Phoebe, Chandler, Joey, and Ross) living in New York City and doing their best to balance their social, personal, and professional lives, and everything else adulthood threw their way.
Many Friends, its theme song became a (unexpected) hit, and while it has a proper title, it’s still known as “the Friends theme song”.
However, when the show was still in development, the producers had a different song in mind for the opening, and actually presented the pilot episode with that song (and a very different sequence). Had the producers not changed it, it would have ended up affecting the series.
Friends’ Original Theme Song Was R.E.M’s “Shiny Happy People”
Friends’ theme song is “I’ll Be There For You”, by The Rembrandts. The lyrics were a collaboration between The Rembrandts, Crane, Kauffman, composer Michael Skloff, and songwriter Allee Willis, and was re-recorded as a full song after being so well-received by the audience. The song was accompanied by an opening sequence with the cast dancing in a fountain and with the now iconic orange couch there (and umbrellas, of course). Although the main cast was not a big fan of the song and all the dancing in a fountain, they surely are relieved the producers changed their mind and went for a different song.
When the series was still titled Full House). Producer Kevin Bright was the one who suggested a change, and as he was a fan of The Rembrandts, he suggested they played the theme song.
This decision not only helped the series, as it wouldn’t have been good for it to have a song that many consider to be annoying, but also The Rembrandts and even R.E.M. The latter have been quite vocal about their dislike towards “Shiny Happy People”, and even refuse to play it live, and having it play over and over in a TV show definitely wouldn’t have helped the situation – though it was briefly used one time, in the episode “The One with the Monkey”. In the end, R.E.M. does what they want with the song, Friends became one of the best TV shows to date, and has one of the catchiest and most iconic theme songs.