Monica Geller altered the trajectory of the entire series, having life-changing effects on its characters. Summarizing the role of Monica in the series, Martin Gitlin wrote in his book "The Greatest Sitcoms of All Time" that while her friends "were ... just out to make the most of their social lives", Monica "sought to keep the others in line" while searching for "Mr. Right", who surprisingly turns out to be close friend Chandler. Several years before Monica and Chandler became romantically involved, Cox once joked in an interview that if her character were to ever have sex with another main character, it
Monica Geller a much shorter shelf life for the show"; Monica and Chandler's arc is believed to have extended the series by approximately three years. Crane and Kauffman had always intended to give Monica and Chandler a child. When it finally came time for them to write the finale, the idea of the couple adopting newborn twins was conceived at the last minute simply "for fun". The birth of Monica and Chandler's twins serves as one of the finale's main plots. They were named Jack and Erica – after Monica's father and their birth mother, respectively. – The twins are born three