Un journaliste présent lors du tournage de l'épisode de la saison 2 nous raconte comment ce sont passés les différentes prises lors du premier baiser au Central Perk entre Ross et Rachel. Jen et David ont proposé leurs idées au crew de la série.

The kiss, Phase One : Stage 24, Warner Bros. Studio, in Burbank. Rachel and Ross have just found out they "have feelings" for each other, and they fight cute about their bad timing as Rachel close Central Perk for the night. Ross storms off; she flings herself on the couch. He reappears; they meet in the middle of the room; they reach. At last : a kiss. Silence, until guest director Peter Bonerz - you know him as Jerry the Orthodontist from The Bob Newhart Show - calls for a huddle : "We're changing our LIVES here, people. Let's WORK it."

It's a calculated risk, tampering with sexual tensions on a starship that's just spun off a new line of Central Perk dorm wear. Long before the Kiss episode will air during the November sweeps, bad chemistry - real or imagined - undermines some other single shows. CBS sees Can't Hurry Love (more hapless relationship hunters in Manhattan) continue to slip against cartoony singles soap Melrose Place. And CBS pulls the plug on If Not For You (dating dilemmas in Minneapolis) after just four episodes.

Amid the pink slips and handicapping of this mad date-and-dump derby, the Friends set still has the air of a winning locker room close, clubby and adrenaline-rich. Pairs of giggling cast members wrestle on couches as the other run their lines. On the sofa in Central Perk, Chandler is complaining about Monica (Courteney Cox), who's been trying to help him lose weight with ceaseless punishing workouts. "She's got me doing butt clenches at my desk," he moans. "They wont bring me my mail anymore." Schwimmer and Aniston are still blocking out the Kiss. It's four seconds the network will want to promote the bejesus out of, but no one is worried, least of all the canny architects of the "Ross-Rachel romantic arc". Rattling the kids' comfy cocoon with some intra-Friends sex seems natural, even necessary to them.

"Much as I admire some shows," says Marta Kauffman, "there came a point in Cheers when you said, 'Oh fuck her already. Please!' Maddie and David [in Moonlighting]? 'Kiss the woman!"

The Kiss, Phase two: Schwimmer has been pacing. He thinks maybe he should streamroller the scene - grap Aniston, mess her up a little. Seems right after all this time. Bonerz yells for action, and Ross rockets through the door, grabs Rachel, lifts her in the air and starts the Kiss, which ends hard, against the counter. "Hey," says Bonerz, "It's a kiss, not tumbling."

"A lot rides on this," says Aniston during a break. "It's huge. HUGE." For that reason, she's thinking the Kiss should be slow. She likes the fact that Bonerz and writes have just come up with three locks for her to struggle with before she can let Ross back in. Set carpenters are hammering at them now.

"I think slow is always good" she reasons. She and Schwimmer, her good friend, movie date and confidant in real life, have huddled adn agree to pull the scene like taffy the next time. Outside work, she notes, they're in very different places. Schwimmer's longtime girlfriend, a Louisiane attorney, has just moved here to take a job with a Century City law film. "And I'm single," sighs Aniston, now officially one of People's Most Intriguing People. "I actually love it. I was in a relationship for five years. It's like being let out of prison - oh, not that it was a prison."

The Kiss run-through, final try: Rachel is flailing at the locks. Basset eyes watch her through the glass. Click, turn, she gets the locks, open both doors wide. Beat. Ross reaches; his arms travel up from her waist, wrap her, nearly lift her. The Kiss is... hot! Long...

Marta Kauffman screams. Above wild cast and crew applause, she is moaning, "This is terrible. I'm so sad. Why an I so emotional?"

Schwimmer and Aniston hug. In a quieter voice, Kauffman is asking, "Who knew David could be so sexy?" When things calm down, David Crane faces his actors. "Serieswise," he says, "this moment is extraordinary satisfying."

Says Jerry the Orthodontist, "Amen."