Ok...so there's an episode I just saw where Lisa Kudrow plays "Ursula Buffay." Is there a link between Mad About You and Friends and this character? I'm just curious.
~Aimz~
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[deleted]
there's also a episode in Friends where Hellen Hunt and Anne Ramsay think that 'Phoebe' is 'Ursala'.
share[deleted]
Well, yeah. Twin connection and tv connection is different. I was wondering if there was a connection between the SHOWS and why they had the same characters. It's not like "Joey" or "Fraiser" where they got their own show, it was a just a recycled character, so I was curious.
~Aimz~
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Actually I wasn't talking about Phoebe at all. Ursula is in both "Mad About You" and "Friends." I was just wondering why the character was in both shows.
Kramer? From Seinfeld?
~Aimz~
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Hahah yeah, that was a good episode. :p Poor Phoebe.
I never knew that all these shows were connected. Much better than the ones they're punching out these days.
~Aimz~
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i always wondered if there was a connection with "seinfeld"
vince
There is! Paul's apartment that he had pre-Jamie was sublet to a guy named Cosmo Kramer! There is an episode where they link the two...
share
oh, my goodness! that is so funny! i wish they would have done something where they tied it all together for the final seinfeld. to quote the simpson's comicbook guy, "worst episode ever".
vince
NBC tried to link all four of the Thursday night sitcoms once using a blackout plot line as a common thread if I recall. Jamie had Ira messing with the cable TV and he causes a blackout while trying to wire it back up. The NYC blackout was used to link Friends (Chandler got trapped in a bank ATM vestibule with a supermodel), and some short-lived Dabney Coleman series. Seinfeld wouldn't join in so it kind of fell flat. Once, Spin City cleverly linked into Sports Night with an actual TV monitor leading into the second show with no titles or closing credits as if it was a single continuous event.
Richard Kind more or less made a Spin City to MAY crossover impossible since he played two different roles, but, when Jamie and Fran were working on a mayoral election it might have been a natural possibility for one.
Eeek!!! I'm getting dressed.
AS I understand it Lisa Kudrow's tenure on Mad About You overlapped with her starting on Friends ... so to explain the fact she was on two sitcoms at once they invented the twin cincept.
shareOn which episode of Friends does Helen Hunt mistake Phoebe for Ursela?
shareit's in the first season ("the one with two parts:part one"). jamie and fran go into central perk to get a coffee and use the bathroom and see phoebe just walking around. they assume she works there and tells her what they want, she says something like "good for you" or "good choice" and goes to sit at the couch. kind of lame of jamie and fran to assume that she works there (she's not wearing an apron and is drinking coffee). it's also the episode with all the uber-celebs like julia roberts and jan claude van damm.
shareThe aparment that Kramer lived in, on Seinfeld, was sublet from Paul.
That was an entire episode of MAY.
In the end, Paul gave the apartment to Kramer. All Paul wanted was a shoebox that contained some kind of paperwork that he needed.
The only time I can remember Ursula Bufay being on Friends, was an episode where Ursula visited Phoebe for some specific reason.
The gist is that Phoebe and Ursula didn't get along.
Otherwise, to the best of my knowledge, Ursula was only ever mentioned occassionally by Phoebe, in passing, during the run of Friends.
Ursula's character made a reprise in a later episode of MAY, when Paul and Jaime went to eat at Riff's and there was Ursula waiting tables (the character hadn't been on the show for quite a while, at that time).
When Paul asked Ursula (who had no idea who this odd couple was that seemed to know her) where she'd been, she answered, "Oh, with Friends."
I think that was the "Godparents" episode.
___________________
Good Shootin', Tex!
wouldn't it be great if they could do a reunion show, perhaps a 2 part hour long special? i know i am dreaming.
vince
Ursula shows up being engaged to Sean Penn, Stalked by David Arquette, a porno star and when Phoebe is looking for her mother's suicide note. Joey also dates Ursula.
If you dint want him dead, why yall leave him with me?-Mouse
I have been DVRing the 4:30 AM plays of Mad about you on WGN America.
Ursala is Phoebes twin sister. I think Jamie and Paul said Hello to Phoebe once thinking she was Ursala.
Paul sublet his apartment to Kramer and he went to get a shoe box from Kramer once. The shoe box was full of bank records of Pauls.
