesture, gets up and kisses Ross, having forgiven him for "the List."

Monica keeps watching the tape after everyone else is gone - it starts out with a clip of her dancing with her father, but quickly cuts to her parents having sex. Monica, naturally, is horrified.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Production

An early script draft featured a scene in the prom video in which an episode of All My Children is on in the background. The scene was intended to feature the character "Bryce", played by Gunther (as revealed in "The One Where Eddie Won't Go").^[1]

[edit] Additional cast

Jack Geller - Elliott Gould
Judy Geller - Christina Pickles
Roy Gublick - Michael Bower

[edit] Trivia

In 2004, this episode was voted the all-time greatest. The only cast member who agreed with this choice was David Schwimmer.
In the prom video, Mr. Geller refers to Ross as a "college man". Ross is home for the summer from (perhaps) his freshman year.
Ross is known to be allergic to lobster (The One With the Baby on the Bus); it's quite ironic that Rachel is his "lobster".

[edit] Goofs

When Phoebe tells Chandler that a girl is "checking him out," she incorrectly says that she is sitting "11 o' clock". Chandler's perspective would actually make the girl "5 o' clock".
When Monica turns off the prom video, the reflection on the TV shows her getting up. But in the next scene she is sitting down.