15. The One Where Estelle Dies
Nitcentral's Bulletin Brash Reflections: Friends: Season 10: 15. The One Where Estelle Dies
First aired: 4/22/04

Story by Mark Kunerth
Teleplay by Marta Kauffman and David Crane
Directed by Gary Halvorson

---Guest Cast:
Steve Ireland as Mr. Zelner
Maggie Wheeler as Janice
Jane Lynch as Ellen
E.J. Callahan as Al Zeebooker

---Synopsis:
In the continuation from the end of the previous episode, Rachel has just announced that her new job will be in Paris, much to Ross’ horror, prompting him to take drastic measures to prevent it. Hoping to spare Joey additional stress and sadness over changes in his life, Phoebe decides to withhold the news of his agent’s death, which proves counterproductive for both of them. Discovering that the house next to the one they intend to buy is also going on sale appears to provide more options for Monica and Chandler, but turns out to be a nightmare.
By LUIGI NOVI on Friday, May 07, 2004 - 9:25 pm:

---Critique/Great Moments:
I gotta admit, this one was pretty funny, particularly the Phoebe/Joey story. Phoebe’s line that this just isn’t Estelle’s week after Joey “fires” her, and Joey’s comment after seeing that the phone call from “Estelle” to his cell phone was from “out of area” were both hilarious. The appearance of Janice in the middle of Chandler and Monica’s story was also funny. Nice to see the creators still have a bit of steam left at the end of the run.

---Great Line:
(After Phoebe suggests to Monica and Chandler to keep Estelle’s death a secret from Joey…)
Monica: “What if he reads it in the paper?”
Chandler: “Unless Snoopy says it to Charlie Brown, I think we’re okay.”

By Andre Reichenbacher (Amr) on Saturday, December 29, 2012 - 3:51 pm:

Sigghhhh.....WHY did they have Estelle die? It HAD to have been lung cancer, what else could it have been? And seeing as how we knew nothing else about her except that she was a second-rate talent agent that Joey couldnt seem to do any better than, and was kept around for the comedic dialogue value, it just seemed to be a cheap way to write her out of the series. At least I think so.

And Janice?! AGAIN??!! The writers apparently thought that having her constantly interfere in Mon and Chan's lives was funny. Well guess what. It got less and less funny every time it happened. At least I think so!

By Rodney Hrvatin (Rhrvatin) on Saturday, December 29, 2012 - 4:57 pm:

Agree with you about Janice, Andre. Once she split from CHandler then that should have been it, but I'm guessing the powers that be got audience data saying they loved her so they kept bringing her back like Lwaxana Troi on TNG and DS9...

By Andre Reichenbacher (Amr) on Saturday, December 29, 2012 - 10:22 pm:

Have you ever seen Maggie Wheeler on "Everybody Loves Raymond", Rodney? She had a recurring role as Linda, one of Ray and Debra's friends and she was SO MUCH better on that one. Better looking AND sounding!

And she had originally auditioned for the role of Monica, that I did not know. And she also played Anita on the original "Ellen" sitcom as well. And one other show she did was a voice on the 80s cartoon "Silverhawks", I never saw that one.

And according to Wikipedia, she appeared on Friends a total of 19 times! I'll bet what you said about her appearing so much was exactly what happened, the test audiences liked her character (for some reason) and so the producers had her come back time and time again to be a thorn in Mon and Chan's sides!

How about that!

By Kevin (Kevin) on Saturday, December 29, 2012 - 10:52 pm:

I think the problem is that it's more fun to write to annoying characters than it is to watch them. That's why so many tv shows have them.

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