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JoeysApartment1
Monica and Rachel's Address

The address

Chandler and Joey's apartment is located in Greenwich Village in Manhattan. In "The One With The Invitation", we find out that the address of this apartment is 545 Grove Street. (There is a Grove Street in West Village, Manhattan, New York City, but it is a short one, and doesn't have a number 545.)

The apartment served as a regular set-piece, but in terms of the show's main action, it was not as central a setting as Monica's apartment or Central Perk. It acted not so much as a gathering place for the six friends, but as more of a sanctuary for its two residents, where they could drink beer, watch Baywatch, relax in their twin Barcaloungers, and play games such as Foosball, video games on a Nintendo 64 or PlayStation, 'hammer darts', 'fireball' and the less-popular 'ultimate fireball'. It was also the home of The Chick and The Duck and the entertainment unit. It was generally a mess, in stark contrast to Monica's apartment, which she always kept neat and tidy.

In general, it was considerably more modest than Monica's apartment, and was considered generally realistic for two men of average income to afford in New York.

The apartment was a testament to Joey and Chandler's lazy lifestyle. When their kitchen table broke, rather than replace it with another they instead purchased a Foosball table and resolved to eat over the sink. When Chandler's bedroom door was accidentally sawn in half, it was left that way until Monica and Rachel live there when the two parts are somehow fastened back together. However the cut in the door remained visible for the rest of the series.

Residents[]

The guys' apartment is the only place, other than Monica's apartment, that all the friends have lived in;

  • Chandler moved into his apartment before Friends began. He shared the apartment with Kip. There are two different reasons for why Kip moved out; Rachel says that he dated Monica and was eventually phased out. ("The One With The Kips") Chandler states that after being phased out he left to get married
  • 2 years before the show started, Chandler began interviewing potential roommates. A fashion photographer, Eric, became Chandler's instant favorite, due to the benefits Chandler was able to reap. With Chandler already having made up his mind on who to select, Joey's interview was rushed, and Eric got the apartment. However, as Eric was moving in, Mr. Heckles convinced him that he had been selected as the new roommate and Eric left. Joey moved in shortly after. ("The One With The Flashback")
  • After several years of living together, Joey began to realize, after landing a regular part on Days of Our Lives he could afford now to live on his own. He and Chandler began arguing about their living habits and eventually Joey moved into a colleague's apartment, leaving Chandler alone again. ("The One Where Joey Moves Out")
  • After Rachel and Ross convinced Chandler that Joey wasn't going to move back in with him, Chandler found a new roommate, Eddie. Chandler and Eddie clicked initially, however it was later made clear that Eddie wasn't anything like Joey, and that he couldn't be Chandler's roommate anymore, due to his seemingly psychotic personality.
  • Several more of Eddie's strange habits arose and Chandler decided to scheme with Joey, who was also missing living together, to get Eddie to leave. They moved all his stuff out of the apartment and act as though he never lived there. Eventually Eddie is convinced enough to leave and Joey moves back in.
  • During a seemingly harmless contest between Monica and Rachel and Joey and Chandler, Monica raised her apartment as one of the stakes. (The guys, if they lost, would have to give up the chicken and the duck.) Chandler and Joey ultimately won the contest, forcing Rachel and Monica to move into guys' apartment. ("The One With The Embryos"). Monica and Rachel both hated living there, and a few episodes later become determined to get their apartment back, giving the guys tickets to a New York Knicks' game. While the guys were at the Garden, Monica, Rachel and Phoebe seized the opportunity to swap apartments. When Chandler objected, Monica revealed the second phase of their plan: she and Rachel would kiss each other for one minute in front of the guys. The ploy worked and Chandler and Joey return to their apartment.
  • In Season 5, Ross is forced to move out of his apartment while trying to patch things up with Emily. When his marriage is finally over, he loses the apartment he sublet from Emily's cousin as he didn't need to sign a lease when "it's family." Ross moves in with the guys and brings annoying habits with him. The guys try to force him out but end up regretting the decision. Eventually, he gains Ugly Naked Guy's apartment by stripping down naked with him.
  • At the start of Season 6, Chandler decided to move out and live across the hall with Monica. Upset at first, Joey eventually accepts Chandler's decision, wishing his best friend luck living with Monica. ("The One On The Last Night")
  • Joey then gained the lease to the apartment and lived alone for a short while. He eventually began looking for a new room mate. Despite Joey's ridiculous ad, an Australian dancer, Janine Lecroix moved in with Joey, despite Joey not knowing anything about her. Janine stayed with Joey for a while, but eventually moved out after she insulted Chandler and Monica. ("The One With The Apothecary Table")
  • When Phoebe's apartment was badly burnt, due to what was later revealed to be Rachel's hair straightener, Phoebe was forced to move into Joey's apartment, believing the fire was her fault. However, Phoebe's time living with Joey was short-lived, as it was revealed that it was Rachel's fault the apartment burnt down. Eventually, Rachel began to see the benefits of living with Joey, as there, she was allowed to be messy and carefree. ("The One Where Ross Dates A Student")
  • After Phoebe's apartment is renovated, she plans to entice Rachel into moving back in. However, when the two visit the apartment, they discover that the apartment now has just one bedroom and Rachel couldn't possibly move back in. Having enjoyed living with Joey, she decides to stay permanently. ("The One With The Holiday Armadillo")
  • When Rachel becomes pregnant with Emma, Joey begins to realize that Ross needs to be more involved in the raising of their baby. Rachel eventually moves out and into Ross' apartment. ("The One With The Secret Closet")
  • Rachel living with Ross doesn't prove to be very successful and after a heated argument with Ross, Rachel moves back in with Joey, with Emma in tow. ("The One Where Monica Sings")
  • During Season 10, Rachel is offered a job in Paris and decides that she will take up the job offer, leaving Joey to live alone. ("The One With Rachel's Going Away Party") Eventually, however, Ross persuades her to stay in New York. It is presumed that during the time span of the episode Rachel moved back in with Ross, considering they were in a relationship. ("The Last One, Part 2")
  • After Friends ended, Joey moved to Los Angeles to continue his acting career. It is unknown who is currently the tenant of the apartment. (Joey (TV Series))

