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The One With The Ballroom Dancing

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"The One With The Ballroom Dancing" is the fourth episode of the fourth season of Friends, which aired on October 16, 1997. In it, Joey accidentally gets Monica and Rachel kicked out of their apartment, Chandler tries to quit his Gym Membership but can't due to a girl he likes, and Phoebe falls in love with one of her clients.

Plot[]

4x04 Maria

The gym brings out beautiful employee, Maria.

Mr. Treeger makes Rachel cry after she stuffs the trash chute with pizza boxes, because he is upset about people clogging it so frequently. After Joey confronts Treeger, he decides to throw out Monica and Rachel on the basis that Monica has been illegally subletting the apartment. Monica and Rachel force Joey to go suck up to Treeger so he doesn't kick them out of their apartment. In turn for that favor, Joey helps Treeger practice dancing for the superintendents' ball, "The Super Ball". However, Joey begins to enjoy the ballroom dancing with Treeger, leading to mockery from the girls.

Chandler is a member at the gym even though he doesn't go, but he can't quit because a dreamy spandex girl always changes his mind. Ross goes to the gym with Chandler to give him courage to quit. But when Maria appears, even Ross can't say no to a membership. Ross and Chandler eventually have a great idea to solve their problem: they decide to close their accounts at the bank so the gym can't charge them. At the bank, Chandler and Ross have no luck when the bank officer brings out a beautiful employee when they tell them they want to leave the bank, and as a result not only do they not close their accounts but end up opening a new joint account instead.

Phoebe has a crush on her client Rick but she would get fired for fooling around with him. Phoebe finally confesses to Rick that she likes him and they make out. Phoebe finds out that Rick is married and also gets fired because her boss caught them kissing and branded her "a whore".

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[]

Hope Allen - Karen Lambert
Jason Brooks - Rick Sanoven
E.J. Callahan - Mr. Simon
Christopher Carroll - Bank Officer
Rhoda Gemignani - Mrs. Potter
Mike Hagerty - Mr. Treeger
Cheryl Francis Harrington - Interviewer
Brien Perry - Gym Employee
Amber Smith - Maria

Crew[]

Directed By:
Gail Mancuso

Written By:
Ted Cohen & Andrew Reich

Quotes[]

Monica: Is this a gym card?
Chandler: Oh, yeah, gym member. I try to go four times a week, but I've missed the last... twelve hundred times.
Ross: So why don't you quit?
Chandler: You don't think I've tried? You think I like having 50 dollars taken out of my bank account every month? No, they make you go all the way down there! Then they use all these phrases and peppiness to try and confuse you. Then they bring out Maria.
Ross: Who is Maria?
Chandler: Oh, Maria. You can't say no to her. She's like this lycra/spandex covered gym... treat.

Joey: [talking about Mr. Treeger] He made Rachel cry.
Monica: Rachel always cries.
Rachel: [crying] That's not true.
Monica: Now, Joey! You go down there, and you suck up to him! I mean, you suck like you've never sucked before!

Ross: Don't you want a washboard stomach and rock-hard pecs?
Chandler: No. I want a flabby gut and saggy man-breasts.

Joey: Please don't kick Monica and Rachel out! This wasn't their fault, it was mine.
Mr. Treeger: You want me to kick you guys out instead?
Joey: No, you can't do that. Where would the chick and the duck live?
Mr. Treeger: You have pets?
Joey: No-no-no-no, those are nicknames. I'm the chick and Chandler is the duck.
Mr. Treeger: Huh... I would've thought it was the other way around.

Rachel: So, did you quit?
Chandler: No, I almost did, couldn’t leave Ross there without a spotter!
Monica: Wait, now, so you joined the gym?
[Rachel starts to laugh]
Ross: And that’s funny, why?
Rachel: Oh, um, I was just, you know, working out and um… Oh, that’s it.
Chandler: We’re doomed. Okay, they’re gonna take 50 bucks out of our accounts for the rest of our lives. What are we gonna do?
Monica: Well, you could actually go to the gym.
[Chandler and Ross both laugh]
Ross: Or! Or, we could go to the bank, close our accounts and cut them off at the source.
Chandler: You’re a genius!
Joey: Aw, man, now we won’t be bank buddies!
Chandler: Now, there’s two reasons.

Monica: [to Joey] Hey, hey, how goes the dancing? Gay yet?

[Joey walks into Monica and Rachel's apartment and does a dance step on the way]
Rachel: What was that?
Joey: What?
Rachel: You just did a little dancy thing.
Joey: No, I didn't.
Monica: Yes, you did. You did, like, a little hop.
Rachel: You are so enjoying this.
Joey: No, I'm not. And it wasn't a hop. It was a pas de bourrée.
[Joey covers his mouth in embarrassment and Monica and Rachel laugh even harder]

Mr. Treeger: Hey, duck, is chick here?
Chandler: Yeah... bunny-rabbit.

