On This Day In 2004: ‘Friends’ Ends After 10 Seasons, Check Out Bizarre Alternate Ending

It’s hard to believe that the television show Friends ended on this day in 2004 after 10 seasons.

Friends first debuted in 1994, and quickly became a fan favorite. The show focused on the daily lives of six “friends,” Monica Geller (Courtney Cox), Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry), Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc), Ross Geller (David Schwimmer), Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston), and Phoebe Buffay (Lisa Kudrow), who lived in New York City. The show ran for 10 seasons before debuting their very emotional season finale, which showed all six friends placing their keys on the counter of the apartment and heading down to Central Perk for a cup of coffee.

Although the finale seemed to tie up all loose ends (except for Joey; they later did a Friends spin-off titled Joey), one fan has a cryptic idea for an alternate ending for the series. If you will recall, Phoebe always seemed to be the oddball of the group; she didn’t have any past ties with the other five characters, and she frequently talked about her tough childhood living on the streets after her father abandoned her and her mother committed suicide. Phoebe had no other family members, other than her estranged twin sister, Ursula, and her half-brother Frank Buffay, and she really has no other ties to anyone in the city.

One Twitter user, who goes by Strnks, came up with a very plausible, albeit slightly depressing, suggestion for the way the show should have ended. Based on Strnks idea, Phoebe was a homeless meth-addict that lived near Central Perk. Throughout the entire 10 seasons, Phoebe had been watching this group of friends through the window of the coffee shop, and had imagined the events that took place in all of their lives. Come to find out, none of the characters names were the same, and they only knew Phoebe as the crazy lady that watched them drink coffee.

“All 10 seasons were merely her fevered imagination,” @strnks wrote, “projecting herself into the lives of the others. All she ever wanted was… Friends.” Check out Strnks full alternate ending in the tweet below.

#FriendsFest later today on @ComedyCentralUK at 5pm. Here’s my proposal for how I would have ended the final episode: pic.twitter.com/t6DGqxPwOC

— strnks (@strnks) August 24, 2015

In an interview with The Independent, Strnks explained how he came up with the idea for the alternate ending.

“Me, my girlfriend and our flatmate had been watching Friends all Sunday afternoon,” he said. “Over dinner we were saying how Friends is basically the story of Rachel Green. Then we started talking about the different big themes across the show and I thought it would be hilarious if there was a ‘big reveal’ ending that tied it all together.

“The ‘It was all a dream’ thing is such a cheesy trope, so I thought it would be funny if there was that kind of finale. It was a very tongue-in-cheek idea, one of those ‘It all makes sense!’ stupid realizations that you could give Friends a really depressing ending.”

Strnks admitted that Phoebe was also his least favorite character on the show, so that could have had a lot to do with him creating her tragic alternative life story.

“Phoebe is the worst. Maybe I wanted revenge on her!” he said.

What do you think about Strnks’ alternate ending? Would you have been upset if the series had actually ended this way? Leave your comments below.

[Featured Image by Handout/Getty Images]