Ross Geller hence, Schwimmer was the first person to be cast on the show. Ross is a paleontologist and has a Ph.D. from Columbia University. His romantic feelings toward Rachel Green, which began as a high school infatuation, are an ongoing theme of his narrative arc. Likewise, their on-again, off-again romantic relationship is a nearly constant theme of "Friends". Born on October 18, 1967, and raised on Long Island, Ross is the elder brother of Monica Geller. Ross and Monica are Jewish and see themselves as at least cultural Jews, with Ross taking a more active role in wanting to teach his
Monica Geller role in the pilot, which he considered "casual sex", and created a "stacked" questionnaire asking audience members if they thought Monica was a whore. Kauffman recalled Ohlmeyer specifically expressing that Monica deserved to be dumped, a statement by which the writer was greatly offended, dismissing Ohlmeyer as a misogynist. Ultimately, the results returned in favor of Monica; audiences liked the character nonetheless, and the episode aired unchanged. Early in the series, Monica's apartment is established as one of the show's two primary locations. In the pilot, the apartment number is 5, which was changed to 20 in subsequent episodes after