The One Hundredth

"The One Hundredth" (also known as "The One with the Triplets") is the third episode of Friends' fifth season and 100th episode overall. It first aired on the NBC network in the United States on October 8, 1998. Continuing from the previous episode, the group arrive at the hospital after Phoebe (Lisa Kudrow) goes into labor and gives birth to her half brother Frank's (Giovanni Ribisi) and his wife Alice's (Debra Jo Rupp) triplets. Meanwhile, Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) tries to set Monica (Courteney Cox) and herself up with two male nurses, which causes problems between Monica and Chandler (Matthew Perry), and Ross (David Schwimmer) supports Joey (Matt LeBlanc) as he experiences kidney stones.

The episode was directed by Kevin S. Bright and co-written by series creators David Crane & Marta Kauffman. The producers wanted to mark the landmark episode with a major event, choosing to bring a culmination to Phoebe's surrogacy storyline. Earlier scripts had the character insistent on keeping hold of the babies, with the writers later deciding it would be better off having a sendoff, to keep it dramatic. In its original broadcast on NBC, "The One Hundredth" acquired a 17.7 Nielsen rating, finishing the week ranked second and received good reviews since airing.