Shaun Cassidy and Dee Wallace: Forever Friends of "Friends" (Once Removed)

Throughout its ten seasons, many celebrities were given notable mentions or in some way included on Friends without physically being there -- leading us to believe you didn’t actually have to appear on the series to become a Friend of Friends.  In season eight (episode 12), The One Where Joey Dates Rachel (Part 2), Joey (Matt LeBlanc) and Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) discuss the fact that Rachel has never seen the 1983 horror classic Cujo.  Following a disastrous date, Joey comes home to find Rachel attempting to watch the Stephen King movie by herself.  Completely terrified, she asks Joey to protect her, and given his developing feelings for her he’s only too happy to oblige (picture below).

For Cujo star Dee Wallace (who also starred in E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial), that notable mention was the next best thing to having appeared on the show.  “I love Friends,” she beamed when MediaVillage asked about the movie’s mention in the show.  “It was cool they picked that movie.  I do hear a lot of people say that movie scares the bejesus out of them, maybe because it could really happen.”  The only drawback for Wallace?  No residual checks from the umpteen million re-runs!  “You don’t get paid for mentions!” she laughed.

During the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, singer/actor Shaun Cassidy reigned supreme as a pop idol, thanks to hits like That’s Rock and Roll and Hey Deanie, and his starring role as Joe Hardy opposite Parker Stevenson in ABC’s The Hardy Boys Mysteries.  So, it was only fitting that a young Rachel Green would have been obsessed with him.   Cassidy received two very notable mentions on Friends, first in 1999’s The One with the Ball (season 5, episode 21) in which Rachel purchases Mrs. Whiskerson, a very expensive hairless cat.  When she tells Ross (David Schwimmer) she’s bought something she’s always wanted “since being a little girl,” he replies, "You bought Shaun Cassidy?">

Steve Gidlow

Steve Gidlow, a long-time columnist for MediaVillage ("Behind the Scenes in Hollywood"), has written about television and pop culture since 1994, beginning in Australia.  Since moving to Hollywood in 1997, Steve has focused on celebrity interv… read more