So we asked our listeners to do one other thing: Choose three “auxiliary friends,” who could be any character other than the top six who appeared even once in the show.
Ross and Monica’s father wasn’t nearly as directly critical as their mother, but he could be devastating in his own ways.
But from time to time, Gunther could deflate a member of the gang like no one else, reminding Chandler or Joey or Ross that his life was not about their petty social dealings.
Nevertheless, he matched Kudrow perfectly, making Mike a guy who adored Phoebe not in spite of her quirks but because of them, who was never afraid to go along with whatever was on her mind.
Even as Chandler mistreated and sometimes humiliated her , Janice never doubted that whatever problems he had appreciating her, they were his problems, not hers.