Paul told Kramer he could take over the lease. K man said "I will take care of Your past , you take care of the future.
Paul asked Kramer what ever happened to Jerry. Kramer said "Oh he is writing a pilot for NBC.
Paul also saw Jerry on the street , Paul had just taken viagra and Jerry ran away.
I always thought Ursula was hotter looking then Phoebe ! LOL
Okay, what happened was Lisa Kudrow played Ursula on Mad About You, which aired on NBC. But she also played Phoebe on Friends, which was also on NBC. To kind of keep the viewers entertained, or less confused perhaps, they had Ursula and Phoebe be twin sisters, both played by Lisa Kudrow. Ursula does appear in several Friends episodes, even after MAY ended. And yeah, there was an episode where Helen Hunt makes a cameo and she sees Phoebe and thinks she's Ursula.
shareHahah that is so cool when shows do that. Like, a character from another show "visits" another character on a different show.
~Aimz~
You talkin to me?
Well, there was a little more to it than that.
Lisa Kudrow wasn't certain that "Friends" was going to be a hit (the pilot got a lukewarm reaction). She had a good thing going on MAY as a recurring character and didn't want to lose that. So to hedge her bets, she asked that she be able to continue as Ursula while playing Phoebe.
When "Friends" proved to be a hit, the writers decided to explain Lisa's presence as essentially the same character on two different shows by having them be twins.
When MAY went off the air, the "Friends" writers took over the character of Ursula and gave her quite the dark side. I can't imagine the MAY writers allowing Usrula to be a porn actress, for example.
NoumaTendo wrote:
"I can't imagine the MAY writers allowing Usrula to be a porn actress, for example."
Well, that's what PHOEBE says and the gist was always that something had happened much earlier in their lives and that they were angry at each other for that, so the two never really got along during the time of "Friends".
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Good Shootin', Tex!
Anyone remember the episode of Friends where Joey dates Ursula and Phoebe gets jealous? thats the only episode that really stands out in my mind where Ursula was on Friends... just thought i'd throw that in lol..
shareIt isn't just what Phoebe says though. We see Ursula in a porn video, and later Phoebe visits Urusla at her apartment,where she's in the middle of shooting another porn. We saw Phoebe and Ursual interact in a few episodes.
shareI remember Phoebe visiting Ursula's apartment, but I don't recall anything about actually showing Ursulla shooting a porn video.
Can you name the episode and which season? I'd like to have a look for myself (if its available)
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Good Shootin', Tex!
It was season six, in the episode, "The One Where Chandler Can't Cry." Joey finds a porn video called "Buffay The Vampire Layer," in which Ursula is performing using Phoebe's name. Phoebe goes to Ursula's apartment to confront her, and Ursual comes out dressed and made up for a porn shoot. They argue for a minute, then a director from inside the apartment yells, "We're still rolling!" and Ursula says she has to go back in. But first she tells Phoebe, "Y'know, twin stuff is a real big seller."
Here's a pic:
http://www.friendsgeneration.com/saison6/614-22.jpg
Padilma, Thanks for the info.
I'll check that out.
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Good Shootin', Tex!
When Friends first aired it was in the time slot right after Mad About You so people would see Lisa playing Ursula and then right after playing Phoebe so they had them be twin sisters to explain why she played 2 different characters one after the other.
Ursula was in a few episodes where she played a small roll usually just with Phoebe going to ask her something or get mad at her for some reason. but there was also the episode where she dates Joey and when Phoebe invites her to their Halloween party and she brings her fiance (Sean Penn) and Phoebe and Sean Penn end up liking eahother.
I could kill you right now with just two teabags and some waxpaper.
The idea that they were twins started off as a one off inside-joke on an episode of Friends.
Pheobe said she had a twin sister who was a "career girl", and when they asked what she did for a living she said she was a waitress. The joke being two fold, that Pheobe would consider a waitress a "career girl" and those familiar with Mad About You getting the inside joke that the unnamed twin was Ursula from Mad About You, but at the time there were no plans for Ursula to make an appearence on Friends.
Then later they decided to expand the joke and had Ursula appear occasionally on the show.
NoumaTendo wrote:
"I can't imagine the MAY writers allowing Usrula to be a porn actress, for example."
Well, that's what PHOEBE says and the gist was always that something had happened much earlier in their lives and that they were angry at each other for that, so the two never really got along during the time of "Friends".
