Matt LeBlanc had $11 to his name. In 1994, the director of Friends flew the cast to Vegas on a private jet. Over dinner, he warned them this was the last time they'd go anywhere without being mobbed. They didn't believe him.
His name was James Burrows. He'd directed the pilot and had a gut feeling the show was going to explode, so he called the head of Warner Bros. and said: "Give me the plane. I'll pay for dinner."
He took them to Spago, the famous restaurant inside Caesars Palace. Booked the center table on purpose. Then he had them look around at the strangers walking past without a second glance, and said: "This is your last shot at anonymity. Once the show airs, you guys will never be able to go anywhere without being hounded."
Lisa Kudrow remembers thinking, "Really? We don't know how the show's going to do. Why is he so certain?"
Burrows handed each of them $200 in chips. LeBlanc lost his on craps in seconds, so Burrows loaned him another $200. They all wrote him reimbursement checks the next week.
The pilot aired September 22, 1994. 22 million people watched.
By season 2, Warner Bros. had quietly started paying Aniston and Schwimmer more than the rest. The cast found out. They refused to negotiate one-by-one ever again, and Aniston and Schwimmer even took pay cuts so all six earned the same.
By the final season they were each pulling in $1 million an episode, which meant the cast alone cost $6 million every time they filmed a show. In 2000, they did something no TV cast had ever pulled off: they took 2 percent of every dollar Warner Bros. would ever earn from Friends. Forever.
Forbes says Warner Bros. has now made $4.8 billion off the show. It still pulls in roughly $1 billion a year from reruns, streaming, and international rights. In April 2026, Lisa Kudrow told The Times of London that she and her surviving castmates each still take home around $20 million a year from a show they finished filming 21 years ago.
Burrows was right. 52.5 million people watched the finale, the fifth most-watched finale in American TV history. None of them have walked through a casino unnoticed since that night at Spago.
Incredible bit this by Thierry Henry. Pointing out the hypocrisy in the media
“You don’t have to like how Arsenal play, but surely you can respect it.”
"Simeone and Jose Mourinho used to be praised for playing a certain way"
The new generation will never truly understand how special Thierry Henry was 🔥👑
A walking definition of Brains!
If individual brilliance was a person 🧠⚽️
https://t.co/dowFQ9sm7x