Trivia[]

General[]

  • E.J. Callahan, who played Mr. Simon in this episode, also appeared in "The One Where Estelle Dies" where he played Al Zebooker.
  • The music playing while Joey and Treeger are first dancing is "Begin The Beguine" by Cole Porter, as performed by Artie Shaw
  • The music playing while Joey and Treeger are on the roof is "Night and Day" which was composed by Cole Porter and performed by the Tune Robbers.
  • On the DVD, the added scene shows Chandler talking to the gym "quitter" guy and finding out Ross joined, too.
  • This episode features no shots inside Chandler and Joey's apartment. Monica and Rachel's is the only one used in this episode.
  • It is a bit ironic that Chandler and Ross wear suits to gym and casual clothes to the bank.
  • Ross joins the gym in this episode. In "The One With The Videotape" (S8E4), Ross and Rachel start to watch the video of them having sex and Rachel asks him if he's been working out, implying Ross retained his gym membership. He may have started attending the gym after playing rugby in front of his new girlfriend, Emily.
  • In "The One Where They All Turn Thirty", Ross' flashback to Ross' 30th birthday shows him with his sports car, prompting Rachel to confide in Phoebe that part of her wants him again. Based on his birthday being October 18, 1967, the events in that episode take place a couple of days after this episode.
  • The massage parlor where Phoebe works is Healing Hands, which is located in 817 Broadway, Union Square, New York. The name isn't spoken but is seen in a transition shot.
  • Joey suggests to Monica that she and Rachel could live with him and Chandler. Later in the series, Chandler moves in with Monica while Rachel moves in with Joey. (Rachel also lives with Ross on three occasions).
  • Some edited versions cut off Phoebe's line when she tells the gang she wants to "grab his tushy", with the line just being "Sometimes I just want to grab ..."
  • It's noticeable that when Treeger leaves for the dance, the door leading down from the roof has a handle on both sides. However when Joey and Ross are trapped on the roof in "The One Where They're Up All Night" there's no handle on the door on the rooftop side.
  • This is the last episode in which none of the Friends are involved in an ongoing romantic relationship, as Joey starts dating Kathy in the next episode.
  • When Joey walks into the girls' kitchen, he corrects Monica to say that his "little hop" was a pas de bourrée - which he learned from the dance audition that he ran out from in "The One With All The Jealousy".

Goofs[]

  • Mr. Treeger yelled at Rachel for clogging the trash chute with a pizza box after he had spent half an hour unclogging it. As she walked into the room he was shoving two whole pizza boxes into the trash chute.
  • When Joey is telling Monica and Rachel about dancing in Central Perk, Monica's legs are crossed left over right. When the camera angle changes, they are crossed right over left, and in the next shot her legs are crossed left over right again.
  • When Chandler and Ross are trying to quit the bank, there is a state flag behind the banker's desk. The flag displayed is the California state flag, where the show is filmed, not the New York state flag, where the show is set.
  • In the tag scene, the name on the awning of the building has been superimposed. It moves a little while the shot remains still.
  • When Monica's talking to Rachel, she has the milk carton in her hand. Then the camera switches to Rachel and suddenly the milk can has become a garbage bag.
    • A few seconds later when Monica says "Third door on the left" her mouth appears to say a different phrase.
  • Rather than close their accounts at the bank, Ross and Chandler could just tell them to stop payments to the gym instead. They could also just have written to the gym to cancel their membership.
  • Slight continuity error - When Chandler and Ross approach the guy behind the desk at the gym, he puts down his clipboard. In the next shot, he puts the clipboard down again.
  • Chandler is seen to have gym membership in this episode. In "The One In Vegas, Part 1", Chandler says if he wins he'll join a gym.
  • When Joey returns to Monica's apartment from the dance practice he is wearing different clothes. It's possible, however, that Joey had more than one dance lesson with him, having changed into fresh clothes between lessons.
  • Right before Treeger comes to get Joey to rehearse one last time, the gang is in Monica's apartment, and daylight is coming in through the windows. When Treeger and Joey go up to the rooftop, which is only moments later, it's suddenly nighttime.
  • In the opening scene, the whole reason Rachel has to go to the trash room is because Monica has accused her of putting an empty pizza box back in the refrigerator. Moments later in the trash room, when Rachel is confronted by Mr. Treeger, she opens the pizza box and offers him the two slices of pizza still in the box.
  • Monica tells Rachel the trash room is the third door on the left, and later, Monica heads to the trash room herself, turning right as she leaves the apartment. The only thing to the right is the stairwell.
  • Phoebe mentions that she's never been fired before. But she was fired from her singing jobs at Central Perk in "The One With The Baby On The Bus" and at the library in "The One After The Superbowl, Part 1".

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
Preceded by
"The One With The Cuffs" 		Series Four Episodes Followed by
"The One With Joey's New Girlfriend"
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