In TV shows, there is a lot of rewriting involved where storylines are concerned. When a certain potential plot is not well received the writers take to retconning it with another idea and hope the people won’t notice. Then there are those instances where the story is meant to progress organically but the characters’ personalities interfere with some informed attributes from earlier seasons. Because of this, there are clashes between chronologies that are easily present. The writers might also decide to just do away with a story after another plot thread seems to be more engaging, or the earlier story was simply just a one-off incident.

Friends, being a sitcom, had a load of forgotten stories. It was in a time when an episode in a given week could be considered to be in its own chronology and separate from future episodes. Love interests tended to get swapped a whole lot on Friends and this didn’t match well when considering how the characters fared in future seasons. Plus, the writers and the actors were nowhere near as crazy about the show as the viewers were. The DVD sales for Friends were off the charts and repeat viewings are a must. Thanks to these repeat viewings, fans have been able to extract plotlines or plotholes that went nowhere in the later seasons.

Many of these are singular incidents, but that doesn’t exempt them from being abandoned. Others are mistakes that would make the characters seem quite forgettable. Here are 21 storylines Friends abandoned.

21 Everyone's Money Issues

The issue of money was raised regularly throughout the tenure of the show. Most of the time it had to do with Joey and Phoebe, but just about all the friends had some issues. The thing is, these problems went away as inexplicably as they arrived.

Phoebe was shown to be singing on the subway to earn cash; later on, she is supposed to be working for a huge massage parlor organization.

Chandler and Monica had money problems in Season 9 once he left his previous job, but after he became a Junior Copywriter these problems somehow vanished. Rachel and Monica were also supposed to be struggling to pay rent in Season 2, Monica got a good job way later in Season 4 but their money problems had been over much before that.

20 Chandler's Trip To Yemen

In Season 4, Chandler concocted a scenario where he was supposed to be moving to Yemen in order to throw off Janice’s pursuit of him. While she bought the lie, Chandler had to buy an actual ticket to Yemen and go there. In Season 5, Janice still believes he is there. However, when they meet again in Season 7, she never questions him when he got back and why he didn’t contact her.

In the episode after Chandler went to Yemen, no one inquires upon his experience there and save for Janice’s mention of Yemen in Season 5, no one ever brings it up again.

19 What Happened To Phoebe's Parents?

Phoebe’s storylines from Season 1 to Season 4 involved learning her family history. Through this she was able to locate her half-brother, birth mother and finally her father. The Season 3 finale ended with the revelation of her birth mother, but while Frank Jr became a regular fixture in her life, her parents didn’t.

This is odd considering she was shown to have fully reconciled with both of them. Her mother is never seen again after Season 3, while her father goes back to having supposedly abandoning her, although this was never directly stated by anyone. They were both absent from her wedding and Phoebe didn’t even consider her birth father to give her away, instead ruing her stepfather wouldn’t be able to.

18 Chandler And Rachel's History

A favourite among plot hole enthusiasts, this one should be attributed to the evolution of the series rather than future thinking. Still, when first Chandler and Rachel met onscreen it was shown as if they had never seen each other previously. From Season 5, though, there would be regular flashbacks detailing how they had interacted numerous times before. Season 10 showed that Chandler had kissed Rachel to get back at Ross for kissing his crush, then how could neither of them remember such a significant event?

In earlier seasons these two were shown to be acquainting with one another, but later on this point was abandoned and it was retconned to make it appear that they had known each other from before their first onscreen meeting.

17 Dr. Drake's Odd Story

We’re going within the TV universe of Friends for this one. In Season 2, Dr. Drake Ramoray was disposed off after Joey made disparaging remarks towards his show’s writers. When he was brought back in Season 7, he was said to have undergone a brain transplant that effectively made him a woman with a man’s body.

The next season completely ignored this storyline.

Drake was somehow back to being Drake and it was discussed Jessica’s brain was rejecting his body (whatever that means) and in Season 9, Drake was full on Drake as he was involved in a love story with another woman, no mention of Jessica at all this time. In the spin-off, Joey, Drake was supposed to have been written off again.

16 What Happened To Tag's Job?

If you ever to land a good job at one of the biggest companies in the entire world and end up dating your attractive boss you would never want to leave that job ever, but our boy Tag Jones doesn’t seem to role that way. Tag began a clandestine relationship with Rachel in Season 7, which was broken up when the 25 year old was somehow too young for a 30 year old.

