Friends Reunion: The 9 Best Surprise Appearances, Ranked

Friends: The Reunion was full of surprise appearance and cameos. While a few were high-profile celebrities full of adoration for Friends, others were either recurring secondary characters or memorable guest appearances. The good thing about having recurring characters briefly appear on the reunion episode was that they spoke from experience.

Some of them talked about the origin of their characters, and their chemistry with the main ensemble to help fans join the dots.  From the emotional conversations to juicy tidbits, these surprise appearances did not disappoint. Their impact on Friends: The Reunion was significant and their anecdotes, revered.

9 Mr. Heckles

Mr. Heckles made his first appearance in season 1’s blackout episode as the quirky neighbor who tried to claim Paolo’s cat. Phoebe called him “a very bad man” and another time, shut the door in his face. Mr. Heckles was Monica and Rachel’s noise-sensitive downstairs neighbor who preferred to come directly to them and demand they be quieter.

17 years later, Larry Hankin’s Heckles stormed in, looking as grumpy as before to let the girls know they owed him a “cat and a waffle.” Mr. Heckles sure took everyone by surprise and it was a delight to see him stand at the purple door once again.

8 Dr. Richard Burke

Richard Burke appeared on Friends: The Reunion to let the guys know he was finally retiring from ophthalmology and that they were invited to his retirement party. David Schwimmer played his message on Monica’s answering machine and later, Tom Selleck came over to meet the gang. Part of the trivia game that David officiated, the actor smilingly asked the gang, “what did Chandler do for a living?”

Tom Selleck’s Dr. Burke was paired opposite Monica Geller early on in Friends. He was her father’s best friend, they were 21 years apart and even though they had a strong relationship, they parted ways because Monica wanted kids and he wasn’t ready to repeat the process all over again.

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7 Joey’s Identical Hand Twin

The last time Thomas Lennon’s hand twin character featured on Friends, he plainly asked Joey to leave him alone. While in Las Vegas, Joey had found his identical hand twin in a blackjack dealer and harassed him into having their identical hands showcased in some type of entertainment venue.

Thomas Lennon’s brief appearance in the reunion episode was heartwarming. He hid behind a curtain alongside two men with nothing but their hands exposed. David wanted to see whether Matt LeBlanc could recognize his hand twin, after all, and the latter did not disappoint.

6 Ross’s Barbershop Quartet

In season 3’s “The One With All The Jealousy” Ross sent a barbershop quartet to Rachel’s office to mark what he considered his territory. When Rachel finally started to do well in her career, Ross became insanely jealous of the fact that for the first time in her life she did something that she actually cared about.

He wouldn’t stop fussing over her colleague and good friend, Mark Robinson, either. It’s quite endearing that the very same barbershop quartet appeared in the reunion special, during the trivia game segment and serenaded the fans, once again.

5 Jack Geller

What’s Friends without the Gellers? Better yet, what are Ross and Monica without the presence of their quirky, loving father, Jack Geller? Elliott Gould’s Jack, who was a recurring supporting character on Friends took the gang by surprise when he appeared sitting in the audience during James Corden’s interview.

Though he appeared in person, he really wasn’t part of any sketch whatsoever. Elliott Gould sat with his on-screen wife, Judy Geller, and reminisced the time he spent on the show. Elliot described the gang as “very down to earth, real people” and he let Christina Pickles take it from there.

4 Judy Geller

Jack and Judy come in pairs and so, one really wouldn’t exist without the another. Judy Geller was portrayed by the terrific Christina Pickles. Though Judy played an overbearing mother on Friends, her reunion cameo appearance was quite the opposite. She was in awe of how terrific the cast members were and even blew them kisses sitting in the audience.

“I remember they were awfully nice to us. We love it because they loved us. One day we came to work and they said, ‘The parents are here! The parents are here!’ It was so moving and we really did feel like their parents. In fact, we used to worry about them quite a lot,” she lovingly said.

3 Gunther

Because Central Perk was the most iconic set from the entire series, the man-in-charge of the coffee shop would automatically become an important person to the gang. Played by actor James Michael Tyler, Gunther was originally meant to be a background extra before landing a bigger part on the show. He was the gang’s frenemy, Rachel’s first manager, and the owner of Mrs. Whiskerson.

James Michael Tyler made a virtual appearance towards the end of the reunion special wearing a Central Perk baseball cap. He described his years on Friends as “the most memorable” time of his life. Calling the gang “fantastic,” James further said it was a joy to work with them.

2 Jill Green

Reese Witherspoon said the moment she was called to play Rachel’s sister on Friends felt like winning the lottery. The Oscar-winning actress played Rachel’s Green’s youngest sister, Jill, for 2 episodes in season 6. She came looking for Rachel because her father had cut her off after she’d bought a boat for a friend. Though Rachel tried to help her begin afresh, Jill had memorized her father’s credit card numbers and continued to shop like before.

Since Jill Green’s storyline involved her being around the gang a lot (first at the apartment, and later at Central Perk with Phoebe and Ross), she certainly spoke from experience when she said, “If you think about Monica or Phoebe or Rachel, each of them is a leading character. But together, you get this great repartee. All the actors at the top of their game, and great chemistry.”

1 Janice Hosenstein

Besides Reese Witherspoon, the actress that went into great detail describing her time on Friends was Maggie Wheeler. Maggie’s Janice Litman-Goralnik (née Hosenstein) and Matthew Perry’s Chandler Bing were paired off early on in the show. They were on-again, off-again, thanks to the chan-chan man’s indecisiveness and commitment phobia.

While talking about her character, Maggie revealed how Janice’s laugh was born. According to her, Janice needed that iconic laugh because otherwise, Maggie wouldn’t have been able to get through a single scene with the hilarious Matthew Perry. She thanked everyone as she got down the stage, and her scene partner, Matthew blew her a kiss.

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