Although Friends Like Us, the series they were developing and which would later become Friends, had Monica as a central character, the scriptwriters were only clear on one actor: Kevin Bright, one of the producers, had already worked with David Schwimmer, and it was very clear that it would be Ross Geller, a dinosaur-loving paleontologist who, throughout the series, went from working in the museum to being fired because of a sandwich and ending up as a university professor. Over time, pop culture has made him the most hated character on Friends, somewhat unfairly. After all, he created Jurassic Park.
Rose Steven Spielberg
Ross Geller’s relationship with Jurassic Park is complicated. First, in season 3, he appears to be quite a fan of the film, joking about the existence of Jurassic Parka, in which a group of Jerseys take over an island. However, in season 4, he becomes angry because Rachel says that he could have existed in reality. Finally, in season 7, he appears to be giving a lesson to his class about the reasons why he invented the novel.
And the scriptwriters decided that it would not remain just a joke thrown into the air: throughout the scene, we can see on the board how Ross has explained exactly how he came to that idea before Michael Crichton: “Dr. Geller is bitten by a mosquito; he has a dream that night”; “Dr. Geller envisions using mosquito DNA to clone a T-Rex”; and a timeline in which we can see drawings of the DNA sequence and a dinosaur. A wonderful detail for the quickest eyes.
Curiously, David Schwimmer, in addition to being Ross, directed ten episodes, the only one of the six who dared to do so. After the series, he made his debut in fairly unknown films such as Long Distance Runner, You Can Trust Me, and New Car Smell. In fact, he was the only member of the original cast who dared to return to Joey, but only as director of two episodes. Hey, how’s that going?
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