21. The One With The Ball

Nitcentral's Bulletin Brash Reflections: Friends: Season 5: 21. The One With The Ball
First Aired: 5/6/99

Teleplay by Greg Malins
Story by Scott Silveri
Directed by Gary Halvorson

---Guest Cast:
Michael Rapaport as Gary
James Michael Tyler as Gunther
Victoria L. Kelleher as Woman #2
Antoinette Spolar as Woman #1

---Synopsis:
Gary asks Phoebe to move in with him, but she’s reluctant. Joey and Ross throw around a ball for hours, and it turns into a contest to see how long they can keep throwing it, a contest that is later joined by the others. Rachel buys a Sphinx cat, but soon regrets the purchase.

---Notes:
This marks the end of Phoebe and Gary’s relationship, and Michael Rapaport’s last episode.
By LUIGI NOVI on Tuesday, April 22, 2003 - 5:02 am:

So after working at Bloomingdale’s for such a short amount of time, Rachel can afford a $1,000 cat?

At the end of the episode, in reference to Monica’s admonition to the guys that Chandler is a “dropper,” we see a montage of shots of Chandler dropping things. These appear not to be clips from past episodes, but shots made especially for this montage, though they could’ve used the shot of Chandler fumbling the football from The One With the Football(3.9) if they wanted to.


By LUIGI NOVI on Wednesday, November 05, 2003 - 7:17 am:

When tossing their ball around in Monica’s apartment, Joey says that he has to pee. We then see them in Joey and Chandler’s apartment, with Joey heard in the bathroom as he continues the game with one hand. Why couldn’t he use the bathroom in Monica’s?

In the beginning of The One With The Kips(5.5), Chandler and Monica opened the bathroom door in Chandler and Joey’s apartment to reveal Joey, asleep on the toilet, which was directly behind the door. But in this episode, when Joey has to pee during his ball-tossing with Ross, the toilet has now moved deeper into the bathroom’s interior where it can’t be seen from someone standing in front of the door.

---Great Chandler Comeback:
Joey: “I don't know who made you the boss, all right? We invented this game!”
Monica: “Please! I made this game what it is.”
Chandler: “Not fun anymore?”


By LUIGI NOVI on Sunday, June 12, 2005 - 12:43 am:

TRIVIA: When Chandler visits Gary at the precinct, you can see that the names on blackboard behind his head-Alex, Dim, Hal, Kissoff, and Redrum-are are all of the names characters or references to the films of Stanley Kubrick.


By Andre Reichenbacher (Amr) on Friday, September 27, 2013 - 4:17 pm:

"So after working at Bloomingdale’s for such a short amount of time, Rachel can afford a $1,000 cat?"

That is an *excellent* question, Luigi. Also, when the cat is hostile and doesn't take to Rachel that well (with dubbed-in cat hiss sound effects for good measure) she tries to sell the cat on the street. Has Rachel ever hear of animal shelters or humane societies? One cannot just simply attempt to sell an incredibly expensive purebred cat in a public area (it was obviously a set, but so what, it was just a sitcom anyway). There are laws about that kind of thing are numerous permits are required, I'm sure of it. Good thing Gunther comes along and takes the cat, as his sadly unrequited love for Rachel continues on. I felt bad for him at times, I really did!

And WHY THE HELL did Gary shoot that bird?! That just...I can't...I don't get why he did that! Was it a reference to one of Michael Rapaport other roles or something? Man!


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