| Friends Season 4 | |||
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Friends season 4 DVD cover |
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| Country of origin | USA | ||
| No. of episodes | 24 | ||
| Broadcast | |||
| Original channel | NBC | ||
| Original run | September 25, 1997 – May 7, 1998 | ||
| Home video release | |||
| DVD release date | Region 1: July 15, 2003 Region 2: May 29, 2000 Region 4: October 4, 2006 |
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| Season chronology | |||
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The fourth season of Friends, an American situation comedy created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, premiered on NBC (National Broadcasting Company) on September 25, 1997. Friends was produced by Bright/Kauffman/Crane Productions, in association with Warner Bros. Television. The season contains 24 episodes and concluded airing on May 7, 1998. It also concluded a run of seasons generally considered among the series's best, from Seasons 1-4 (or sometimes 2-4). It was also one of three entries on TV Guide's list of the Top 100 TV Seasons, containing "Friends" seasons.
Contents |
In the Season 3 finale, Ross enters a room greeting to one of either Rachel or Bonnie. In the season premiere, it's revealed he's actually saying "Hi" to both of them, as he finds Rachel spreading Bonnie's bald head with lotion. Bonnie leaves off and Ross continues his interrupted kiss with Rachel. He decides to break up with Bonnie to get back together with Rachel, who writes a letter to him. However, she's willing to reconcile with Ross only on condition that he accepts that the letter "does" (state that he accepts full responsibility of everything wrong with their previous relationship). However, Ross is too tired to read a 36-page letter in the early hours of dawn ("18 pages - front and back"), but his desire to get back with Rachel is such that he accepts the letter, unknowingly to what he's agreeing to. When he does actually read the whole letter, he changes his idea, and thanks to Rachel's continuous reference to the letter after they have sex, they break up again.
Meanwhile, Chandler and Joey are with Monica at the beach, where she gets stung by a jellyfish. Joey, who saw a feature on the Discovery Channel, suggests peeing on the bite, but gets the stage-fright, so Chandler does it. In doing this, he ends his continuous speculations of a relationship with Monica, who despite defining Chandler a cute, great guy, calls him "the guy who peed on me". Not long after, Chandler and Joey are robbed in broad daylight, and for a while they fill the apartment with rusty patio furniture and a canoe (The One With The Cat).
Having learnt the truth about her birth mother, Phoebe is extremely disappointed about her and the fact that she never tried to find out about her. Phoebe storms off, never wanting to see her again. After tracking her down, however, Abbott starts off an uncomfortable but moderately friendly rapport with her daughter (albeit with some initial struggling). It's during this season that Lisa Kudrow (who plays Phoebe) becomes pregnant. This is written in the show as her surrogate pregnancy which she goes through for her brother and his new wife (who also get married in this season but we actually meet for the first time in the third season).
Joey starts dating an actress named Kathy, who Chandler has a crush on. However, Chandler and Kathy kiss while she still sees Joey. Uncomfortable about Joey finding out about her and Chandler, Kathy breaks up with Joey, but he still finds out about the kiss from Chandler, whose guilt is so great that he buys new furniture for their empty apartment. He becomes so angry that he starts sending off the stuff Chandler bought, until Chandler resolves the issue by spending Thanksgiving in a box (The One With Chandler In A Box). Thanksgiving this year is awkward for Monica, who invites Dr Timothy Burke, Richard's son, and kisses him, a brief lip contact which reminds her of her ex-boyfriend, but Joey and Chandler make up on this day. Chandler starts dating Kathy, but breaks up with her after she sleeps with her fellow actor, who Chandler sees having simulated sex with his girlfriend in a play.
