The One with the Ride-Along

"**The One with the Ride-Along**"
"The One with the Ride-Along"
Friends episode
Episode no.	Season 5; Episode 20
Directed by	Gary Halvorson
Written by	Shana Goldberg-Meehan & Seth Kurland
Production code	467670
Original air date	April 29, 1999
Guest appearances
	Michael Rapaport as Gary; Helen Baxendale as Emily Waltham;
Episode chronology
← Previous; "The One Where Ross Can't Flirt"	Next →; "The One with the Ball"
	Friends (season 5)
	List of episodes

"The One with the Ride-Along" is the twentieth episode of Friends' fifth season. It first aired on NBC in the United States on April 29, 1999. In the episode, Ross, Joey, and Chandler go on a ride-along with Gary, Phoebe's new boyfriend.

Plot

Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) returns from a ride-along with her cop boyfriend, Gary (Michael Rapaport), which prompts the guys to follow suit and share the experience. Joey buys a delicious sandwich but is not allowed to eat it in Gary's car, so he keeps talking about it, much to the annoyance of Ross and Chandler. Ross accidentally turns on the beacon, prompting Gary to move him from the front seat. During the ride, a car backfire scares them all, leading to Joey diving over Ross in an attempt to save him. This causes problems between Chandler and Joey because Joey apparently wanted to save Ross instead of Chandler, his best friend. However, it turns out that Joey was not trying to save Ross, but only his sandwich. To show Chandler how much he values their friendship, he allows him to have one bite of the sandwich.

Ross' ex-wife Emily is getting married again, so the group does its best to distract him. Monica decides to organize photos, but Rachel accidentally drops a box of other pictures on it, ruining all Monica's work. Due to being upset, the two decide to make margaritas, but they do not have the ingredients, so they decide to steal them from Ross' apartment, where Rachel intercepts a message from Emily, who has second thoughts about her upcoming wedding and the divorce with Ross. Monica thinks they should erase the message, but Rachel thinks Ross deserves to know the truth. During the discussion, they accidentally erase the message.

After being "saved", Ross is filled with a new-found respect for life, which he reports to his own answering machine, resulting in the message being heard by the girls, who are still at his apartment. Rachel tells Ross about the message from Emily, but Ross wants to call her back, because he wants to seize every new opportunity. Rachel talks this idea out of Ross' mind by convincing him that it is not the day of seizing stuff, but escaping from stuff, such as "death" and from Emily.

Production

"The One with the Ride-Along" was co-written by Shana Goldberg-Meehan and Seth Kurland. The episode was directed by Gary Halvorson.

Reception

In its original American broadcast, "The One with the Ride-Along" finished fourth in ratings for the week of April 19–25, 1999, with a Nielsen rating of 13.9. It was the fourth highest rated show on the NBC network that week, after the NBC Sunday Movie: Noah's Ark, ER, and Frasier.^[1] In the United Kingdom the episode premiered on Sky1 on May 20, 1999 and was watched by 2.02 million viewers, making the program the most watched on the channel that week.^[2]

References

^ "'Noah's Ark' gives NBC a boost". Associated Press. The Augusta Chronicle. 7 May 1999. Retrieved 15 April 2012.
^ "Weekly Top 10 Programmes". barb.co.uk. Retrieved 15 April 2012. Note: Information is in the section titled "w/e 23 May 1999", listed under Sky 1

External links

[1] "'Noah's Ark' gives NBC a boost". Associated Press. The Augusta Chronicle. 7 May 1999. Retrieved 15 April 2012.

[2] "Weekly Top 10 Programmes". barb.co.uk. Retrieved 15 April 2012. Note: Information is in the section titled "w/e 23 May 1999", listed under Sky 1

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v t e Friends episodes
Season 1	"The Pilot" "The One with the Sonogram at the End" "The One with the Thumb" "The One with George Stephanopoulos" "The One with the Blackout" "The One with the Monkey" "The One Where the Monkey Gets Away" "The One with the Fake Monica" "The One Where Rachel Finds Out"
Season 2	"The One with Ross's New Girlfriend" "The One with Russ" "The One with the Lesbian Wedding" "The One After the Superbowl" "The One with the Prom Video" "The One Where Dr. Ramoray Dies" "The One with Barry and Mindy's Wedding"
Season 3	"The One with the Princess Leia Fantasy" "The One Where No One's Ready" "The One with the Flashback" "The One with the Football" "The One with the Morning After" "The One at the Beach"
Season 4	"The One with the Jellyfish" "The One with the Cat" "The One with the Embryos" "The One with Ross's Wedding"
Season 5	"The One After Ross Says Rachel" "The One Hundredth" "The One with All the Thanksgivings" "The One Where Everybody Finds Out" "The One with the Girl Who Hits Joey" "The One with the Cop" "The One Where Rachel Smokes" "The One Where Ross Can't Flirt" "The One with the Ride-Along" "The One with Joey's Big Break" "The One in Vegas"
Season 6	"The One After Vegas" "The One Where Ross Got High" "The One with the Apothecary Table" "The One with Unagi" "The One with the Proposal"
Season 7	"The One with Monica's Thunder" "The One with All the Candy" "The One with All the Cheesecakes" "The One Where They're Up All Night" "The One with Ross and Monica's Cousin" "The One with Monica and Chandler's Wedding"
Season 8	"The One After 'I Do'" "The One with Rachel's Date" "The One with the Halloween Party" "The One with the Rumor" "The One Where Rachel Has a Baby"
Season 9	"The One Where No One Proposes" "The One with Ross's Inappropriate Song" "The One with Rachel's Other Sister" "The One in Barbados"
Season 10	"The One After Joey and Rachel Kiss" "The One Where Ross Is Fine" "The One with Ross's Tan" "The One with the Birth Mother" "The One with Phoebe's Wedding" "The Last One"
Specials	Friends: The Reunion