Organizing Rachel’s surprise birthday party required careful planning to keep her parents apart. To achieve this, half of the guests were invited to the boys’ apartment with Rachel’s father, while the other half were hosted in the girls’ apartment with Rachel’s mother. Phoebe discreetly moved guests from Monica’s uneventful party to the livelier one in the boys’ apartment. Unfortunately, Rachel found it difficult to handle her parents’ separation.
Did you know !?
• When Ron Leibman was initially offered the role of Rachel’s dad he turned it down without a second thought, as he considered himself a serious dramatic actor, and was uninterested in doing a TV sit-com. When his daughter found out he had been offered the role she begged him to take it, mainly so that she could meet the cast of the show. He finally agreed to do it when he found out that he could play Dr. Green with a slightly dark streak in his persona. He had never seen the show or knew anything about the cast, so when he met them for the first time he mistakenly assumed that Lisa Kudrow was Jennifer Aniston, which led an initially confused Kudrow to wonder why he kept talking to her about Rachel Green.
• Marlo Thomas revealed that when it was scripted that Joey was supposed to kiss Rachel’s Mom, Matt Leblanc shyly asked Marlo’s consent to, as she put it, really lay one on her.
• The name of Rachel’s sister Jill is confirmed in this episode. Jill later appears in The One with Rachel’s Sister (2000).
• The first appearance of Dr. Leonard Green
• For Rachel’s birthday party all of the main cast wear green in this episode: Monica and Rachel wear green dresses, Phoebe wears a half green/pink blouse and pink slacks, Chandler and Joey wear green shirts, and Ross wears a green tie. Rachel’s mom wears a hot pink satin jacket and Rachel’s dad wears a red and white nautical outfit.
• Chandler has a small Cat in the Hat cartoon near the bottom of his tie.
• At 20:01 in Marlo Thomas (Rachel’s mom) looks right at the camera for a split second.
• This is the only episode in which both of Rachel’s parents appear, even though they barely have a single scene together.
• Rachel’s dad smokes but in a later episode where Rachel needs to smoke for her job she says her dad would tell horror stories of smokers.
• In an earlier episode (S1E11-The One with Mrs. Bing (1995)), Joey says to Ross that you should never kiss your friend’s mom but sisters and hot aunts are okay. Yet, Joey kisses Rachel’s mother in this one. It’s also true, however, that the guys are making sure Rachel’s parents don’t meet at any cost, so this wouldn’t count, as this is only a desperate measure at a desperate time.