Monica starts a catering business with Phoebe, but after reviewing Alessandro's restaurant and accepting a job as head-chef there, she and Phoebe break the catering business up. Her new rapport with her fellow workers is quite difficult at first, but following Chandler's suggestion, she fires Joey in a set-up and gains control of the kitchens. She and Rachel also lose their apartment to Joey and Chandler in this season (as a bet with a quiz with personal questions about each other). To make matters worse for Rachel, her boss Joanna dies, and as a result she gets shunted in Personal Shopping at Bloomingdale's, where she meets Joshua, who she has a crush on. After several incidents which prevent Rachel from expressing her true feelings to him (including an unplanned opera visit which ends up with Rachel introducing Ross to his new girlfriend, Emily), she starts dating Joshua.
However, Ross and Emily, who are crazy over each other, move on quite fast, and agree to get married in London. This sets off Rachel in a competition with Ross, and proposes to Joshua, who is still in the process of getting his divorce final. She scares him off so much that he breaks up with her. Ross sends out the invitations for his London wedding (The One With The Invitation), and naturally he invites all his friends, but struggles to invite Rachel after Emily's remarks. He decides to invite her anyway, but she is too worried of being highly uncomfortable seeing Ross marry another woman, so she RSVPs as not coming.
The friends all go to London (The One With Ross' Wedding, Part 1). Monica helps Ross with the preparations for his wedding, but between the torn-down chapel, the hurried guests menu and other stuff, she almost puts the wedding off by suggesting to Emily to postpone the ceremony; she then helps Ross solve the problem. The rehearsal dinner is a disaster for everyone: Ross can't get his parents and new in-laws to settle their arguments about payments for the wedding, Chandler can't deliver the toast, Joey gets homesick (until he meets one of Emily's bridesmaids, Felicity), and between her mother's cynical remarks and a drunken guest mistaking her for Ross' mother, Monica falls in a depression about being single. In USA, Phoebe, who can't travel by plane because she in her third trimester of pregnancy, has Rachel staying with her. Phoebe helps her re-discover her feelings for Ross.
Ross' wedding day (and the second part of the season finale) contains a few surprises: Ross almost catches Monica and Chandler, who sleep together; Rachel rushes off to London to tell Ross she still loves him (only to find him kissing his wife-to-be and realize that Ross is happy to marry Emily); and Ross has all his friends as guests to his wedding. The ceremony starts, Emily says her vows, and Ross starts saying his. But he stops mid-stream when he calls Emily "Rachel", putting an end to the fourth season.
Main cast |
Guest stars |
Recurring cast |
| № | # | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original air date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 74 | 1 | "The One with the Jellyfish" | Shelley Jensen | Wil Calhoun | September 25, 1997 |
| Monica is stung by a jellyfish and asks Joey and Chandler to help her. The three of them later behave uncomfortably around each other after what happened when they helped Monica, which is later revealed that Chandler peed on her to ease the pain. Ross and Rachel get back together until Ross cannot stand Rachel thinking he has taken full responsibility for the flaws in their relationship. Phoebe gets to know her birth mother. | |||||
| 75 | 2 | "The One with the Cat" | Shelley Jensen | Jill Condon & Amy Toomin | October 2, 1997 |
| A cat enters the coffee house and sniffs around Phoebe's guitar case. When Phoebe picks the cat up, she believes that her dead mother's spirit is inside it. Joey tries to sell his entertainment unit and when showing a customer that it is big enough to fit a grown man, the customer puts a hockey stick through the handles, locking Joey in and steals everything in his and Chandler's apartment. Monica dates Chip Matthews, the most popular boy from her high school, but dumps him after she realizes he is an immature loser who still lives with his parents. | |||||
