“Friends” fans are mourning the loss of one of the stars of the long-running sitcom — James Michael Tyler.
On Sunday, the 59-year-old actor, who portrayed Central Perk’s beloved barista Gunther, died from prostate cancer.
Since then, his former “Friends” castmates have taken to social media to share tributes to Tyler, some of which have included stills and video moments from their fondest memories of working with him. So it seems a fitting time to share some of his best-loved onscreen moments working alongside them.
In 2019, 25 years after the sitcom’s debut, Tyler sat down with TODAY and opened up about those moments, including his favorite Gunther scene of all.
“I would say Gunther is a nice guy,” he mentioned of the character he played for 10 years. “He’s a very shy guy, inexperienced in the ways of love. But a good soul, a good heart deep down — for everyone except Ross.”
That last point had to do with the fact that Gunther pined for Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston), whose off-and-on-again romance with Ross Geller (David Schwimmer) was a constant thorn in his side.
“I think my favorite Gunther moment would be the one where Gunther speaks Dutch, and he has a confrontation with Ross,” he recalled of a season eight episode called “The One With the Stain.” “If you’ve seen the episode, Gunther calls Ross ... kind of a bad word in Dutch.”
The word in question was “ezel,” which means “donkey” in Dutch, but sounds a lot like “a------” in English, especially the way Gunther delivered it to Ross.
“That made it through the censors at that time,” Tyler said. “And I’m surprised it stayed in, but I just love that in that scene they established that Gunther spoke fluent Dutch.”
Another one of his favorite scenes took place in season three, when, as he put it, “Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) was dating a gentleman that happened to be, shall we say, (he had) a little too much exposure.”
Basically, every time the manspreading character sat down, his shorts showed off a lot more than anyone wanted to see.
“Gunther is the only character who can say, ‘Hey, buddy, this is a family place. Put the mouse back in the house,’” Tyler said with a smile. “I love that line.”
And it should come as no surprise that another one of his favorite Gunther moments included Rachel — and it happened to be the last moment the characters shared on the series finale episode, just before she canceled her planned trip to France.
“Gunther got to profess his 10-year unrequited love to Rachel by saying, ‘If you change your mind about Paris, I’ll still be here ... and I love you,’” Tyler explained. “And, of course, Rachel does not love him in the same way, but I believe Gunther got some closure and he accepted that Rachel did love Gunther and appreciated him as a friend.”
While those were the scenes that stood out to him most, the actor revealed that he loved all of his moments on the show, from the very beginning, because “Friends” was more than just the name of the series.
“The best thing about working with the other actors on the show was the chemistry between them,” he explained. “The professionalism was so ... just almost indescribable. The first episode that I walked on for the season one, they seemed like they’d known each other for years. They already had their characters so well developed for the pilot, and that’s unheard of. It was just a joy to go in every week. I never felt like I was going to work. It was more like going to play with your friends.”