Friends Central
Advertisement


"The One With Monica & Chandler's Wedding, Part 1" is the first half of the two-part season seven finale of Friends. Both parts aired on May 17, 2001.

Plot

Joey unexpectedly gets a part in a movie about soldiers in World War I but his famous co-star Richard Crosby keeps spitting in his face for the sake of articulation. Ross makes everybody burst into laughter by threatening Chandler physically if he ever hurts his little sister.

Monica tells Chandler that she'd kind of been expecting him to freak out over their upcoming wedding, and she's so glad he didn't because it kept her calm, or at least calmer than she might have been. Just moments later, Chandler hears the new outgoing message on their answering machine, where Monica tells people to leave a message for "The Bings", and Chandler immediately begins to freak out. Seeing his sexy celebrity mother and drag-queen dad at the rehearsal dinner and hearing several more people refer to him and Monica as "The Bings" makes matters worse. After the dinner, when Ross goes to Joey's apartment looking for Chandler (who's staying there that night because of the whole "the groom isn't supposed to see the bride before the wedding" thing), he finds an empty apartment and a note saying "Tell Monica I'm sorry". Meanwhile Joey finds out he is expected to be on-set on the day of the wedding and tries to get out of it to no avail.

Ross goes looking for Chandler while Phoebe and Rachel try to keep Monica occupied so she won't realize Chandler is missing, and Monica is so excited about her upcoming wedding that she doesn't notice their odd behavior. Rachel and Phoebe find a positive pregnancy test in Monica's bathroom garbage.

Cast and Crew

Main Cast

Jennifer Aniston - Rachel Greene
Courteney Cox - Monica Geller
Lisa Kudrow - Phoebe Buffay
Matt LeBlanc - Joey Tribbiani
Matthew Perry - Chandler Bing
David Schwimmer - Ross Geller

Supporting Cast

Gary Oldman - Richard Crosby
Kathleen Turner - Charles Bing / (Credited as Helena)
Elliott Gould - Jack Geller
Morgan Fairchild - Nora Tyler Bing
James Michael Tyler - Gunther
Mark Roberts - The director
Christina Pickles - Judy Geller
Claudia Stedelin - Amanda
Peter James Smith - The assistant director
Roger Hamilton - Wedding Rehearsal Guest (uncredited )

Crew

Directed By:
Kevin S. Bright

Written By:
Gregory S. Malins

 Trivia

  • With this episode, everyone's parents except Phoebe's have appeared in an episode together;
    • Monica and Ross's parents Jack and Judy have appeared together regularly throughout the series, they first appeared together in "The One With The Sonogram At The End" (S1E2);
    • Joey's parents have only made one appearance in the series, both appeared in "The One With The Boobies" (S1E13), although they didn't share any scenes together;
    • Rachel's parents Leonard and Sandra both appeared in "The One With The Two Parties" (S2E22), although they didn't share any scenes together;
    • Chandler's parents Nora and Charles/Helena both appear in this episode.
  • Chandler's parents, Charles and Nora Bing, were named after the favorite Thin Man series character Nora Charles, one half of a very famous movie detective couple of the thirties.
  • Matt LeBlanc and Gary Oldman had previously costarred in Lost In Space, a 1998 film based on the tv series.
  • Gary Oldman received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for his work in this episode.
  • Gary Oldman starred in Dracula with Winona Ryder who appeared in The One With Rachel's Big Kiss.
  • This is the only time Jack and Judy are seen in Central Perk.
    • Judy also believes that Gunther is attractive, so much so that Jack said to Ross that Judy added him to "the list".
    • This is a callback to when the gang made a list of celebrities they're allowed to sleep with.
  • According to the DVD commentary for this two part episode, the show was filmed over two weeks, with all of the scenes featuring Gary Oldman being filmed in the first week. The wedding was filmed in the second week, with the final shot of Rachel filmed after the studio audience had left.
  • While visiting the coffee house, Jack mentions Rita Moreno, who is a Puerto Rican actress, singer, and dancer, best known for her portrayal of Anita in the film version of West Side Story. She has won an Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and a Tony.
  • Joey and Richard Crosby's exchange about Crosby not winning an Oscar is likely a tongue-in-cheek reference to Gary Oldman's reputation at the time as one of the finest actors to have never won or been nominated for an Oscar. He would eventually be nominated for his role as George Smiley in the 2011 film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and would win on his second nomination for his role in the 2017 film Darkest Hour.
  • Phoebe mentions that back then we called World War 1 "The Great War". This is a callback to The One With All The Thanksgiving when we saw Phoebe's previous life as a nurse.
  • This episode features on the Friends - The One with All the Weddings DVD.

Continuity/Goofs

  • In this episode, we hear the outgoing message Monica has recorded on her answering machine happily announcing to callers that if they are calling after Saturday (the day of the wedding) they've reached "The Bings!" However, in "The One with the Holiday Armadillo," Monica told Chandler she was not planning to change her last name. Additionally, more than two years after their wedding, in "The One with Princess Consuela," we learn that Monica still has not officially changed her last name to "Bing". Besides, if the wedding actually ocurred on May 15th 2001 like she said on The One With The Cheap Wedding Dress it wasn't a Saturday, it was on a Tuesday.
  • When Monica and Chandler are talking in the apartment about how they actually made it, Chandler's arms are crossed in front of him. When the camera angle changes, his arms are down by his side.
  • In this episode Ross mentions Molly, who is supposed to be Chandler's childhood dog, but in The One Where Chandler Doesn't Like Dogs, Chandler says he hates dogs. This dislike could have developed later in Chandler's life.
  • When Monica leaves the apartment, you can see the wall to the left of the door swing forward on hinges to align with the door.
  • Ross says it is nice to walk down the aisle knowing it can't end in divorce, but he walked Carol down the aisle in her wedding to Susan in "The One With The Lesbian Wedding." Of course this was before his divorces from Emily and Rachel.
  • When Joey and Phoebe are talking about his co-star spitting on him, and Phoebe says that she gets spit on at work, Joey puts his hand on her arm. Then in the next shot, when Monica and Chandler are walking along, Joey puts his hand on Phoebe again.
  •  At the rehearsal dinner when Chandler loosens his tie and unbuttons his collar, the tie changes its appearance in the following shots from being tighter to looser several times.
  •  After the assistant director introduces Joey to Richard Crosby, he says "He's playing Vincent" but his mouth is not moving while the words are heard. He is shown listening to his headset, and isn't even looking at Joey.
  •  The preview scenes of Part 2 at the end of this episode feature a shot of Richard Crosby drunkenly throwing his military saber off into the background, however this shot does not actually appear in the Part 2 episode. The sabre throwing is included in the uncut DVD episode.
  •  When Chandler leaves the bedroom he closes the door and crosses over to Monica but a few lines later when she's talking about his father having a plunging neckline, the door's fully open.
  •  After Rachel closes the apartment door to speak with Ross in the hallway, she starts her first line too early.
  •  Monica agrees with Rachel that the USA fought against Mexico in World War 1. In fact Mexico was neutral during the war, having ruled out military action.

External links

Episode Navigation

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
Advertisement