| 76 | 3 | "The One with the Cuffs" | Peter Bonerz | Seth Kurland | October 9, 1997 |
| Chandler dates Rachel's boss, Joanna, again and finally breaks up with her after she handcuffs him to her office chair. Rachel then comes to Chandler's rescue, with doubts as she realizes she could get fired for going into her boss's office. Monica caters a party for her mother, but while preparing the food she loses a fake finger nail in the quiche, ruining her plans to impress her critical mother. | |||||
| 77 | 4 | "The One with the Ballroom Dancing" | Gail Mancuso | Ted Cohen & Andrew Reich | October 16, 1997 |
| Joey helps the apartment supervisor Treegor with his ballroom dancing skills in order to help Monica and Rachel keep their illegal apartment. Chandler wants to quit the gym, but can't because of the attractive staff. Ross, originally to help Chandler quit, ends up with a gym membership when they leave. Their later plan is to cut the gym from their financial source, so they attempt to quit their bank but because of the attractive female staff there, they end up with a joint-checking account. | |||||
| 78 | 5 | "The One with Joey's New Girlfriend" | Gail Mancuso | Gregory S. Malins & Michael Curtis | October 30, 1997 |
| Chandler starts to fall in love with Joey's new girlfriend, Kathy, after he flirted with her in the coffee house, unaware Joey was dating her as well. Rachel becomes jealous of Ross's relationship and ends up dating a college student, who turns out to be stealing from her. Phoebe's voice becomes stuffy after she catches a cold, which gives her a new voice for singing and finds that she likes her "new" singing voice better. | |||||
| 79 | 6 | "The One with the Dirty Girl" | Shelley Jensen | Shana Goldberg-Meehan & Scott Silveri | November 6, 1997 |
| Ross's new girlfriend (Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) seems nearly perfect until he discovers that her apartment is incredibly dirty. Chandler buys Kathy a first edition of her favorite children's book for her birthday. He tries to help Joey (then dating Kathy) buy a present that is comparable to his own, but Joey only ends up purchasing something very meaningless and inexpensive. Phoebe and Monica decide to become partners in a catering business. | |||||
| 80 | 7 | "The One Where Chandler Crosses the Line" | Kevin S. Bright | Adam Chase | November 13, 1997 |
| Chandler must decide between the girl of his dreams, Kathy, and his best friend Joey when he and Kathy share a secret and secluded passionate kiss. Chandler, feeling guilty about his kiss with Kathy, buys new furniture and appliances for his and Joey's apartment to fill in the empty spaces left after the robbery. When Joey finds out about the kiss, he attempts to punish Chandler for five years. Ross starts playing the keyboard again for the first time since college and reinvents his musical art (or as Ross calls them, "wordless sound poems"). | |||||
| 81 | 8 | "The One with Chandler in a Box" | Peter Bonerz | Michael Borkow | November 20, 1997 |
| Chandler agrees to spend Thanksgiving in a shipping crate as a punishment from Joey for kissing Kathy. After Monica accidentally gets ice in her eye, she visits her new eye doctor, who turns out to be out of town, and is seen by Richard's son (Michael Vartan). She then invites him over for Thanksgiving, of which the others do not approve of. After Kathy visits and breaks up with Chandler due to not wanting to break up a friendship, Joey forgives Chandler and tells him to go after her before she leaves. | |||||
| 82 | 9 | "The One Where They're Going to Party!" | Peter Bonerz | Ted Cohen & Andrew Reich | December 11, 1997 |
| Chandler and Ross's friend "Gandalf" is planning to come to town. They are very excited until he cancels. When they're forced to try to have a fun time on their own, they're forced to realize that they're becoming older and no longer enjoy the party scene. Monica has to choose between a head chef job and catering with Phoebe, and helps Phoebe with ideas for a business of her own. Rachel gets "hired" as the assistant buyer at Bloomingdale's but doesn't get the promotion because her supervisor dies before she turns in the HR paperwork. | |||||
| 83 | 10 | "The One with the Girl from Poughkeepsie" | Gary Halvorson | Scott Silveri | December 18, 1997 |
