Monica then pursues a chain of various men until she unexpectedly begins a relationship with her longtime friend, Chandler Bing, at the end of the fourth season, during her brother Ross' wedding to Emily Waltham in London.
Phoebe Buffay-Hannigan (Lisa Kudrow) is an odd, ditzy albeit sweet-natured masseuse who grew up homeless, sometimes telling her friends outlandish tales of life on the street.
Joseph Francis "Joey" Tribbiani Jr. (Matt LeBlanc) is a good-natured but not-so-bright struggling actor and food lover, who becomes mildly famous for his role as Dr. Drake Ramoray on a fictionalized version of Days of Our Lives.
After he gets Ugly Naked Guy's apartment, he is offered to return to work, but he loses his temper again when he sees Chandler and Monica having sex through his window, becoming the last one to find out about their relationship.
Roberta "Bobbie" Morganstern (Jennifer Coolidge) is Joey's oversexed agent whom he hires after Estelle Leonard's death, and reportedly the twelfth most powerful woman in Hollywood.
They are also sometimes bemused by the antics of the other four friends, such as idiotic or crazy comments from Phoebe and Joey, a revolting trifle cooked by Rachel, and Chandler entering a coed whirlpool alongside Jack without wearing anything underneath the towel wrapped around his waist.
Rachel is invited to the wedding, but receives a cold reception for jilting Barry while she is there, and a ridiculous speech from Ross which bemuses everyone in the room does not exactly improve the situation for her, until she, in a desperate attempt to salvage some pride, walks onto the stage where the microphone is and starts singing the "Copacabana".
[e 14] Although Susan and Ross are initially, naturally enough, often at odds, they briefly put aside their differences when Carol gives birth to a boy, whom they all agree, after weeks of argument, to name Ben.
[e 23] In "The One with Barry and Mindy's Wedding", Chandler arranges a meeting with a mystery woman over the Internet, who turns out to be Janice, who reveals that her husband is having an affair with his secretary and that they are divorcing.
[26] Mr. Heckles (Larry Hankin): Monica and Rachel's downstairs neighbor, a domineering, highly unusual elderly man who constantly complains about the noise, even though the six friends are being perfectly decent in volume whenever he claims that they are disturbing him.
Terry (Max Wright): the original manager at Central Perk before Gunther takes the title, who does not hide the fact that he thinks Rachel is a terrible waitress and Phoebe is "so bad" as a musician.
He denies Rachel an advance on her wages in "The One Where Underdog Gets Away"[e 37] and hires a professional musician, Stephanie Schiffer (played by Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders), to replace Phoebe in "The One with the Baby on the Bus".
[e 40] David, "the Scientist Guy" (Hank Azaria): a physicist with whom Phoebe falls in love in "The One with the Monkey", when he receives an academic grant for a three-year research trip to Minsk (incorrectly—and consistently—described in the scripts as being in Russia, rather than Belarus).
In the same episode, Helen Hunt and Leila Kenzle cameo as their Mad About You characters Jamie Buchman and Fran Devanow, in a scene where they mistake Phoebe for Ursula in Central Perk.
Previously, Ribisi appeared in "The One with the Baby on the Bus" as a stranger who leaves a condom rather than money in Phoebe's guitar case when she is singing on the street, then comes back to retrieve it.
Mark Robinson (Steven Eckholdt) first appears in "The One Where Chandler Can't Remember Which Sister", offering to get Rachel an interview at Bloomingdale's after overhearing her complaining to Monica about her current job.
She makes a final voice cameo in "The One with the Ride Along",[e 88] when she leaves a message on Ross's answering machine the night before her new wedding, telling him she is having second thoughts about it and is worried that they made a mistake splitting up.
[41] Helen Baxendale was asked to reprise the role in season 10, but turned it down to star in the West End play After Miss Julie, and because she did not want the same level of tabloid attention she received in 1998.
[e 93] In "The One Where They All Turn Thirty" Rachel breaks up with Tag when she realizes that their six-year age difference makes him too young and immature for her to be dating if she intends to follow her marriage schedule.
Mike feels sorry for Phoebe as he watches her leave and when he spots her again in the coffee shop the next day, he speaks to her and explains that he allowed himself to be roped into the date "because I was told that I'd get a free dinner-which I didn't-and that I'd meet a pretty girl-which I did."
Charlie Wheeler (Aisha Tyler): an attractive paleontology professor (goes to Woodroffe school) whom Ross falls for in "The One with the Soap Opera Party" (airdate April 24, 2003; season 9, No.
Aisha Tyler was only the second major supporting character to be portrayed by a black actress, following Gabrielle Union's appearance as Kristen Lang in "The One with the Cheap Wedding Dress" (airdate March 15, 2001; season 7, No.
Tyler told the St Petersburg Times, "I hope [people's] frustration over [the lack of diversity] is tempered by the fact that when they wrote this role, they didn't wimp out.
"[44] Erica (Anna Faris): a young girl from Cincinnati who decides to let Monica and Chandler adopt her baby in "The One with the Birth Mother" (airdate January 8, 2004; season 10, No.
"[e 4] Missy Goldberg (Ellen Pompeo): a woman from Ross' and Chandler's college, at which they both made a pact to not ask her out so it would not damage their friendship, introduced in "The One Where the Stripper Cries" (airdate February 5, 2004; season 10, No.
They have an argument over whether or not he should be paid for arriving after a rather difficult and rushed journey to the apartment on his part, and when she refuses to allow a sympathetic Rachel and Monica to pay him and also insults him, the sensitive stripper gets upset and cries as he is forced to accept the fact that he is no longer physically attractive, but stripping is all he knows.
When they seem to be successfully bonding, Eddie reveals his disturbed inner thoughts, and begins to show signs of mental illness, such as stealing mannequin heads from Macy's and obsessively dehydrating fruit.
The producers and casting director had difficulty finding an actor to play Pete as they wanted, "someone who was appealing enough that we liked him, so we could root for him, but on the other hand, wasn't so drop-dead male model gorgeous that we would go, 'What's your problem?'
Cecilia Monroe (Susan Sarandon) is a soap opera diva who has played Jessica Lockhart on Days of Our Lives for years,[e 128] famous for throwing drinks at people and slapping their faces.
"Sick Bastard" (Jimmy Palumbo) and "Evil Bitch" (Debi Mazar), the couple who are having a child and with whom Rachel, who is waiting to have her baby delivered, shares a semi-private room.