“Friends” and “Seinfeld” exist in a shared universe, just like Batman and Superman. We know this for a verifiable fact. Don’t believe us? Ask a “Mad About You” fan.
In the “Mad About You” Season 1 episode “The Apartment,” Paul Buchman (Paul Reiser) sublets his old apartment to Cosmo Kramer (Michael Richards). Jerry Seinfeld also makes a cameo appearance on “Mad About You” in the Season 7 premiere.
Meanwhile, in Season 2 of “Mad About You,” the audience meets recurring character Ursula Buffay (Lisa Kudrow). She’s the estranged identical twin sister of Phoebe Buffay, whom Kudrow made famous when “Friends” premiered in 1994. If Paul Buchman has encountered Kramer, Jerry, and Phoebe’s twin sister, that proves indisputably that the “Seinfeld” gang and the titular “Friends” walk the streets of the same imaginary version of New York City.
Friends and Seinfeld aren’t alone in the shared universe
“Caroline in the City” — a show whose social circle of quirky, conventionally photogenic New Yorkers matches the premise, if not the cultural endurance, of “Friends” – serves as another nexus point for crossovers between sitcoms that aired during NBC’s “Must See TV” primetime scheduling blocks of the 1990s.
Chandler Bing shows up on the “Caroline in the City” Season 1 episode “Caroline and the Folks.” Meanwhile, Caroline Duffy (Lea Thompson) — the same Caroline from “Caroline in the City” — appears on “Friends” in the Season 2 episode “The One with the Baby in the Bus.” Daphne Moon (Jane Leeves) and Dr. Niles Crane (David Hyde Pierce) stop by “Caroline in the City” in Season 1, Episode 4, “Caroline and the Bad Back.” This links “Caroline in the City” to Niles and Daphne’s show of origin, “Frasier,” and by extension, Frasier Crane’s original show, “Cheers.” To take it a step further: A handful of “Cheers” characters make cameos on “Wings.”
What this all means is that Frasier Crane, Cosmo Kramer, and Chandler Bing could plausibly all be in the same room together at some point. Can you imagine?! When you’ve recovered from the visual, hit the comments with your thoughts on how that meet-up would go.