| Ross must decide whether to continue dating a girl he must travel two-and-a-half hours to see or a girl much closer to home but much less fun. Phoebe tries to write the perfect Christmas song about her friends. Joey helps Monica by trying to get all the staff to like her at her new restaurant. | |||||
| 84 | 11 | "The One with Phoebe's Uterus" | David Steinberg | Seth Kurland | January 8, 1998 |
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Phoebe doesn't know what to do when Frank Jr. visits with his new wife and asks her to carry their child. She visits her birth mother who tells her it isn't a good idea. To support this, she gives Phoebe a puppy, but only for three days to prove it will be hard to give it up. Phoebe decides she will carry their baby because when it's over, they will be so happy, making Phoebe feel good. Meanwhile, Monica teaches Chandler the secrets of a woman's seven erogenous zones, for which Kathy is extremely grateful. Note: In "The One Where Chandler Doesn't Like Dogs," Chandler doesn't like dogs. However, he is seen in this episode with a dog. |
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| 85 | 12 | "The One with the Embryos" | Kevin S. Bright | Jill Condon & Amy Toomin | January 15, 1998 |
| Phoebe's uterus is examined for implantation of the embryos. A seemingly harmless game between the guys and the girls escalates into a full-blown contest to see which pair knows more personal data about the other. The guys end up betting the chick and the duck, and the girls end up betting their apartment. When the guys win, Rachel tells them that it was just a game but the guys continue to move in. At the end, Phoebe tells everyone she's pregnant. | |||||
| 86 | 13 | "The One with Rachel's Crush" | Dana DeVally Piazza | Shana Goldberg-Meehan | January 29, 1998 |
| As the guys and the girls switched apartments, Monica told the guys they have to be the hosts only for her to want to become the hostess again. Chandler breaks up with Kathy after seeing her having simulated sex on stage with another man. Kathy tells Chandler that it is just her job, and tells Chandler to call her when he can grow up. It is later revealed that Kathy wasn't sleeping with him, but starts to after her and Chandler's dispute, causing Chandler to say, that their "second fight ... is going to be A BIG ONE!" Rachel has a crush on Joshua, a handsome customer and even ponders asking him out. | |||||
| 87 | 14 | "The One with Joey's Dirty Day" | Peter Bonerz | Wil Calhoun | February 5, 1998 |
| Joey has to go to Charlton Heston's new movie but smells awful because of a three day fishing trip with his father previously and never had time to shower. He breaks into Heston's dressing room and uses his shower. Rachel sets Ross up with her boss's niece, Emily (Helen Baxendale) so that she can go to Joshua's invested nightclub. Chandler can't get over Kathy, and remains in his barcalounger, in his sweat pants. | |||||
| 88 | 15 | "The One with All the Rugby" | James Burrows | Story: Ted Cohen & Andrew Reich Teleplay: Wil Calhoun |
February 26, 1998 |
| Ross plays rugby with some of Emily's English friends and ends up in a lot of pain afterward. Chandler runs into Janice and tells her that his company is transferring him to Yemen in an effort to escape reuniting with her. Monica obsesses over a light switch that doesn't seem to control anything, and even cuts the wall open herself to follow the wire after an electrician, the super and the electrical plans to the building prove unfruitful. It is revealed that it turns the television in Joey and Chandler's apartment. | |||||
| 89 | 16 | "The One with the Fake Party" | Michael Lembeck | Story: Alicia Sky Varinaitis Teleplay: Scott Silveri & Shana Goldberg-Meehan |
March 19, 1998 |
| Rachel throws a fake party for Emily, who's returning to London, just so she can see Joshua outside of work. The baby in Phoebe's womb is craving meat, which is putting a strain on Phoebe's vegetarianism. Just as Rachel is about to kiss Joshua, Phoebe's baby kicks. | |||||
| 90 | 17 | "The One with the Free Porn" | Michael Lembeck | Story: Mark J. Kunerth Teleplay: Richard Goodman |
March 26, 1998 |
