The One Where Dr. Ramoray Dies

"The One Where Dr. Ramoray Dies" is the eighteenth episode of the second season of Friends, which aired on March 21, 1996. Joey's soap character looks set to be killed off after Joey makes some contentious remarks to a fan magazine. Monica and Richard have their first argument. Chandler gets annoyed by his roommate, Eddie.
==Plot==
Joey is starting to find success in playing Dr. Drake Ramoray on TV series Days Of Our Lives. He even has an interview published in TV magazine Soap Opera Digest. Unfortunately, he also makes the mistake of telling the journalist he made up most of his own lines; a lie, of course. One of the writers angrily responds by killing off Joey's character by having him fall down an elevator shaft. Joey takes it very hard, but there's nothing he can do to prevent it from happening. When the friends pay him a visit at his new apartment to try and cheer him up, he confesses that the show "was the best thing that ever happened to me", and he admits that he has no clue about where his career might head off in the future.
Phoebe finds the new couple Monica and Richard very cute, and makes a short speech to him about how she likes him the most out of all the boyfriends Monica has had (which were "a lot"). Richard and Monica pursue the matter at her apartment, where he reveals that he has only slept with two women during his whole life (Monica included). Monica finds this weird, but quickly changes her mind when she realizes that he has only slept with women he's been in love with. Meanwhile, Ross and Rachel are also pursuing the numbers in Rachel's room. Rachel reveals her boyfriends, but makes the mistake of describing her sex with Paolo as being "animal", which Ross does not find amusing, until he decides to up the ante with animal sex of his own. Just as the girls are about to have a good time, they meet in the bathroom, where they argue over who should take the last condom. They resolve this by playing rock-paper-scissors, which Rachel wins.
Chandler is having trouble bonding with his new roommate Eddie. Phoebe helps Chandler and Eddie bond, which as Chandler finds at first, is going great. However, when Eddie recounts his latest break-up with his ex-girlfriend Tilly, Chandler begins to realize his new roommate has a few screws loose. Chandler soon starts to find out for himself how crazy and delusional Eddie is: when Tilly pays a visit to drop off Eddie's fish tank, the latter immediately believes that Chandler had sex with her. Chandler denies this, but Eddie does not take heed and then goes on to accuse Chandler of killing his pet goldfish, Buddy, even though the fish tank has nothing in it. And Chandler is not amused when Eddie later replaces Buddy with a goldfish cracker he names Chandler and bakes "raisin" cookies with unknown ingredients. Officially unsettled, Chandler calls Eddie a "freak of nature" before heading to bed. 
In the tag scene the following night, Ross, wearing Rachel's bathrobe, sneaks into the bathroom just as Richard rushes out in Monica's robe. They have a brief, awkward conversation before Richard sprints back to get a condom and have sex with Monica. 
==Cast and Crew==
===Main Cast===
Jennifer Aniston - Rachel Greene
Courteney Cox - Monica Geller
Lisa Kudrow - Phoebe Buffay
Matt LeBlanc - Joey Tribbiani
Matthew Perry - Chandler Bing
David Schwimmer - Ross Geller
===Supporting Cast===
Tom Selleck - Dr. Richard Burke
Adam Goldberg - Eddie Menuek
Roark Critchlow - Dr. Mike Horton
Mary Gallagher - Tilly
Vanessa Sandin - Amber
Brian Posehn - Messenger
James E. Reilly - Writer (as Jim Reilly)
James Michael Tyler - Gunther (uncredited)
===Crew===
Directed By: 
Michael Lembeck
Written By: 
Alexa Junge & Michael Borkow
==Trivia==
=== General ===
*Rachel tells Ross that the men she slept with are Billy Dreskin, Pete Carney, Barry, and Paolo.
**Rachel never mentions Chip Matthews to Ross, who even though he dumped her in the middle of her high school prom, had sex with her at least once before Thanksgiving 1988 ("The One With All The Thanksgivings"), although, according to Rachel, it didn't even last for an entire song, and at the end she wasn't even sure whether they did it or not. 
**In the first episode Monica mentions a man named Tony Demarco.
**Billy Dreskin was previously mentioned in "The One With Two Parts, Part 2" by Monica, who told Rachel's father on the phone that Rachel had sex with him in her father's bed.
*Ross tells Rachel that he's been with two women, but he's been with three; Carol, Julie, and Rachel. Except he probably isn't counting Rachel since she knows they have been together. This is odd, as when Richard says that he's been with two women, he includes Monica in his count. Later in the series its revealed that Ross slept with the cleaner of his college dorm.
*Joey says that in the next episode, he says he goes to South America to meet his half-brother. In "The One With Joey's New Brain", Stryker, a twin brother of Drake is introduced.
*The Capital of Cambodia is Phnom Penh (not Sean Penn, as joked by Chandler).
*Sean Penn appears later in the series as Ursula's fiance Eric in "The One With The Halloween Party" and "The One With The Stain".
*Dr. Drake Ramoray returns around 5 years later in "The One With Joey's New Brain" (S7E15)
*In this episode, Ross almost misses Joey's show. In Joey's first appearance Rachel almost missed it.
*This episode was used as "D is for Dr. Drake Ramoray" in the Nick at Nite Friends A-Z Event (January 2023).
=== Goofs ===
* When the gang (minus Joey) is discussing how Chandler is unhappy with Eddie, Rachel quickly moves on and says she does not want to miss Joey's show. Instead of turning on the TV to watch the show, Monica is seen pushing in a tape into the VCR. 
**Perhaps Joey had supplied a recording of his show. 
* When Richard, Monica, Rachel and Ross are sitting on the sofa in the coffeehouse, Monica says " well may be you don't need them", and Rachel turns her head towards Ross and then towards Monica. Ross says "my baby sister ladies and gentlemen" and Rachel has her head in a different position showing an edit.
* When Phoebe is supposed to turn to page 42 of Soap Opera Digest, she turns to a much earlier page.
* When Richard and Monica are in her bedroom, a huge light blur can be seen in the right-hand poster.
* When Rachel and Monica are in the bathroom with the door open, the studio lights can be seen reflected in the TV.
* As Phoebe finishes her song, a front view of Ross, Rachel, Monica and Richard shows a white mug in front of Ross but the side view shows a green mug and then the front shot shows a white mug again. The edge of the green mug is visible in the front view. Most of the green mug is hidden from view in the front view by the other items on the table including a paper that says "1/9".
* When the gang watch Joey's show, the bathroom is almost closed with a four inch gap but in the final scene there's only a two inch gap, even though nobody has moved.
* When Chandler is looking into the fish tank, it is quite obvious that it is a plastic mold or gel, as there is no movement of the water, or the goldfish cracker. A goldfish cracker would also break apart fairly quickly in water, not stay perfectly intact.
== External links ==
* Transcript of the episode including the deleted scenes
* "The One Where Dr. Ramoray Dies" at the Internet Movie Database
* "The One Where Dr. Ramoray Dies" at Wikipedia
==Episode Navigation==
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