Five things we learned about Friends from the James Burrows tribute show

Friends fans’ greatest wishes finally came true on Sunday, when five-sixths of the gang – Matthew Perry was busy working on his new play, “The End of Longing” – gathered in honor of director James Burrows.

The two-hour NBC special featured many of those who have worked on Burrows’s popular comedies – Cheers, The Big Bang Theory and Friends, to name a few – in order to celebrate the director’s 1,000th episode.

The Friends crew talked about everything from their favorite episodes to their offstage dynamic, and shed some light on Burrows’s genius. Here’s what we learned.

While Burrows encouraged the group to be friends offstage, the cast said they never had to work at it. They watched the first season’s episodes together at each other’s houses and even gave each other suggestions.

“The One with All the Poker” was anything but fictional – Burrows loaned the friends his dressing room to play poker in, and then wrote an episode based on it.

Courtney Cox, Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow ate lunch together every single day, enjoying what they coined a “Jennifer salad.”

When asked her favorite episode, Cox cited “The One with the Blackout” and said that she really liked when the cat jumped on Ross.

Cox was originally being considered for Rachel and Aniston for Monica, but both think that their actual roles fit them better.