| Chandler and Joey discover that they're getting a free porn channel on their TV. Ross tells Emily how he really feels about her. After she has left for England, he flies to London to see her, unaware that she's already on her way back to New York to see him. The doctor tells Phoebe that she is going to have triplets. | |||||
| 91 | 18 | "The One with Rachel's New Dress" | Gail Mancuso | Story: Andrew Reich & Ted Cohen Teleplay: Jill Condon & Amy Toomin |
April 2, 1998 |
| Joshua invites Rachel to his parents' house, who are said to be out of town. She changes into a more revealing dress and Joshua and his parents walk in, much to her embarrassment. Phoebe is offered the chance to name one of the triplets and chooses 'Chandler' over 'Joey' when Chandler realizes he has a horrible name. When Phoebe leaves, it is revealed it was just a plan to get her to choose 'Chandler'. Ross suspects Emily of having an affair with Carol's wife Susan. | |||||
| 92 | 19 | "The One with All the Haste" | Kevin S. Bright | Scott Silveri & Wil Calhoun | April 9, 1998 |
| Monica and Rachel have Knicks season tickets and offer them to the guys if they give them their apartment back. Chandler doesn't trade but Joey wants to. They play a game with Phoebe as the judge on picking the highest card out of a deck of cards and the winner take all. The guys win, so they set off to watch the game. While Chandler and Joey are at the Knicks game, Monica and Rachel switch the apartments back, despite the guys winning the tickets and the right to keep the apartment fair and square. Ross proposes to Emily and she accepts. | |||||
| 93 | 20 | "The One with All the Wedding Dresses" | Gail Mancuso | Story: Adam Chase Teleplay: Gregory S. Malins & Michael Curtis |
April 16, 1998 |
| Ross asks Monica to pick up Emily's wedding dress and instead Monica tries the dress on and keeps it. Phoebe then comes to Monica's in a wedding dress. Because of Ross's proposal to Emily, Rachel, feeling slightly jealous, tries to propose to Joshua. He doesn't accept, and when Rachel puts on her wedding dress at Monica's, the three of them hear a knock on the door thinking it's Chandler. It's actually Joshua, who gets freaked out with Rachel, Phoebe and Monica in wedding dresses and leaves. Chandler takes Joey to a sleep clinic because he snores all the time and meets a girl named Marjorie(Christina Moore) who talks in her sleep. She later is in bed with Chandler and screams really loud and wakes up Joey while asleep. | |||||
| 94 | 21 | "The One with the Invitation" | Peter Bonerz | Seth Kurland | April 23, 1998 |
| Ross and Emily are sending their wedding invitations; Emily doesn't think it's a good idea to invite Rachel, but Ross invites her anyway. After scenes shown from previous episodes of her and Ross's relationship, Rachel decides not to go but to keep Phoebe company and help her if she goes into labor. | |||||
| 95 | 22 | "The One with the Worst Best Man Ever" | Peter Bonerz | Gregory S. Malins & Michael Curtis | April 30, 1998 |
| Ross chooses Chandler as his best man, but picks Joey instead when Chandler says Ross won't be his best man. Joey then loses Ross's ring after a bachelor party and is convinced the stripper stole it after she slept with Joey. They later find out that the duck swallowed the ring. The girls give Phoebe a baby shower. | |||||
| 96 | 23 | "The One with Ross's Wedding (1)" | Kevin S. Bright | Story: Michael Borkow Teleplay: Shana Goldberg-Meehan & Scott Silveri |
May 7, 1998[1] |
| All the friends go to London, except for Phoebe, who's pregnant and Rachel, who thinks it will be too painful to see Ross get married, and tells Ross she has to work. The building where Ross and Emily schedule to get married has been torn down a few days early, but they decide to marry there anyway. Richard Branson cameos as a souvenir stand salesman, and Sarah Ferguson appears in a video with Joey. | |||||
| 97 | 24 | "The One with Ross's Wedding (2)" | Kevin S. Bright | Story: Jill Condon & Amy Toomin Teleplay: Shana Goldberg-Meehan & Scott Silveri |
May 7, 1998[1] |
| Rachel decides to go to Ross's wedding after all, to say she still loves him. Emily's parents try to fool Ross's parents with the wedding bill, paying to remodel their house as well. Chandler and Monica sleep together after a drunk guy thinks she is Ross's mother. At the altar, Ross makes a big mistake: he says Rachel's name. | |||||
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