Matthew Perry’s best Chandler Bing moments with each ‘Friends’ character
After Matthew Perry’s tragic death on Oct. 28 at 54, fans have been seeking solace in the magic he created alongside Courteney Cox, David Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston, Matt LeBlanc and Lisa Kudrow in NBC’s “Friends,” which ran for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004.
In 1997, Rosie O’Donnell asked Perry, “Are you friends with the ‘Friends’?” His answer? “Yes, we are. We really are. I got really lucky because if there’s one jerk in that group, it could be just hellish all the time, but everybody’s so nice and so great — and the women are hot.”
Perry’s Chandler Bing proved just how well he knew his fictional pals in Season 4’s “The One With the Embryos,” but how close were they on the show? Here’s just a few moments Chandler shared with Ross, Joey, Monica, Rachel and Phoebe.
Ross (Schwimmer) and Chandler being college roommates was the perfect backstory for these two. As Chandler’s longest friendship out of the group, viewers were treated to many inside jokes and a special bond that even stood up to a friendship’s biggest test: dating a sibling.
In Season 2, they’re picked on by bullies at Central Perk, who lay claim to the orange couch. One steals Chandler’s hat and Ross tries to get it back by saying, “It’s a special hat. See, he bought it because he was feeling really down one day. So, he got the hat to cheer himself up, you know?” Just a silly and sweet thing that only a very best friend would know.
In Season 5, their younger years are revisited while celebrating Thanksgiving at the Gellers — where they reveal their fake ID alter egos Clifford Alvarez and Roland Chang. Fast forward to Season 9 and Chandler takes Ross on a romantic weekend in Vermont because Monica’s too busy. Ross teaches his pal how to take advantage of the hotel system by filling their suitcases with anything that’s not nailed down.
Even though Monica and Chandler’s relationship got off to a rocky start (i.e., Season 5, Episode 8: “The One With All the Thanksgivings”), by the time they’re living across the hall from each other, they seem to be on more civil ground. In Season 2, Monica’s unemployed and decides to train Chandler as her pet project. He returns the friendly favor in Season 4 by coming to Monica’s rescue after she’s stung by a jellyfish and Joey gets stage fright.
At the end of Season 4, the Mondler era commences. There’s too many moments to choose from after they get together, but one cute New York City minute is in Season 8 when Monica and Chandler are walking to the subway post-party and Monica’s feet hurt so much that Chandler carries her piggyback through the streets.
Their shared love of cheesecake is only the tip of the iceberg in Rachel (Aniston) and Chandler’s story. Before Chandler steals Monica’s heart and kicks Rachel out of the purple apartment, the two of them get into shenanigans at Bloomingdale’s. After setting him up with her boss, Rachel finds Chandler handcuffed to a chair in a locked office. She then bargains with him to stay so she doesn’t lose her job.
While Phoebe (Kudrow) was always the free spirit of the group, Chandler saw her value and never tried to tame her. In the first season, Phoebe temps as Chandler’s secretary and finds out that no one likes him after he got promoted to boss. She even does an impression of him: “Could that report be any later?” Phoebe helps him learn the lesson that his subordinates can’t be his friends, but, fortunately, he already has five besties to fill his time out of the office.
Of all the friends, it was surprising that Chandler chose Phoebe to help pick out Monica’s engagement ring. But when shopping, she can’t help but be herself and suggest Chandler give Monica a Revolutionary War musket to seal the deal.
Perry’s co-stars remembered him at a private funeral at the Forest Lawn cemetery in Hollywood Hills, which is located across from where “Friends” filmed at Warner Bros.
As for Perry’s favorite line from the show? When Chandler told Joey: “OK, you have to stop the Q-tip when there’s resistance!”