After the breakup, Tag was seen only once in Season 8 and it was clear with the dialogue that he hadn’t seen Rachel ever since their breakup. But why would the breakup mean the termination of job? He had only recently started working there and had no experience beforehand to warrant a different, better paying job.

15 The Missing Son

Ross is repeatedly said to be a great father – no competitions there as Ben has two mothers – but he is hardly ever shown to be one. Mainly because his son Ben seemingly disappeared off the face of the Earth after Season 8. Once Emma was born, Ben was mentioned only a couple times and never seen again.

The whole family disappeared.

This includes Carol and Susan as well as the couple was never mentioned except when talking about Ross’ first failed marriage. Season 1 story of Ross revolved around him becoming a father soon, but eventually Ben’s inclusion in his life wasn’t much of a priority anymore. He even made a fake Ben at one point to fool his sister.

14 Chandler And Monica's Attraction

Like Rachel’s sketchy memory of Chandler before Season 1, Monica suffered from the same problem. Chandler and Monica were shown as good friends in Season 1 and no indication of an attraction between them until Season 4. However, according to flashbacks, they were both into one another a few years before Season 1. So what happened that caused this attraction to fizzle out?

They were both single and around each other a lot after college and one would think it would be the best time to get together. But Monica treated the idea of dating Chandler a complete joke in Season 4, despite having attraction to him not so long ago. No wonder Chandler was so confused by her lack of interest.

13 Mark Was Immaterial

Ross was a real jerk to Rachel over the whole “Putting your job before me” problem. The most irksome factor in this was the involvement of Mark, whom Ross was insanely jealous of. As many of us know, Mark actually was a snake who was looking for an opening to ask Rachel out.

Ross may have been right but his memory still sucks.

Mark went completely absent for a whole of 7 years after that. He was supposed to be a good friend of Rachel’s but evidently not that close. Odder still was Ross’ inability to recall who Mark was despite his hatred of him. Plus, if Mark was such a big factor in their breakup, why was he never mentioned as the reason for it later on?

12 The Ingenious Idea

Frank Jr. and Alice’s silly decision of having triplets despite not having the necessary resources to raise them could only work in the land of sitcom. Still, this problem was addressed when the two freaked out about not having enough money to provide for the kids. Phoebe and Rachel figured out the problem by inventing the Relaxi Taxi/Relaxi Cab to solve the situation.

It involved Frank driving a van that functioned as a taxi and a makeshift massage parlor. All was set in stone by the end of the episode, but this was the extent of it as the idea was never implemented and Frank took care of the kids easily enough anyway. By the way, Relaxi Taxi sounds way better than Relaxi Cab.

11 Chandler's Tear Ducts

A whole episode was dedicated to Chandler’s inability to shed tears in Season 6. The whole gang cried when Bambi’s mother passed away but Chandler thought not drawing a deer wasn’t reason enough to cry. Monica later labelled him as a robot after her attempts to make him weep proved ineffective. While he would break at the end of the episode, Chandler was a real cry baby before and after this.

He was shown to be crying in a flashback in Season 10, taking place before Season 1. He also cried in Season 4 when Phoebe shouted at him for moping about Kathy and after Season 6 he cried about something so dumb as a woman getting scammed by her mechanic.

10 Disappeared Dad

Chandler’s father was always mentioned in a humorous light before his (or by then, her) official appearance. Turns out he wasn’t a bad guy after all and had been a superb parent who had taken extra care of his son, who was just too embarrassed by his father’s preferences.

In Season 7, we finally met the senior Bing.

It was revealed Chandler had cut the poor person out of his life, but with Monica’s urging, Chandler asked his father to be present at his wedding. The two seemed to be on their way to a healthy relationship except Chandler’s father never appeared again. Later on, his mentions reverted back to being a source of embarrassment for Chandler.

9 The Mystery Of Gavin

Just like Tag, another one of Rachel’s colleagues at work disappeared, seemingly quitting their job after their relationship didn’t work out. In Season 9, Rachel’s hostile interactions with Gavin only planted seeds to an attraction which culminated on her birthday party. Once Ross found about this, it led to an argument with Rachel and she agreed with Gavin that the timing wasn’t on their side.

But who quits because they couldn’t date a girl?