Decor[]

JoeysApartment2

The only relatively consistent decorations in the apartment were a framed picture of Laurel and Hardy, statues of The Three Stooges, the two reclining armchairs, the Foosball table, a poster for the 1914 French silent film and novel Les Mystères de New-York, a large white plastic dog that Joey had acquired while working on Days of Our Lives and a Magna Doodle on the front door, on which little jokes were often written.

The black and white Laurel and Hardy picture is actually a photo still from their 1928 film Leave 'Em Laughing. There is also a Scarface poster in Joey's room, as well as a great Guinness poster.

The apartment was refurbished rarely but substantially through the series. In Season 1, there were shelves in the kitchen between the refrigerator and the door to act as a pantry, but the shelves are not there in subsequent seasons. In "The One With The Dozen Lasagnas" the kitchen table breaks and is replaced with a foosball table. In "The One Where Ross And Rachel... You Know", Joey took the chance to acquire a big-screen TV and a couple of black barcaloungers. These remain in the apartment until "The One With The Cat", when the guys are robbed of everything except for the white dog and the entertainment unit built by Joey. During the construction of the Entertainment Unit, Joey accidentally saws Chandler's bedroom door in half; although the two halves would later be joined together, the actual split remains in place for the rest of the series. During the first part of Season 4, the guys' apartment contains rusty patio furniture which Joey and Chandler had found downstairs (they also later acquire a small TV). After kissing Kathy, Chandler re-furbishes the apartment with a new entertainment unit (one which opens and closes with a remote), a new big-screen TV, a stereo, and two new brown barcaloungers. Although Joey decides to send everything back after learning about Chandler's kiss, the guys make up and eventually keep the furniture. In late season 4, while Monica and Rachel are forced to live in the apartment, Monica tears out the carpet and replaces it with hard wood flooring, which remains even after Chandler and Joey switch back in. It's not before the sixth season that Chandler separates the barcaloungers to take one of them to his new apartment at Monica's. By the seventh season, it is known that Joey has given names to his furniture and decor - his barcalounger is named Rosita; and the TV is known as Stevie the TV. When Rachel breaks Joey's barcalounger 'Rosita' she gets him a black La-Z-Boy E-cliner 3000.

The Entertainment Unit[]

Joeys entertainment unit

"The One With Frank Jr." is when Joey decides to build a place to leave their mail. However, he decides to take his construction "to the next level", and the project expands into a fully-fledged entertainment unit. By the end of the episode, the entertainment center is ready and Joey and Chandler set it up with the help of their friends; the center is so wide that it covers the doors of the bedrooms. Although Chandler highly disapproves of the unit (mainly because its construction phase was characterized by a series of accidents in which he ends up with a varnish lid stuck to his pants, Joey saws Chandler's bedroom door, leaving it in two pieces and Chandler, while resting against the wall, almost has his head drilled into by Joey), he puts up with it through the third season, by which time the unit also becomes a home for the chick and the duck.

Chandler and Joey keep the unit until the start of the fourth season ("The One With The Cat"), when the guys decide to sell the unit. Joey tries to sell the unit to a guy, who looks quite skeptical about it. Joey points out how compartments of the unit are "big enough to hold a grown man", and he climbs inside to prove the point, after which the buyer locks Joey in the unit and robs the guys' apartment of almost everything. Not many options are left to Chandler and Joey at this point, and they are forced to trade their unit for a canoe that was offered by another pair who'd come to look at the unit. Joey later finds abandoned furniture in the basement of the building; a rusty patio table and two lawn chairs, prompting Chandler to remark "Could be be any more white trash?".

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