Jonathan Silverman's NBC sitcom The Single Guy and the hit NBC show Friends flirted with crossing over a bunch before finally actually doing it.

   First, Silverman appeared in a first season episode of Friends, not as his character from The Single Guy but rather as Dr. Franzblau, a gynecologist Rachel meets and flirts with at the hospital while the friends are waiting for friend Ross' lesbian ex-wife to give birth to his son (it was just as insane to write that as I'm sure it sounded to read). Rachel is very hot on the doc until he points out why his profession puts off women. He relates it to Rachel's being a waitress who has to serve coffee all day. He asks her if there aren't days where she just doesn't come home and say, "If I have to see one more dang cup of coffee..." and the romantic buzz was killed.

   Like I said though, that wasn't an actual crossover. It happened well before the Single Guy even premiered and was a different character. More than likely much like Brooke Shields' guest shot on Friends led to her starring in Suddenly Susan, this appearance more than likely helped get the gears turning for Silverman to star in The Single Guy. But after the fact, it gets muddy what episode aired when, what show premiered what year... and so I can see this easily being confused for some sort of cross by someone not paying attention. After all Friends also had George Clooney and Noah Wyle playing ER doctors in an episode... just not the same ER doctors they played on the show ER.

   Anywho, eventually NBC had their schedule chockablock full of Friends-style shows such as The Single Guy, Caroline In The City and Suddenly Susan: shows about 20-30-something friends hanging out. Hoping to get fans of the different shows to try the others, NBC did a big crossover event... sort of. See, to me a proper big crossover event means all the shows have plots that connect to each other and overlap and such. Not the case here. Instead this was a big "cameo" thing with folks crossing over for smaller moments that weren't extremely elaborate. In the weirdest move, Caroline In The City's Lea Thompson appeared on Friends... but not playing her character Caroline.

   Then, on the same night, Caroline In The City crossed over with both Friends and The Single Guy in a single episode of Caroline In The City. This is so very close to a triple play with three shows all crossing over with each other at the same time except for a technicality: Chandler Bing from Friends and Jonathan from The Single Guy both were on the same episode together yet they never actually met. They were in two totally different scenes. Once again, close to being a Friends/Single Guy crossover but no cigar.

   The third time and the third show was the charm for this thing to finally happen. For its part in the event, The Single Guy's episode found Friend's Ross stopping by. It seems that Ross was friends with single guy Jonathan's friend Janeane. Only when Ross stops by Johnnny's apartment is being worked on and he is bunking... so to speak... with his neighbors who happen to be gay. Sitcom confusion ensues as Johnny and Ross go out for the evening and each mistake the other as being gay and, ahem, maybe after the other. What's up with that? It takes them three tries to make it happen and then when it does it's like totally gay! (No offense to the gay community... I couldn't resist)

Other Friends Crossover Links
Friends and Caroline In The City
Friends and Hope And Gloria
Friends and Joey
Friends and Mad About You

Other Single Guy Crossover Links
The Single Guy and Caroline In The City

Click here to return to main Crossover List

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