The eighth season of the American television

sitcom A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

Friends ''Friends'' is an American television sitcom created by David Crane (producer), David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting List of Friends episodes, ten seasons. With an ensemble cast ...

'' aired on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

from September 27, 2001 to May 16, 2002.

Cast and characters

Main cast

Jennifer Aniston Jennifer Joanna Aniston (born February 11, 1969) is an American actress. She rose to international fame for her role as Rachel Green on the television sitcom ''Friends'' from 1994 to 2004, which earned her Primetime Emmy, Golden Globe, and Scr ...

Rachel Green Rachel Karen Green is a fictional character, one of the six main characters who appeared in the American sitcom ''Friends''. Portrayed by Jennifer Aniston, the character was created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman, and appeared in all of ...

* Courteney Cox-Arquette as

Monica Geller Monica E. Geller (born June 15, 1969) is a fictional character, one of the List of Friends and Joey characters, six main characters who appears on the American sitcom ''Friends'' (1994–2004). Created by David Crane (producer), David Crane and ...

Lisa Kudrow Lisa Valerie Kudrow ( ; born July 30, 1963) is an American actress. She rose to international fame for her role as Phoebe Buffay in the American television sitcom ''Friends'', which aired from 1994 to 2004. The series earned her Primetime Emmy A ...

Phoebe Buffay Phoebe Buffay-Hannigan (; born 16 February 1969) is one of the six main characters from the American television sitcom, ''Friends''. She was created by David Crane and Marta Kauffman and portrayed by actress Lisa Kudrow. In the series' unive ...

Matt LeBlanc Matthew Steven LeBlanc (; born July 25, 1967) is an American actor. He garnered global recognition with his portrayal of Joey Tribbiani in the NBC sitcom ''Friends'' and in its spin-off series, '' Joey''. For his work on ''Friends'', LeBlanc ...

Joey Tribbiani Joseph Francis Tribbiani Jr. (born 1968) is a fictional character, serving as one of the primary characters of the NBC sitcom ''Friends'' and the protagonist of its spin-off ''Joey''. He is portrayed by Matt LeBlanc in both series. Joey is an ...

Matthew Perry Matthew Langford Perry (August 19, 1969 – October 28, 2023) was an American and Canadian actor, comedian, director and screenwriter. He gained international fame for starring as Chandler Bing on the NBC television sitcom ''Friends'' (1994– ...

Chandler Bing Chandler Muriel Bing is a fictional character from the NBC sitcom ''Friends'', portrayed by Matthew Perry. Chandler was born to Nora Tyler Bing, an erotic romance novelist, and Charles Bing, a gay female impersonator and star of a Las Vegas drag ...

David Schwimmer David Lawrence Schwimmer (born November 2, 1966) is an American actor, director, and producer. He gained worldwide recognition for portraying Ross Geller in the sitcom '' Friends'', for which he received a Screen Actors Guild Award and a Pri ...

Ross Geller Ross Eustace Geller (born 1968) portrayed by David Schwimmer, is one of the List of Friends and Joey characters, six main characters of the NBC sitcom ''Friends''. Ross is considered by many to be the most intelligent member of the group and is ...

Recurring cast

Elliott Gould Elliott Gould (; né Goldstein; born August 29, 1938) is an American actor. Gould's breakthrough role was in the film ''Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice'' (1969), for which he received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. The ...

Jack Geller Various characters appeared in the sitcom ''Friends ''Friends'' is an American television sitcom created by David Crane (producer), David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting List ...

Christina Pickles Christina Pickles (born February 17, 1935) is a British-born American actress. She is known for her role as Nurse Helen Rosenthal in the NBC medical drama '' St. Elsewhere'' (1982–1988), for which she received five nominations for the Prime ...

Judy Geller Various characters appeared in the sitcom ''Friends'' and its Spin-off (media), spin-off series ''Joey (TV series), Joey'', which respectively aired for ten seasons and two seasons on NBC from 1994 to 2006. ''Friends'' featured six main cast memb ...

