The most-watched episode of Friends ever aired on January 28, 1996, and garnered 52.9 million viewers, and no, it was not the finale.
It was actually “The One After the Super Bowl,” and the double-length episode from Season 2 featured major guest stars such as Brooke Shields, Julia Roberts, Jean-Claude Van Damme, and Chris Isaak.
It is also the highest-rated Super Bowl lead-out program of all time, and the episode also won the sitcom its first Emmy ever.
In an interview with Gold Derby, the episode’s director Michael Lembeck shared some fun facts about the filming, including Jennifer Aniston and Courteney Cox’s disdain for Van Damme’s kissing style.
“Having to face the ire of both actresses going, ‘Tell that motherf–ker to get his tongue out of my mouth,’ is hilarious to me now, but at the time it was like, ‘Oh my god, how do I say this to [Van Damme]?'” Lembeck told the outlet. “I was scared of him! He’d gotten into beefs with other people, and I didn’t want to be the one on the receiving end.”
The scene was ultimately not included in the episode, but was added as a deleted scene.
There was also drama behind the scenes with Shields and her then-boyfriend Andre Agassi, who was not pleased with her portrayal of a finger-licking Joey Tribbiani fan.
“I don’t know that he had any sense of the damage he had done,” Lembeck added. “But Brooke was a real pro and wasn’t afraid to try things… The fact that she was able to come back after the incident with Agassi and maintain and raise the comedy level was remarkable.”
Despite the drama, the episode is still one of the most-watched episodes in NBC history, behind the series finales of Cheers (93.5 million) and Seinfeld (76.3 million).