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Didn't Phoebe intimate that the rivarly began in the womb?
Swing away, Merrill....Merrill, swing away...share
Well, that's what PHOEBE says
How about this in her own words, just to make it easy for you
http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2012/05/friends-oral-history-top-of-the-rock
LORI OPENDEN: When Lisa [Kudrow] auditioned for Friends as Phoebe, she owned it. There was no debate on her.
DAVID CRANE: We knew her from Mad About You.
At the time, Lisa Kudrow had a recurring role on the NBC sitcom.
LISA KUDROW (actor): I thought Mad About You was the best-written show I’d ever seen, and I always liked talking to writers. Jeffrey Klarik was one of the writers who was always really friendly and complimentary, and I didn’t know his boyfriend was David Crane. David saw me, because he paid attention to everything Jeffrey did. And I think that’s how I got called in for an audition for Friends.
I read for David and Marta, and then I had to go back and read for Jimmy Burrows. That scared me a lot, because of Frasier. He’s kind of who fired me.
Kudrow had originally been cast as Roz on the sitcom Frasier but was fired during rehearsals for the pilot episode, which Burrows directed.
LISA KUDROW: So I was nervous to go in, thinking I’m about to read for the guy who doesn’t get me and doesn’t think I’m funny. My audition was a monologue, so there was no reacting off of anybody. Jimmy said, “No notes … O.K., thank you, Lisa.” And I thought, All right, so that’s it. “No notes” either means “It was so great I don’t have anything to say” or “Why do they keep putting this girl in front of me?”
At one point I even said, “You know, I’m more like Rachel.” And they told me, “No. You’re this quirky girl.” And then once I knew that I was going to the network—and that’s when you work out the deal—that’s when I was like, “Thank God it’s on NBC. Pilots work and don’t work, but we have to protect Mad About You, please.” That was the only thing I cared about, so that I could still do that show. I thought since it was on the same network maybe it wouldn’t be a problem.
DAVID CRANE: When we got our time slot, we were following Mad About You. It was weird, so that’s when we said, “What if Phoebe and Ursula [Kudrow’s Mad About You character] were sisters?” We called Danny Jacobson [a co-creator and executive producer of Mad About You], and he said, “O.K.” I’m not sure I would have.
Basically she went for this new show after having guest spots on mad about you for 16 episodes, didnt want to lose her paycheck not knowing if friends would even get picked up and asked to do both and they let her. SHE ONLY ACTUALLY DID 23 EPISODES TOTAL OF MAD ABOUT YOU!!!
"*beep* me gently with a chainsaw" Heathers
Ok...so there's an episode I just saw where Lisa Kudrow plays "Ursula Buffay." Is there a link between Mad About You and Friends and this character? I'm just curious.
Ha! I loved that episode of Friends! "I'm trapped in an ATM vestibule with Jill Goodacre. Is it a vestibule? Maybe it's an atrium. Oh, yeah, that's the part you should be focusing on, you idiot."
~Aimz~
Look. I'm Darth Vader, and pay a-bloody-ttention alright.
LOL!
Classsic Chandler.
Tell me, you love your country?
Well, I've just died for it.
Did you not read the other posts before you responded as you just restated previous postings. And as previous posts mention it wasnt just friends that had the blackout it was 4 other shows. There wasnt a crossover on Seinfeld it was on Mad About You with Kramer guest starring as Jerry Seinfeld told the network to get lost and had enough pull to stop them doing any crossovers on his show, which is why they didnt also have a blackout on that night even though they aired an episode on the same channel on the same night.
or the statements I posted actually made by Lisa Kudrow herself about how she got to play both parts, might be the clue.
"*beep* me gently with a chainsaw" Heathers
Ursula appeared quite a few times on Friends:
- The episode when Phoebe learned who their real bith mother was
- when Ursula was dating Joey
- When Ursula did porn
- when Ursula dated Sean Penn's character
- When Ursula dated David Arquette's character (They showed her walking)
I was rewatching MAY, & I in one of the earliest episodes from season one, Paul thinks about on a date he went with some vapid girl. Lisa Kudrow played the part of the dumb date.
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let me dope you
In the episode Fran thought she was pregnant and Ira told Paul it was Ursula, someone said twins run in Ursula's family. Ironically, this was before Friends was even on the air
No offense, but you're an idiot.