Apparently Gavin did. Before this, he had been vying with Rachel for her position at Ralph Lauren, which he didn’t seem to care about anymore as he was never seen in the office again, nor mentioned at all in the show!

8 Double Declaration Of Love

A big deal was made out of Chandler proclaiming his love for Monica in the thirteenth episode of the fifth season. This was seen as the first declaration of from Chandler, who had had a history of commitment issues. But maybe Monica got some Turkey stuffing lodged in her brain as Chandler had earlier admitted, when Monica had a Turkey stuffed on her head, that he loved her. At the time he had tried to deny this but Monica had ignored those claims.

In the episode where everyone found about their relationship, we acted as if the very idea of him saying “I Love You” was surreal. Even Chandler behaved as if he hadn’t said that before. Maybe someone should have recorded the earlier encounter as proof.

7 The Missing Billionaire

The magnitude of Pete Becker’s relationship with Monica trumps any of Rachel’s former boyfriends’ disappearances. After all, Monica exchanged “I love yous” with this guy and was prepared to marry him–although a proposal never came–should he have asked. But Pete was never mentioned, and even ignored, in future Seasons. Richard was always stated as Monica’s ultimate love but Pete had gotten closer to marrying her than Richard had.

Chandler should have been more threatened by Pete than Richard as Pete was a billionaire and was around their age too. Monica herself tended to ignore Pete from her list of genuine loves. Sadly, we never found out if Pete did make it big in the UFC or flopped hard like CM Punk.

6 A Little Slice Of Yuck

Who in their right minds would want to date the son of a former flame? It’s disgusting to even consider, but we saw this happen in a Season 4 episode of Friends. Despite Richard having been the love of her life, Monica had no problems dating his son, neither did he find the idea gross. Thankfully, both realized it was icky to go through with it, after Monica was reminded of Richard while being with his son, and their relationship ended before it could begin.

In Season 6, however, Monica is considering getting back together with Richard again after the previously mentioned debacle. Richard, too, saw no problem going after the girl his son had pursued after he had dated her. Did they forget all that had happened?

5 The Magical Ink

Ross and Rachel got married at the end of Season 5, after losing their inhibitions and common sense earlier on in their Vegas hotel room. The cause of this was Rachel’s face marred by Ross’ pen when arriving via flight. Feeling guilty, Ross let Rachel draw cat whiskers on his face as well.

The whole catalyst of the mistake wedding was the pen.

A call to the manufacturer, inquiring over when the ink would erase, had been fruitless and it seemed they were stuck with it. In Season 6’s premiere, though, it only took a quick face wash to remove the ink entirely. If it was that easy, why didn’t they just wait it out in the first place?

4 Falling Out Of Love

Rachel’s timing to tell Ross over her feelings always sucked. First she told him she liked him when he was with Julie, then she flew to London to tell him on the time of his wedding–which ruined his entire marriage–and then told him of her love in Season 5 when Ross was trying to make amends with Emily. She justified all this by stating she had been in love.

Even if that is an acceptable answer, where was this love later on? Once she informed Ross of her feelings in Season 5, she fell out of love pretty easily, and instead began pursuing Danny–the Yeti–of all people. By Season 6 she doesn’t love him in the slightest.

3 Monica And Chandler's Wedding Venue

This might be one of the most forgotten plot points but the Season 6 finale storyline was kicked off after Monica booked a wedding venue for her and Chandler without informing the latter. Chandler freaked out for a while but then decided to propose to Monica instead. A comedy of errors ensued but by the finale of Season 7, Monica and Chandler were married.

The problem here is that they didn’t marry at the venue Monica had booked. She had loved the place after having a look around and with Chandler game for marriage it would be natural to choose this venue as the one to get married in. Looks like the writers forgot about it after the Season 6 finale.

2 Falling Out Of Love... Again

Similar to how Rachel had lost her love for Ross in Season 5, the latter returned the favour in Season 6. In the earliest episode of that season, Phoebe had convinced Ross that his refusal to annul his marriage was Rachel was due to him still harbouring feelings for her. Ross took this in stride and was on the path to falling in love with her again.

All changed after Rachel found out about his lack of action.

When she discovered he hadn’t annulled the marriage, the two of them bickered for the rest of the episode before making the divorce final. After this there was no more mention of Ross’ renewed feelings.