Bonnie Somerville Bonnie Somerville (born February 26, 1974) is an American actress and singer. She has had roles in a number of movies and television series, most notably as Mona in ''Friends''; she has also appeared in ''NYPD Blue'', ''Grosse Pointe'', ''The ...

as Mona *

Sean Penn Sean Justin Penn (born August 17, 1960) is an American actor and film director. He is known for his intense leading man roles in film. List of awards and nominations received by Sean Penn, His accolades include two Academy Awards, a Golden Gl ...

Eric The given name Eric, Erich, Erikk, Erik, Erick, Eirik, or Eiríkur is derived from the Old Norse name ''Eiríkr'' (or ''Eríkr'' in Old East Norse due to monophthongization). The first element, ''ei-'' may be derived from the older Proto-N ...

James Michael Tyler James Michael Tyler (May 28, 1962 – October 24, 2021) was an American actor best known for portraying Gunther on the NBC sitcom ''Friends''. Prior to acting, he was an assistant film editor and production assistant. His early works included be ...

Gunther Gundaharius or Gundahar (died 437), better known by his legendary names Gunther () or Gunnar (), was a historical King of the Burgundians in the early 5th century. Gundahar is attested as ruling his people shortly after they crossed the Rhine ...

Guest stars

Maggie Wheeler Maggie Wheeler (née Jakobson) is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Janice on the television sitcom ''Friends'' (1994–2004), and Anita on ''Ellen'' (1994–1996). In addition to her acting and voiceover work, she is a singe ...

as Janice Litman-Goralnik *

Morgan Fairchild Morgan Fairchild (born Patsy Ann McClenny; February 3, 1950) is an American actress. She began acting in the early 1970s and has had roles in several television series since then. Fairchild began her career on the CBS daytime soap opera '' Searc ...

Nora Bing Various characters appeared in the sitcom ''Friends'' and its spin-off series ''Joey'', which respectively aired for ten seasons and two seasons on NBC from 1994 to 2006. ''Friends'' featured six main cast members: Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston) ...

Eddie Cahill Edmund Patrick Cahill (born January 15, 1978) is an American actor known for portraying "Miracle on Ice" goalie Jim Craig in the 2004 film ''Miracle'', and for playing the roles of Tag Jones in ''Friends'' and Detective Don Flack in '' CSI: NY. ...

as Tag Jones *

Marlo Thomas Margaret Julia "Marlo" Thomas (born November 21, 1937) is an American actress, producer, author, and social activist. She is best known for starring on the sitcom ''That Girl'' (1966–1971) and her Children's television series, children's franc ...

as Sandra Green *

Ron Leibman Ron Leibman (; October 11, 1937 – December 6, 2019) was an American actor. He won both the Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actor in a Play in 1993 for his performance as Roy Cohn in ''Angels in Ame ...

as Dr. Leonard Green *

June Gable June Gable (born June 5, 1945) is an American character actress, perhaps best known for her role as Joey's agent Estelle Leonard in the NBC sitcom ''Friends''. She also played a nurse in the delivery room in season 1 episode 23, “The One With T ...

as Estelle Leonard *

Brad Pitt William Bradley Pitt (born December 18, 1963) is an American actor and film producer. In a Brad Pitt filmography, film career spanning more than thirty years, Pitt has received list of awards and nominations received by Brad Pitt, numerous a ...

as Will Colbert *

Trudie Styler Trudie Styler (born 6 January 1954) is an English actress, director, and film producer. Early life and family Styler was born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, the daughter of Pauline and Harry Styler, a farmer and factory worker. When Styler was ...

as herself * Johnny Messner as Kash *

Rena Sofer Rena Sherel Sofer (born December 2, 1968) is an American actress, known for her appearances in daytime television, episodic guest appearances, and made-for-television movies. In 1995, Sofer received a Daytime Emmy Award for her portrayal of Lois ...

