Surprising true story behind Robin Williams’ Friends cameo that meant entire scene was improvised

In Robin Williams' long list of credits sits his iconic cameo in Friends.

Except a surprising true story meant the whole entire scene was improvised.

The legendary actor appeared as a guest star in the popular TV show back in 1997, alongside his pal and frequent collaborator, Billy Crystal.

It wasn’t exactly a surprise that even such a huge name as Williams would appear on Friends, with plenty of big celebrity names having cameos from Julia Roberts and Ben Stiller to Jennifer Coolidge and Danny DeVito.

Except there’s quite a surprising part about the Mrs Doubtfire actor’s appearance, in the sense that it was a bit of a surprise to both the cast and crew.

They improvised the whole thing (NBC)

Crystal and Williams were literally written into the script on the day.

In case you’re still scratching your brain of just which of the 200 plus episodes the pair popped up in, it was in season three: The One with the Ultimate Fighting Champion.

The pair of legend’s scene comes right at the very beginning, before the opening credits even kick off. And sure, that means it’s fairly short but it’s very memorable for fans.

Basically, Monica (Courtney Cox) is about to tell her friends a story while at Central Perk but is quickly interrupted by Wiliams’ Tomas and Crystal’s Tim.

They take a seat on the famous sofa while Tomas starts sobbing as he explains his wife is sleeping with another man. And while he thought this was her gynaecologist, it turns out it’s actually Tim.

Simply legendary (NBC)

So, their friendship gets called off and they storm out of the coffee shop much to the amazement of the rest of the gang.

Amazement is probably the right word to as the stars ad-libbed and invented the whole thing.

Legend has it that Crystal and Williams just so happened to wander over to the set while working at the studios and the writers posed the idea of a last-minute cameo.

Not exactly shy of improvising, the stars basically just made up the whole scene – including this whole affair storyline.

Matt LeBlanc and Cox rolled with it too, throwing in their lines on the spot as an iconic Friends moment was born. Take a look at the brilliant cameo here:

Following Williams’ tragic death in 2014 at the age of 63, Crystal has honoured his friend.

During the 46^th Kennedy Centre Honours, the star was speaking to reporters as he said: “I’m really feeling I’m missing my friend Robin tonight, very much so, because of all of what we did together.

"I know that he would be here, and he is. So it’s special, and a lot of feelings for me tonight.”