Friends: How Ross and Monica Pulled Off Their New Year's Eve Dance (Exclusive)

For a series that produced very popular Thanksgiving episodes, Christmastime provided the setting for one of Friends' most memorable installments.

"The One with the Routine" premiered on NBC December 16, 1999, exactly 25 years ago today. Yes, it's been a quarter-century since the competitive Geller siblings Ross (David Schwimmer) and Monica (Courteney Cox) performed a perfectly choreographed dance on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve — one the duo first conceived and performed when they were teens. As the brother and sister go full Geller and, as Friends co-creator and co-showrunner Marta Kauffman describes it, "dance the shit out of" their routine at the taping of the New Year's Eve staple, Joey struggles to endear himself to his latest crush and newest roommate, Janine (played by model Elle MacPherson, who was in the midst of a five-episode arc at the time). Meanwhile, Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) and Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) corral Chandler (Matthew Perry) into helping them look for Christmas presents that Monica has hidden somewhere in her apartment.

As fun and charming as those plotlines are, the lasting popularity of "The One With the Routine" among fans hinges on the titular 39-second sequence near the end of the episode, in which the Gellers execute flawless (and hilarious) '80s-esque dance moves. "[The episode] is not one of the top 10" that fans rank high on their lists, Kauffman says, "but we do hear about it a lot."

As the episode turns 25, Kauffman and her fellow co-creator and EP David Crane share in this exclusive interview with the Television Academy how the episode (and those dance moves) came to be.

Television Academy: Where did the main concept or pitch for this episode come from?

Marta Kauffman: David, do you remember?

David Crane: Well, one thing I do remember is that it came up in the room that when you [watch] Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve, the dancing sequences are all pre-shot — which I had no idea. I believe everything I see on television, and I think that was one of the things that led to the idea that [Monica and Ross] could be on it. [Rockin' Eve] is not actually filmed on New Year's Eve, it's like weeks before.

Kauffman: I remember that what made sense was that Ross and Monica would do it. There was no question about that. It didn't feel like a leap, even though there is a leap in the dance at the end. [Laughs]

Rewatching it, in my mind, Joey and Janine are the "A" story, because it's all about him trying to kiss her. And, yet, the episode is called "The One With the Routine."

Kauffman: It's the kind of thing where, when we saw it, the dance was such a centerpiece. The way you remember the show, you remember that routine. That's what you hang on to.

Crane: I have to say, I rewatched it too, and the only part I remembered was the routine. I didn't even remember that Joey and — well, I didn't remember her name was Janine. Seeing it again, as much as I thought the other stories were perfectly fine — solid Friends stories, really — it's [Monica and Ross's storyline] that you remember. When we were naming episodes, it wasn't so much based on what's the "A" story. It's more, "What is the thing that you'll remember?"

Do you recall who choreographed the dance?

Kauffman: We had this woman named Robin Anton, who did the choreography for the Pussycat Dolls. We'd used her another time for something else, I can't remember what, and she came in with some great ideas — and Courteney and David brought so much, too. So although she gave the dance its basic shape, it would have meant nothing without their performance of it.

Crane: And the amount of commitment, you believed that they had been doing this routine every year since they were 14. How much David and Courteney invested in it is just fantastic. In terms of the choreography, one of the things I love is that even though we were shooting the episode in 1999, it looks like it was the dance they would have done in 1985. All those moves are so of a time. I mean, just all the talk about the millennium and Y2K [in the episode] is great, but I love that the dancing feels like it's 15 years earlier.

Kauffman: Well, that was actually one of the things that I love about what they do — how much they're enjoying it. Monica and Ross are so having fun.

They very clearly really went for it.

Crane: It was so true to the characters, because both Ross and Monica are so competitive. The fact that they came in third [as teens] in the brother/sister contest that they wanted to win, and this is their chance for redemption. You really believed they were living out a dream.

Kauffman: They also danced really well. I mean, they're both good dancers, and they dance the shit out of it.

