Phoebe’s 6-Year Friends Storyline Wouldn’t Have Happened Without A Real-Life Lisa Kudrow Change
One of Friends’ most iconic storylines and one of Phoebe’s most defining moments was born out of the necessity to keep shooting the show.
Phoebe Buffay is remembered as Friends’ most unconventional character, and several of her bizarre storylines became iconic; however, one of them could never have existed without a real-world change to Lisa Kudrow’s life. Phoebe is a Pandora’s box, and the beauty of her character lies precisely in the fact that anything is possible with her. From being raised by her real mother’s two friends to living in the street as a teenager, marrying her gay friend to get him a green card, or thinking a missing cat is her mother’s reincarnation, Phoebe’s stories across Friends’ 10 seasons are far from predictable .
One fan-favorite storyline from the sitcom involves Phoebe carrying her brother Frank Jr’s triplets as a surrogate, which is as bizarre as it sounds but has aged rather well considering its focus on alternative and unconventional ways of having children. This is one of Phoebe’s most iconic moments as it greatly represents her selfless qualities. First, helping her brother and Alice accomplish their dream of having a family shows Phoebe’s generous nature. The whole event also represents Phoebe’s open and unique nature, taking on a task that even her best friends advised against. However, while this famous plotline greatly delineates Phoebe, it almost never happened.
Phoebe Being Her Brother Frank’s Surrogate Wouldn’t Have Happened Without Lisa Kudrow’s Real-Life Pregnancy
In Friends season 4, episode 11, “The One with Phoebe’s Uterus,” Phoebe’s younger brother Frank Jr asks her to be a surrogate mother for him and his wife Alice, who are unable to have children on their own. This plotline seems perfect for Phoebe’s character; however, it was initially triggered by the fact that Phoebe’s actress Lisa Kudrow became pregnant with her first son, Julian. In other words, the idea was spawned by the necessity to keep the show’s shooting on schedule. Additionally, Kudrow’s pregnancy was more advanced than her character’s, so the writers eventually came up with the idea of triplets to justify the size of her belly.
One of the most impressive things about this story is the fact that Phoebe’s triplets are not just a short-term solution for season 4, but they are maintained until the end of the show. Frank and Alice’s children are born in season 5 and then make two more appearances. First, they appear in season 6, episode 5, “The One with Joey’s Porsche,” where Phoebe has to babysit them for the first time. Then, they appear for the last time in season 10, episode 2, “The One Where Ross Is Fine,” where Frank doesn’t know how to deal with the triplets and wants to give one of them away. The triplets and her familial relationship with Frank continued to play an important role in Phoebe’s story arc throughout the remainder of the series.
Why Friends’ Writers Didn’t Make Phoebe Conventionally Pregnant
One could wonder why the writers decided to make Phoebe a surrogate when integrating Kudrow’s pregnancy into the show. First, each of the Friends main characters’ pregnancy storylines involve, in one way or another, an unconventional manner that aims to give visibility to different types of families. For example, Ross and Rachel raise Emma without being together, and Monica and Chandler adopt a child. Furthermore, although Phoebe ended up getting together with Mike, she didn’t have a romantic interest to tie the storyline with back in season 4. Additionally, a bizarre situation like having her brother’s babies fit Phoebe perfectly, which ended up birthing one of Friends ‘ most iconic storylines.
