James Michael Tyler, only very few of the FRIENDS fans know this name. Gunther is the name that reminds us of the person who played the role. Gunther was one of the quirky characters on FRIENDS. Gunther was featured for the role of a head barista and coffee shop manager. Although started as a guest role, the character received lots of recognition for the unconventional and mostly dialogue-less comedy.  Gunther’s role started as a small one and grew up to be one of the main roles besides the A-list stars.

But this isn’t it, there is a lot more to the lovelorn barista than just the eyes meet.

The barista role isn’t just limited to his career; he was a real-life barista before being a part of the show. Although he started as a background worker his role was elevated later on, because he was the only worker who knew how to operate the espresso machine. However, it only gave him a little extra screen time. But eventually, his character was again promoted to a full-time one. What began as a background role, for James, ended up a full-time second lead beside the A-listed actors.

Despite being a barista himself in real-life and getting elevated to the full-time role, James never really made coffee on the set and the show. He has said the espresso machine on the set was too loud to be used while filming, so he just bustles around pretending to be making coffee, which he never did.

A major part of Gunther’s recognition is due to his blonde hair. Not anticipating that his character would be elevated to a full-time one, he never bleached his hair for 10 years. And the producers too liked the look and he had to keep it.

If you can recall, Gunther never had his dialogues throughout season 1. Even halfway through season 2, he had no lines; he was mostly silent and does nothing except serving coffee to the members on the screen. And to everyone’s surprise, Gunther’s first dialogue comes in season 2 in the episode “The one with Phoebe’s day”. In this episode, he can be seen saying “Yeah”. That was the first and the only dialogue he had as part of his first lines.
Gunther wasn’t Gunther from the first season of the show. Until season two, episode 2 his name was not mentioned. Only after his first lines, in episode two of season two, he was officially made Gunther.

James Micheal Tyler Aka Gunther visited the pop-up replica of Central perk that was created for the 20th-anniversary celebrations of the sitcom and he interacted with the guests and the visitors.

Despite the entire story behind the elevation of his character and naming his character, no one thought of giving the character his last name. it even became a running joke, in an episode where Chandler guesses the last name of Gunther to be “Central Perk.” While it was intended to be a joke for the viewers, that was a fact that Gunther’s last name was never given on the show.

Gunther played his role a decade long. As long as the legacy of FRIENDS continues, the role of Gunther will be remembered.