The other storyline centers on Chandler, Rachel and Phoebe searching for hidden Christmas gifts. How did you make the decision to break up the group into smaller groupings?

Kauffman: Very often we would look for the "A" story first, and if the "A" story was between Monica and Ross, then we would be like: "Here's who we have left, and what are the most fun ways to put that group together?"

Crane: I would imagine, and I don't actually remember in this case, but I would absolutely be willing to bet that we had Ross and Monica and Joey at New Year's Rockin' Eve, and then set about to come up with, "Okay, what are we going to do with the other three in one story that's practical?" And it all has to happen in the course of one evening or one day, because you'd know your time limitations for the other two stories.

Kauffman: It may have also had a little to do with [Dick Clark's Rockin' New Years Eve] was a big set, and we thought, "Oh, we should keep this one in the apartment."

Do you remember anything about how you came up with them searching for presents? Since Monica wasn't there, was it as simple as having them investigate something about her?

Kauffman: Pretty much. One of the things that I really like about this is that the primary comedy with the three of them is Rachel and Phoebe, and Chandler is the voice of reason. It's a fun shape.

Crane: I also love anytime we discover something about that apartment that we didn't know. We've been watching that apartment for so long, like the episode where we discover that that door upstage is Monica's closet. I do like that there are still surprises.

How did you land on casting Elle MacPherson?

Crane: My guess is that casting came to us with her name, and we were like, "She wants to do it? Sure." I'm guessing, by the way. I do not have any recollection of it at all.

Kauffman: I don't remember the casting for that, either.

There were certainly plenty of celebrity guest castings over the years, like Tom Selleck, or Christina Applegate and Reese Witherspoon as Rachel's sisters. But do any others stand out in particular?

Kauffman: We learned over the course of doing the show that what was most successful was the six of them. So we didn't do a lot of seeking out cameos, but there were parts that we could get fantastic people to play. That was great, but it wasn't like, "Ooh, let's do something for Tom Selleck." It was where we had a character and thought, "Well, that's interesting [casting]."

Crane: I don't think we ever wrote for a particular actor. I think we always just wrote scripts and then cast them. And sometimes — for instance, when Brad Pitt played Rachel's nemesis — the fact that Brad did it gave you a whole other level. But even in that case, we didn't say, "Let's come up with a story for Brad." We wrote this story, and then Jennifer spoke to him, he was willing to do it, and that was thrilling. But as Marta says, we never wrote for any particular guest star.

One of the reasons this episode works is because Courteney and David really commit to their characters. Was there ever a time when the actors chose not to do something, or had an issue with a storyline, or felt uncomfortable going to a certain place?

Kauffman: The one where we had the biggest conversation was about Joey and Rachel [dating]. Matt felt it was like falling in love with your sister. We had a long talk about it and decided, "Let's try it. Let's see what happens. Let's see how it feels." And there are some incredibly sweet moments that came out of it, and it wasn't icky that way.

Crane: Our argument for it — and the thing that persuaded [Matt] was — he's right. It is wrong. And the idea of this sort of doomed relationship is that it's never going to be right, but that's life. You fall in love with the people you shouldn't fall in love with, and life then teaches you that there's pain. The idea of seeing Joey go through something painful was worth it, even though I know — to this day — there are people who hate it. I get it, but that's part of what we found really compelling. And by that point in the show, we needed to go to some places that weren't just, you know, Matt and Elle MacPherson stories, right?

As much fun as it always seemed like the cast was having, it seemed like they were in heaven whenever they performed physical comedy.

Kauffman: They were so game.

Crane: It's true. I think what you're seeing — when they're moving the couch up the stairs [Season 5's "The One with the Cop"], or David in the first season during the blackout ["The One with the Blackout"], with the cat on his head and he's wrestling to try to get it off while everyone's oblivious — is exactly that. The truth is that [moment] went on for another three minutes, where the audience couldn't stop laughing, and he continued to wrestle with that cat. We had to cut it down for time but, yeah, it was brilliant. They were brilliant.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Friends is now streaming on Max.