Friends followers ‘driven wild’ as they discover plot gap in basic episode: ‘They hoped no one would notice’

Fans of the popular sitcom Friends have spotted an apparent plot hole in a three-decade old episode – and it’s kicked off a debate online.

The plot hole in question concerns a dress worn by Rachel (Jennifer Aniston), which first appeared in the series pilot episode. Aniston memorably wears the dress in her first scene, when she arrives at Central Perk coffee shop.

In a season four episode, “The One with the Wedding Dresses”, Aniston dons a similar-looking wedding dress. However, while the outfit is incredibly close to the one she wore earlier, fans have identified it as clearly different – prompting uncertainty as to whether or not viewers were supposed to realise this.

On Reddit this week, one user shared a photograph of the two dresses side by side, with the question: “I know it’s a different dress in real life, but in the SHOW is this supposed to be the same dress?”

Underneath, other fans of the show confirmed that it was indeed supposed to be the same dress – but the switch had not escaped the notice of die-hard fans.

“That drives me wild every time!” one person wrote.

“I always figured it was meant to be her dress but it always seemed a bit off but similar,” commented another.

Someone else remarked: “It’s supposed to be the same dress. They probably got rid of the original and replaced it for this episode hoping no one would notice it was different.”

Created by Marta Kauffman, Friends aired its first episode in 1994 and ran for ten seasons until its finale in 2004.

In September, a line producer on the series spoke about a time the cast refused to re-shoot the series’ famous opening for an alternate reality episode in 2000.

While the show’s writers had hoped to re-stage a scene in the water fountains that features in Friends’ famous opening credits sequence, the cast ultimately pushed back.

“It’s one thing to do that when you’re on the pilot,” revealed Todd Stevens. “Revisiting the uncomfortable nature of that, cold and wet, was very different when they were big.”

Alongside Aniston, Friends starred Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer, and Matthew Perry.

Last year, Perry died suddenly at the age of 54, from what was later ruled to be the acute effects of ketamine.