as Katie * Maurice Godin as Sid *

Eddie McClintock Edward Theodore McClintock (born May 27, 1967) is an American actor. He is best known for his role of Secret Service agent Pete Lattimer on the Syfy series '' Warehouse 13''. Early life McClintock was born in Canton, Ohio, and raised by his ...

as Clifford 'Cliff' Burnett *

Sam McMurray Samuel McMurray (born April 15, 1952) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as Supervisor Patrick O'Boyle in the CBS sitcom series ''The King of Queens'', Glen in the Coen Brothers comedy film '' Raising Arizona'', Trent Culpepper in th ...

as Doug *

Geoff Pierson Geoffrey Pierson is an American actor known for his starring television roles on ''Dexter'', ''Unhappily Ever After'', ''Grace Under Fire'', '' 24'', ''Ryan's Hope'', and ''Designated Survivor''. He has also guest-starred in dozens of other TV sh ...

as Mr. Franklin *

Arden Myrin Arden Myrin () is an American actress and comedian. Myrin was a cast member on the Netflix series ''Insatiable (TV series), Insatiable'', playing the role of Regina Sinclair. She was a cast member of ''Mad TV'' for the last four seasons along wit ...

as Brenda *

Fred Stoller Fred Stoller (born March 19, 1958) is an American actor, stand-up comedian and author. He is best known for portraying Gerard on ''Everybody Loves Raymond''. Early life Stoller was born in New York City and grew up in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. ...

as Stu *

Harry Van Gorkum Harry Van Gorkum is a British actor living in the United States. Born in London, he studied at Lancaster University Lancaster University (officially The University of Lancaster) is a collegiate public university, public research university in ...

as Don *

James LeGros James Le Gros () (born April 27, 1962) is an American actor. He was nominated for the Independent Spirit Award for Best Supporting Male for his role in '' Living in Oblivion''. Career Le Gros starred in Gus Van Sant's film '' Drugstore Cowboy ...

as Jim *

Cole Sprouse Cole Mitchell Sprouse (born August 4, 1992) is an American actor. He is known for his role as Cody Martin on the Disney Channel series ''The Suite Life of Zack & Cody'' (2005–2008), and its spin-off series ''The Suite Life on Deck'' (2008– ...

as Ben *

Emily Osment Emily Jordan Osment (born March 10, 1992) is an American actress, singer and songwriter. Born and raised in Los Angeles, Osment began her career as a child actress, appearing in numerous television shows and films, before co-starring as Gerti Gi ...

as Lelani Mayolanofavich * Steve Ireland as Mr. Zelner

Episodes

United States ratings

Season 8 averaged 24.5 million viewers and finished, for the first time, as the most watched show of the 2001–02 television season.

Home media

The eight season was officially released on DVD in region 1 on November 9, 2004, as a 4-disc DVD Box Set. The release includes the extended versions of every episode, 3 audio commentaries, a video guide to season eight's guest stars, a gag reel, a trivia challenge, and easter eggs about the next season. The 2004 region 2 DVD version of the season, include the deleted scenes from the episode "The One Where Rachel Tells Ross" as part of the special features, those scenes were cut from the episode following the

September 11 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...

and where not shown to the public until the release of this DVD. The Blu-ray releases of the Complete Series include the "Original Producer's Cut" version of the episode presented on Standard Definition as part of the Exclusive Bonus Features of the set; the original script for the episode was also included.

Reception

Collider A collider is a type of particle accelerator that brings two opposing particle beams together such that the particles collide. Compared to other particle accelerators in which the moving particles collide with a stationary matter target, collid ...

'' ranked the season Number 1 on their ranking of all ten ''Friends'' seasons, and named "

The One with the Rumor "The One with the Rumor" is the ninth episode of the eighth season of the American television situation comedy ''Friends'', which aired on NBC on November 22, 2001.Wild, p.235 It continues the series' annual Thanksgiving-themed episode traditi ...

" as its standout episode.

Notes

References

External links

*
The One With The Tea Leaves script at livesinabox.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Friends Season 8 08 2001 American television seasons 2002 American television seasons